British coal shortages gave miners strikes revolutionary potential in early 1919

Evidence

Politically, circumstances favored the workers. Aft er the war the country was experiencing a coal shortage: not only would a strike directly impede the provision of energy to households; it would also close down industries in the early stages of conversion to peacetime production and imperil the eff ort to recapture overseas markets (shipping vitally needed coal). Moreover, the stakes were extremely high. Th e political situation was unpredictable: with the industrial unrest prevailing throughout the country a miners’ strike could potentially escalate into a political breakdown. For the Scottish Socialist John Maclean and other infl uential members of the MFGB, “a miners’ strike over hours and wages might, in the context of mass mobilization, pull in millions of workers from other industries with potentially revolutionary results” (Ives 2016, 47). Th ese were not completely unrealistic thoughts. In the early months of 1919, the forces of law and order were— in the British government’s own estimation— unreliable. If upheaval occurred, the likelihood of containing it seemed low. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 388

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general pattern of post-WWI labor militancy and ruling-class fears that Mattei frames as the prehistory of austerity. — connects to: The 1919-20 revolutionary wave was experienced as one transnational event — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 340; British police unionization efforts in 1919 threatened state repression capacity. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 354; Britain’s 1919 coal shortage gave striking miners genuine revolutionary leverage.

Broader Connections

• Britain’s 1919 coal shortage gave striking miners genuine revolutionary leverage. #corroborates (1.00)