THIS WEBSITE, THE BRIGHTON BRANCH OF A.S.L.E.&F.
HAS NOW BEEN MOVED TO A NEW SITE CALLED
IGNITING THE FLAMING OF UNITY
http://ignitingtheflameofunity.yolasite.com/1926-general-strike.php
PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO TRANSFER TO THIS NEW SITE
CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE TO TAKE YOU
TO THE NEW UPDATED COMBINED AND WEBSITE
IGNITING THE FLAME OF UNITY WEBSITE
THIS WEBSITE COMBINES THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES
THE BRIGHTON A.S.L.E.&F., THE BRIGHTON MOTIVE POWER DEPOTS
& THE SUSSEX MOTIVE POWER WEBSITES
WHICH EXPLAINS THE EVOLUTION OF THE FOOTPLATE GRADES AND THE HISTORY OF THEIR TRADE UNIONS AND THE STRUGGLES TO IMPROVE THEIR WORKING LIVES
|
The General Strike 3rd ~ 12th May 1926
The greatest strike in the history of Great Britain,
and possibly the greatest that the world has witness
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the star”
By OscarWilde
Background to the Strike
It is hoped that in the coming weeks, that more information will be discovered and added, regarding what took place by the
Loco-men of Brighton during the General Strike.
During the General Strike, Brighton was totally paralysed with the transport being brought to a total stand still. This was due
to a large railway work force and Brighton become the worse effected town on the South Coast with neighbouring loco sheds
which also supported this strike. The Southern Railway employed a work force of approximately 73,000, with only 12,000
railway workers from the various grades and departments reporting for work during the entire General Strike.
However I have discovered some information regarding the 'Battle of Lewes Road', which took place on Tuesday 11th May,
1926, where it is presumed, that members of the Brighton Branch of A.S.L.E.F. may have been involved in this demonstration.
It is known that some of the demonstrators who were arrested and sentenced worked for the Southern Railway at Brighton.
Below is some background information into the General Strike nationally, which is followed by a major event that happened
in Brighton during the General Strike, which involved trade union members from the various trade unions that worked within
the town.
-----------
The strike was called by the Trades Union Congress (T.U.C.) in support of striking coal miners in the North of England,
Scotland and Wales. The miners were making a stand against an enforced pay-cut. It was the latest in a long series of
industrial disputes that had dogged the coal industry since the end of the First World War and created real hardship for
mining families. 'Not a minute on the day, not a penny off the pay', was the miners' slogan.
Although the dispute began in the mining areas, one of the trigger events took place in London, when the Daily Mail's Fleet
Street printers refused to print a leading article criticising trade unions. Other print workers also downed tools. The T.U.C.
activated its plans for sympathetic strike action and called out all trade union members in essential industries.
From the early hours of Monday 3rd May, some two million workers went on strike across Britain. In London, the main
groups of striking workers were the dockers, printers, power station workers, railwaymen, and transport workers. The aim
was to bring the capital to a halt and force the government to intervene on the side of the miners.
For its part, the government brought in the army to ensure that essential services continued and food supplies got through.
Army barracks were set up in Hyde Park, which was also turned into a milk and food depot. People who disapproved of the
T.U.C. 'holding a pistol to the nation's head' took action themselves, volunteering to work in place of the strikers. London’s
buses, trams, trains and delivery vans were kept running by a skeleton staff of non-unionised workers and university students.
On Wednesday 12th May 1926, the T.U.C. General Council visited 10 Downing Street to announce their decision to call off
the strike, provided that the proposals worked out by the Samuel Commission were adhered to and that the Government
offered a guarantee that there would be no victimization of strikers. The Government stated that it had "no power to compel
employers to take back every man who had been on strike." Thus the T.U.C. agreed to end the dispute without such an
agreement.
The miners maintained resistance for a few months before being forced by their own economic needs to return to the mines. By
the end of November most miners were back at work. However, many remained unemployed for many years. Those that were
employed were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages, and district wage agreements. The strikers felt as though they had
achieved nothing.
