Today, when the miners, railwaymen, and engineers are all engaged in industrial action against the Government, it would be a major step forward for these three powerful groups of workers to form an alliance and confront the Government in a united fashion.
Such an alliance would not be without precedent in British history—between 1918 and 1921 the struggle of the working class movement in this country hinged around a powerful 'Triple Alliance' between the miners, railwaymen, and the transport workers.
The idea of such an alliance emerged out of the big pre-war labour upsurge, which saw a national rail strike and a number of local transport strikes in 1911 and a national miners strike in 1912. A new mood of militancy was sweeping the rank-and-file. The trade union leadership was forced to make concessions to this, and so sought to strengthen the industrial power of the unions.
The Government was coming to play an increasingly important role in industrial disputes, and it was clearly absurd for a succession of unions to enter the ring alone against the Government and the employers. So the Miners Federation of Great Britain proposed an alliance between the main unions involved in this wave of struggle. Under the terms of this alliance they would agree to put forward their wage claims at the same time, and each pledge that they would not settle until the others had had a satisfactory settlement.
LABOUR AND WAR
The plans for such an alliance were drawn up in June 1914, in anticipation of a big new round of struggle. However, the World War intervened, and the labour bureaucrats—both in the Labour Party and in the unions—bowed down before the 'patriotic' appeals from the ruling class for 'national unity' in the task of European-wide bloodletting. So the Triple Alliance had to be put on the shelf.
The war imposed big burdens on the working class: both those who were sent to gun down their fellow-workers on the continent, and those who had to slog out their guts for increasingly devalued wages on the home front. Meanwhile, the ruling class raked in immense profits.
But the war also strengthened the industrial and political power of the working class. Booming war production and the demands of the European trenches created a huge shortage of labour which enouraged [sic] the rapid growth of trade unionism and shop floor organisation. This new industrial muscle was given a preliminary flexing in important war-time struggles on Clydeside and throughout the engineering industry.
At the same time the Government was forced to assume control over industries such as the railways and the mines to ensure their effective functioning for the war effort. This, for the first time, gave the workers in these industries the ability to negotiate nationally and win a long-standing objective—uniform working conditions throughout the whole industry. Government control seemed like a step towards the nationalisation of these industries, which the miners and railwaymen had long seen as a necessary step towards their economic aims. Once the war was over, it was inevitable that an unprecedented wave of working class struggle would sweep the country. The ruling class would face huge difficulties in trying to keep control of the situation, particularly with the example of the Russian Revolution to inspire the British workers.
The constitution of the Triple Alliance, drawn up in 1914, was finally ratified in 1917 and the new body was geared up for action. The opportunity to test its strength was not long in coming. In January 1919, the Miners Federation of Great Britain worked out its programme of demands on the Government: a reduction of the working day to six hours, a wages increase of 30% and nationalisation of the mines with a measure of union say in their management. The other Triple Alliance unions also put in claims.
When the Government refused to concede the miners' demands, a strike ballot was held which showed a six-to-one majority in favour of strike action. Faced with a national coal shortage and the combined power of the Triple Alliance, the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, warned the miners that he would use the army to break a strike, and proposed that the strike be postponed and a commission of inquiry into the coal industry set up, with the miners entitled to nominate half of its members.
The MFGB accepted this offer, but only agreed to suspend the strike notices pending the interim report of the commission. Within a fortnight the commission, chaired by Sir John Sankey, made its interim recommendations: a wage rise of 2s. a shift, a reduction of the working day from 8 to 7 hours, and a continuation of the inquiry into the industry on the basis that 'the present system of ownership and working in the coal industry stands condemned . . . the colliery workers shall in future have an effective voice in the direction of the mines'. Both the miners and the Government accepted this as the basis for settlement.
TRIPLE ALLIANCE IN ACTION
When the Triple Alliance executives met on 21 March 1919 it was reported that while both the miners and transport workers had reached satisfactory settlements, the railwaymen were still in deadlock. It was therefore decided that the Alliance would intervene with the threat of a combined strike if the negotiations were not promptly reopened. The Government capitulated immediately.
