Women of the British coalfields on strike in 1926 and 1984: Documenting lives using oral history and photography

Frontiers, 1998 by Gier-Viskovatoff, Jaclyn J, Porter, Abigail

1926: Household and Community on Strike

The story of the General Strike of 1926 has been well documented in the annals of labor history.6 However, historians have paid little attention to the role of South Wales miners' wives during the 1926 Lockout and to the long-term elements of continuity in their activism during mining strikes in general. From the turn of the century onward, strikes were endemic throughout the British Isles, with an estimated two thousand strikes involving 2.5 million workers taking place between 1919 and 1920. In coalfield regions such as South Wales, major strikes in 1898, short-term work stoppages in 1900 and 1901, and major disputes in 1910 and 1921 lead up to the General Strike of 1926. This pattern of mining disputes continued across the British coalfields during the 1930s with little intermission until the Second World War.7

The years preceding the 1926 strike were a period of intense activity among the working class of South Wales. The Labour Party had numerous triumphs throughout the coalfield valleys, and the Communist Party developed an especially strong presence in the Rhondda area. The success of both political parties was facilitated by the unions, particularly the South Wales Miners' Federation (S.WM.E). By May 3, 1926, when the General Strike began, it was already obvious that the South Wales miners would be solidly behind the strike that had, in any case, begun with the national lockout in their own industry.

Although there were specific differences between the 1926 strike and the more recent 1984 strike, the fundamental issue of the industry's unprofitability and the government's refusal to continue to subsidize it were in fact key issues in both disputes. Similarily, mass mobilization took place in all of the coalfield areas. Local strike committees, Councils of Action organized to deal with the crisis, and an assortment of ad hoc organizations maintained the soup kitchens, brought in food supplies, and collected and distributed boots and shoes during 1926. In the 1984-85 Miners' Strike, community support groups, local miners' wives suppport groups, and the nationally organized Women Against Pit Closure, among others, performed similar functions. Figure 6 shows a typical scene from 1984 of several miners' wives from the South Wales Women's Support Group organizing food parcels for distribution in the community.

What stands out about the 1926 strike, apart from the high level of community militancy, was the level of deprivation and in some instances outright starvation that eventually forced the miners back to work. Oral testimony confirms that many families took years to pay off the debt accumulated during the seven-month strike. No amount of careful budgeting on the part of miners' wives could overcome the absence of some form of regular income. But the onus of feeding their families fell squarely on the women's shoulders. Evidence suggests that most women fed their husbands and children first, often going without food for themselves. Although work in the mines had stopped for the men, the household chores of cleaning and preparing meals did not cease for the miners' wives. Mrs. Davies recalled her mother's role as a miner's wife during 1926, "My brother ended up the strike very, very sunburnt, whilst my mother was worn out."9