BRIGHTON AND THE GENERAL STRIKE
Extracted and adapted from the book of the same tittle by Ernie Trory
plus some additional info from the notes by M. Bance
The General Strike descended with full force on Brighton on Tuesday 4thMay. It came suddenly and relentlessly. When the
inhabitants of Brighton awoke, there were no trains, trams, no buses and no newspapers. It was an unfamiliar world. The
tensions which led to the General Strike were exacerbated by the policies of the Brighton Corporation and the fears of members of the Middle Classes. Their concerns, however, were misplaced: local socialists and unemployed people of Brighton were not revolutionaries but had a strong feeling of sympathy with the industrial unrest that existed around the country, and when the strike began to take full effect on the 4th May only 6,000 workers, a small proportion of the town's workforce, came out. Of these, transport workers were seen to represent the greatest threat, and succeeded in stopping service on the town's external railway links and internal tramways. This was largely due to the hundreds of railway workers employed in Brighton and the solidarity of Brighton workers with strikers elsewhere was virtually complete.
The Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies. Now absorbed into an official government organisation was hard at it, and ardent
young men of the “Sporting type” were dashing about in lorries and on motorcycles. All members of Brighton Police Force had orders to
sleep “at their posts” and to increase their mobility. Motor coaches were drawn up in readiness to convey them to any point in the
borough where their services might be requires. The Special Constabulary had been called up and extra recruits were being enrolled at the
Y.M.C.A. in the Old Steine, and at Preston Circus Police Station.
Typewritten bulletins, giving the latest wireless messages, began to be issued from the Electric Shop in North Street and from the
headquarters of the Brighton & Hove Conservative Association in the Old Steine, limited consignment of the London morning papers,
which had arrived in Brighton that morning, remained untouched on the station. The distributors had refused to handle them.
Meanwhile the Labour institute in London Road was a hive of industry. Here it was that the Council of Action, and most of the Strike
Committees, held their meetings. Notices relating to pickets were displayed outside the building, where later were to be seen two telegrams
from Mr. C.T. Cramp (N.U.R.), the railway leader, congratulating the workers of Brighton on their stand and urging them to work together.
On the morning of Wednesday 5th May, five thousand copies of the British Gazette, Government-sponsored organ of the coal–owners,
were brought into Brighton. Some were posted in prominent positions around the town, only to be torn down by angry strikers. The T.U.C.
replied with the British Worker, and the local Council of Action produced Stand Firm. There was also The Punch, produces by the
Brighton Communist Party, a duplicated paper that appeared to be on sale everywhere, but printed nowhere.
Brighton was solid. In no other town in the South of England was there such a complete stoppage. The strike order specified a call –out in
“two grades” or “lines” but the difficulty was to keep the second line in. Engineering was in the second line and the railways in the first
line. So the engineers in the railway workshops came out on the first day. The engineers at Southdown Motors came out on the second day.
Everywhere men and women were leaving work in sympathy with the miners – even domestic servants and hotel employees were walking
out.
There was a dramatic event moment on Thursday 6th May in the vicinity of the Town Hall about noon, when the big procession of about
2,000 strikers, headed by a brass band. The strikers were marching on to the Town Hall in response to the council considering the use of
volunteer labour on the trams, they wanted to lobby transport committee and to try and persuade them not to use volunteers to operate the
trams. As the procession made its way down to East Street, there were several hundred men in ranks as they swung round the corner out of
North Street, a solid mass of marchers. Drawn up in a cordon guarding the approach through Bartholomews to the Town Hall. Where the
Tram Committee were sitting in council, members of the Brighton Police Force waited apprehensively. Behind them, scores of reserves
were disposed in strategic positions. The front line stiffened as marchers approached, but the demonstration continued on in an orderly
fashion, leaving the minions of law and order on their right.
