Join local historian Maurice East for a talk on the UK General Strike of 1926 and the history of how trade unionism and working-class political activism arrived in the city of dreaming spires.
The UK General Strike of May 1926 had a profound impact on the entire country. For nine days nearly three million trade unionists went on strike in sympathy with nearly a million miners, whose employers had locked them out because they would not accept steep pay cuts and a longer working day.
Britain had never seen this level of mass action before, and the ripples of discontent would stretch out to Oxford: a town which in the 1920s and 30s was experiencing tumultuous industrial, cultural and social change. Join Maurice East to discover the history of how trade unionism and working-class political activism arrived in the city of dreaming spires.
Tickets cost £6 and are available online via Plinth or at the Museum shop - see Lunchtime Talk: 'Everybody Out! Industrial action in Oxford between the wars' - Museum of Oxford
Maurice East (opens in a new tab) is a local historian who was born and raised in Oxford. He interprets the social history of the city through the lens of growing up as a ‘townie’ and shines a spotlight on stories far off the usual tourist trail. His main area of research is the history of car making at Cowley and how the arrival of industry, cars and blue-collar workers changed Oxford forever in the early twentieth century.
