Newcastle University: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research
May 7 - May 8
The Newcastle University Labour & Society Research Group are organising a conference on ‘The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research’ at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Armstrong Building NE1 7RU on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 May and the programme and poster are attached.
Tickets will be available on Thursday 26 March at 9.00am (no charge) and can be booked at:
[DAY 1] https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/null/t-yzzmpzr
[DAY 2] https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/null/t-oeeazmk
Dr Joe Redmayne writes:
As the recent General Strikes in Greece, Italy, Belgium and Portugal exemplified, a general stoppage of labour by workers in all or most industries remains a powerful strategy of the working-class movement. This action has coincided with a global wave of blockades, port disruptions, strikes, and slowdowns, particularly at critical nodes like transport hubs and arms manufacturing sites of Israeli militarism.
While we intend this to be a scholarly conference, we also wish to make space for an active dialogue between people studying protest and industrial disputes in the past and practitioners of solidarity in the present. We are convinced that such mutual learning can generate insights that will enrich both scholarship and activism.
The aim is to bring together scholars, trade unionists, and interdisciplinary thinking to discuss the new areas of study of 1926. It brings together papers that focus on concrete histories of solidarity and the General Strike, whether at sites of coal extraction, transportation, distribution, and everywhere in-between.
We will also be organising a public roundtable discussion on Day 2 of the conference (8 May).
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DRAFT PROGRAMME
The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research
Thursday 7 May and Friday 8 May 2026 School of History, Classics and Archaeology Armstrong Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
DAY 1 PROGRAMME (7 May) DAY 1 papers: Armstrong Building, Ground Floor, room G.09
DAY 1 breaks/catering: Armstrong Building, Ground Floor, room G.07
09:00-09:30 – Morning tea/coffee – [ARMB.G.07]
09:30-09:45 – Welcome from organiser – [ARMB.G.09]
09:45-10:45 – Keynote 1 – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Dr Joe Redmayne
• Prof David Featherstone (University of Glasgow) – Locating ‘1926’: Transnational Articulations of Labour, Racialised Solidarities and ‘Coal Capitalism’.
10:45-11:00 – Morning tea/coffee Break – [ARMB.G.07]
11:00-12:30 – Panel 1: Mobility, resistance, and disrupting the circulation of capital – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Dr Sarah Campbell
- Dr Quentin Outram (Leeds University and SSLH) – How did coal-powered economy survive a seven-month mining lockout? Britain in 1926
- Dr Joe Redmayne (Newcastle University) – A maritime and transport perspective of the General Strike 1926: within and beyond the North East
- Dr Fatima Chorfi (University Oran2, Mohamed Ben Ahmed, Algeria) – The British General Strike of 1926 and the Geographies of Resistance
- Dr David Lyddon (Keele University) – Decision-making and tactics, funding, solidarity and sectionalism in the 1926 General Strike
12:30-13:15 – Lunch – [ARMB.G.07]
13:15-14:45 – Panel 2: Women’s activism and visual representations – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Prof Máire Cross
- PGR Janet Hughes (University of East Anglia) – Labour Women: The General Strike and Lockout
- Prof Matt Perry (Newcastle University) – From Middlesborough East to the World: Ellen Wilkinson’s 1926.
- Dr Shirin Hirsch (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Dr David Swanson (University of Manchester) – Photographs of the 1926 General Strike
14:45-15:00 – Break – [ARMB.G.07]
15:00-15:45 – Making history, not reliving it: the national partnership to celebrate the centenary of the General Strike 1926 – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Prof Matt Perry
• Henry Fowler, General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and GFTU Educational Trust
15:45-17:00 – Evening reception – [ARMB.G.07]