1926-2026 Anniversary of the Miners' Lockout and General Strike - public meeting in Hebden Bridge on 4 May 2026

 

NO GENTLEMEN HERE - HALIFAX 1842 - fund appeal for new film

 

NO GENTLEMEN HERE – HALIFAX 1842

 

HALIFAX BORN SONGWRITER AND HISTORIAN CATHERINE HOWE BACKS THE FUND APPEAL FOR A FILM TO REVEAL THE FORGOTTEN EVENTS OF HALIFAX 1842. 

 

Ivor Novello Award Winner Catherine Howe, known for her 1971 album What A Beautiful Place and 1975 song Harry supports plans to make a 10-minute film revealing, through original source material, the events which took place in Halifax over two days in August 1842. 

 

Filming follows her book HALIFAX 1842: A Year of Crisis published in 2014 in which she describes a military attack upon workers in Halifax, West Yorkshire during Britain’s first national labour strike.   

 

Howe, who made a number of film and TV appearances in the 60s and 70s, will be donating her time to scripting the film which is to be co-produced by Dave Hackney of the film company Digital Cortex and journalist Mark Metcalf with backing from Calderdale Trades Union Council. 

 

£5,000 is required for this work which it is hoped will increase awareness of a period in British history that is highly significant and which has long deserved to be remembered and commemorated. 

 

Catherine and Mark are happy to speak at meetings about the project to raise awareness of the role northern county industrial operatives played in the political reform of Britain.   Already Calderdale Trades Union Council has organised the unveiling of a plaque at the Calderdale Industrial Museum to remember those who participated in these momentous events, as well as a half-hour filmed documentary ‘Bread Not Bayonets’ which associates events in Halifax 1842 with those at Peterloo Manchester in 1819.

 

‘Bread Not Bayonets’, directed and edited by Francesca Platt and produced by Mark Metcalf, has been viewed by more than one thousand people.  You can see it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UxMadnIEA

 

Mark has since made films with Dave Hackney at https://www.youtube.com/@markmetcalf07

 

If you would like to help, funds however small can be donated via Calderdale TUC, Unity Trust Bank, Sort Code 60 83 01 Account number 20305688 Please reference donations as HX1842

 

Please also feel free to contact: 

Calderdale TUC. http://www.calderdaletuc.org.uk @calderdaletuc  info@calderdaletuc.org.uk  

Mark Metcalf: 07392 852561 

Catherine Howe: catherinehowe.contact@gmail.com

6 APRIL 1989 - the end of the NATIONAL DOCK LABOUR SCHEME is announced

Taken from my booklet GREAT YARMOUTH DOCKERS  

https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/great-yarmouth-dockers.pdf

Chapter 6 National Dock Labour Scheme (NDLS) begins

In 1947, the Labour Government introduced the "Dock Workers’ (Regulation of Employment) Scheme". The scheme, financed by  a levy on the employers, was administered by the National Dock Labour Board, and local boards, made up of equal numbers of "persons representing dock workers in the port and of persons representing the employers of such dockworkers".  The system was to be jointly administered by the union and bosses and this gave the former some control over hiring and firing. It was a giant leap up from starving men fighting each other for a few hours badly paid, dangerous work.

Each local board was responsible for keeping a register of employers and workers, paying wages and attendance money, controlling the hiring of labour, and responsibility for discipline.

The scheme registered all portworkers and guaranteed dockers, provided they turned up twice a day to have their books stamped to prove their availability,  a basic minimum fallback wage, whether there was work for them or not.

Under the scheme, dock work was considered a "job for life", with any registered docker laid off by any of the 150 firms associated with the scheme either being guaranteed employment elsewhere or, by 1989, a £25,000 pay off.

The introduction of the NDLS did not though bring to an end industrial disputes on the docks. With the TGWU refusing to make any of them official, dockers were often forced to rely on their own industrial muscle. In 1955, 16,000 dockers in Manchester, Liverpool and Hull left the TGWU and joined a small London-based union, the National Association of Stevedores and Dockers. A long recognition strike was defeated.

 Dockers’ militancy did though not drop and it proved highly effective in the 60s and 70s. Dockers still had the power to shut down the country.

 But in the 1960s a technological revolution changed things dramatically. Containerisation, where cargoes were packed into giant containers in factories or special depots, meant dockers, who had previously humped cargoes on their backs, could now roll the giant containers on and off specially designed ships. Unloading a ship could take one tenth of the time compared to old style practices. Containerisation presented the employers with a strong incentive to reorganise the ports.

In 1964 the Labour government appointed a Royal Commission under Lord Devlin to investigate strikes on the docks, and then implemented the Commission report to 'decasualise' the docks.

Dockers were to be taken into permanent employment with a particular employer, instead of being hired out for some many half-days by the Dock Labour Board. They therefore lost a big part of the control the union had over hiring and firing through the Dock Labour Board, which would only be the fallback employer for a pool of unattached dockers who did not have a regular employer.

It meant the dock labour force could be more easily cut down over the years as modernisation took place.

Looking back, it could be argued that the dockers' answer should have been obvious: increase workers' control and modernise on that basis, using the advantages of modernisation to benefit the workers. A large minority of dockers wanted the nationalisation of the ports and most wanted to expand workers' control rather than give full control back to the bosses.

 

1970 National Dock Strike

On 16 July 1970 all of the Yarmouth NDLS registered dockers joined the national dock strike, which had been called following a TGWU national delegate conference the previous day.  As tankers were not worked by dock labour staff at Yarmouth they were not affected.

Average earnings

Yarmouth dockers, including overtime, in the first three months of 1970, earned on average £38 17 shillings and 7d a week. The national average was around £3 a week less and the highest earnings were at Ipswich where the average weekly pay was £45 5 and 10d.

The national strike, the first in the industry for nearly half a century, lasted nearly 3 weeks, led to the declaration of a State of Emergency and was only concluded after a government-sponsored inquiry.

