{"id":1815,"date":"2022-05-23T02:28:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T02:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/?p=1815"},"modified":"2022-05-18T12:18:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T12:18:59","slug":"the-1919-belfast-engineering-strike-or-general-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/23\/the-1919-belfast-engineering-strike-or-general-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1919 Belfast Engineering Strike or General Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This strike is often known as the \u2018engineering\u2019 strike but is better described as a \u2018general strike\u2019 as around 60,000 of the city\u2019s workers took industrial action. It is cited by labour historian John Gray as the most \u2018formidable\u2019 strike in Belfast\u2019s history.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This industrial action was part of a wave of labour disputes that spread across Britain and Ireland. These included industrial action on so called \u2018Red Clydeside\u2019 in Glasgow, a series of strikes took place that that resulted in strikers congregating in George Square in the centre of Glasgow on 31 January 1919.[2]<\/a> The city authorities, fearing a potential revolution and public disorder, deployed the army and police to suppress the public gathering. Clydeside had a reputation for being heavily socialist (hence called \u2018red\u2019) as the union movement had organised anti-war protests and industrial action throughout the First World War, notably rent strikes. They were deemed to be sympathetic to the Bolshevik Revolution that had taken place in Russia.[3]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Belfast, strike action had started on 24 January. Workers from across the cities utilities – electricity, gas and water supplies – went on strike along with 30,000 shipyard workers. The strikers wanted a reduced working week from around 54 hours per week to 44 hours week with no loss of pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An agreement between the Lord Mayor and the strikers allowed the use of gas and electricity for vital services and the Royal Irish Constabulary agreed to enlist 300 strikers as special constables to assist in maintaining order.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Gray has suggested that the strike in Belfast did not have the socialist flavour of the strikes on Clydside. The Belfast strike was led by local trade union officials and officers who were not part of a \u2018revolutionary vanguard\u2019.[5]<\/a> Gray pointed to the fact that there was talk of the strike committee functioning as a \u2018labour parliament\u2019 but no more than that. Also, the Northern Whig was able to re-assure its readers that \u2018as far as Belfast is concerned Bolshevism does not exist [6]<\/a>\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some workers appeared to resent labour leaders from others parts of the UK coming to speak to them at meetings. During a rally in Donegall Square on 31 January 1919, Mr John O\u2019Hagan, addressed the crowd. One heckler asked whether he was an \u2018Ulsterman\u2019 to which he replied ‘no’. The heckler said that \u2018the black north can take care of itself anyway without either Larkins, O\u2019Hagans or Russian Jews.\u2019 One member of the Federation Strike Committee said that he did not like speakers like O\u2019Hagan addressing the crowd, as they wanted \u2018no Sinn Feiners or Bolsheviks\u2019. After this, two sailors mounted the stage and said they had fought \u2018the Hun and beat him, they had built the ships that had kept the war going and they could if they held on win their 44-hour work\u2026but\u2026they wanted no Bolshevism nor Sinn Feinism, and they certainly wanted no breaking of windows nor destroying of property. Let it be a clean fight between workmen and employers without any dirty work\u2019.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike ended on 20 February 1919 without success. The strike action in Glasgow was largely ended by 12 February when strike leadership was arrested under the Defence of the Realm Act. Belfast was left alone. On 14 February, an offer of 47 hours was rejected by strikers voting 11,963 to 8,774. On the same day, the army managed to get get the gas works functioning with blackleg labour and using DORA. Three days latter, the strike committee called an end to the dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR MORE INFORMATION on guided walking tours around Belfast visit this .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[1]<\/a> http:\/\/www.rebelnews.ie\/2019\/01\/29\/belfast-general-strike-of-1919\/<\/a> Accessed 9.5.22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Battle_of_George_Square<\/a> Accessed 9.5.22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> For more information see https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Red_Clydeside#1911_strike_at_Singer<\/a> Accessed 9.5.22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> http:\/\/www.rebelnews.ie\/2019\/01\/29\/belfast-general-strike-of-1919\/<\/a> Accessed 9.5.22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> http:\/\/www.rebelnews.ie\/2019\/01\/29\/belfast-general-strike-of-1919\/<\/a> Accessed 9.5.22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> http:\/\/www.rebelnews.ie\/2019\/01\/29\/belfast-general-strike-of-1919\/<\/a> Accessed 9.5.22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/strong><\/a> Northern Whig, 31 January 1919, p.2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This strike is often known as the \u2018engineering\u2019 strike but is better described as a \u2018general strike\u2019 as around 60,000 of the city\u2019s workers took industrial action. It is cited by labour historian John Gray as the most \u2018formidable\u2019 strike in Belfast\u2019s history.[1] This industrial action was part of a wave of labour disputes that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-34"],"blocksy_meta":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/160412382-35305f10-d542-42ef-a9d8-3b4bcb7a9daf.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}