Event | 1926 General Strike archive exploration 

This was to stand in solidarity with the miners who had been locked out of work for refusing to accept lower pay and longer hours imposed on them by the coal owners and backed up by the Conservative government.  This strike took place from one minute to midnight on 3 May until 12 May 1926 and saw more than 3 million workers go on strike.

Join..
PHM’s expert Archive Team as we look ahead to next year’s General Strike centenary.

Delve..
Into the museum’s General Strike collections including:

• A full set of the government run newspaper the British Gazette and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) newspaper The British Worker, both of which ran for the length of the strike
• Local newspapers documenting the strike including the Manchester Evening News and Birmingham Gazette, some of which are just a single sheet of paper
• Records of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and National Executive Committee (Labour Party), as well as the Joint Board, made up of the leadership of the Labour Party and the TUC who met daily during the strike.
• Papers of individuals covering the strike period including Arthur Henderson MP who kept a diary and was present at negotiations between the government and the TUC; Harry Pollitt, leader of the Communist Party; and Walter Hannington, leader of the National Unemployed Workers Movement, and organiser of the Hunger Marches of the 1920s and 1930s.
• Material highlighting women’s role in the strike including papers of The Women’s Labour League and the Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Women’s Organisations, and monthly magazine Labour Woman 
• Photographs of the strike from the Labour Party Photograph Collection and the Communist Party Collection

Explore..
The museum’s galleries, which include a small General Strike display with artefacts from the strike including truncheons used by special constables, newspapers including the Daily Mirror and The New Leader, a ceramic figure made on the day the strike collapsed, a telegram announcing the end of the strike, as well as miners’ lamp badges used for fundraising for miners and their families.

Suitable for 16+ (under 18s must have an accompanying adult).

Concession tickets are available for students, senior citizens (65+) and those on low incomes.
Free tickets are available for unwaged people and essential companions for disabled attendees.

If you need a wheelchair space  contact access@phm.org.uk to reserve and please include the number of people in your party.