Strikes don't work, do they?

On way to work yesterday, my radio tuned itself onto BBC WM, where the topic for discussion was 'Do Strikes work?'  My first thought was of the 2005 film 'Made in Dagenham' - about the (successful) strike by car workers in 1968 demanding equal pay for men and women.  Then,  I was a little sad that in Birmingham, with such a proud history of protest and strikes that there should even be a question whether strikes work or not.

The papers are full of warnings - winter of discontent, expect UK's biggest strikes.  For the title of 'Britain's biggest strikes', the 1911 National Rail Strike is perhaps the biggest contender, where unions were fighting for their very existence, and the UK was brought to the verge of revolution. Churchill was, at that time, the Home Secretary under Asquith's Liberal Government.  There was bloodshed in Liverpool, the city usually identified with the national strike, but Birmingham also played it's role.  The usual note is of Birmingham Police sent to Liverpool, but food packages were also sent by our unions, quite apart from the rail strikes in our city.  It is also interesting to note the level of support for the 1911 strike across all unions and generations, with school children also playing a role.  I remember, with guilt, the student protests of 2010, portrayed by some media as a load of rich kids throwing their toys out of the pram.  I did nothing, and now what tuition fee system do we have?

Thomas Attwood, fenced off  for Christmas

Going back further into Brum's history you come across 'King Tom', Brum's first MP.  Yes, the very same shabby man with paperwork blowing around him on Chamberlain Square.

Hard to imagine the size of demonstrations in Birmingham for male Suffrage in September 18 31 and May 1832: The first, a reported 100,000 gathered on Newhall Hill, the second, 200,000, commemorated by 'the 'Gathering of the Unions', with 'King Tom', a dot in the middle holding his 'Reform Bill' aloft, which became law in June.

'The Gathering of the Unions, 1832' thanks to Bob Miles

I've borrowed a bit from Chris Upton and his fabulous 'A History of Birmingham' - he quotes the Union Hymn, sang on the day:

Shall honest labout toil in vain

While Plunder fattens on the land!

Still shall a tyrant faction's reign

People and King at once command?

No! it may not, shall not be,

For we must, we will be free!

It is as important now, as then, to demonstrate your support for causes important to you.  Strikes are always a last resort, but there is no question strikes demonstrate broad support for a cause and influence change.

Useful links:

The Gathering of the Unions

Student protest over fees turn violent

The Liverpool Transport Strike of 1911

Turnip Rail: The Forgotten National Railway Strike, 1911 - Part 1

Turnip Rail: The Forgotten National Railway Strike, 1911 - Part 2

School kids on strike! | 1911 Llanelli Railway Strike

Thomas Attwood statue fenced off row
Strikes - a selfish or selfless gesture?

Striking - a selfless or selfish gesture?

"Tank Man" stops the advance of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, in Beijing.
Taken by Jeff Widener of the Associated Press

It's still not clear what happened to 'tank man', but the recording of this
 unknown rebel earned him a feature in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century.  See "Behind the scenes: Tank Man of Tiananmen" (New York Times), with link to video of the incident.


China still executes more people than any country in the world.  Al Weiwei has been released, but Mao Hengfeng, Nurmemet Yasin, and many human rights defenders, journalists, writers, poets, others willing to speak out, and act, are arrested, and allegations of torture and other ill-treatment are common.  I'm glad David Cameron is still willing to 'raise concerns' when meeting Wen Jiabao, but how far should we go to stand up for others?  Is raising concerns really all David Cameron can do?  If we say or do nothing are we implicitly supporting the abuse of human rights in China?


Yesterday morning I wasn't sure whether or not to join strikers in Birmingham.  I was listening to BBC Radio 4 when Francis Maude finally persuaded me to join the teachers and other public sector workers in their demo:  He talked about the importance of fairness and treating people with respect.  He has also echoed Michael Gove's and Vince Cable's recent comments on the pressure teachers were putting on decent working parents, and threatened of legislation to control union action.

I have little doubt in the legitimacy of the strike.  I can see no justification for reducing pensions for teachers, or so-called 'Martini contract' imposed on public sector workers which will reduce the pay and pension of some of the poorest paid public sector workers.  Nearly all the cabinet really are millionaires, and are not 'sharing the pain'.  I believe they are deflecting attention from the rich getting richer, whose interests they are representing.  But are the changes proposed worth striking for?


The blood on the streets in Tiananmen Square 22 years ago came to be represented by a showdown Tank man and tank driver.  Popping into town to strike to keep pensions isn't quite the same.  Maybe I should be spending my time doing more to highlight abuses of human rights across the world.  Either way my children might not have gone to school but I think they had an important lesson - you can and should stand up for what you think is right, rather than what's in your best interest.

Related articles

• Tiananmen Square 'massacre' was a myth (redantliberationarmy.wordpress.com)
• Thousands Mark Anniversary of China's Tiananmen Square Crackdown - Voice of America (news.google.com)
• Did the tanks of Tiananmen bring stability to China, or store up trouble for the future? (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• Chinese Mark 22nd Anniversary of Tiananmen Square (waronterrornews.typepad.com)