The 1919 Belfast Engineering Strike

[page 24]

The 1919 Belfast Engineering Strike in their determination to achieve a and the yellow press to inject the 44-hour working week without loss poison of sectarianism and the 'Red NEVER For over four weeks, from the 25th January to the 24th 1919, 40,000 engineering, shipbuilding and municipal together with building and construction workers, stood rock solid TRUST A PROTESTANT February, workers, the unionist politicians, the bosses of pay. In all, some twenty unions involved in this titanic of Belfast fought them off. struggle. Despite the attempts of 25 By Bill Webster NEVER TRUSTA CATHOLIC Scare' into their ranks, the workers So much so that the 'Ulster Guardian', a semi-liberal news-

[page 25]

26 paper—it had supported Larkin in working week in order to absorb the 1007 antar in its icone of the 1st unemployed.

paper-it had supported Larkin in 1907—stated in its issue of the 1st February, 1919: "The city is now in the grip of the greatest strike that has occurred in the whole course of its history."

The strike of the Belfast engineering workers was part of an overall movement. to achieve a shorter working week. At that time the hours worked in the engineering and shipbuilding industry, and industry generally, were anything between 54 and 57 hours per week. The rates of pay for skilled engineering workers varied between the districts from two pounds five shillings and two pounds ten shillings per week. Also, apart from Belfast-the engineering and shipbuilding workers in Derry also participated in the strike-the other main industrial centres of the struggle were Clydeside, Edinburgh, Leith and London. As far as the engineering workers were concerned, they were also determined, as one worker wrote in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers Journal in February, 1919, «To have their place in the sun. Tomorrow will be too late.

The London 'Morning Star' (not the paper of the same name today graphically outlined, in its issue of

the 27th January, the extent to

which the workers of Belfast had

been exploited by the bosses: 'The

workers of Belfast have been

subjected to a tyranny that is

almost inconceivable in this coun-

try." The 'Star' went on to "advise"

the shipbuilders and the linen

manufacturers who...' "Have made

colossal profits in the past to act

promptly with the 'giant' who has

determined to have his share." This

"giant" of organised labour in

Belfast, and in Britain, was also

determined to share out the

available work in order to avoid the

threat of mass unemployment.

Following the signing of the

Armistice at the end of 1918, the

owners of the engineering and

munitions factories had laid off

thousands of workers. The impen-

ding demobilisation of hundreds of

thousands of servicemen laid furth-

er stress on the need to cut the

working week in order to absorb unemployed.

International

background

The events in the engineering industry in January and February of that year took place at a time when social upheaval and revolution was occuring in Europe. JB Jeffreys, in his book 'The Story of the Engineers,' explained the extent to which the international situation had affected the engineers -and the trade union movement as a whole in Britain and Ireland: "Added to these economic factors" ...(the strain of long hours, the rise in the cost of living, low wages and the colossal profits for the bosses -BW)... "opposition to the war became more pronounced, and the success of the Russian revolution and the peace negotiations undertaken by the Bolshevik government served to give political emphasis to the industrial struggles of the engineers."

The period from 1914 to 1918 witnessed a mighty struggle by the engineering workers to defend their living standards and their organisations. Despite the fact that the leaders of the engineering unions had given up, without so much as a

whimper, the right to strike and

had suspended a whole number of

customs and practices, the engi-

neers refused to bow to the demand

of Lloyd George's government for

the war effort.

Out of this struggle was born the

Clyde Workers' Committee. Under

the influence of the revolutionary

socialist, John McLean, the 'Red

Clydesiders' pointed the way for-

ward. The revolt on the Clyde in

1915-including the famous rent

strikes-sparked off similar revolts

and strikes throughout the entire

industry. The Belfast engineers

downed tools on a number of

occasions during this period. Willie

Gallacher, the chairman of the

Clyde Workers' Committee, and

other Red Clydesiders' paid fre-

quent visits to Belfast between 1915

-1916 and 1918-1919 and spoke at

crowded meetings of trade union-

ists and socialists.