From the outside it appeared that it had been provoked by the national employers’ association and the TGWU over basic weekly pay bargaining. Behind the scenes, however, the dispute was also about the relationship between the membership and the officialdom of the union, which had been antagonistic for many years, plus the revolutionary changes taking place in the handing of cargo.

Dockers took strike action for a pay rise of £11 a week. Around 47,000 dockers nationally were involved. The strike hurt imports and exports and the British Army were placed on standby to handle food supplies but most dockers were content to handle perishable goods and the strike was largely peaceful.

Lord Pearson was charged with ordering a court of inquiry and awarded an average 7% pay rise, which was at first rejected by the dockers but ultimately accepted.

The Yarmouth Mercury of Friday, July 24, 1970 reported that a long stoppage could cause ‘real trouble’ and that since the strike then ‘except for a few tankers, and some vessels bound for Norwich with grain cargoes, no ships have entered the harbour.’ The strike had resulted in the Port and Haven Commission, whose income came from tolls and charges, losing about £1800.

No shipments of vegetables or general cargo had been landed at the Norfolk Line’s roll on roll off.

The paper reported that Yarmouth dockers had agreed that ‘if supplies of food needed replenishing arrangements would be made for this. They will also work supply ships in the event of an emergency involving danger to life and limb.’

The following Friday the Yarmouth Mercury reported that news had come through that the dockers’ national delegate conference had accepted the proposals of the Pearson report. The paper believed that the changes would not be of great benefit to Yarmouth dockers except for the fact that overtime rates would be increased.

The paper also reported that in the previous week ‘six ships from various continental ports with wheat for Norwich had been discharged by the port of Norwich non-union dockers.’

 

Chapter 8 1972 National Dock Strike

On 28 July 1972 an official national dock strike began to safeguard jobs. No cargo was to be handled by the country’s 42,000 NDLS registered dockers. Roll-on roll-off ferries were still though set to pass through railway ports like Dover and Folkestone.

Dockers were striking at plans for compulsory redundancies as well as threats to their jobs from container firms using cheaper, casual labour.

TGWU National Docks Delegates voted 38 to 28 in favour of action and by doing so rejected a special joint committee report that had been established by the industry and headed by Lord Adlington, chairman of the Port of London authority, and Jack Jones, TGWU general secretary. Committee members had approved a payment scheme to pay off 2,500 unfit dockers or over 55-year-old dockers. Dockers’ delegates from the larger ports were particularly opposed to the proposals. Despite the existence of NDLS, between 1966 and 1972, 20,000 dockers’ jobs had been lost.

Earlier in 1972 a one-day unofficial strike, organised by the unofficial National Port Shop Stewards Committee, was supported by 25,000 dockers and on 7 March 14,000 London dockers walked out. The Industrial Relations Act had been passed by the Heath government with the intention of controlling wages. A key part of this was the National Industrial Relations Act (NIRC) which had the power to fine workers and unions. The strike action by its members’ saw the TGWU fined.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) policy was for non-registration with the NIRC but the TUC, fearing for its own funds, abandoned the TGWU whose members expected the union leadership to launch a national strike. There were strikes against fines by Southampton, Preston and Merseyside dockers.

Action in Hull led to a court case against Walter Cunningham, chair of Hull stewards, who refused to attend and pay a fine, risking jail.

The national unofficial campaign then saw London dock stewards’ picket both Dagenham and UK Cold Storage but with most drivers refusing to honour the picket line the stewards moved to picketing depots directly. This was much more successful with lorries turned away at places such as Chobham Farm in Stratford.

There then followed a series of court cases that on 4 July 1972 saw Midland Cold Storage apply to the NIRC for an order to stop picketing. Seven summoned dockers did not appear at court and they then defied a court order to stop picketing or encouraging others to do so. On Friday 21 July arrest warrants were issued for five dockers for contempt of court.

Four of the five were arrested the following day and sent to Pentonville Prison. Vic Turner, the fifth, was on the picket line the following day. Picketing was shifted to the prison and widespread dock strikes broke out with an estimated 40,000 dockers out.

Delegates were sent to Fleet Street, the then home of the national press and the papers were brought to halt. A prison demonstration attracted 30,000 people.

Faced with this potentially revolutionary situation the TUC, which was previously opposed to solidarity action, was forced to call a one-day national stoppage the following Monday. (31 July) This would have been only the second ever general strike called by the TUC, the first having taken place in 1926.

Fearing a general strike, the government too was forced to concede. On 26 July 1972 a Law Lords ruling saw the case against the five dockers collapse. Amidst jubilant scenes the Pentonville 5 were released the following day. 24 hours later the official national dock strike began. On 4 August the government was forced to call a state of emergency.

 

 

All Great Yarmouth dockers who were not on holiday or sick supported the jailed London dockers by taking strike action at the start of the week beginning Monday 24 July. 30 Lowestoft dockers also joined the national strike.

Mr Len Chapman, the TGWU district official said that in both ports the union “had built up a reasonable relationship with the port employers and I regret that the Industrial Relations Act has brought about the one thing we have managed to avoid for years.”

The official National Strike, which did not affect ships supplying gas rigs and oil tankers bringing fuel to power stations, was supported by all 130 Yarmouth and Lowestoft dockers and close to 30 of the former managed to persuade seven Norwich stevedores to join the strike. The strike caused fruit to be in very short supply locally and this led to prices doubling.

 

On Thursday 17 August, Yarmouth dockers voted in line with the decision of the TGWU delegate conference the same day, to return to normal working from midnight on Sunday. However, M John Smith, branch secretary, told the Yarmouth Messenger that “in the event of any unofficial strike action in other ports, Yarmouth men would not handle any diverted cargo.” Smith told reporters his branch felt a great deal had been achieved and he calculated that the backlog of ships could be cleared in about for days if employers agreed to overtime working.

Shop stewards from eight ports had decided to maintain an unofficial stoppage which ultimately collapsed leaving the dockers to accept an amended Jones-Adlington agreement. This included ending the temporary unofficial register that allowed unregistered dockers to work on the docks.

