Reform, revolution and direct action amongst British miners : : the struggle for the Charter in 1919 / / by Martyn Ives.

• Superior document: Historical Materialism Book Series, Volume 123
• VerfasserIn: Ives, Martyn,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, [Netherlands] ;, Boston, [Massachusetts] : : Brill,, 2016.; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Historical materialism book series ; Volume 123.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (361 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In Reform, Revolution and Direct Action amongst British Miners , Martyn Ives offers a new perspective on one of the most volatile periods in labour history. His research into the astonishing coalfield militancy of 1919 reveals it was a watershed year on a par with 1926. Indeed the General Strike was in many ways merely its dim echo. Whilst historians have skated over the labour unrest of 1919, Martyn Ives uncovers a remarkable incidence of unofficial mass strikes in the coalfields, waged against mine-owners, government and trade union leaders alike. Led by revolutionaries, and infused with political radicalism, this mass movement offered a glimpse of an alternative road to socialism, based upon the organised industrial power of the working class.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Introduction -- Political Alternatives in the Labour Movement in 1919 -- The Miners’ Federation of Great Britain: Bureaucratic Reformists, Militant Miners and the Development of the Miners’ Charter -- Fife and Lanarkshire -- Nottinghamshire -- South Wales -- Selling Sankey -- Introduction: A Background Sketch of the Summer’s Crisis -- Perspectives on Nationalisation in the Period of Manoeuvre -- A Second Wave of Unrest -- Yorkshire -- The Demise of Direct Action and the Reconsolidation of Labour -- Bibliography -- Index.