Despite the repression organised by Lloyd George against the Clyde Workers' Committee in 1916, class tensions nearly reached breaking point. In May 1917 a general strike of engineering workers took place in Britain over the issue of the engagement of 'dilutees' on private as opposed to war time production.

The employers and the government were forced to beat a retreat. The shop stewards were quick to learn the lesson of this strike. In June of that year they established a National Administrative Council of Shop Stewards. They set themselves the task of co-ordinating the work of the districts throughout the engineering industry. (In 1919 this body affiliated to the 3rd International)

In 1918 as the imperialist war

began to draw to a close, the shop

steward began to apply pressure on

the union 'tops' for the introduc-

tion of the eight-hour day.

Preparation for the

Belfast strike

The Belfast engineering workers lost no time in putting their stamp on the shorter hours movement. Whilst the war was continuing, a meeting was organised by a committee of militants, made of rank-and-file officials in the Ulster Hall on 21st August. The militants were intent on applying the maximum pressure on the union executives and the local district committee of the Federation of Engineering and Shipbuilding and Allied Trades into taking action. Such was the mood in Belfast that 'the Ulster Hall was crowded to the doors and another meeting had to be organised outside the hall." ('Belfast Newsletter' 22/8/1918)

The meeting overwhelmingly supported the resolution moved by James Freeland, Irish Organiser of the ASE, which called for the fourty-four hour week.

Following the signing of the armistice the Federation of Engineering and Shipbuilding Unions reached an 'agreement' witht he employers' federation on the basis

crowded meetings of trade union- employers' federation on the basis

[page 26]

of a 47-hour week without loss of

pay. The operative date was to be 1

January 1919.

The ballot papers put out by the

union tops only offered the

membership a choice between 54

and 47 hours! Consequently only

25% of all engineering workers

bothered to vote.

A further meeting was held in

Belfast on 5 December 1919. On

this. occasion most of the can-

didates standing for the Belfast

seats in the "khaki general

election" were present on the

platform. The genuine workers'

candidates, Freeland, Waugh and

Kyle-all Independent Labour men

-and three of the leaders of the

"44-hour" movement-made the

running. Apart from Sir Edward

Carson, none of the Unionist

candidates-who included the

'stooge' 'Labour' Unionists candi-

dates—spoke against the demand for the 44 hours.

The shipyard employers refused to give way on the workers' demand for the 44-hour week. They argued that they could only fall in line with the working week adopted 'across the channel'-e.g. the 47 hours.

Tens of thousands of engineers were working this system "under protest" • A general strike of engineers broke out in January on Humberside. In Grimsby, armed sailors were sent in to the power station when the engineers walked out. This act of strike-breakingon the orders of Lloyd George-was to serve as a dress rehearsal for the events that were to take place in Glasgow and Belfast in February.

On January 14th, the District Federation in Belfast made its move. A ballot was organised to decide whether the 47-hour week should be accepted or the demand for the '44' be fought for instead. Only 1,184 voted for the acceptance of 47 hours, 13,508 voted against. A massive 20,225 voted for an unofficial strike, if necessary, to enforce a 44-hour week, whilst only 558 voted against!

The owners of the shipyards, the engineering shops and the Belfast Corporation had until the 27th January to concede to the workers'

demands. If they refused then an all-out strike would commence on Saturday 25th January.

The Belfast engineering workers quickly made contact with the workers on the Clyde.

The Clydeside engineers decided that they would strike on Monday 27th January on the basis of 40 hours for all workers!

A fatal mistake had already been made by the shop stewards in Belfast, Glasgow and elsewhere. No attempt had been made to call a meeting of all engineering shop stewards under the auspices of the National Administrative Council of shop stewards. The failure to thoroughly prepare all districts for strike action, and to work out an agreed programme of hours of work, wages etc. let alone strategy and tactics, was to have drastic consequences for the engineers in the ensuing weeks.

