Great Unrest facts for kids

The Great Unrest, also known as the Great Labour Unrest, was a time between 1911 and 1914 when many workers in the United Kingdom went on strike and protested. It included big events like the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike (when transport workers stopped working), the Tonypandy riots (a coal miners' strike), the National coal strike of 1912, and the 1913 Dublin lockout (when employers refused to let workers come to work). This period was the biggest worker protest in the UK since the Industrial Revolution, a time when factories and machines changed how people worked. It was called "great" not because it was huge, but because there was a lot of strong action and even some violence from both the government and the workers. Sadly, some strikers even died during these events.

Why did the Great Unrest happen?

In the years leading up to the Great Unrest, from the late 1800s, the UK economy had its ups and downs. Sometimes, the cost of everyday goods went up, but workers' pay didn't keep up. This meant people found it harder to afford things.

Ideas from French thinkers, like anarchism and syndicalism, became popular in Britain. These ideas inspired leaders like Tom Mann, who believed workers needed to take strong action to improve their lives.

Also, some important court decisions changed laws about workers' unions. These decisions made it harder for unions to strike or use their money for political causes. For example, the Taff Vale judgement said unions could be sued for damage during strikes. Later, the Trade Disputes Act 1906 changed this. Another decision, the Osborne judgement, stopped unions from spending money on politics until the Trade Union Act 1913 fixed it.

By 1911, the Liberal government had been in power for a while. Even though a small Labour Party supported them, many trade unions felt the government hadn't done enough for workers. This made people feel that striking and other actions outside of Parliament were the best way to make changes.

What happened during the Great Unrest?

Between 1911 and 1914, there were more than 3,000 strikes across the UK. In 1913 alone, there were over 1,200 strikes! Millions of working days were lost because people weren't at their jobs. The number of workers involved in strikes more than tripled in just a few years.

Both men and women workers took part in these strikes. However, they weren't always in the same unions. Women workers were also inspired by the women's suffrage movement, which was fighting for women's right to vote.

The Great Unrest happened at the same time as other big changes in Britain. These included the fight for Irish independence and the women's suffrage movement. Some historians later thought that if World War I hadn't started in 1914, there might have been an even bigger uprising in Britain.

How did people react?

People had very different reactions to the Great Unrest. Big newspapers like The Times often said the government should be tougher on the strikers. But other, smaller publications like the New Age and New Witness showed some support for the workers' movement. However, these papers sometimes used language that looked down on working people.

Different activist groups and movements also published their own papers. In these, they discussed whether the strikes and protests were good ideas or not.

How did it connect with other movements?

Women's fight for voting rights

The worker movements and the women's suffrage movement (which fought for women's right to vote) often had a tricky relationship. Sometimes they worked together, but often they disagreed. Their main difference was about who should get to vote.

Back then, only about two-thirds of men could vote, usually if they owned enough property. The women's suffrage movement, at first, mostly wanted women to have the same voting rights as men, meaning they would also need to own property. But many worker activists wanted everyone to have the right to vote, no matter how much property they owned.

Still, some women found that the suffrage movement encouraged them to be more active in their workplaces. Women strikers were inspired by the brave actions of suffragettes, who sometimes broke windows or even started fires to get attention for their cause. The National Federation of Women Workers, a group that fought for many reforms including adult suffrage, grew more than ten times in size between 1906 and 1914.

The Syndicalist movement

Ideas like anarchism, socialism, and syndicalism played a big part in the strong worker protests during the Unrest. Anarchist groups in France and Britain had shared ideas since the mid-1800s, and syndicalism was very much influenced by anarchist thinkers.

Important thinkers like Errico Malatesta and Peter Kropotkin were interested in syndicalism. Tom Mann, a socialist and union activist, became a key supporter of these ideas. He started the International Syndicalist Education League (ISEL) to teach these ideas to British workers.

British unions used these ideas in their huge strikes. This then inspired French syndicalists, who looked at the big industrial unions in Britain as an example. One difference was that British syndicalists were more open to working with the government, while French ones were less so.