On the following day, at same spot a procession of about 200 strikers were marching towards the sea when a quite shocking thing
happened. A woman driving a two-seater car spotted the procession and deliberately increased her speed and ploughed through the
procession, scattering the strikers and making others flee for their lives. The police who were at the scene made no attempt to apprehend
her Instead the police drew their truncheons and set about the strikers who tried to mount the footboard to stop the car and then dragging
them off the car. In the confusion, the woman continued to drive on at a great speed, turned swftly into North Street and disappeared.
On the Saturday, the Brighton Herald came out in a four-page issue, produced with the aid of Special Constables who worked all Friday
night and into the early hours of the next morning. The Sussex Daily News was produced with less difficulty but the printing was of a very
low standard, many copies being unreadable.
The Battle of Lewes Road
on Tuesday 11th May 1926
Not the Battle of Lewes, which took place on 14th May 1264 between the forces of Simon de Montford and King Henry III, but
a strike action the Brighton and Hove Herald called the ‘Battle of Lewes Road’. A violent and bloody incident leading from
The General Strike called by the Trades Union Congress in defence of mineworkers who were being asked to accept a
universal seven-day week and a drop in wages of up to 25%.
In the following week more police were recruited to form a mounted group of special officers. They were made up of local farmers, sportsmen, hunting men and retired cavalry officers and together made a disciplined force which the strikers nicknamed the ‘Black and Tans’, an allusion to the special constables who had gained such a terrible reputation for violence during the Irish troubles of 1920. The first serious incident occurred on Tuesday 11th, May, when the mounting tension burst into a storm outside the tram depot in Lewes Road. From early morning, the impression had gained ground that there was going to be an attempt to start the trams again. Actually, the plan was not to get trams out of the depot, but to get the blacklegs into the depot for training. At noon, Superintendent Taylor, acting under instructions from the Chief Constables, Charles Griffin, took a strong body of officers and men to the tram depot in Lewes Road, after picking up a convoy of volunteers (which included a group of middle-class volunteers, and students) and a number of blacklegs at the Pavilion Buildings. These volunteers were only there to be trained, but the crowd believed that an attempt was to be made to bring the trams back into service. By the time he arrived at the tram depot in Lewes Road where 4,000 people, strikers, sympathisers and inquisitive onlookers, had gathered. The Chief Constable and asked the crowd in front of the gates to disperse. This they refused to do. The Chief Constable, Charles Griffin, ordered the road to be cleared and sent in 300 foot police and 50 mounted specials advanced in wedge formation, the later led by “Sergeant” Harry Preston, proprietor of the Royal Albion & Royal York Hotels and a friend of the Prince of Wales, with Harry Mason, a well-known professional boxer acting as his second in command. This motley collection of men, who were former: - ex-cavalry men, ex-black & tans and ex-yeomanry. They were carrying, ‘ugly looking shillelaghs with knobbed ends’. They gradually forced the strikers back until they reached the Saunders Recreation Ground. Someone in the crowd threw a bottle at a constable; blows were exchanged between officers and civilians; stones and bricks began to fly through the air; and the police came to a standstill. In a few moments ‘The Battle of Lewes Road’ was in full swing. The Herald described, ‘flying stones, the panic rush, the thud of blows, the shrieks of frightened women and children’. They also reported the peculiar sight of mounted police constables wearing plus-fours! |
|
A eye-witness accounts of the Battle of Lewes Road
On Tuesday May 11th at about 11 a.m. a large procession of strikers (Tramwaymen, Busmen, Railwaymen etc.) marched along Lewes
Road towards the Tramway Depot, headed by a band. This sight was not unusual, there having been processions of a like character at
various intervals throughout the strike. Ten minutes later, several hundred police and special constables followed in the same direction.
There were on foot or speeding along in private cars and charabancs, a noticeable feature being a posse of about 36 mounted specials in
semi military uniform who were each armed with long batons and were carrying them in a very prominent position. This sight was very
unusual and was provocative in the very first instant. The spectacle had attracted large crowd who followed behind the police and I,
being keenley interested, joined with the crowd and was fortunate in getting a view from a cart standing about 100 yards from the Depot.