Strike begins

at Belfast

At 12.45 pm on 25th January, all

work ceased in the shipyards and

engineering firms. The Engineering

and Shipbuilding Federation met

at 3 pm. Together with delegates elected from the district and branch committees of the various trades they formally constituted themselves into a 'General Strike Committee' , under the chairmanship of Charles McKay. Various sub-committees were also established such as an editorial board to take charge of the publishing of the 'Workers' Bulletin'-the organ of the strike committee. A 'Corps of Peace Pickets', which was an embryonic trade union defence force, was established under the control of the pickets' committeeitself directly answerable to the general strike committee. The 'Peace Pickets' patrolled the streets of Belfast during those historic weeks. They wore white bands around their hats and carried clubs. Their jobs was to prevent looting, hooliganism and to "take care" of any scabs! An entertainments committee and a welfare

committee were also established.

Decisions were taken quickly.

Deputations were despatched to the

electricity light station and to the

gas workers. By 5 pm the trams

were off the streets. Electricity was

only to be supplied to the hospitals.

Belfast was purged into darkness!

The town gas supply was com-

pletely shut off. As the various

strikers' deputations moved around

the city they were greeted with cries

of "Bolsheviks!" by middle-class

pavement bystanders; the strikers

replied, "Up the Bolsheviks!"

At midnight that Saturday the

first issue of 'The Belfast Strike

Bulletin' ', later to be renamed 'The

Workers' Bulletin', came off the

press—price one penny. In all

eighteen issues were produced. The

'Workers' Bulletin' was the most

widely read paper among the

working class during those tumul-

tuous weeks in Belfast. The articles

and items in the modest paper gave living expression to this titatnic struggle of the Belfast working class. On Monday 27th January the general strike committee was to tighten the screw. Mass picketing was used to prevent any section of workers foolish to attempt to break the strike. None did! Pickets permanently manned the Queens Road leading to the shipyards. Nobody was allowed down without a pass from the strike committee. Company directors frothed at the mouth when they were told they too needed a pass to enter the yards!

The No. 2 issue of the Strike Bulletin reported that there was now a "complete stoppage in almost all the mills and factories."

On Tuesday 20th January a massive demonstration of over 20,000 workers took place. Not since the days of Larkin's presence in the city had such a spectacle been seen. "The Ulster Guardian' described the demonstration as, "A marvel of organisation illustrating the dramatic collapse of the old political and religious differences... Nationalist and Orange Bands joined together in the march, and altogether the event was unique as marking the decay of many of the old traditions..." ('Ulster Guardian

[page 27]

28 l February 1919)

(At the monster meeting a resolution was simultaneously moved on behalf of the strike committee at each of the five platforms declaring "that no rent or tax would be paid until the 44 hours was conceded." Not surprisingly it was carried unanimously.)

It was this "dramatic collapse of the old political and religious differences"-in fact the process

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had begun in 1905/6—within the working class and the growth of support for socialist ideas, particularly amongst the protestant working class, that frightened the employers and their kept press.

Havino made a feeble attempt to

Over 100,000 workers were now on strike. Two days before Newsletter' screamed about

11

out the the

ILETALIG split the ranks of the unions they now went on the attack-with all the venom they could muster. "The Belfast Newsletter'-the mouthpiece of the Unionist ascendancyin its issue of the 31.1.1919 described the strike committee as "an industrial soviet, influenced by Bolshevism and Sinn Feinism" and its editorial warned, "We know what sovietism produced in Russia." The 'Newsletter' castigated the city fathers for what they described as, "The involuntary acquiescence of the civil author- ¡ties" to the power and influence of the strike committee.

