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Mick Jenkins. The General Strike of 1842.

Biblioteca / 1980-1989

Mick Jenkins. The General Strike of 1842.

Londres: Lawrence and Wishart, 1980.

300 páginas.

Contents

Introduction / John Foster

Preface

1 – THE GENERAL STRIKE: A WEAPON IN THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY

William Benbow and the idea of the General Strike

General strikes and the struggle for democracy before Chartism

Chartism and industrial action

2 – ECONOMIC CRISIS

The experience ofpoverty

The first and biggest working class

Twenty-five years’ progress in the cotton industry

‘Wages must go down’

3 – THE TURN-OUT

The strike movement starts among the Staffordshire miners

Storm-centre of the strike: South-East Lancashire

Monday, 8 August: the strike spreads

Tuesday, 9 August and Wednesday, 10 August: Manchester turns out

The spread of the turn-out beyond Manchester

The pattern ofevents in thefirst days ofthe turn-out

4 – RICHARD PILLING

The conventional assessment

Class leader and Chartist

National mass leader

The making of a working-class militant

The class conscious worker

5 – ALEXANDER HUTCHINSON

Champion of trade union unity

The Trades Journal

The United Trades’ Association-Support for Chartism

Trade unions prepare for the General Strike

A testimonial from his fellow workers

6 – THE TRADES CONFERENCES

The evolution of the Trades Conference and ofthe strike policy

Local trades conferences outside Manchester

The Great Delegate Conference

7 – THE SECOND WEEK: THE STRIKE BECOMES A CLASS STRUGGLE

The Chartist Conference

London workers support the strike

The response of the employers

The shopkeepers and small trades-men

The ‘terrible tide ofthought and energy’

8 – THE STATE PREPARES TO CRUSH THE STRIKE

The main enemy: solidarity

Preparing the instruments of suppression

Parts ofthe state machine breakdown

The state resorts to harassment and intimidation

9 – ‘UNCONQUERABLE COURAGE’: THE STRIKE CONTINUES INTO SEPTEMBER

The central leadership is removed

The battlefor a living wage

Women take up the struggle

10 – CLASS JUSTICE AND THE STATE

Prosecution tactics

The operation of the law in Autumn 1842

Class law accused

March 1843: ‘conciliation… the order of the day’

11 – WORKING-CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS ASSERTS ITSELF

‘Political cobblers and hatters’: the men who launched the strike

Strikers ofa new type

‘The assailants are united: in the defence the greatest dissension prevails’

APPENDIX A: RESOLUTIONS AND ADDRESSES OF THE TRADES CONFERENCES

APPENDIX B: ADDRESSES OF THE NATIONAL CHARTIST CONFERENCE

APPENDIX C: LIST OF DELEGATES TO THE GREAT DELEGATE TRADES CONFERENCE ON 15 AND 16 AUGUST 1842