Just Finished Reading: Them and Us – Fighting the Class War 1910-1939 by John Newsinger (FP: 2015)

The period covered by this intriguing short book (a mere 175 pages long) is one that I know little about on the domestic front. So it went a long way to addressing that deficiency. However, being the kind of book it was – and the kind of book I expected it to be – it wasn’t long before I began to wonder at the veracity of the authors many, many examples of social and political unrest.

I was aware, for instance, that WW1 was not exactly strike free by a long way but I had no idea, and indeed had trouble accepting, that so many strikes occurred even in the munitions industry. Likewise I am aware of the General Strike of 1926 but was largely unaware at just how desperate a struggle it was, just how much effort the Government put into crushing it (aided by elements in the upper and middle classes who took great delight in ‘showing up’ the workers who they had no great respect for in the first place). I was also aware, partially through my father, that a warship was stationed in the Mersey Harbour with its guns pointing at the city during the police strike of 1919 and how the recently demobbed Army was brought in the supress it. Apparently it was three warships rather than one and the government made sure that the military units where new rather than hardened veterans who they thought were politically unreliable! Finally I was aware, also in 1919, that the Glasgow town hall briefly flew the red flag of revolution but didn’t realise that the British authorities literally had tanks on the streets to prevent a rebellion becoming an actual revolution – which apparently was for a good few years the British establishments greatest fear especially after the events in Russia after 1917.

Part of my natural scepticism over the claims in this book is, I freely admit, because of my ignorance of the period in question. I’m aware of some of it but that might just be the old adage of history being written by the victors. I suspect that there might be something in that. Another reason, apart from the too frequent use of exclamation marks and snide remarks about the establishment, that my scepticism remained intact throughout the book was the assertion that in the 30 years in question Britain came close to revolution on several occasions and only manage to avoid this fate by the narrowest of margins. This may be true but the reasons we failed to follow the example of Russia or even Germany during their brief revolutionary period seemed weak at best. The will of the people was there (apparently) but the potential leaders of the revolution were (apparently) not. Without a Lenin or a Trotsky the working class in Britain simply didn’t have the political firepower to take over and rule in its own name.

They are, however, interesting claims and I’m going to keep digging for a bit to see what kind of substance lies beneath. This isn’t going to be particularly easy as, it seems, this period has hardly warranted much research in recent years. I have a few general histories that cover this period and they might give me some much needed context but I need something a bit more substantial. I have picked up a book on the General Strike, written 50 years after the events, which should prove useful but I’ll need to see what else I can come up with. It’ll be an interesting investigation I’m guessing. Knowing that there appears to be a real dearth of books on this subject and this period in British political history I see this as a valuable contribution to that. It has definitely piqued my interest of the period and you’ll hear more of it in future.