A scuffle occurred outside the Depot as soon as the police arrived. This was quelled and good order reigned for a few minutes. Suddenly
the mounted specials, who were lined up facing south, wheeled round and made for the north entrance of the recreation ground. This
ground was covered with people, quite a good sprinkling of women and children being evidence. The charge of these horsemen,
brandishing their batons, was not to be withstood and something like panic pervailed, the crowd scattering like rabbits for shelter. not
content with this, the horsemen made an organised drive down the main road, going quite a distance up the side turnings, riding
indiscriminately on the pavements and threatening, and in many cases striking, those who could not evade them quickly enough. I myself,
with members of the family, standing well back on our forecourt, were threatened by mounted hooligans who rode on the pavement. a
sergeant on foot was injudicious enough to say that he would go" through blood and fire" to get at me and would "bash me to pieces" if I
dared to come outside. I was then inside the shop. This statement I will swear on and will say that there was not the slightest excuse for
the whole affair, which was a deliberate piece of organised tyranny on the part of the local authorities
Gustave de Lacy, 136 Lewes Road Brighton
Orders were then given to the mounted specials to “relieve the situation.” Unable to enter the recreation ground from Lewes Road, they charged through the crowds in Hollingdean Road, scattering men, women and children as they went, and gained admittance by the side entrance. After a violent struggle in which people were knocked down by horses, blows were struck; stones and bottles thrown the strikers were driven back and were overcome and dispersed. The manoeuvre was continued until the crowds were forced back, leaving the Lewes Road clear from the Bear Hotel to Preston Barracks. Many men on both sides were injured and 17 arrests were made. The echoes of the fight in Lewes Road had hardly died away when a fresh disturbance broke out in London Road; outside the Labour Institute (which was situated at No. 93).Car after car, laden with police and specials, raced to the scene of action, followed by hard-faced mounted men, their batons swinging from their saddles. Those at the end of the procession were met by cars returning with fresh victims of police brutally. During this disturbance saw another 5 people being arrested.
|
|
A eye-witness accounts of the Battle of Lewes Road
On Tuesday morning May 11th, I was outside of the Tram Depot when Mr. Marsh came out and stated that 200 mounted and foot police
were coming and appeal to the crowd to go away and said for god's sake men don't let their be any trouble, go home. I went into the
recreation ground and stood opposite the main enterance of the Tram Depot. I helped to get children over the wall into the ground for
safety, and advised women with prams to clear away. Along came the poice on foot, then a motor covered over with a brown tarpaulin,
after this volunteersto take out the cars. The foot police moved the crowd towards Falmer. Then something happened, the specails,
mounted, and foot police seemed to go mad. They rushed the crowd and arrested a man against the depot wall and pushed him into gate,
jobbing him in the back. Then the mounted special and regular police rushed the recreation ground pushing men, women and children
against the wall. I saw a little girl about 10 years of age screaming and tearing her hair out. I said "don't be affraid and you will be
alright with me." I turned to those on horse back and sai " I appeal to you as Englishman, as a man, as an Ambulance man, to let these
women and children go." One reared his horse up and I pushed the little girl into safety and told her to run off. The mounted special then
said "Get Out" and a regular policeman mounted cut me a blow across the right shoulder. He then rushed out of the gate in Hollingdean
Road right across the road on to the pavement where his horse slipped and there were women, and children in prams, also a lot of
children they had driven out of the recreation ground standing on the pavement. He then drove us down Hollingdean Road into Lewes
Road and then up Gladstone Place where I pushed into a gateway and fell down an area stepsin mendeavour to get out of the way and
into safety. The way I got home was, when the dinner bell of Bennets went, the stonemasons men went home I mingled with them and so
got home.