The Triple Alliance did not restrict its activity to purely industrial matters. In April 1919 it took up the question of the continued presence of British troops in Russia, who were working actively with counter-revolutionary forces against the Bolshevik Government. It called on the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC (then the equivalent of the General Council) to summon a special conference to take up the question of British intervention in Russia, the withdrawal of the conscription bill, the release of conscientious objectors and the withdrawal of a War Office circular which had initiated an inquiry into the reliability of the army in event of 'civil or industrial disturbances.'
The Parliamentary Committee of the TUC refused to act, and the question was taken up again at the Labour Party conference in June. Despite the determined opposition of the Parliamentary leaders of the party to the use of industrial action for political ends, the Triple Alliance managed to secure a resolution from conference calling on the National Executive to approach the TUC 'with a view to effective action being taken to enforce these demands by the unreserved use of their political and industrial power.'
When nothing seemed to be forthcoming from either the Labour Party or the TUC, the Triple Alliance met on 23 July and voted overwhelmingly to act on their own.
It was decided to hold a ballot of their combined memberships to ask them if they were willing to strike to secure the abolition of conscription, the ending of military intervention in Russia, and to stop military intervention in trade union disputes.
This proposal did not have the support of all the Triple Alliance leaders, however. J.H. Thomas, secretary of the NUR and one of the most notorious bureaucratic scabs in the history of the British labour movement, denounced the proposals:
'I cannot understand and do not subscribe to the policy that asks men to strike today for what they refused to put a cross on the ballot paper yesterday . . . We ought clearly to recognise that, if Labour is going to govern, we can't have some outside body attempting to rebel against Parliamentary institutions without it recoiling on our own heads.'
In the event, before the strike ballot could be held the Government was in full retreat: within one week of the Triple Alliance decision, it announced that all British troops would be pulled out of Russia by the end of the summer and conscription abolished by the end of the year.
'DIRECT ACTION' ASCENDANT
This was a tremendous victory for the Triple Alliance and for the policy of using the industrial power of the working class to affect Government actions. Right-wingers like Thomas were put on the defensive and, temporarily, had to retreat. At the TUC held in September 1919 the advocates of 'direct action' were firmly on top: a motion of censure was passed against the Parliamentary Committee for refusing to call a special Congress, and a right-wing motion rejecting strikes for political ends was defeated.
This meeting of the TUC was confronted with an important development in the struggle between the miners and the Government. After the acceptance of its interim report by both the Government and the miners in March, the Sankey Commission had gone on to examine the organisation of the industry.
Over this question there were, naturally, sharp divisions between the miners' representatives and the coalowners. Nevertheless, the state of the industry under private ownership was an overwhelming argument in favour of nationalisation and the commission Chairman, supported by the miners' representatives, came out in favour of nationalisation in his report, delivered on 20 June.
The Government delayed its reply, playing for time. Finally, towards the end of August, despite its prior commitment to accept the Commission report, the Government unequivocally rejected nationalisation.
The problem now facing the labour movement was how to force the Government to accept the miners' demand. This discussion was on the agenda of the September TUC, which passed overwhelmingly a strongly worded resolution on this matter:
. . . the Congress instructs the Parliamentary Committee . . . to insist upon the Government adopting the Majority Report . . .
'In the event of the Government still refusing to accept this position, a Special Congress shall be convened for the purpose of deciding the form of action to be taken to compel the Government to accept the Majority Report of the Commission.'
This resolution was moved by Robert Smillie of the MFGB, and seconded by . . . J.H. Thomas! Had this veteran right-wing bureaucrat suddenly become a convert to 'direct action'? Not quite—his real purpose would become clear in the months ahead, during which a dramatic turn was to take place in the fortunes of the Triple Alliance, and of the whole British labour movement.
BRIAN SLOCOCK
Next issue: 'Black Friday': the Death of the Triple Alliance.