The "yellow press" knew full well that the general strike committee was hesitating on the question of moving towards a general strike situation and therefore they decided to hack away at this weak link in the armoury of the workers' leaders. The Transport Federation, the dockers, carters and railway. men had approached the strike committee for joint action-"so as to ensure the success of the workers' cause" ('Belfast strike

bulletin' No 3). The strike committee, despite their excellent methods

of organisation to date, were

worried that they could not handle

such a situation. Their failure in

not calling out the transport

workers from the very beginning

was to prove to be a disastrous

mistake.

Meanwhile

strikers had

menace of Bolshevism, the пакеа brutality of the British ruling class, in the form of police batons and nightsticks, rained down on the skulls and bodies of striking engineering workers in St Georges Square, Glasgow. Ten of the strike leaders were arrested, including Manny Shinwell, Willie Gallagher and David Kirkwood. A warrant was put out for the arrest of Harry Hopkins, the district secretary of the ASE. The next day thousands of troops armed with machine guns, mortars and tanks were drafted into the city. Martial law was declared.

The situation now began to change dramatically on all fronts.

The strike committee sent a

telegram to the provost in Glasgow

demanding the release of the

arrested leaders. Yet one strike

leader in Belfast remarked that

"with clean methods they would

win!" The employers and the

government of Lloyd George recog-

nised no such methods! On 4th

February the 'Newsletter' launched

another attack on the strike

committee. They took up a state-

ment made by one of the strike

leaders that the engineering work-

ers had established a "workers'

parliament". The 'Newsletter' ar-

gued that "The real objectives of

the strike committee are not

industrial but revolutionary"

('Newsletter', 4/2/1919). The

'Workers' Bulletin' replied that

"this was not clean warfare!"

Meanwhile in Glasgow, the strikers had dug their heels in.

The 'Newsletter' at this point in time was suggesting that the troops be brought into Belfast to teach the

Ianann _inct like in

workers a lessun-jus ALIV Glasgow! The struggle of the engineers in Glasgow and Belfast was now beginning to infect the rest of the trade union movement. The Scottish TUC meeting on 2nd February urged all executive committees "to take such action as would support the present strike." The electricians and engineers in London had decided to strike from 6th February in support of Belfast and Glasgow. The shop stewards' administrative council had met and demanded the implementation of the 40-hour week. Throughout the trade union movement workers were preparing to take action over the issue of shorter hours and better wages. A general strike was implicit in the whole situation. The Irish Labour Party and Trades Union Congress meeting in February in Dublin had decided to levy all its members to the tune of one shilling per week in support of the Belfast and Glasgow men. The Congress was also demanding wage increases of up to 60%. The

organised labour movement was

moving ahead in Ireland. The

confidence and class consciousness

of the movement had never been

higher. What was lacking was a

revolutionary leadership.

Monster meetings and demon-

strations continued to take place in

Belfast. Visiting speakers from

Britain including Purcell, one of

the "leaders" of the 1926 general

strike, care over to give support to

[page 28]

the Belfast men. Attempts were being made to reach now a settlement on the question of the shorter working week. The employers were demanding that the public services be restored before they would enter into negotiations with the strike leaders.

The strikers in Belfast, Glasgow and London were now dealt a vicious blow by their leaders. The government informed the British TUC that they were going to make a change in the regulations under the war-time Defence of the Realm Act. Faced with an all-out strike by electricians in London they now made it an offence for any worker or group of workers to deprive the community of lighting. The ASE executive buckled under pressure from the government and suspended the Glasgow, Belfast and London district committees! The national negotiating body of the UK Federation of Shipbuilding, Engineering and Allied Trades instructed all ship yard workers at present on strike to return. Within the space of one week the union "leaders" had broken the back of the strike in Glasgow, and the men returned under the old conditions on 11th February. Savage reprisals were adopted by the bosses, many stewards found it impossible to get a job. Two of the shop floor leaders were imprisoned, Harry Hopkins, the district secretary of the ASE, was sacked.