The successful strike in 1972 did not though prevent the long-term decline of the dock industry and the number of jobs in it, especially NDLS jobs. By 1989 just under 9,000 dockers were covered under the NDLS and having successful taken on and defeated, amongst others, the steel workers, miners and printers then Margaret Thatcher, enjoying her third term in office was happy enough to destroy another group of organised workers in the dockers.

It is a story covered in a 2016 blog article by Iain Dale, a radio presenter these days with LBC.

From 1987 onwards, Dale worked for the National Association of Port Employers (NAPE) and, with Nicholas Finney, his boss, whom Dale describes as the ‘mastermind behind the lobbying campaign to get rid of this iniquitous piece of employment legislation’, by which he means the NDLS.

He goes on to state “it remains the greatest achievement of my life” and claims it “led to previously moribund ports having the ability to thrive.”

On 6 April 1989, the Employment Secretary, Norman Fowler, told MPs the scheme had become 'a total anachronism' that stood in the way of a modern and efficient ports industry. The 60 British ports who were in the NDLS argued constantly that the ports were at an economic disadvantage and that unregistered ports and European docks were taking their business.

In announcing plans to bring forward legislation to scrap the NDLS, Fowler offered assurances that any docker laid off as a result of the scheme being abolished would be compensated up to the value of £35,000. Fowler stated that port employers would not return to using mass casual labour. This proved not to be the case.

 

Strike action was held up for three months due to legal wrangles as NAPE used the courts to try and block any fightback. The port employers’ actions led to unofficial action in May 1989 at Tilbury, Liverpool, Lowestoft and Bristol. Other ports however remained at work and TGWU officials eventually persuaded strikers to return to work until all the legal restrictions that were obstructing the right to strike had been defeated in court. By the time strike action did take place the NDLS had been abolished.

A second national ballot produced a majority of 6,200 against 2,100 in favour of strike action and on 11 July 1989 many ports stood still as dockers mounted pickets at the gates. However, during the first couple of weeks of action a number of small ports began to return to work and at others a number of dockers took voluntary redundancy of up to £35,000.

Nevertheless, many dockers remained on strike but, hampered by the anti-union laws, when they were then unable to picket out ports that had previously been covered under the NDLS such as Felixstowe and Dover the strike ultimately collapsed with a number of key militants, especially at Tilbury, finding themselves victimised and out of work.

From then on – as covered in the reminiscences section that follows – all those who had previously been covered by the NDLS found their hard-won wages and conditions being quickly and permanently destroyed.

Six years after the NDLS was scrapped, 500 Liverpool dockers, the most militant in the UK, were to be locked out of their workplace and after a heroic two-year struggle (1995-97) in which they looked mainly overseas for support they were defeated.

God and games formed Manchester City FC

 

God and games

Like Everton, Manchester City owes its origins to a Church, in this case St Mark’s Church of West Gorton, an increasingly densely populated suburb that had been constructed on rural land from 1800 onwards. From the moment it was consecrated in 1865 Church organisers set out to develop a community spirit amongst local residents, many of whom were recent work seeking immigrants from rural England, Scotland, Ireland and the Continent, especially Italy and Germany.

With little to do or places to meet after finishing work local youth were drawn to the thrill of bare knuckle fighting and Scuttling involving mass battles with rival gangs from Bradford or Miles Platting in which belts, slings, sticks and stones would be employed as weapons. Both sides would scatter if the police came on the scene only to reemerge at a later date.

With West Gorton also beset with problems caused by alcohol the Church sought to develop alternative activities and Rector Arthur Connell encouraged his parishioners to establish community activities. This led to the construction of a new school, a gymnasium plus a library.

By the late 1860s there was formed locally a cricket club, but as this was never going to attract lads involved in Scuttling, who wanted quick thrills, then in 1880, a year after a Working Men’s Club was opened by Anna Connell, there was the setting up of the St Mark’s (association) Football team. Captained by William Sumner, this played its first game on 13 November 1880 – the same date as Sunderland AFC played their inaugural game on Wearside – against the Baptist Church from Macclesfield, who won 2-1. Whilst the majority of the home side had been born in Manchester their parents were imports. Seven days later Newton Heath played their inaugural match.

As to exactly who formed the football club then historian Gary James believes that ‘as with so many football clubs it seems unlikely that the specific person who introduced football to St Mark’s will ever be properly identified’ but rather ‘that the Club was borne out of actions by a variety of individuals during these formative years. ‘

By 1883 the football club had dropped references to the church from its name and later that year it merged with Belle Vue Rangers to become known as Gorton AFC and in 1887 the club name was again changed, this time to Ardwick Association F.C and turned professional by beginning to pay players their expenses.

With the world’s first industrial city continuing to expand the official opening of the Manchester Ship Canal by Queen Victoria in May 1894 seems to have provided, at least, some of the inspiration for Ardwick committee to switch names to the much more grandiose title of Manchester City Football Club around the same time. By becoming a Limited Company the new club raised considerable funds through issuing shares.

WE CAME BY SEA public event

 

Invitation to Farage at Stadium of Light - a supporter responds

Invitation to Farage at Stadium of Light.

I'll be writing my own letter and will support any campaign highlighting Farage's politics. I joined NUM pickets at Monkwearmouth Colliery, on which the Stadium of Light stands. in 1984 as they battled to keep their jobs and communities together. The pits were deliberately closed by the woman he worships in Margaret Thatcher who was determined to break the union in order to move forward and destroy the social gains that had to be granted after the defeat of fascism in WWII. Sunderland has suffered badly ever since.

A friend of mine has written the following letter.

Sent: 28 March 2026 10:47

To: 'david.bruce@safc.com' <david.bruce@safc.com>; 'kyril.louis-dreyfus@safc.com' <kyril.louis-dreyfus@safc.com>

Cc: 'Chris Waters' <Chris.Waters@safc.com>

Subject: Political Invitations

Importance: High

Dear Kyril and David,

I am a longstanding supporter and season card holder, my first season ticket was in the Boys Enclosure 1964/5 costing £2,and I have been a season ticket holder for 42 of my 74 years despite living out of the area since 1972.

