The latest season of the BBC historical drama the Peaky Blinders takes place against the background of the 1926 General Strike. I’d never heard of the strike before. I was surprised that it happened, and I was even more surprised to read on Wikipedia that the historical consensus was that it had no real effect.
Keith Laybourn says that historians mostly agree that, "In no significant way could the General Strike be considered a turning point or watershed in British industrial history."
The union mythology, particularly among syndicalists, presents the general strike as a massive opportunity for change. Sorel, for instance, thought this was how capitalism would end. Obviously, this has never happened as a result of a general strike, but there are usually large effects.
American general strikes, starting at least with a general strike in Philadelphia in 1835, have often lead to strengthen unions. At other times, for example after the Seattle general strike of 1919 or the general strike after Mussolini’s March on Rome, reactionaries mobilized to crush labor groups, particularly focusing on their most radical elements. Or, as in the Australian General strike of 1917 or the Swedish general strike of 1909, even if the reactionaries weren’t empowered, it was still a blow for labor.
In Britain, neither of these things happened: the unions didn’t end up stronger and the reactionaries didn’t either. How? How could such a large, unprecedented event not have a larger effects?
the Swedish general strike of 1909, even if the reactionaries weren’t empowered, it was still a blow for labor.
Followup question: Was this really the case? What I learned (being Swedish) is that while it was very much a short-time failure, it made the employers realize that organized labour was a force to be reckoned with and to change their attitudes toward negotiations considerably.
Although referred to as a general strike, a better term for what happened in 1926 would perhaps be a sympathy strike. It was not intended as a tool for total class warfare and revolution like the general strike which the syndicalists proposed.
The trade union conference (TUC. Basically a general union for all workers) organised the strike in sympathy with the welsh coal miners whose wages were being reduced and whose hours were being extended. The aim was to draw attention to this issue and force a resolution to be found. However, when the miners refused to compromise at all in the negotiations despite the fact that the coal industry was massively declining and there was no way for the mines to stay open without cutting some costs, the TUC was upset. The fact that the TUC was upset by this shows you the kind of attitude the TUC had towards this general strike. It was supposed to be a single issue. The TUC withdrew their support after this and the general strike ended without achieving much. The coal workers had to accept the new conditions.
The TUC were looking for a compromise and sided against the miners when they refused to agree to one. The miners lost the battle with their employers and so weren't able to have any lasting effect on relations. No concessions were made to the TUC and they agreed with the striker's opposition that the miners were being unreasonable.
I don't know how it is portrayed in peaky blinders but the general strike was not a collective unhappiness with employment conditions everywhere, responded to with a strike for better conditions. It was the TUC putting its force behind the miners in their dispute and then withdrawing that support.
Arguably, the largest effect was the 1927 trade disputes act which outlawed sympathy strikes, preventing anything like this happening again.