The 1921 crisis in the coal industry was the result of worldwide recession
after the war and the loss of foreign markets due to an agreement allowing
Germany to make its reparations to France and Italy in coal. Following on the
heels of recession came a slump in domestic demand, just at the point when the
government decided to relinquish its wartime control of this vital strategic
industry. Falling wages and lay-offs led to a period of desparately poor labour
relations, exacerbated by the mine owners, whose first action on regaining
control of the mines on 30th March 1921 was to lock the miners out.
The Miners Federation responded by threatening a general strike and invoking
the Triple Alliance (miners, railwaymen and transport workers). In turn, Lloyd
George's government called up reservists to deal with the threatened strike. It
is at this crucial point, on 14th April, with negotiations going badly, that
this film was shot by Topical Budget's cameramen.
The event is played up by the newsreel's editors and title-writers, as we can
see from the head title, and the item is given a longer than usual running time.
The subtitle refers to the 'great coal crisis of 1921'. We see the two
negotiating teams exit the Board of Trade building, both sides in visibly
serious mood. We see troops, many of them reservists (including many miners,
according to a title), and scenes of non-union miners descibed as 'Tommy Atkins
of the Rhondda' . A party of women and children, presumably in South Wales, are
introduced by the title 'Are We Downhearted? No!', in reference to a popular
music hall song that had been co-opted as a cheerful tune with new patriotic
lyrics during the War.
Topical Budget's editors are evidently strongly supportive of the
Government's standpoint, if not that of the mine owners. A spirit of cheerful
co-operation is suggested for those who will run the buses and trains and pump
the flooded mine galleries. The miners themselves are unseen and unmentioned,
but the implication is that the potential strikers are merely a few rotten
apples. On 15th April 1921, the day after this film was shot, the Miners
Federation, let down by its Triple Alliance partners, was forced to abandon the
strike. That day is remembered in trade union history as Black Friday, a name
you won't find in any film or newsreel of the period.
Bryony Dixon
|