Tonypandy Riot

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tonypandy Riot (en. Tonypandy Riot) is the name given to tumultuous unrest in southern Wales in 1910, which developed from a miners' strike near the Welsh town of Tonypandy .

The chronicle of the uprising

Prehistory of the uprising

The starting point of the unrest was disagreement between mine owners and workers' representatives over the pay system for the miners employed in the Ely Pit in the city of Penygraig for the Naval Colliery Company. This was part of the Cambrian Combine, an amalgamation of all South Wales mining companies founded in 1906.

Until 1909, a revenue-based pay system had been common in all of the Cambrian Combine mines, i.e. the wages of each individual miner were calculated on the basis of the amount of coal he extracted, so that each worker received a wage proportional to that of himself amount of coal mined. The different difficulties involved in extracting coal deposits from different coal veins were disregarded, which consequently meant that a worker working on an easily accessible vein received far more wages than a colleague working on a more difficult-to-develop vein, from which the same amount of time - and of course the effort required to extract far less coal.

To test the productivity of a newly discovered coal lead, the management of the Elygrube commissioned a group of eighty miners in 1909 to dismantle it for an indefinite period of time. The purpose of this test phase was to use the amount of coal extracted by the test group to extrapolate how much coal a work team of regular size would produce and how much wages would have to be paid to the miners if the mine were to be exploited regularly To be able to set up a cost-benefit calculation for the regular dismantling of this vein. As a concession to the workers in the test group - which opened up a new vein of unknown productivity - the previous earnings-based salary system was abandoned in favor of a combined wage model that guaranteed workers a minimum income: If the piecework model resulted in wage claims below the subsistence level, society would receive subsidies ensure a corresponding increase.

When the balance sheet was drawn up in 1910, the earnings of the test working group were significantly lower than the operators of the Ely Pit had expected. The mine operators then accused the test group that they had exploited the wage guarantee, i. H. out of sheer convenience it was funded much less than possible. The workers protested against the accusation and replied that the low production volumes were solely due to the fact that the new mine was extremely difficult to develop. Management then decided to return to the old earnings-based pay system for the test group as well.

The miners' strike in the Ely pit

After the majority of the miners who did not belong to the test group expressed their solidarity with their colleagues and protested together with them against the return to the old wage model, the management of the Ely mine imposed a lockout on the regular workforce on August 1st. This referred not only to the 80 workers in the test group, but to all 800 coal miners in the mine, and replacement workers were called in their place. The workforce declared that they were on strike and systematically picketed the Ely pit.

Sympathizing with the aims of their colleagues, miners from two other mines owned by the Naval Colliery soon joined the strike. This set off a chain reaction, at the end of which workers in nearly all of the mines in south Wales had joined the strike.

At a conference of the South Wales Miners Federation (SWMF) on September 16, it was agreed to systematically support the strikers. An arbitration offer from the mine owners - which continued to provide for wages that were below the subsistence level - was rejected. On November 1st - the day the strike officially started - 30,000 more miners from South Wales joined the strike. By November 7, all mines affected by the strike were blocked by picket lines. The strikers went on to form columns of thousands of people with whom they marched through the towns of the Rhondda Valley and gradually invaded all the coal mines of southern Wales: they put out the fires in the boilers in the mines and switched off the ventilation systems to make sure that these would not be usable for strikebreakers.

The riots in Tonypandy

The result was on 7./8. November, operations in all mines in South Wales - with the exception of one mine in Llwynypia, still in operation by sixty strikebreakers - came to a standstill. This mine, which was particularly important for the energy supply of the surrounding cities, was systematically cordoned off by 100 police officers from Swansea , Bristol and Cardiff .

At around 10:30 am on November 7th, the strikers surrounded the mine with the intention of gaining access to it and closing it down. The situation escalated quickly after the guards were pelted with stones and there was initial fighting between the police and the strikers. The senior officials then telegraphed to the nearby Tidworth Barracks asking for assistance. In memory of the " Bloody Sunday " of 1887 in Trafalgar Square, in which an attempt to dissolve a strike by military means had ended in a bloodbath , the British Home Secretary Winston Churchill , who was in office in 1910, feared that he would be exposed to violent criticism when a troop was deployed Deployment and left the troops outside of Wales as a “very last reserve” which could only be used in “extreme emergencies”. Instead, Churchill dispatched several hundred London police officers, including seventy mounted officers, to the scene of the crisis.

On November 8th, the Llwynypia mine was again surrounded by workers. Fighting broke out again between the police and the striking miners. After hard clashes, the mounted police finally managed to break up the miners in two groups, one of which was pushed to Llwynypia and the other to the neighboring Tonypandy. There was further serious tumult and fighting with the police, in the course of which several streets were devastated.

Churchill then sent General MacReady, the commander of the riot forces on the edge of Wales, a telegram stating: “As the situation appears to have become more serious you should if the Chief Constable or Local Authority desire it move all the cavalry into the district without delay ". In addition, Churchill promised the local leaders more police officers from London, who arrived the next day: By this time, 500 miners and 80 police officers had already been injured, and one miner - Samuel Rhys, who died from a stick blow - had been killed.

Consequences and aftermath

After the events of November 7th and 8th, thirteen miners were arrested for minor offenses and a state of emergency was declared in Wales. To prevent unrest from breaking out again, Churchill had Tonypandy and the surrounding area under military occupation during the trials of the thirteen arrested persons. During the trial - in which the defendants were eventually sentenced to between two and six weeks' imprisonment or fines - 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets every day to symbolically support the prisoners. There were further small riots in Penygraig and Blaenclydach in April 1911, which were accompanied by street fighting and looting.

The workers finally returned to the mines in September 1911 - on employers' terms. Churchill's involvement in the Tonypandy uprising resulted in antipathy and suspicion for decades in Wales and among workers across the UK.

literature

  • LJ Williams: “The Road to Tonypandy”, in: “Llafur. Journal of Welsh Labor History, "Vol. 1, 1973, (pp. 41-52).
  • D. Smith: “A Place in South Wales”, in: “Wales! Wales? ”, George Allen and Unwin, London 1984.