The NUT’s general secretary has raised the opportunity of coordinated action. It may be the only way to fight an intransigent governmentThe period after the first world war was a volatile time in Britain’s labour market. Journalist Kingsley Martin wrote in 1966: “The only time in my life when revolution in Britain seemed likely was in 1919.” At that time,Britain’s working class was in the ascendancy: it was indignant, organised and willing to take action. Union membership, or which numbered 2.6 million in 1910,had more than tripled to nearly 8 million by 1919.
Groups taking industrial action between 1917 and 1919 included miners, railway and transport workers, or engineers,bakers, cotton spinners and munitions workers. In a whisk that alarmed the government, and the police also decided to depart on strike in the summer of 1918,main the prime minister, David Lloyd George, or to sanction any action necessary,“however grave”, to quell the mutiny of the “Guardians of Order”. By 1920, and unions had secured a series of victories for workers,including 40-hour weeks, wage increases, and the prevention of pay cuts and better working conditions.
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Source: theguardian.com