Life after the war - unemployment, strikes and violent riots

It appeared that Britain could be on the verge of transforming itself from a constitutional monarchy and liberal democracy, into a Soviet-style People’s Republic.

However, the events of this year are often forgotten in the history books - overshadowed by the first and second world wars.

Life after the First World War for everyone was tough and Britain found itself in a perilous state - there was a lack of food, young men had perished as they fought for their country and the lives of others had been blighted by wounds.

Unemployment was rife.

The trade union movement was flexing its muscles and getting stronger every day..

Striking workers brought chaos to cities across the country and forced Downing Street to use unprecedented force against its own citizens.

The Army had to be called in because police officers were among those on strike - with soldiers deployed to suppress disorder as fierce and violent riots involving British trade unionist and Communist crowds wreaked havoc.

Riots saw widespread mutinies in the Army, tanks brought onto the streets to crush workers’ uprisings and troops imposing martial law on the Bedfordshire town of Luton.

There, the town hall was burned down before the troops were able to regain control.

In Epsom, Sergeant Thomas Green was killed - becoming the first police officer to die in a riot in the 20th Century.

1919 also saw a series of race riots which came in the wake of the First World War as the surplus of labour led to dissatisfaction among Britain’s workers, in particular seamen.

This led to the outbreak of rioting between white and minority workers in Britain’s major seaports, from January to August 1919.

Race riots broke out in Liverpool, London and seven other major ports. In some cases, Afro- and Caribbean British were competing with Swedish immigrant workers, and both with native men from the British Isles.

The Royal Navy were called in to occupy the port of Mersey in Liverpool, which came under siege from mobs the Army was unable to contain.

Unrest in High Wycombe

Wycombe was not immune from these strikes.

In 1919 employment in the town and surrounding district was dominated by the furniture industry. These workers were involved in what was known locally as the National Lock-out, named after the strike which had taken place only in Wycombe in 1913.

Workers in other industries in the town were also becoming more assertive. Under the heading “Trouble Brewing at Wycombe” the Bucks Free Press reported in the August 1 edition that the Electrical Trades Union had held an open meeting at the Anchor Inn, St Mary Street for all electrical workers of Wycombe, Amersham, Maidenhead, Aylesbury and the surrounding districts.

There was a large attendance, “mainly composed of the employees of the Electric Light Works at Wycombe and Maidenhead”.

The main objective was explained to be “to make an effort to get for the men of the district a living wage”. This followed on from successful efforts by the Union to get the working week in Wycombe reduced to 47/48 hours. They had not been able to get the London rates of wages to apply to Wycombe, “as the conditions are very different from those ruling in London”.

The National Lock-Out in the furniture industry began in July 1919 and as well as Wycombe involved workers throughout the country, including Manchester, Birmingham, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Wolverhampton.

The employers belonged to the National Federation of Furniture Manufacturers and the operatives to the Furniture Trades Union. In Wycombe the senior Officers of the two sides involved in the dispute were Mr E.H.Walton, President of the local branch of the Union, and Mr W.H.Healey who was Chairman of the Manufacturers’ Federation.

The cause of the strike was different in the different areas.

It began in Barnstaple, with the introduction of “sectional methods of working” to increase output as the trigger. In the Manchester and East Lancashire the issues were wages and hours worked.

There the operatives were receiving 1s.8d per hour for a 46.5 hour week. They wanted wages increased by 6d per hour to 2s.2d and the hours reduced to 44.

The employers rejected these demands so the Union members withdrew their labour. Negotiations began but were unsuccessful.

In July 25 the Federation then declared a national lock-out, which applied to all Union members throughout the country.

This is when the workers in Wycombe were obliged to come out on strike, even though there was no major unrest amongst them at the time.

However even though they might have been reluctant to withdraw their labour, once on-strike the Wycombe-men proved to be the most militant in the country.

After a meeting of the Wycombe & District Branch of the Furniture Manufacturers Federation on July 24 it was resolved to declare a Lock-Out from Friday evening, the next day.

Early that morning notices were posted on factory buildings to that effect and in the evening the operatives left their workshops in a quiet and orderly manner.

In the edition of August 1 the Bucks Free Press (BFP) under the heading “Crisis in the Furniture Industry” reported that 42 factories of the 46 members of the Federation in Wycombe had closed down.

There were at least that number of non-federated firms in the district so that there was a considerable number of men who were still employed.

On the Saturday morning the unemployed operatives, which included some women as well as the men, formed long queues at the Labour Exchange in the High Street.

That morning about 1,000 were processed, although the total eventually reached nearly 5,000.

From the beginning there was doubt as to whether they were qualified to receive unemployment benefit.

Within a few days it had been clarified that they were not, making the position even more acute.

To be continued