Strike-A Live History 1887-1971, by R.A. Leeson (George Allen & Unwin, (3.75) /Richard Neubauer A chorus from the working class. Despite a cover strangely featuring an SL.L. banner, this instructive book simply records the spoken memories of 85 trade unionists about strike actions, compiled by the literary editor of the Morning Star.
Broadcasting voices otherwise restricted to mattow audiences by the dillicullies mililants often experience with written expression, this publication reflects the trend towards oral history and re-affirms the immense potential value of the tape-recorder to labour historians. The problem is that the author, Bob Leeson, refuses to exploit that potential by systematically examining the information he has salvaged. JIG-SAW PUZZLES A rain of fascinating descriptions of industrial action Tails upon the reader, with the minnum of explanation of context and circumstancus The contributions ringe over eight decades, 180 strikes, 20 industries, both soxes, and widely differing levels of political consciousness. Leeson denies using any questionnaire ig his interviews, thus rendering serious comparisons between the descriptions hazardous. No clues are supplied as to the extent of editing, nor to the method of selection of contributors. The stated, modest, au of giving something of the Navour" of strikes is substituted for any attempt at analysis. The reader is abandoned, like a child, with the scrambled piecus of 1 wenty jigunionism). On strike strategy, Dick Etheridre brielly argues:
'No strike isever lost, untessit in bed to the point of annihilation You gain in the long TUM. wYcl sou ao apnarcH boatun In thu short ow have lu have u kug viewtet 1s a stuey, 10 KnOw WEen E ToLTa, I DUc HIN EEG CODASCES WE PEEEN BEL SR CO DE to the point of annibilation Linking the unemployed to labour struggles is documented very asetuly in connection with the great engineering lock-out of 1922 Strike tacties described run from sil-ins (Dainler, Coventry, 19l6), mass packeting Tarmworsers turing horses loose, busding workers marlng up their manager's office duor, wood work ers banging on metal at 5.00 p.m. to activate a demand for a 44-hour woek in 1920, to actual sabotage of cqwipment It is. however, the limerarions of trade union action which the book ilustrates most vividly VIOLENCE AND POLITICS The rise of union bureaucrats, and theit activities. are nut forgotten. Scanan Pat Murnav lucals NUs tacim acanssinkine Chinee and Arab scamen to break the 191] strike, and one cuntributor is ex NATSOPA General Secretary George Isaacs, explatning how -as Minister of Labour under Ailee he sent the tuops into strike-bound decks. And the Violence of the capitals state cannot bu excluded, as in anther example from 1911:
Thore wone thousungs wus wns uKe a nS oul aEron Enom strww nals las mounted police sailed out of the station and dawe them right off the Plateau ( Lime Stroet, Liverpout so Chat thuy can into the woops COELI UA DUL SOLLIL TICHE AUAEUE all Sunday nicht and the best part of Monday.
Dor't they know that the averwhelming majority of BEO UMORSS NeSe COuRs are PrO GansTheee blacklers escorre by police at Garw, South Wales, in 1929 Dramatic episodes of that nature demand that the politicul consequences of strikes receive full attention. Leeson leaves this task to the heavy contingent of Communist Party members among his chosen inferviewees, or sometimes simply ubandons it So, very valuable infor mation is given ubout the Councils of Action during the 1926 General Strike, in Lambeth, St. Pancras and Durham, clearly demonstrating their revolutionary potential for workers Power. But not one altempl at explaining their subsoquent defeat is offered, for that would necessatate criticising the reliance on the 'Left' TUC leaders (reflected in some of these reminiscenoes) fostered by the poltical strategy of the industrially powertul CP.
Also, the anti-strike policy of the Stalinist-led shop stewards during World War Ul is upheld by a whole series of contributors prasing the Skegniss he kicked up a row because Protestant WAsA ParErO a VolTs mere shoTre nome imperialist war effort, with no real dissenting voices included. The famous struggle of the Bettesharger miners in 1941-2 is just not mentoned.
Only a fow clues emeree as to the revolationary putential of the working ciass. The socialist traditions of Jewish parment workers in London in 1912 are remembered, and the development of nascent cransitional demands in cortain strikes can be traced the Coveatry strike apainst profiteering in 1917, work sharing to combat redundancies, ete. All of this derion strates the inadequacy of simply recapturing the lost venices of militants on tape, arduoes as that may be. Their experience will remuin a loss, in real terins, to the working class, until it is analysed and re analysed, Ironicaliy, this vulume, in ils political straljscket, may open more eyes to that lesson What have the Militant done to Fight fascist politic: amone these Protestant trade unionistsi They say these chauv nists should become a 'pesos-kosping