1911 Liverpool general transport strike

Part of the Great Unrest
Date| June – August 1911
Location|

Liverpool

Methods| General strike
Resulted in| Strike suppressed
Parties

National Sailors' and Firemen's Union

Liverpool City Police
18th Royal Hussars

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Lead figures

Tom Mann

Winston Churchill

Number

85,000 workers and supporters

3,500 British Army troops

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Casualties
Death(s)| 2 people
Injuries| 365 people

The 1911 Liverpool general transport strike, also known as the great transport workers' strike, involved dockers, railway workers, sailors and other tradesmen. The strike paralysed Liverpool commerce for most of the summer of 1911. It also transformed trade unionism on Merseyside. For the first time, general trade unions were able to establish themselves on a permanent footing and become genuine mass organisations of the working class.

## Strike

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Strike action began on 14 June when the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union announced a nationwide merchant seamen's strike. Solidarity action in support of the seamen led to other sections of workers striking. A strike committee, chaired by the syndicalist Tom Mann, was formed to represent all of the workers in dispute.

Many meetings were held on St. George's Plateau, next to St. George’s Hall, on Lime Street, including the rally on 13 August in which police carried out a baton charge a crowd of 85,000 people, who had gathered to hear Tom Mann speak.[1] The event became known as "Bloody Sunday".

In the police charges and subsequent unrest that carried on through the following night, over 350 people were injured. 3,500 British troops had become stationed in the city. Two days later, soldiers of the 18th Hussars opened fire on a crowd on Vauxhall Road, injuring fifteen, two fatally: John Sutcliffe, a 19-year-old carter, was shot twice in the head, and Michael Prendergast, a 30-year-old docker, was shot twice in the chest. An inquest into their deaths later brought in a verdict of "justifiable homicide".[2]

Home Secretary Winston Churchill sent in troops and positioned the cruiser HMS Antrim in the Mersey.[3][4]

## See also

[edit]

* Organized labour portal

* Great Unrest

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Braddock, (Bessie) Elisabeth". Liverpool History On-Line website. International Centre for Digital Content. 17 January 2003. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 1 March 2009.
2. ^ Near to Revolution: The Liverpool general transport Strike North West TUC, 2011
3. ^ "The Liverpool General Transport Strike of 1911". London Socialist Historians Group. 9 October 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
4. ^ Hikins, Harold. The Liverpool General Transport Strike, 1911 (PDF).

## Further reading

[edit]

* Taplin, E.L. Near to Revolution: The Liverpool General Transport Strike of 1911 Bluecoat press, 1994

## External links

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* Libertarian Communist perspective on strike
* Full calendar of 1911 Liverpool in issue 17 of Nerve magazine

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