On This Day in Working Class History

On this day, 16 October 1951, firefighters in Britain took their first ever national industrial action with an unofficial "spit and polish" strike, in response to attacks on pay and conditions. The action consisted of responding to emergency calls and putting out fires but refusing all other routine duties like domestic chores and training. The background to the dispute was fire services reverting back to the control of local authorities after World War II, with councils claiming they could not afford the pay firefighters the same salaries they received during the war. However, historians like Victor Bailey believe that authorities wanted to undermine the organisation of fire service workers. In an effort to break the action, bosses began suspending, fining, demoting, disciplining and sacking firefighters, and sending in police to eject workers from fire stations but this failed to deter the workers. On 19 November, the Fire Brigades Union declared the "spit and polish" action official. While public support was already behind the firefighters, a fire in London in which three FBU members facing disciplinary action were killed turned opinion even more against management. The London County Council swiftly dropped its other disciplinaries and by Christmas local fire authorities caved in, many of them reinstating sacked or demoted firefighters and repaying fines paid.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8830/spit-and-polish-action

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On this day, 15 October 1913, Indian workers at the Farleigh colliery near Newcastle, South Africa, went on strike in protest against a tax on former indentured servants. The move was part of an ongoing campaign against racist pass laws in the white-ruled British colony.
The laws restricted the movement of Indian people, did not recognise Asian marriages or allow the immigration of spouses, and imposed a £3 per year tax on former indentured servants. This extremely high tax effectively forced many Indian migrants back into indentured servitude.
A campaign the previous decade had faltered, but returned in September 1913 when Indian women defied the laws and crossed from Natal into Transvaal and vice versa. The women from Natal were arrested, but those from Transvaal were not, so they persuaded miners in the region to begin going on strike.
On October 15, a committee of resisters addressed 78 workers at the Farleigh colliery, who then promptly went on strike. They were arrested and ordered to return to work, but they refused. Mohandas Gandhi and other organisers then helped to spread the strike until eventually over 20,000 workers were on strike. Many strikers and organisers were arrested and imprisoned, and some workers were shot and killed by police. But the strike persisted until late November, after which the government set up a commission of inquiry.
In 1914, Gandhi and the government came to an agreement which resulted in the implementation of the Indian Relief Bill, which recognised Indian marriages and abolished the tax and any arrears. However, restrictions on movement remained, and more laws were later implemented which further discriminated against Asians with respect to whites.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10655/strike-against-pass-laws

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On this day, 14 October 1976, over a million Canadian workers stage a one-day strike to protest wage and price controls. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had actually campaigned against wage controls during the 1974 elections but his measures were considered to be the worst attack on labour since the 1930s. In response to the walk out, wage controls were reversed eight months before they were initially supposed to end, and the strike strengthened the labour movement as a whole.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8623/1-million-canadians-strike

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On this day, 13 October 1948, 181 drivers at the Ruppert brewery in Manhattan went on wildcat strike in support of 21 drivers who had failed to keep up with excessively quick delivery schedules. Their union, the United Brewery Workers, had sanctioned the sackings and did not approve the walkout. Bosses claimed the following morning that everything was back to normal, but had to admit by the end of the day that workers had ignored the union's call to return to work and the strike had spread to 10 other breweries and that 2,687 workers were out. Soon, 3,500 were on strike and New York's local beer supply was paralysed. They quickly won reinstatement for the drivers, but kept up their stoppage, demanding the scrapping of the schedules. The union tried to force its members back to work, and the employers sued the union and brought in police to safeguard the supply of out-of-state beer, but the workers held out for just under a month until all breweries in the city caved in.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8525/ruppert-brewery-wildcat-strike

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On this day, 12 October 1919, 150 Royal Navy sailors mutinied and broke out of their ships at Port Edgar upon hearing they were being sent to the Baltic to fight against the Russian revolution. The desertion prevented the first destroyer flotilla from departing. Most of the mutineers were arrested and 10 imprisoned: despite the government having pledged that only volunteers would be sent to fight against the Russians. 
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8435/150-royal-navy-sailors-mutiny

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