Belfast was now out on its own. Proposals for a return to work were finally worked out between the shipyard employers and the strike committee and put to the strikers in a ballot. The 'Workers' Bulletin'

in its issue of 12th February stated that the men would return to work on the basis of a 54-hour week. The employers would undertake to call a national conference of engineering and shipbuilding trades consider the hours question within 30 days from the resumption of work. They would then recommend a working week of "less" than 47 hours. Failing a settlement by the National Conference, the Belfast employers would settle with their own men within 21 days.

they did not feel bound by the terms of the ballot, as they were not parties to the original agreement drawn up by Lord Pirie, managing director of Harland and Woulff and Government Controller of Shipping! They insisted on the 47-hour week operating within their factories. Thousands of hours for the shipyard and engineering shops!

In the light of this the 'Workers' Bulletin' stated on the 12th February that the shipyard workers would never desert their comrades "whatever the final settlement, it would be a settlement to include all the workers who are represented in the federation."

Mayor sends the troops in The Belfast Corporation, believing that the workers had all but given up the fight, restored the essential services on Tuesday 11th February. The agreement between the strike committee and employers was that all workers would remain out until after the ballot. Pickets were immediately sent to Castle Junction. The passengers were ordered off, and the tram drivers instructed to take the trams back to the depot. The strike committee warned the civil authorities that if the gas and electricity services were not immediately suspended, they would call out all the Federation members at the two undertakings, thus shutting off electricity and gas to the hospitals. The 'Newsletter' in screamed about the "tyranny of the strike leaders" and "the dictatorship of the strike committee." The result of the ballot was announced on 15th February. 11,963 had voted against the proposals, 8,774 had voted in favour. Only 50% of those vote had done so.

According to the 'Workers' Bulle- struggle to a victorious ending." 29 The engineering and electrical tin' of 15th February 1919 the votes employers, however, decided that that were not polled "can certainly be taken as dead against accepting the employers' proposition." A substantial sector of the strikers were opposed to the ballot being taken in the first place. As far as they were concerned it was "44 hours or nothing"!

The Lord Mayor-backed by the employers-now delivered a hammer blow to the strike committee. Troops were put into the power station and gas works on Saturday 15th February. The new legislation under the Defence of the Realm Act was used to force the men to return to work. The stewards who refused to go back to work were arrested. By Monday 17th February the electricity and gas supply were restored, and the trams were running. The employers in the ship-yards and the engineering shops, knowing that the strike was collapsing-due to the policies of the local and mainly national trade leaders-announced they would reopen the factories on Tuesday 18th February and the yards on the 20th February. All the men were to be put on the 47-hour week! At a crowded meeting in Belfast on Sunday 16th February the rank and file were indignant— to put it mildly—about the troops brought in to break the strike. The chairman of the meeting was handed a resolution from the transport workers which stated: "That this meeting of the Belfast workers at present on strike is of the opinion that in view of the action of the authorities in introducing the Military to break the strike, and in order to back up the of Friday's ballot, transport workers should be allowed to come out on strike in accordance with their expressed desire to do so." The resolution was adopted by the meeting. It was never acted upon by the strike committee.

The 'Workers' Bulletin' on 17th February stated on its front page: conclusive and the Federation has already taken steps to carry on the

[page 29]

30

Exactly 24 hours later the strike committee did a complete turn about! On the front page of what was to be the final issue of the 'Workers' Bulletin', the statement ran: "In the final score, when it was becoming clear that a minority going back to work would break up the solidarity of the workers, the leaders came to thu brave (IBW) and wise decision to advice retreat as a disciplined army rather than risk dealing a blow at the unity which at all costs it was necessary to preserve."

The strike committee was accused of organising a sell-out by many rank-and-file members. On the 18th and 19th February the unions voted separately on the question of a return to work. Twenty unions voted to go back and two voted to stay out. By Monday of the following week all the men were back at work. The troops were withdrawn from the power station and gasworks that same day. The historic Belfast engineering strike was over.

