A poster from the Grunwick strike, in the style of El Lissitzky (Photo: The People’s History Museum)
“The strike is the weapon of the oppressed”, said Eugene V Debs, American socialist and striker. And using that weapon is the theme of a new exhibition at the brilliant People’s History Museum in Manchester.
On the Line—100 Years of Strikes and Solidarity is just as good as it sounds.
The exhibition starts, of course, with the General Strike of 1926. This was a moment in which huge possibilities for radical change opened up, only to be crushed by the brutality of the state and the treachery of the trade union leaders.
But, as the exhibition notes say, the lessons learnt in this bitter defeat would lay the groundwork for future strikes.
At the heart of many strikes is the battle for a living wage and for shorter working hours.
But the late 1960s and 1970s also saw strikes against racism in the workplace and for equal pay for women.
The exhibition notes tell us, “The ways and places where people work may have changed, but similar issues remain today. Inequality, dangerous working conditions, low wages and unfair contracts have not gone away.”
The exhibition highlights campaigns by women workers for equal pay.
There are brilliant posters from the 1970s and a photo of the women who led the historic strike for equal pay at Ford Dagenham car plant in 1968.
A sizeable section of the exhibition is devoted to the Grunwick strike of 1976‑7. Here, a workforce of mainly Asian women took on their bosses, winning solidarity from the whole union movement.
There is a great poster from the time, in the style of the Red Wedge image first created by El Lissitzky after the Russian Revolution.
Other exhibits focus on the women’s faces, their joy and determination.
Other highlights include the fight to stop troops being used to scab on the Glasgow bin workers’ strike in 1975, and the huge campaign to free the Pentonville dockers in 1972. Five dockers were locked up in Pentonville for their refusal to obey a court order to stop picketing.
An inspiring photo shows thousands of dockers and trade unionists marching to the prison demanding their release. The five were released the day after the photo was taken.
The most recent disputes featured include the Amazon Coventry warehouse strikes of 2023‑4.
And, while not on the same scale, this shows how workers still use the strike as a collective weapon.
The exhibition includes not just posters and photos, but badges and T-shirts, such as the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners T-shirt from the 1984-5 strike.
There is even a truncheon that was given to a scab volunteer in 1926 to use against striking workers.
The images and objects demonstrate how one act of resistance can inspire another, how each step contributes towards achieving change for the many.
The museum says, “Visit On the Line and witness the strength of collective power, uncover the battles fought, the solidarity shared, and the lifelines which have united workers throughout history to today.”
This couldn’t be more true.
