Strikers versus scabs: violence in the 1910-1914 British labour revolt

Abstract

Over the last 200 years of British labour history there have beenfrequent examples of aggressive and sometimes violent masspicketing aimed at stopping non-striking scab or so-called ‘blackleg’labour [sic]. Yet remarkably little detailed attention has beengiven within the field of British industrial relations or even labourhistory to the contributory causes, characteristic features, impactand broader implications of this violent dimension of the strikers/scabs relationship within industrial militancy. This paper attemptsto fill the gap, focusing on one of the most intense and graphicillustrative time periods, the pre-First World War Labour Revoltbetween 1910-14. Drawing on an extensive range of secondaryliterature and new archival material, it explores the way in whichworking class violence as a form of active collective defencebecame justified by the way in which it was directly provoked bythe employers’ encouragement and/or importation of scab labour,combined with the partisan intervention of police, troops, civilauthorities and government as a means of attempting to defeatworkers’ struggles. In challenging the legitimacy of public orderand state power, such action encouraged a culture of communitysolidarity and self-defence that embraced many local supporters inthe mass picketing against ‘blacklegs’.

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