Friday 22 November 2013

George Garrett Archive Project

Module Three, Workshop One.

On The Parish. 
The General Strike to another War 1926-1930

George arrives back in Liverpool at the end of the General Strike, to witness ‘Strikers and Policemen playing football together’, a metaphor for everything now being ‘boxed-off’ inpreparation for a return to normal conditions. What he returns to is a country with a deep residue of Imperialism running through it. The General Strike wasn’t wanted by the ruling class, nor by the union leadership, one of whom commented that he ‘feared the working class more than the capitalist class.’

The Government had returned the country to the gold standard of 1913, hoping to hark back to the pre-war days of prosperity. It had a catastrophic effect upon British industry. Business wanted wage cuts for it to be able to survive. The wage cuts in the mining industry led to a major strike of the miners. This led directly to the calling of the General Strike.

The General Strike was a game-changer. It immediately, and against the wishes of the union leaders, assumed a political stance. The TUC blamed the government for bringing politics into it, and rapidly began to use the term ‘national’ for ‘general’ in an attempt to water down the implications of the movement.
At the end of nine days, while still more workers were joining it, the leadership, in a tremendous and humiliating capitulation, with none of their demands met, brought the strike to an end. It was a he defeat for the working class.

The miners stayed out for a further six months, but were finally starved back to work, their communities devastated; the South Wales coal fields lost virtually half their population, and the employers went on the offensive, refusing to let workers return, reducing their workforce and victimising those that had played a leading role. In 1927 a wage act was introduced that further cut wages, and those out of work were hounded off benefits with the strict enforcement against those deemed to be ‘not genuinely seeking work’.

George, after having to return from New York without the success he may have hoped for his plays, no doubt realising the depth of the defeat and what it would have meant for his efforts to find work, may well have had his head in his hands in despair.

George manages to ship out for three months immediately after the strike, but this is his last work for thirteen years. He ties to find work in various guises, and letters of rejection in the archive are a testament to his efforts, but he has returned from a cosmopolitan life of culture and ideas in the bohemia of East 42nd St. to a life ‘on the parish’; a hardship it would be difficult to imagine today.

For this long war of attrition he turns to the pen, and embarks upon creating and completing a series of short stories that will see the light of day in the mid 1930’s. He leaves his plays behind and sets out to hone his skills in the short story form, something of which he has had some success in the early 1920’s. It’s a form that suits his circumstances, and one that can stand alone, doesn’t rely upon breaking through into theatre, and can be sent to new outlets.

However, he is far from inactive. He is actively involved with The Fellowship of Reconciliation, and writes for their magazine and even though he has been away for three years, his reputation as a fighter has stood the test of time. In 1928 he stands for election as an independent candidate, The Man Who Can’t Be Bought, Who Led the Unemployed, The Fighting Candidate and The Seamen’s Champion.

But these are hard times, and although George may have felt after the defeat of the General Strike that the struggle had moved to the political plane, there is despair and apathy, and the growing desire for a Labour Government. Once again, it’s George’s creative abilities that keeps his head above water.



The George Garrett Archive project workshops are free and open to all. We meet every Monday, 6-8pm in Liverpool John Moores University’s Aldham Robarts Library, Maryland Street, L1 9DE (off HopeStreet).



No comments:

Post a Comment