Acid Horizon 'The Future in our Past: The General Strike, 1926/2026' with Callum Cant and Matthew Lee
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Apr 13, 2026 Matthew Lee, researcher on labour politics, and Callum Cant, labour historian, unpack the 1926 General Strike and its centenary echoes. They tour coalfields, docks and workshops. Conversations range from rank-and-file organising and union bureaucracy to regional fieldwork and modern labour actions like Amazon and courier walkouts.
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Bureaucracy Adapts And Produces Resistance
- The trade union bureaucracy persisted by adapting and absorbing new workers, producing conflict between bureaucrats and rank-and-file militants.
- Bureaucracy opened unions to wider membership to retain power, which generated oppositional rank-and-file organising in the 1910s.
1910s Unofficial Strike Wave
- The 1910s saw massive unofficial strikes led by rank-and-file militants, not union leaders, across mining, transport and docks.
- Liverpool's transport strike and Glasgow unrest spread rapidly and drew harsh state repression under Churchill.
War, Treasury Agreements And Class Consolidation
- World War I deepened class consolidation by integrating new workers and producing shop steward networks that bypassed official unions.
- Treasury Agreements forbade strikes and accepted dilution, pushing militants into shop-steward and Communist Party organising.
