The 1949 Docks Strike was notable as an international solidarity action in support of strike action by Canadian seamen of the Canadian Seamen’s Union. Canadian employers had used scab crews (in the Seafarers’ International Union) to load ships. One of these, the SS Gulfside, had remained strike bound in Avonmouth from 1st April. A second ship, the SS Montreal City arrived with a cargo of tomatoes and bananas. As tugmen and dockers refused to work the blacked ships, the Labour Government brought […]
Glenside Museum, The Chapel, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD Bristol Radical History group author, researcher and co-founder Roger Ball talks us through the REAL ‘Black Friday’ i.e. not the end of November shopping spree but the strikes and protests of autumn 1892 in Bristol, starting with the ‘Sweet Girls’ dispute at the Redcliff Confectionery works. Come and listen to a tale of ‘thousands of working class Bristolians’ marching to the Horsefair with lanterns & […]
Ben Tillett ~ Working class friend or foe? A talk and discussion led by Jim McNeill To launch Bristol Radical History Group's new pamphlet, "Ben Tillett" this talk will cover the life and work of this Bristol-born, Trade Union leader. Tillett was the fiery and outspoken leader of numerous dock strikes from 1888 to 1914 in Bristol, London, Hull and elsewhere. However, by the outbreak of the First World War he, along with many union and Labour Party leaders, had become an open class collaborator […]
