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