I write to express my concern and distress on learning that a public and well publicised invitation has been made to the leader of Reform Uk Ltd., Nigel Farage, to attend a future home match. It is wrong and divisive for the club to associate itself with any one political party especially in the weeks before local elections. The club is followed by people of many political persuasions and an invitation to a politician of any perspective is unlikely to ever be appropriate or commercially prudent.

Whether issued by an individual or formally by the club the behaviour of Nigel Farage at Ipswich and his subsequent exploitation of that situation indicate an invitation to our club will be similarly politically exploited. The invitation itself is already attracting negative publicity to the club.

It is especially inappropriate after a week in which one of our players suffered racist abuse while representing the club at Newcastle in a local derby, to invite a man whose political reputation is built upon creating difference and division especially toward migrants and people of colour.

Some thirty years ago I was among a group of people who formed Sunderland Fans Against Racism in reaction to a particular time when the club had no players or staff of colour. The club has made massive changes in this respect since then, despite a worrying political climate, and for which the club deserves praise. An invitation to Nigel Farage is counter to any progress made in this direction. It will be seen as an alignment with a controversial politician by many both in the area and nationally and cannot be in the best interests of the club and its supporters. As a supporter myself I do not look forward to the resulting arguments with, and abuse from, other supporters resulting from this association should this invitation go ahead.

The issuing of an invitation to a football match played largely by migrants to a politician whose reputation is based upon opposition to migration is at the least incongruous. This invitation will send a message to all migrants and people of colour everywhere what this club stands for and whom it promotes.

Please urgently withdraw this invitation and please do so publicly,

CALDERDALE DURING THE 1926 MINERS’ LOCKOUT AND GENERAL STRIKE

 

CALDERDALE DURING THE 1926 MINERS’ LOCKOUT AND GENERAL STRIKE

Mark Metcalf

Pre the strike

 In the Halifax Guardian Weekly dated 27 February 1926 there is a brief report on the activities of Halifax Trades and Industrial Council (HTIC) in 1925. Total income in 1925 was £102 6s 11d. It was reported that 1925 was the fifth year of the HTIC. The report makes reference to the successful strike by textile workers in 1925. ‘The year had been strenuous...the unemployment problem, owing to depression in trade, had had serious consideration...The textile dispute had their entire support, and they immediately formed a Council of Action, which, without doubt, did much useful work in assisting both by active propaganda and public meetings, towards the deserving victory of the workers.’

For more on the 1925 textile dispute in West Yorkshire see:- https://leedssocialistparty.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/prelude-to-the general-strike-the-wool-worsted-strike-90-years-on/

 The 1925 Textile Strike lasted just over three weeks and involved between 135,000 and 170,000 woollen and worsted workers across West Yorkshire. It was resolved only after Government intervention and it was widely viewed as a victory for the workers, who had been facing a reduction in wages.

Combined with a temporary solution to the coal crisis in 1925, the victory by the textile workers buoyed up the whole of the trade union movement.

The Trades Club, Halifax, had in March 1926 a total of 18,698 members, (I do not know if this is individual members or perhaps a figure relating to the number of members in branches that were affiliated to the Trades Club) a drop of 169 on the year. Income was just over £7,525 and of which £5,187 came from the sale of refreshments, largely alcohol. There was a loss of just under £2634 (£2,633 19s 1 d) with £388 14s 3d paid off the mortgage for the premises. These figures and the successful strike of the textile workers show that the trade union movement in the early part of 1926 clearly had some numbers and strength across Halifax and Calderdale.

For those unfamiliar with the 1926 General Strike then there is lots of information around including the following article on the BBC website:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13828537

A much better article is at:- https://spartacus-educational.com/TUgeneral.htm

Also read work by Mark Metcalf at:- https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/lock_out_gs_booklet.pdf ‘NOT A MINUTE ON THE DAY, NOT A PENNY OFF THE PAY’ – THE 1926 MINERS’ LOCKOUT AND THE GENERAL STRIKE

First week of GENERAL STRIKE 1926

In 1842 it was the miners of Halifax who made the first call for a national union of mineworkers. Only weeks later the first ever General Strike came calling in Halifax (watch ‘BREAD NOT BAYONETS – HALIFAX 1842 on the dramatic events in which the authorities slaughtered local people https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UxMadnIEA  but the miners themselves did not take part and over the following decades local mines were worked out and closed.

By 1926 there were no mines in Calderdale. Yet when the General Strike on 3 May 1926 started there was immediate solidarity action by local workers and there were no trains running with only a dozen staff turning up for work.

“The Halifax railway stations have been closed since Monday.’ ‘All others, including the railway clerks, are on strike...Even the clock at Halifax station had stopped!” reported the paper on May 8, 1926. ‘Strong pickets were on duty, but everything was quiet.’ 8/05/1926

It was reported that the engineering industry was little affected. The Halifax branch of the Typographical Association decided by a 2-1 vote not to resume work. This affected the operative staffs in the composing and machine departments of the “Courier and Guardian” office. The stereotyping department was already out. The paper also reported on the 8th of May that: ‘The response to the calls by the different unions to cease work has been general in this district; those so far affected, in addition to transport workers, including printers, wire workers, joiners, plumbers and members of the Workers’ Union, embracing many occupations.’

On Sunday 9 May 1926 ten thousand attended the mass meeting on Savile Park and ‘two platforms were provided and many speeches were delivered in support of the claims of the miners and workers generally’ as reported in the Halifax Courier and Guardian for Saturday May 15, 1926. The numbers present were the largest in many years.

The local Master Printers Association also backed the strike and stayed out throughout it.

At the firm of J. Blakeborough and sons, Brighouse, the response to the strike appears to have been  mixed, with some staying at work. A leaflet was handed out at the Halifax Unemployment Exchange and elsewhere appealing to all unemployed workers ‘not accept any instructions to sign on for any work now stopped by order of the Trade Union Congress Council.’

This would appear to show that when asked to support the General Strike the large majority did so in Calderdale.