A. Packham, 16 Roundhill Street, Brighton
The collapse of the General Strike was not expected. Morale was so high and organisation so strong that in some parts of the
country, before it was known that the T.U.C. had accepted term tantamount to “unconditional surrender,” demonstrators were
organised to celebrate the “Victory.” The men who had sacrificed so much to prove their solidarity with the miners were
completely bewildered when it was realised that their heroic stand had brought them defeat. The employers were not in
pressing home their advantage. Many in Brighton saw the act of calling off the strike by the General Council of the T.U.C. as
a betrayal. Those who must have felt it most keenly were the strikers who lost their jobs when the management of the local
transport companies refused to reinstate them after the strike, one such company was Southdown Motors, when the strikes
returning back to work, were told that they must state whether they belonged to a trade union or not. Some of the strikers
within Brighton were dismissed by their employers for taking part in the General Strike and were black listed by other
employers within the town.
The following morning the 22 prisoners who had been arrested at the two disturbances were brought before the bench. They had been remanded in custody from the previous evening, when, with indecent haste, an emergency Magistrates Court. They were marched through the town from the police station to the town hall where they appeared before the emergency magistrates’ court. They had been summoned and the men immediately charged with incitement to riot, throwing bottles and stones, assaulting the police etc. They were legally represented by A. J. Grinstead, a Labour Councillor, who did what he could in the difficult circumstances. All 22 received sentences of hard labour, from one to six months; others were heavily fined (see below). The trail lasted about six hours and during the lunch interval news was received that the General Council of the T.U.C. had called of the strike. On resuming, A.J. Grinstead submitted that the case should be adjourned, adding: “I think I may say, sir, that we are all desiring that if there is peace, it should be a general peace.” The magistrate ruled against an adjournment, and with the vicious sentences already referred to were recorded. There was a large crowd outside the Town Hall as the prisoners, handcuffed together in twos and threes, were brought out by the police. They were hurried into large private cars with more police brought up the rear of the procession. Some of the men smiled at relatives in the crowd, who waved handkerchiefs in acknowledgement. The cars turned on to the Sea Front in the direction of Portsmouth. |
|
The names of the 22 demonstrators who were arrested
and received a magistrates sentenced on
Wednesday 12th May 1926
The charges out of the disturbances in Lewes Road and London Road were dealt with at a sitting of the Brighton Magistrates on the
morning of Wednesday 12 May. There were 22 prisoners concerned in 42 charges as follows:-
1 George Richardson. 49, 167Havleock Road, Southern Railway Employee, unlawfully committing an offence against the Emergency
Regulation 1926, duty made pur to the Emergency Powers Act, 1920. In that he did an an act calculated or likely to cause disaffection among the civilian population, to with incite certain persons to riot, on 11thMay, £5 fine paid..
2 William Batchelor, 26, 86 Picton Street, Southern Railway Lifter, 1 month, like offences, &
3 Arthur James. Mitchell, 56, 42 Hendon Street Kemptown, Labourer, 2 months like offences.
4 Albert Lawrence, 48, 17 Franklin Street, Goods Porter, a like offence, assaulting Detective Sergeant Thomas Wells while in the
execution of his duty, on 11th May, and assaulting P.C. Robert Minton, while in the execution of his duty, on 11thMay, 6 months.
5 John Lawrence Knight, 43, 31 Millers Road, Southern Railway Driller, throwing a dangerous missile, to wit a stone, with intent to
injure (Emergency Regulations, 1926), and assaulting Detective Sergeant Thomas Wells while in the execution of his duty, on 11th May, 4
months.
6 Percy Isaac Sawyer, 35, 66 Ewart Street, Southern Railway Hammerman, throwing a missile, 3 months.
7 Joseph Alfred Vinall, 21, labourer, inciting to riot, discharged mental.
8 Fred King, 39, 74 Franklin Street, Labourer (Tramways), inciting to riot, assaulting Special Constable Bernard Dutton Briant, while in
the execution of his duty, and assaulting Special Constable Dudley Marriott Broughton Vanqulin, while in the execution of his duty, on
11th May, 6 months.
9 William Joseph Knight, 32, 45 Arnold Street, Tram Conductor, inciting to riot, on 11th May; inciting to riot on 5th May; assaulting P.C.
