The 1911 Liverpool general transport strike, also known as the great transport workers' strike, involved dockers, railway workers, sailors and other tradesmen. The strike paralysed

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

for most of the summer of 1911. It also transformed trade unionism on

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

. For the first time, general trade unions were able to establish themselves on a permanent footing and become genuine mass organisations of the working class.

Strike

Strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Working class, work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Str ...

began on 14 June when the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union announced a nationwide merchant seamen's strike. Solidarity action in support of the seamen led to other sections of workers striking. A strike committee, chaired by the

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

Tom Mann, was formed to represent all of the workers in dispute. Many meetings were held on St. George's Plateau, next to St. George’s Hall, on Lime Street, including the rally on 13 August in which police carried out a baton charge a crowd of 85,000 people, who had gathered to hear Tom Mann speak. The event became known as "Bloody Sunday". In the police charges and subsequent unrest that carried on through the following night, over 350 people were injured. 3,500 British troops had become stationed in the city. Two days later, soldiers of the 18th Hussars opened fire on a crowd on Vauxhall Road, injuring fifteen, two fatally: John Sutcliffe, a 19-year-old carter, was shot twice in the head, and Michael Prendergast, a 30-year-old docker, was shot twice in the chest. An inquest into their deaths later brought in a verdict of "justifiable homicide".

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

sent in troops and positioned the cruiser in the Mersey.

References

External links

Libertarian Communist perspective on strikeFull calendar of 1911 Liverpool in issue 17 of Nerve magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:1911 Liverpool General Transport Strike Liverpool General Transport Strike, 1911 Liverpool General Transport Strike General strikes in the United Kingdom Labour disputes in England Industrial history of England Politics of Liverpool 1910s in Liverpool Transport strikes

Strike

See also

References

Further reading

External links