More out on strike in second week

When the strike was called off the Courier welcomed the development and in a lengthy piece on 15 May reported: ’during the early part of the week more operatives were brought out on strike, but the majority returned to work when the general strike was called off.’

On the rail it was reported that ‘trouble arose with respect to the terms of re-engagement’ and there appears to have been some continuing actions by permanent way staff.

Organised opposition to strike

By the end of the strike the authorities had increased the number of Civil Constabulary Reserves to around 230 and several police pensioners were on duty in Halifax. Over 1,000 had volunteered to help the authorities in maintaining food supplies and a similar number (not sure if there is duplication here) had registered as special constables. The paper further reported that the appeal by trade union leaders for the preservation of order had with the exception of one incident at Wheatley on Thursday been observed. A strike breaking volunteer tramway driver Henry Metcalfe had alleged that he had been assaulted by 3 striking tramway workers. Herbert Ackroyd, Joseph Bottomley and Arnold Hall and, despite their solicitor contending that the trio had done far less than had been alleged they were all sent to prison for a month with hard labour and dismissed by their employers. (Yorkshire Evening Post 14 May 1926)

The calling off of the 1926 General Strike by the Trades Union Congress left the locked out miners to fight on alone until eventually poverty forced them to concede defeat later in the year.

Trade unionists in Calderdale continued to show solidarity with the miners and 700 people turned out for the late May Day march in 1926 and which ended with a rally at Victoria Hall with the main speakers being Darlington Labour MP Mr A L Shepherd and Miss F Hancock of Gloucester.

A meeting on Savile Park in June to support the Miners’ was badly attended due to prolonged, heavy rain. ‘A collection was taken on behalf of the miners’ wives and children.’

In conclusion the 1926 General Strike was well supported in Halifax and the Calder Valley. There were few incidents of disorder. The numbers on strike increased at the start of week two. At the same time the state was increasing its own organising abilities and clearly intended to frustrate ongoing activities. In addition the decision by the Trades Union Congress to call off solidarity action in support of the locked out miners was not defied by trade unionists themselves due to the absence of rank and file groups across the trade union movement and workplaces. It was to result in a catastrophic defeat.

 

Brief notes on sources of materials used for this article - there was a daily local paper at this time but, in fact, there was better information in the weekly paper that was published each Saturday and which was called the Halifax Courier and Guardian Weekly. The information is patchy and so this report cannot be taken as definitive.

 

40 years since the last serious defiance of the anti-union laws.

 

 

The Laings Lock Out Committee of 1985-86 marked the last serious defiance of the anti-union laws. It was led by Brian Higgins of the Building Worker Group.

Undoubtedly the most important and significant struggle led by the Building Worker (BW) group and worth a separate mention was the 'Laings Lock Out Committee' of 1985-86 where our cumulative and collective experience was most thoroughly and seriously put to the test.

Our bricklaying gang, all BW supporters, was sacked by sub-contractors Jonoroy on a site in Surbiton in October 1985 on the instructions of Laing Homes, who were quite openly and blatantly operating the blacklist against us.

We went into immediate struggle. With our very limited numbers and resources it was obvious we would have to fight a guerrilla, hold the site we were on and hit and run, war with Laing and the Building Employers Confederation. We sought and got support from many industrial and political sources.

We formed the 'Laings Lock Out Committee'. We were so successful in our use of the flying picket tactic that we halted or severely restricted production on 8 sites in London. In all, we picketed 14 different sites. The outcome of this was Jonoroy (Laings actually) offered work on a Galliford site in Banstead in Surrey, ostensibly until the site in Surbiton was ready, or so we were told. We knew the employers would come back at us in the very short term. We had to put a picket on the Galliford job to get on it. We had to threaten a strike after we got on it to ensure they took on a hod carrier who was with us, but hadn't been at the beginning of the Lock Out.

They told us to go back to Surbiton, as that site was ready. We went to Surbiton. We were told "there's no way Higgins and the others would work on a Laing site". Our picketing was restarted and stepped up. We hit the British Library and Hays Wharf among others. The employers were shitting themselves.

They took out a high court injunction against us that threatened us with two years in jail and fines of many hundreds of thousands of pounds if we did not stop picketing, meeting and even speaking about the Lock Out. The injunction was issued in February 1986.

We took a decision in line with official TUC, UCATT and TGWU policy at that time (though they always supported the anti-union laws in practice) and much more to the point in defence of the basic freedoms of the right to speak, meet and picket, to defy the injunction and carry on. We stepped up picketing, meeting and speaking.

In the months before the injunction was issued we had visited many workplaces, and rank and file trade union organisations, and had addressed many mass meetings. So much groundwork had been done and many workers knew of and supported our struggle against the blacklist. However when the high court injunction was issued on the basis of the 1982 anti-union laws, the main issue then became the overt political one of the anti-union laws themselves. Thus, we stepped up our campaign on this basis and got a tremendous response from workplace after workplace, mass meeting after mass meeting. We had always gone and continued to go straight to the rank and file. To hell and the High Court with the bureaucracy!!

{Text of the injunction:-

1986 L. No. 443
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION

B E T W E E N:

LAING HOMES LIMITED First Plaintiffs

JOHN LAING SERVICES LIMITED Second Plaintiffs

LAING MANAGEMENT CONTRACTING
LIMITED Third Plaintiffs

SOUTHERN BRICKLAYING LIMITED Fourth Plaintiffs

JOHN LAING PLC Fifth Plaintiffs

JOHN LAING CONSTRUCTION LIMITED Sixth Plaintiffs
- and -

BRIAN HIGGINS First Defendant

THOMAS WALSH Second Defendant

DAVID LAVERY Third Defendant

RAYMOND MILLS Fourth Defendant

DAVID WILLIAMS Fifth Defendant

****************** Sixth Defendant

end of text}

An example of the kind of enthusiastic support we received was when I addressed a meeting of about 1,000 Islington DLO workers. Among them were bin men. They told us if we were put in jail (Pentonville was traditionally where they put 'political' prisoners in London, arising out of industrial disputes) then they would blockade Pentonville Road with their lorries until our release, as they had done for the 'Pentonville Dockers'. I addressed a meeting of 4,000 print workers. Again, there was tremendous support for our struggle against the anti-union laws. It was the same everywhere.

