Yorkshire Socialist Party
Workers threatened with drastic pay cuts, police used to break-up picket lines, scab labour being brought in – and the various layers of government all in the hands of a pro-capitalist party that workers had previously looked towards, but is viciously prosecuting the struggle against them.
This all applies to the Birmingham bin workers today, but equally to the great strike in Manningham Mills 135 years ago, a key dispute which pushed forward the question of independent working-class political representation among trade unionists.
The mostly non-unionised workforce faced a determined attack on their pay from management, backed by their multi-millionaire owner, Samuel Cunliffe-Lister. Over the course of four winter months, the public and other trade unionists sustained the growing ranks of predominantly women workers who joined the initial 600 strikers.
They were defeated ultimately by the Liberal Party establishment, which demonstrated it is not possible to represent both capitalists and workers. Leading figures in the strike concluded they needed their own representatives on the council, watch committees and Poor Law guardians that controlled the city, its policing and out-of-work benefits – the powers of all that had been used to break the strike.
Bradford and Shipley TUC is holding a march and rally to commemorate the strike and draw out the lessons for today, with Socialist Party Yorkshire secretary Iain Dalton as the keynote speaker. The rally assembles Sunday 5 October, 1pm outside Lister’s Mill to march to Lister Park.
