E120: 1926 general strike, part 3

Working Class History

Society & Culture, Education, History

5.0 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The final of our three-part miniseries about the UK’s 1926 general strike, which saw one and three-quarter million workers walk out in the biggest single work stoppage in British history. In collaboration with the General Strike 100 project and told using interviews with striking workers themselves.

In this episode, we look at state repression against the strike, the capitulation of union leaders, and the victimisation of strikers and months-long lockout of the miners after the end of the general strike.

Our podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes, two exclusive podcast series – Fireside Chats and Radical Reads – as well as free and discounted merchandise and other content. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory

Listen to our bonus episode to hear more from two participants in the general strike, exclusively on Patreon
Listen to our bonus mini-episode where we explain the history behind the theme song used for this series

More info

Find out about events to commemorate the strike in your area (and beyond!) on the General Strike 100 website
- You will also find dozens of stories about incidents which took place during the strike in cities, towns, and villages across the UK
Get a copy of our interviewee, Judy Cox’s Revisiting the General Strike of 1926: When Workers Were Ready To Dare
More information including sources, further reading, images and soon a transcript available on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e119-121-1926-general-strike/

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands and Fellow Worker.
Episode graphic: lorry loaded with petrol escorted by mounted policeas workers watch by the side of the road in London. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Our theme tune for this episode is Montaigne’s version of ‘When the Coal Comes from the Rhonda’, a folk song originating from Welsh miners in the early twentieth century and sung during the general strike. Download the song here. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube.
Edited by Jesse French

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the final instalment of our mini-series about the British General Strike of
0:04.3	1926. If you haven't listened to Parts 1 or 2 yet, I'd go back and listen to those first.
0:10.6	Oh, you men of Tony Pandy who dig the veins of coal, with me little pick and shovel I'll be there.
0:21.2	For the boss may own the colliery, but I'll never own your soul.
0:26.8	With me little pick and shovel, I'll be there.
0:31.3	Our podcast is brought to you by our patron supporters.
0:34.8	Our supporters fund our work and in return get exclusive early access to
0:38.7	podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes every month, free and discounted merch and other
0:44.2	content. So as well as getting early access to all three parts of this mini-series, our
0:49.3	supporters can also listen to an exclusive Patreon-only bonus episode with more information and context.
0:55.5	So if you can, please join us and help us preserve and promote our history of collective
1:00.2	struggle. Sign up and listen today at patreon.com slash working class history. Link in the show notes.
1:07.9	Where we left off last time, the strike was causing havoc around the country and the
1:12.2	British state tried to use all the legal powers at its disposal to break the strike. The most
1:17.3	crucial of these was the Emergency Powers Act, a law passed in 1920 which allowed for a state
1:22.7	of emergency to be declared in the event of an action taken or threatened, quote, on so extensive a scale
1:29.8	as to be calculated by interfering with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel or light,
1:36.9	or with the means of locomotion, end quote.
1:40.1	This basically meant that any big strike could result in a state of emergency being called
1:45.0	and any disobedience punished with prison, hard labour, a fine, the seizure of goods or any combination of all of them.
1:53.0	They could use this to really harass the left and to harass any oppositional voices during the strike.
2:01.0	So they invaded the Communist Party headquarters.
	...

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