Needless to say this sort of support and the promise of political strike action by many thousands of workers, if we were jailed, gave us great inspiration and enabled us to carry on our struggle. No doubt, it gave the government and the High Court the opposite! We went to see the UCATT Executive Council and general secretary, A Williams at that time, and asked for their support, just for the record. Naturally they didn't give it to us but instead told us to give up our struggle. I told them they were a bunch of spineless, cringing, crawling, backstabbing bastards and we were now in open defiance of them and the High Court. George Henderson, General Secretary of the TGWU construction section, and those other spineless bastards at Tooley Street (TGWU construction section London Headquarters) took the same approach as the UCATT Executive Council. Surprise, surprise.

During the dispute I received open death threats from the employers - twice during official negotiations. It really is a nice industry to organise in! They were told there would be no more Crouches (see earlier) and that if any of us or our families were harmed then the main employer Laing and its directors would be held physically and personally responsible and we would be avenged. No equivocation!

I was also banned by a court from the Tooley Street area of London [Laing had a massive job at Hay's Wharf there which we were picketing] for a period of time during the 'Lock Out'. I managed to circumvent this on occasion but was arrested once and held in jail, overnight and just happened to miss an employer/union conciliation panel which took place the next morning!!

For two months we openly and successfully defied the High Court and the anti-union laws, a tremendous political victory which has immediate implications for today's struggles. However on the industrial front A Williams, the UCATT general secretary, in secret negotiations signed a document with the employers' national secretary which removed all official recognition from our dispute be it at Surbiton or anywhere else. We didn't have enough building workers involved to force a negotiated settlement outside of the official machinery, which is what it would have taken, and after six months of tremendously hard struggle we called off our struggle against the blacklist with the knowledge it will have to be fought another day. Hopefully not far off now.

However, we set London alight for six months and exposed the gangster system of employment in the industry. We gave hope to many building workers; we proved the anti-union laws and High Court could be successfully defied! We exposed the full corrupt depth to which P Kavanagh, the London regional secretary of the TGWU (Tooley Street), had sunk and forced the TGWU to sack him. Unfortunately, he is only the tip of a very huge corrupt official iceberg.

The Federation of Brick Contractors was formed as a result of our struggle; meaning the brutalisation of a physical nature would lessen but they would now, and do, court official union support and corrupt it horribly in the process to counter any repeat of the 'Laings Lock Out' type of action. Before and since the blacklist has kept quite a few of us off the sites. Some have been so demoralised with this, and the state of the unions and the left, that they have given up the struggle.

But there were enough of us left to continue the struggle and how. Shortly after the Laings Lock Out in 1986 we were involved in supporting workers on a McCarthy Stone site in Sutton in Surrey. I was arrested on the picket by Special Branch, taken to the local jail and told if I didn't leave the area and stay away I'd spend a very long time on remand in Brixton Jail! To our knowledge this was unprecedented in an industrial dispute and shows the threat we posed after successfully defying the High Court and the anti union laws!

Brian Higgins was known as Britain’s most blacklisted worker.

 As reproduced from some years ago. 

Brian Higgins

The late Brian Higgins was known as Britain’s most blacklisted worker.

See for example this Guardian obituary, which – deliberately so – explains very little. Brian seems like a worthy guy in it, whereas he was a fierce opponent of the capitalist system and a constant thorn in the side of those, who in all sorts of ways, make sure there is the constant, ongoing exploitation of working people across the globe. We have the quite sickening situation today where people who have written books and even made a film cannot bring themselves to take a real look at the many reasons why Brian was victimised.

Brian’s file at the Consulting Association was the largest of any building worker on their list. Included in the information was a booklet I helped to bring out through the Colin Roach Centre (CRC) titled Rank and File or Broad Left: democracy versus bureaucracy

This work was also cited in an attempt by UCATT official Dominic Hehir in his attempt to sue Brian for libel. This is the only known case of a union official attempting to sue an ordinary member of a union. The attempt ultimately failed. A support group was set up to back Brian and the secretary of this group was Mark Cassidy, a member of the Colin Roach Centre, who was later found out to be Mark Jenner, a police spy. Jenner subsequently provided information on Brian and a number of other building workers to the Consulting Association.

Part of this Big Issue North article states:-

When UCATT officer Dominic Hehir sued BWG and union member Brian Higgins for libel over allegations he was failing to support members, a defence campaign was established – and Jenner became the chair. Although the campaign was successful the time taken up on Higgins’ defence meant there was little in reserve to picket sites. Those involved felt it was a hollow victory. Higgins, a blacklisted building worker, says: “I am appalled to discover ‘Mark Cassidy’ was actually an undercover police officer who used his cover as a building worker to infiltrate organisations the state does not like. It is like some Orwellian nightmare and it is surely time for decency, justice and democracy for blacklisted workers.”

Further reading: Undercover but within sites

Below are links to some of the documents in this case and about which I shall be writing more in the future. Note to book publishers – please get in touch if interested

• Rank and File or Broad Left book
• Article by Brian in the CRC magazine : Number 1 titled Death on the site
• Article by Brian on the libel action in the CRC magazine : Number 2
• Article by Brian in the CRC magazine : Number 3

See also the self published pamphlet by Des Warren – Shrewsbury: whose conspiracy? The need for an inquiry – on events during the 1972 Building Workers’ strike and which saw him later sent to prison along with Ricky Tomlinson.

You can also read the following documents:-

The 2 page letter from Louise Christian informing Brian Higgins about the libel action

Brian’s 1-page reply to the above

Brian Higgins Defence Campaign 2-page leaflet

Unpublished 2 page article sent to Workers Press

Victory – the letter by Louise Christian, civil rights solicitor (sorry hypocrite) on Hehir’s humiliating climbdown. Not one word that they lost, they proved now’t and couldn’t even be brave enough to admit it. Still, it did mean the original objective of Brian and others like myself of stopping sites when deaths occurred was lost – as time was otherwise spent on this legal attack by Hehir, who we still don’t know funded his actions.

