5. “Strike – The Warning Shot” – Flugelhorn

Flugelhorn

 

The post war boom was followed by the worst depression since the Industrial Revolution. Industrial action dominated the interwar years, as those returning from war demanded better pay and conditions. Old staple industries, on which Britain’s prosperity once rested, now struggled with a decline in demand. The Government, industry, workers and unions were locked in cycles of changing policies, wage reductions, strikes, protests, lockouts and redundancies. At the same time, parts of the country were prospering in new areas of industry, such as electronics. In the 1926 General Strike over two million workers came out in support of better working conditions for miners, including railway workers, printers, steel workers, transport workers, dockers, and iron workers. This stand to make things better, or at very least save the equilibrium, had limited success.  Bigger global forces were at play and British deindustrialisation was a part this.

Do you remember 1926? The great dream and the swift disaster,
The fanatic and the traitor, and more than all,
The bravery of the simple, faithful folk?

Do You Remember 1926? (Excerpt) – Idris Davies, 1938

Comrade, are you mired enough,
Sad enough, tired enough –
Hush! – to march with us tonight
Through the mist and through the blight?

Red Front (Excerpt) – Sylvia Townsend Warner, 1935