It was the biggest strike the world had seen at that point in history with around one million workers taking part and its repercussions would change politics in the North East forever. This year marks its 100th anniversary. Mike Kelly reports

THE concept of history repeating itself is not a new one. There have been numerous examples over the years but perhaps none so relevant today as events surrounding the national miners’ strike of 1912.

It was at a time when the distribution of the wealth derived from the pits was disproportionately in the favour of the rich who owned the mines. Salaries were set on a sliding scale – when the price of coal went up wages did slightly. When the price of coal went down salaries plummeted.

The period leading up to it from 1901 has been described by some historians as the Edwardian summer, a romantic period of long sunny afternoons and garden parties with businesses thriving. But the divide between rich and poor widened.

By 1910, well meaning Liberal reforms to deal with this divide were came to an end. Even prior to 1910 grievances had accumulated over poor working conditions, discipline at work, and the failure of wages to keep pace with rising prices. Wages had ceased to grow from the turn of the century and had declined by 10% by 1910. In the following years retail prices rose while wage rates stagnated, which led to a period of industrial strife known as The Great Unrest.

The breadth and spontaneity of the action that occurred throughout 1911 and 1912 shook the political establishment and even caught trade union leaders unaware, many being as dead set against industrial action as their members were for it.

Former miner turned historian Dave Douglass, of South Shields, says: “It was an extremely important period. People have talked about the situation in 1912 when we came very, very close to a revolution. It was the high tide mark of industrial unionism – the idea you could achieve social justice on the streets.”

There were 872 different strikes in 1911. Even school students were affected by the militancy of the times. That September, school students in Llanelli, Wales, protested against the caning of a boy. Within days pupils in more than 60 towns across Britain took to the streets to express their grievances.

There were dock strikes and rail strikes as the labour unrest continued beyond 1911. The Times newspaper warned: “The public must be prepared for a conflict between Labour and Capital, or between employers and employed, upon a scale as has never occurred before”.

During 1912, hundreds of thousands of workers engaged in industrial action, including Lancashire cotton weavers, Dundee Jute workers, London dockers and carters.

The Government was forced to intervene directly in negotiations while deploying troops against striking workers. The union leaders struggled to regain authority and control over unofficial action as workers rejected their attempts to reach what they saw as inadequate agreements with the employers.

Then came the miners’ strike.

In 1911 a long-running strike in South Wales – caused by a dispute over tonnage rates to be paid on a new difficult seam at the Ely pit owned by the Cambrian Combine – had ended in defeat after the Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) refused to call a national strike.

Despite losing their dispute, the action of the Cambrian miners had served to force the leaders of the MFGB, whose president was the newly-elected Robert Smillie, to conduct a national ballot on establishing a minimum level of earnings.