SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
A man of mettle
The fourth extract from PHIL KATZ's book looks at Tom Mann's role in the Merseyside transport strike of 1911
Tom Mann, illustration: CORATA GROUP
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THE period between 1906 and World War I (WWI) was increasingly volatile as new groups of workers asserted themselves as trade unionists. The “Great Unrest” also coincided with a constitutional crisis in 1910, agitation for home rule in Ireland, and the emergence of a suffragette movement.
Between June and August 1911, Tom Mann was involved in strikes that developed into a movement in north-west England. On June 9, a national seamen’s strike sparked The 1911 Liverpool Transport Workers’ strike. Mann chaired its central strike committee.
The strike lasted for 72 days, during which the press referred to him as the “Dictator of Merseyside,” as if it was he who had dispatched troops and a gunboat to quell citizens lawfully conducting their rights. Though indeed, not even the Royal Mail delivered unless the central strike committee, led by Mann, gave its authorisation.
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