Dominic Hehir’s infamous and ultimately unsuccessful High Court writ against Brian Higgins 

A century ago today Ted Harper of Blackburn Rovers scores against Burnley as he moves to become the first player to top 40 goals in a season

 

One century ago today Ted Harper scored the sixth goal for Blackburn Rovers as they thrashed neighbours Burnley 6-3 at Ewood Park.

Harper was on his way to becoming the first player to score over 40 league goals in a single season and finished with 43, 26 at home and 17 away out of a total of 91 Rovers goals. It is a record that no Blackburn player has ever come anywhere near emulating.

He was chased to the end by Sunderland’s David Halliday who would later equal his total in 1928-29. Despite Harper’s heroics his side only finished in twelfth place.

Born in Sheerness, Kent on 22 August 1901, Ted Harper arrived at Ewood Park in 1923 from Sheppey United on the strength of his goalscoring record in the Kent League. Critics said he looked clumsy and had no ball control, but as a goalscorer there were few better. He was quickly off the mark with eighteen goals in his first season.

In February 1925, Rovers signed Syd Puddefoot from Falkirk for £4,000. Despite being aged thirty, the ex-West Ham United favourite was a gifted playmaker whose vision and passing ability would – particularly in light of the new rules that reduced the offside trap from three to two players – carve out the sort of chances Harper could happily put away.

The result was that in their first full season, Harper was to become the first player to crash through the barrier of forty goals in a League season. It remains a record no one at Ewood Park has seriously threatened since.

Harper’s season hardly started with a bang, but after failing to be selected for the first three games of it – all of which Rovers lost, including a 6-2 thrashing at Roker Park – he scored a stunning five goals in his first match, aiding his side to a 7-1 win at Newcastle United. The home side had beaten Notts County heavily in the previous game and were in a confident mood before kick-off.

Few could have predicted how wonderfully the away side would play as a team, yet by half time they were already three goals up. Long before the end Harper joined the select band of players who have scored five goals in a top-flight match. He did it by staying well up the field, constantly seeking to break through Newcastle’s continued use of the offside trap that a few short years earlier had been the best in the business, but was now unable to come to terms with the law changes. With Puddefoot inside him and wingers Joe Hulme and Arthur Rigby outside, Harper was presented with numerous chances and did his best to grab as many goals as possible. In the event, five wasn’t too bad.

Back at Ewood, Harper then scored his first of the season there with a penalty against WBA. Two days later, at Bramall Lane, the Kent lad got his seventh of the season in a 1-1 draw.

There was a large crowd inside Ewood for the return fixture with Sunderland. They witnessed some of the qualities that had brought Rovers success at Newcastle. Puddefoot, given a roving commission, pulled the Wearsiders’ defence apart and after Rigby opened the scoring, Harper added two more in the second period in a 3-0 success. Harper’s nine League goals in just four matches rose to twelve in five in the next game as Cardiff were beaten 6-3 at Ewood Park.

Two more in his next two games meant it was fourteen in seven. Newcastle arrived much better prepared than in the first game and shocked the home support by winning 2-1, and also stopped Harper scoring for the first time in the season. Bolton repeated the feat at Burnden Park, but Notts County were unable to and his two goals, one a penalty, took Harper’s record up to sixteen in ten starts.

This rose to nineteen in eleven and as the hat-trick was at Turf Moor, there was extra joy for the Rovers fans that were able to make the short journey to Burnley. With the game tied on 60 minutes at 0-0, Harper pounced when Harold Hill and Jerry Dawson dallied over who should clear the ball. It was a typical opportunist goal, one of many the Rovers man happily picked up during his time with the club, and on 80 minutes he was again in just the right place to accept Puddefoot’s pass and make it 2-0. Just before the end, he again scored to ensure his side won 3-1. A penalty at home to Leeds the following weekend made it twenty in twelve games.

At home to Everton on Christmas Day, Harper got another couple. The first, reported the Liverpool Echo, was ‘a brilliant equaliser, Harper, after a run of many yards (in which he thrice mastered efforts by McDonald to stop him) leaving Hardy helpless with a fine shot.’ It was now twenty-five in nineteen games. Three more followed in his next four matches before a temporary blip in form saw him score just twice in Rovers next five games. One of these though was the sixth in a 6-3 hammering of Burnley at Ewood Park with eight of the goals coming in the second period with Rigby scoring three and Puddefoot the once.

Nevertheless, with seven from the next eight games it meant that prior to kick-off against Manchester United on 10 April, he had notched thirty-seven League goals and needed just two to overtake Everton’s Bert Freeman and Bolton’s Joe Smith, whose thirty-eight in 1908/09 and 1920/21 respectively remained a League record.

Furthermore, a hat-trick and Harper would also overtake David Brown as the top scorer in any league, the Darlington man having scored thirty-nine in the previous season’s Division Three North.

Despite his successes in front of goal, the Rovers man was not even assured of finishing as Division One top scorer. Sunderland’s David Halliday had already scored thirty-eight andwith Harper certain to miss Rovers’ penultimate game of the season to represent his country in his debut match against Scotland, he really needed to find the net.

He certainly did so, hammering home four goals in a 7-0 win. Each of his goals was greeted with special cheers, especially the second, which took him on to thirty-nine for the season.

The first was another piece of opportunism and cheeky skill, pouncing on the ball after Alf Steward had saved to drill it just inside the post as he fell backwards. Then, after beating Charlie Moore for pace, he cleverly placed the ball beyond the ‘keeper. His third was similar, a brilliant run and a powerful shot, and when he touched home his fourth the crowd roared its approval. Coming off, he then learned that Halliday had failed to score against Arsenal, leaving him three ahead of the Sunderland man.