Conclusions

The Belfast engineering workers, from August 1918, "had put themselves in the forefront of the struggle for the shorter working week" as Purcell had stated at the mass meeting in Belfast on 4th Feburary 1919.

During those historic weeks they had shown a tremendous capacity to struggle and to fight off the attempts to whip up sectarianism by the yellow press, the employers and the Orange Order.

The organs of struggle which they threw up-"the Workers' Parliament" and "the corps of Peace Pickets" in particular-were of revolutionary significance.

The 1919 strike was no run of the mill dispute. The Belfast employers, the Unionist ascendancy and the government all realised this from the very outset. With virtually the whole of the trade union movement in revolt, with unrest in the army and the police, the shorter hours movement had to be crushed

at all costs. For what was at stake was the whole stability of British society. That was why Lloyd George, in his address to Parliament on the lith February, remarked: "We are determined to fight Prussianism in the industrial world exactly as we fought it on the continent of Europe with the whole might of the nation." ('Newsletter' 12.2.1919)

For the shorter hours movement to have been successful in the first instance, it required thorough preparation by the shop stewards in all the main districts. Instead of all the areas moving at the same time and with the same demands, the struggle was undertaken unevenly. Despite the treacherous and supine policies of the trade union leadership at national level, a hardened and steeled leadership within the ranks of the engineering unions could have led the struggle to a victorious ending out of which many rich political lessons could have been learnt.

In Belfast between the years of 1905 right up to the Act of Partition in 1921 there had been a tremendous growth of socialist ideas among the working class. By August of 1908 the Labour Representation Committee had the affiliation of 150,000 trade unionists. Unfortunately the leaders of

the Labour Representation Com-

mittee who were involved in the

1919 strike were hell bent on

keeping class politics out of it!

Despite their role in organising the strike, they nevertheless lacked the

necessary revolutionary under-

standing.

However, the rank-and-tile

members of the strike movement

learnt many rich lessons. In their

eyes the press, the Unionist

ascendancy and the employers had

been exposed as the real enemies of

the working class. The tremendous

solidarity that had been generated

throughout the strike was carried

over onto the May Day demon-

stration that year, when over

100,000 workers took part in the

May Day marches. In January 1920

the corporation elections took

place. The Belfast Labour Party nominated 20 candidates for the 60 seats. Thirteen were elected; two of them, Sam Kyle in Shankhill and George Donaldson in St Anne's, came top of the poll! In fact five of the thirteen labour candidates who were elected were leaders of the 1919 engineering strike.

The 1919 strike sparked off a whole series of factory occupations, sit-ins and the setting up of soviets in many parts of Ireland.

The coming together of the national question with the social movement of the masses was the factor that finally forced British imperialism to move towards partitioning the country in 1920.

Before that could take place the monster of sectarianism had to be let loose amongst the working class. So it was, that 18 months after the defeat of the 1919 engineering strike, mass expulsions took place in the engineering shops and shipyards that ironically had been the backbone of the strike. Over 12;000 men-including the leaders of the 1919 strike-were expelled in an orgy of violence fostered by Sir

Edward Carson and the Unionists.

Of the 12,000, 3,000 were Protest-

ants and most of them were

socialists, Labour men or militant

trade unionists.

Sixty years after the 1919 strike,

the trade union movement is

preparing to do battle once again.

During the past decade the unions

have resisted attempts by sectarians

to split the ranks. Today the trade

union movement in the North is the

single most powerful force in

Northern Ireland. For the 300,000

trade unionists and their families

the ideas of workers' unity and

socialism offer the only way out of

the nightmare of capitalist oppres-

sion. The job of all serious socialists

and militants within the unions is

to relearn the rich lessons of our

movement, and to fight unspar-

ingly to build a mass socialist party

equipped with a Marxist leader-

ship, and a clear class programme.

Only then can we begin the task to

settle the score with capitalism and

imperialism once and for all.

[page 30]

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