Alfred Phillips while in the execution of his duty on the Old Stiene, on 5thMay; and assaulting P.C. Thomas Humberstone while in the
execution of his duty, on Maderia Drive, on the 5th May, 6 months.
10 John Walkden 24, 41 Park Cresent Road, Southern Railway Labourer, inciting to riot, and assaulting P.C. Archibald Soul while in the
execution of his duty, on 11th May, 4 months.
11 Charles Marchant, 19, 12 Southover Street, Bottle Washer, inciting to roit, 40/-.
12 George Edward Newton, 29, 67 Hartington, Labourer (Tramways), inciting to riot on 11th May; assaulting P.C. James Beedle, while
in the execution of his duty, on 11th May; inciting to riot on 5th assaulting P.C. Thomas Humberstone while in the execution of his duty,
on Maderia Drive, on the 5th May, 6 months.
13 Sidney Arthur Higgs, 25, Welder, inciting to riot, on 11th May.
14 William Jones, 41, 6 Tichbourne Street, Boot Operative, inciting to riot, on 11thMay; inciting to riot on 5th may; assaulting P.C.
Thomas Humberstone while in the execution of his duty, on Maderia Drive, on the 5thMay; and assaulting P.C. Alfred Phillips while in
the execution of his duty in the Old Stiene, on 5th May, 6 months.
15 Horace Grosvenor, 39, 38 Ladysmith Road, Tramway Motorman, inciting to riot on 11th May, 2 months.
16 Algernon Sidney King, 39, 95 Ladysmith Road, Tramway Motorman, inciting to riot on 11th May, 2 months.
17 William Woolgar, 25, 51 Park Cresent Road, Southern Railway Engine Fitter, inciting to riot, in London Road, on 11th May, 1 month.
18 Percy Alfred Phillips, 25, 6 Islingworth, Labourer, inciting to riot on 11thMay, 1 month.
19 Robert Victor Thompson, 22, 38 Stanley Road, Southern Railway Coach Painter, inciting to riot; assaulting P.C, Leonard Botten while
in the execution of his duty in London Road; assaulting P.C. Sydney Millen while in the execution of his duty in London Road, 2 months.
20 Walter Birkhead, 21, 4 Kimberly Road, Kitchen Hand, inciting to riot in East Street, and assaulting P.C. Alfred Phillips while in the
execution of his duty in East Street, on 11th May, 2 months
21 Thomas George Spencer, 18, 51 William Street, Errand Boy, inciting to riot in East Street, and assaulting Special Constable Francis
Donald Pickett while in the execution of his duty, in Bartholomews on 11th May, Remanded 8 days.
22 Alfred Blakesley, 66 Hereford Street, Seaman 4 months, Note: moved.
The aftermath of the General Strike in Brighton
The collapse of the General Strike was not expected. Morale
was so high and organisation so strong that in some parts of
the country, before it was known that the T.U.C. had accepted
term tantamount to “unconditional surrender,” demonstrators
were organised to celebrate the “Victory.” The men who had
sacrificed so much to prove their solidarity with the miners
were completely bewildered when it was realised that their
heroic stand had brought them defeat.
The employers were not in pressing home their advantage.
Many in Brighton saw the act of calling off the strike by the
General Council of the T.U.C. as a betrayal. Those who must
have felt it most keenly were the strikers who lost their jobs
when the management of the local transport companies
refused to reinstate them after the strike, one such company
was Southdown Motors, when the strikes returning back to
work, were told that they must state whether they belonged to
a trade union or not. Some of the strikers within Brighton were
dismissed by their employers for taking part in the General
Strike and were black listed by other employers within the town.
On Wednesday, 12th May, saw Brighton slowly returning back
to normal. The strikers were being instructed by their trade
unions to return back to work. There was much dissatisfaction
amongst the railway men who were amongst one of the main
group of workers at the heart of the strike within Brighton and
the surrounding area.