It was the perfect boost prior to his first international, but with Puddefoot alongside him it was to prove a disappointing afternoon as Scotland won 1-0 at Old Trafford. Never selected again for his country, it meant Harper never played at Wembley because when Rovers got to the FA Cup final in 1928, he had already left the previous year to join Sheffield Wednesday.

Back home for the final League game of the season, Harper struck a further two goals against Aston Villa to take his season’s record to a remarkable forty-three goals in thirty-seven games.

At Sheffield Wednesday Harper scored thirteen goals in eighteen games and helped the Owls, with five goals in six games, capture the First Division title in 1928/29. He moved to Spurs in 1929 and scored sixty-two goals in sixty-three League games before returning to Lancashire with Preston in 1931. He saw out his career back with the Rovers in November 1933, before joining the club’s backroom staff until 1948. He broke individual goalscoring records at Blackburn, Tottenham and Preston during his career.

His Rovers record reads 177 League and FA Cup Apps, 122 goals. Ted died in Blackburn on 22 July 1959.

International Worker's Day honouring of Julia Varley in Bradford

 

The WHO'S BETTY TEBBS? film is now on my YouTube site.

 Online now, the remarkable story of Betty Tebbs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrWBJZr3I68 

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum (The Museum)

 Unpublished article for Landworker magazine 

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum (The Museum) was absolutely buzzing the day we visited during the summer holidays. People of all ages had journeyed from far and wide to take part in the machinery tours, examine the exhibitions, sit and chat and engage in arts and crafts activities at the two mills which separately produced wool and cotton. 

It was all a far cry from the drudgery and horrors experienced by thousands of workers. These had been wrenched from their homes during the industrial revolution. It came after new technology wiped out traditional hand loom family weaving practices. It left local people with no option except to enter the dark satanic mills. Fortunately, visitors today can enjoy a good day out whilst having an opportunity to learn much more about how their descendants struggled to earn, even as recently as just 50 years back, a decent living.

Lying 16 miles north of Manchester, Helmshore is a small rural village in the Lancashire Rossendale Valley. In 1789, the Turner family built two mills, parts of which are still working.  By 1820 the power looms they and other manufacturers had introduced meant a full piece of cloth that had once earned a family 25p in the late 1700s was being manufactured at a fifth of that price.

Poverty levels multiplied. In April 1826 arose open revolt. Over 1,100 power looms across Pennine Lancashire were wrecked. Known today as the Weavers Uprising or, more tragically, the Chatterton Massacre it resulted in the authorities coming down brutally on protestors, killing as many as ten people.  Many more were imprisoned.

It is a tragedy set to be remembered on its bicentennial next year with many diverse events being co-ordinated by seven prominent organisations including the museum and which Unite members might consider participating in.

Unique

In a corner of the cotton mill, Preston’s Sir Richard Arkwright can be viewed as he watches over the only remaining complete water-powered cotton spinning machine of his that he invented with clockmaker John Kay around 1750. This ended the need for skilled operators, resulting in women and, even for many decades, children becoming the main employees.

Visitors can learn more from the experienced tour guides. Plus watch some of the noisy, non-stop machines being brought to life. Deafness was just one of many occupational hazards for workers. Lung diseases from taking in fibres was another. Trade unions, at least, initially were non-existent.

Joining a large group of youngsters aged 8 to 17 years from Woking United Reformed Church (WURC), on holiday locally for a week, it was interesting to witness how guides engaged them by employing textile terms. This included asking  them where the phrases heirloom or tenterhooks or even taking the piss might have originated from.  

The answers are on page……….

According to the WURC’s Phil Ray the museum was, with the group on a tight budget, highly affordable. The visit had been chosen in part on the basis of its connection to local sheep farming, which resulted from the 12^th to 14^th century in wool exports being the largest source of England’s income.

“The children and young people have been fascinated by the old equipment and the building, plus the phrases!” 

One of the guides was Unite member Ann Butcher. After years working with homeless people, Ann joined the museum, which is run by Lancashire County Council, three years ago and “loves it. You share information but you also get visitors who tell their own stories and bring in photographs of family members who not so very long ago worked here. I incorporate some of the stories into my own talks,” The Mill ceased production and closed in 1978.

Another Unite member is assistant manager Michael Whitworth who when he previously worked at the University of Manchester was a TGWU steward.

Whitworth explained that the museum staff are working hard to develop bigger roots within the local community. “We don’t have a local library. So even though the museum is closed in the winter months we open on a Thursday as a warm space for older people. Lots of games get played. New friendships are made.

When we visited the café was busy with local people attending a book club. In another part of the large premises young children were engaging in arts and crafts activities including making woolen dolls.

“On school visits, we incorporate our working machines alongside modern technology by organising science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) where children learn how to make invisible ink and us volcano activities to simplify chemical reactions,” says Whitworth.

On strolling around the exhibitions, the quality of the mannequins – especially the red breasted soldier from 1826 – was highly impressive. The figurines used to highlight the traditional home working practices prior to the industrial revolution are also noteworthy.

At aged 8, Jessie Brandon, joined by his friend Charlie, had enjoyed his visit. “It was fun wandering around.  The best bit was the water mill. I like mills!” The young boys had also been able to have some hands-on experiences by being helped to use a hand loom to do some weaving plus they’d examined 50 Lancashire objects.

Jessie’s mum, a teacher, Helen was pleased to see her son smiling out wide. But she is also keen to make sure he discovers that his great grandad Rob Bennett was a passionate believer in trade unions and health and safety and who from a working class background studied to eventually become an HMI Inspector of Mines in the 1920s. https://www.dmm.org.uk/whoswho/b018.htm

“I was born and bred in Bury. The cotton industry is part of my heritage. I wanted my son to see what a cotton mill looks like and get a glimpse of the heat and noise. It gives an understanding of what people’s lives were previously like,” said Helen.

Answers

Heirloom – this is where on the death of the father the loom was passed on to the oldest son.

Tenterhooks – these were hooks on the tenter used to hold the cloth in place.

Taking the piss – urine was for decades collected from residents to use the ammonia in it within the textile manufacturing process.