THE 9-DAY REVOLUTION

AND ONLY BRITISH GENERAL STRIKE

- BY DAN VEVERS Chief Reporter

ONE hundred years ago, on May 4, 1926, Scottish workers united with the rest of Britain for the country's first and only general strike.

For nine days, more than two million people across the UK downed tools in solidarity with coalminers, who had been locked out of their pits for refusing to accept huge wage cuts. In Scotland, industries that were called out by the Trades Union Congress included public transport, the printing trades, iron and steel, building trades, and electricity and gas.

Trams, trains and buses stayed in their depots, newspapers failed to appear and arrangements were made to guarantee food supplies. A century on, STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “One hundred years ago, to protect the profits of the bosses, the government and coal mine owners concocted a plan to drive down the wages and increase the working day of the millions working below the earth.