The General Strike is often seen as marking the beginning of the emergence in Britain of localised 'dual - a period in which the working class starts to organise under its own authority areas of production and distribution independently of those controlled by the state. As a result there is a danger of a romantic myth developing about the part played by trades concils during the General Strike, fed by their role in developing Councils A more realistic view of both their strengths and weaknesses emerges from Emile Burns book on the General Strike, Trades Councils The book was compiled in the aftermath of the General Strike on the basis of a questionnaire sent out by the Labour Research Department and completed by over Officially the TUC General Council charged trades councils with 'the responsibility of organising trade unionists in dispute in the most effective manner for the preservation of peace and order'. What was uppermost in the minds of the General Council was how to stop the strike getting out of hand - and particularly their hands. Just what role did trades councils play in the General Strike? DAVE CARTER of Darlington Trades Council reviews Emile Burns' The General Strike, May 1926: Trades Councils in Action (Lawrence and Wishart £1.25) - a documentary record compiled in the immediate aftermath of the strike.
The notion of trades councils. organising local initiatives and activity which might embarrass their lordships of the General Council will come as no surprise to militants currently fighting the new Rule 14, which seeks to limit the role of trades councils to policing the General Council's policies in the local they did.
Centralised picket organisation its own 'state apparatus independently of that of the capitalists.
attitudes of the local Councils of Action towards the police - the most obvious representatives of the repressive apparatus.
- which we did'. Only in those areas where there were riots and police charges on pickets was sysof this But organise Action that was really taking on field.
beginning, the Workers' Defence pickets. The areas was patrolled ise a challenge to the Governthe success ago. All those fighting Rule 14 will benefit from studying it. is therefore interesting to note the Lincoln, for instance, reported that 'the police asked us to supply the whole of the Special Constables tematic workers' self-defence organThe most advanced example - and of a Council of the character of an embryonic soviet - was in Methil in the Fife coalThe secretary reported: At the Corps comprised 150 men, but this rose to 700 after police charges on by the Corps, organised in companies under ex-NOs, and there was no further interference by the police with pickets? The picture of police and strikers playing football matches in Plymouth was far from typical.
During a period in which the ability of trades councils to organment's policies is increasingly being attacked by the TUC, Trades Coun cils in Action is a timely reminder of and limitations achieved by these bodies 50 years WORKING PLAN OF THE METHIL TRADES 8 OF ACTION FOR EAST FIPE TWO EXTREMES: The most advanced Council of Action during the General Strike was probably that organised by the Methil Trades and Lab our Council. At one time it had 700 pickets patrolling the streets under the command of ex-NCOs to 'dissuade' police interference with pickets.
Meanwhile in Plymouth the police were playing football with striking miners. That match is well publicised. Methil Council of Action isn't. THE EDITORS REPLY: The letter from comrades Anderson. Hatchett and Siederer reflects the complete failure of the LABOUR COUNCIL. to Rule 14. However, we of course agree with comrade Pearson's comments about the failure of both the IS and the IMG to