Workers Organisations & Strikes Archives - Bristol Radical History Group

1926 General Strike In Bristol

In 1973 the Bristol Trades Union Council got the go-ahead to make a programme on its centenary as part of a BBC's Community Programmes initiative. Engineering worker and Trades Union Council delegate Ron Whiteford contributed his account of the 1926 General Strike in Bristol

Coal Not Dole

Bristol Miners' Support Campaign Archive group

In 1984, the Tory government was determined to close the coal-producing industry and replace it with imports and with gas from the North Sea, whatever the costs. This was no green revolution. The National Union of Mineworkers was equally determined to resist. If a local pit went, there was nothing else except the dole. A bitter 12-month strike ensued. Coal Not Dole, written by those involved in the Bristol Miners’ Support Campaign, tells the story of the solidarity and support shown by the […]

Dic Penderyn Society – Annual History Day – Merthyr Tydfil

Bristol Radical History Group are very pleased to be invited to this year's Dic Penderyn Society, Annual History Day at the Merthyr Labour Club, 1 Court Street, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8DU. Roger Ball (11:15am) and Colin Thomas (13:15), both BRHG members, will be speaking at the event. BRHG will also be running a bookstall. The programme for the day: 9.45-10.00am REVOLUTIONARY SONGS BY THE COR COCHION CAERDYDD 10.15-11.00am HUW WILLIAMS: “ART REPRESENTING REALITY” IMAGES OF MERTHYR TUDFUL […]

We Will Eat Grass

John Williams and the Forest of Dean Miners’ Association, 1922–1928

By Ian Wright

“We will eat the grass off the field rather than submit to 8 hours” declared William Hoare at a mass meeting of Forest of Dean miners on July 3, 1926. This is the story of those miners during the dramatic events surrounding that year’s general strike and the nine-month miners’ lockout. In 1922, John Williams, who began working in a South Wales pit at age just thirteen, became the full-time trade union official for the Forest’s miners. Inspired by syndicalism, he believed that determined struggle […]

Bristol Miners Support Campaign – 1984-85

The 1984/85 miners strike was arguably the most significant labour dispute in British history. Before the strike began, Arthur Scargill (President of the 200,000 strong National Union of Mineworkers) told his members and anybody else who would listen, that the future of the coal industry, and the people and communities whose futures depended on it were at stake. This was perfectly summarised in the strike slogan COAL NOT DOLE. The Tory Government used a combination of starvation, police […]

‘Stopping business as usual’

The Dunnes anti-apartheid strike within a wider political environment

The three-year strike which followed the July 1984 refusal of eleven workers at Dunnes' Stores Henry Street branch in Dublin to handle South African goods is perhaps the most celebrated episode of anti-apartheid activism outside Southern Africa, yielding memoirs, academic scholarship, radio and television documentaries and even a play. While still recounting the essential narrative of the strike for those unfamiliar with it, Padraig Durnin's talk will explore what made it exceptional in […]

Bedminster Coalmines

The Greater Bedminster area was once covered by coal mines stretching from East Street to Long Ashton. This walk will take you around the sites of nine of the mines, each of which have their own stories, many ending in tragedy for the mineworkers. Although there is little left above ground now, this will soon change with plans to memorialise the memories of the thousands of almost forgotten working class Bristolians who worked, and often died, in the deep pits below the surface of Bedminster, […]

Annie Townley

A force for socialism and peace

By June Hannam

Annie Townley (1878-1966) Annie Townley: A force for socialism and peace describes a remarkable journey from working-class Lancashire textile mill worker to employment as a Bristol-based organiser in the suffrage and labour movements. In many cases using Annie’s own words, June Hannam brings to life a character dedicated to working-women’s rights and social justice. “Some of us who have been called dreamers and who believe in Socialism, wonder if it had not been better for our City Fathers to […]

Wapping – the workers’ story

70 mins – 2020 (Dir. Christopher Reeves) Introduced and Q&A with Ann Field (SOGAT official during the strike). A film about the momentous year-long industrial dispute which began in 1986 when Rupert Murdoch plotted to move production of his papers overnight from central London’s Fleet Street to a secretly equipped and heavily guarded plant at Wapping, a docklands district in east London. 5,500 men and women lost their jobs and centuries of tradition in one of London’s last manufacturing […]

For International Women’s Day—Annie Townley

A force for socialism and peace

Professor of Modern British History, June Hannam shares the inspiring journey of Annie Townley, a Lancashire textile worker turned suffragette and Labour Party organiser. This talk highlights the challenges and opportunities for working-class women in activism, focusing on Townley’s personal and emotional struggles within the suffrage and labour movements. It has been arranged by the Bristol Radical History Group.