The 4th of May marks 100 years since the start of the 1926 General Strike.
For nine days 1.5 million workers stood shoulder to shoulder with miners, defending their pay and conditions from bosses seeking to make a profit. Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day was the rallying cry.
Across the country, workers across sectors formed Councils of Action. These Councils of Action became so powerful that in some areas the British Army were on their knees begging the Councils to let them pass through with goods.
These Councils of Action formed the embryo of the new society; they showed workers what was possible with unity and action. The leading body of the Trade Union Congress had been timid in calling for the strike and brought it to an end before the demands had been won, precisely at the precipice of victory. In contrast, the Councils of Action had been unafraid to fight until the end.
To stop the advance of the working class, the state attempted to cut off the head of the movement by arresting 12 Communist leaders under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797. This included Bill Rust of the YCL. The defiance of those convicted in singing the Red Flag under the attempts of prison guards to muffle them was echoed by a generation of Communists who picked up their mantle to play a leading role in the strike. The leadership formed through this hard year forged Communists for years to come.
The British state collaborated with the early fascist movement through the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies (OMS), to coordinate scabs to break the strike. Today, we again see fascists increasingly targeting the workers’ and peace movement through their targeting of Palestine demonstrations.
The dirty tricks used by the government to pick apart the strike did not make the council s of action cower, not in the face of fascist and police violence, nor the government’s vapid calls for a baseless patriotism, nor in lies spread about the weakness of the strike.
1926 has haunted those in power. The immediate employer offensive against those who dared to defend their class showed generations of workers the true nature of capitalism. The threat of a general strike in 1972 had the government hastily backtracking to free imprisoned dockers.
The General Strike was one of the proudest feats of the working class in Britain. The strike built upon the heroism shown by the Chartists, the Red Clydesiders and the London dockers who prevented the Jolly George being sent to put down the Bolshevik revolution. In turn it has been built upon by the fight against fascism, the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders’ work-in and the campaign against the poll tax.
Today, Communists seize their example and build for the day when the working class can once more challenge capitalism in the way the brave men and woman of 1926 did. When we can throw off the shackles of the rule of capital and put the products of our work in the hands of the workers.
When the strike was defeated, Communists were defiant, they refused to let defeat turn to disillusion. This May Day, the Young Communist League picks up the banner of our forebears and declares “We shall fight again!”
Young Communist League
London, Britain,
01 May 2026