On the Thursday morning, a victory parade of mounted
specials was assembled outside the flower market, under the
command of Lieutenant Colonel Scott O’Connor, to receive
official recognition from the then Mayor of Brighton,
Councillor J. Lord Thompson; which was followed by the
mounted specials having a ‘victory’ parade through the streets
of Brighton. In the evening a thanksgiving service and a
celebration dinner was held, the thanksgiving service was
conducted in St. Peter’s Church, concluding with hymns,“Thy
hand, O God, has guided” and “Now thank we all our God”.
The regular policemen were presented certificates and granted
three days leave. These celebrations caused deep resentment
amongst the people of Brighton against the police. But during
the afternoon, there had come some chastening news. The
railwaymen had again ceased work on the issue of
reinstatement without victimisation; this stoppage was not
supported at national level.
PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN
The local authority saw the "Battle of Lewes Road" as having served to crush revolutionary politics in Brighton, while for
working-class activists it was celebrated as a day of heroism and martyrdom. Following the events, there was little complaint
from workers about the regular police, but much about the allegedly politically-motivated special constables.
The aftermath of the General strike was to be felt for many weeks’ months afterwards. Further repercussions of the General
Strike were continually making themselves felt.
On the 2nd June, two engine drivers with many years’ service
to their credit were prosecuted by the Southern Railway
Company in respect of incidents alleged to have occurred
during the General Strike, and both were heavily fined
With General Strike over the Loco-men had to wait another
eleven months before they saw the resumption of the
Guaranteed Week, which was re-introduced on the April
11th, 1927. Therefore the loco-men carried on receiving a
further 11 months of punishment, for their involvement in the
General Strike.
The British Government in 1927, passed the Trades Disputes & Trade Union Act., and more commonly known as the
“Blacklegs Charter” This act made all sympathetic strikes illegal, ensured the trade union members had to voluntarily
'contract in' to pay the political levy, forbade Civil Service unions to affiliate to the T.U.C., and made mass picketing illegal.
Today, we can appreciate the hardship faced by the strikers. It is harder for us to imagine how much terror the strikers
instilled in the authorities (the establishment’s fear of ‘mob rule’); the hatred felt by the middle-class, the woman in her sports
car or the gentleman farmer, riding into battle in his 'plus fours' carrying a club. This was, however, the reality of one of the
bitterest confrontations of the whole General Strike and it took place in Brighton.
THE BRIGHTON BRANCH OF A.S.L.E.&F. WEBSITE.
HAS NOW BEEN MOVED TO A NEW SITE CALLED
IGNITING THE FLAMING OF UNITY
https://ignitingtheflameofunity.yolasite.com/
PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW
TO TRANSFER TO THIS NEW SITE
CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE TO TAKE YOU
TO THE NEW UPDATED COMBINED AND WEBSITE
IGNITING THE FLAME OF UNITY WEBSITE
https://ignitingtheflameofunity.yolasite.com/
THIS WEBSITE COMBINES THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES
THE BRIGHTON A.S.L.E.&F., THE BRIGHTON MOTIVE POWER DEPOTS
& THE SUSSEX MOTIVE POWER WEBSITES
WHICH EXPLAINS THE EVOLUTION OF THE FOOTPLATE GRADES AND THE
HISTORY OF THEIR TRADE UNIONS AND THE STRUGGLES TO IMPROVE
THEIR WORKING LIVES
CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE TO TAKE YOU
TO THE NEW UPDATED COMBINED AND WEBSITE
IGNITING THE FLAME OF UNITY WEBSITE
https://ignitingtheflameofunity.yolasite.com/
THIS WEBSITE COMBINES THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES
THE BRIGHTON A.S.L.E.&F., THE BRIGHTON MOTIVE POWER DEPOTS
& THE SUSSEX MOTIVE POWER WEBSITES
WHICH EXPLAINS THE EVOLUTION OF THE FOOTPLATE GRADES AND THE
HISTORY OF THEIR TRADE UNIONS AND THE STRUGGLES TO IMPROVE
THEIR WORKING LIVES