A short period of our history which will forever be remembered for “the solidarity of the strikers[i]”. Despite the varying political analysis of the General Strike 1926, and its outcomes for working people, a national coordination is underway to bring together as many museums, libraries, archives and local history groups as possible. 

We are coming together to mark this milestone in UK history, to make history accessible to encourage the wider public to really engage with the General Strike period, an important part of our political and historical development. It comes from that all too often experience of finding ourselves in town/city even village we do not know and not knowing of the diverse radical history around us.

Even with the era of ‘Googling’ local information, often this can be time consuming, difficult and require planning, which is not always built into our lifestyles. It is making this nationally important history, locally accessible and engaging, which is the idea that has driven our national partnership for the celebration of the General Strike 100 anniversary. 

This new growing partnership of 16 museums, archives, libraries, and history groups has developed an interactive searchable map of all those celebrating the General Strike, including important history sites from the strike itself. This includes details of specific exhibitions, educational events, and unique collections to explore, all part of our rich history of the General Strike 1926.

Coordinated by the General Federation of Trade Unions, who last year celebrated their own 125th anniversary, this national effort to celebrate the General Strike will include a printed passport, challenging you all to visit as many of these museums, archives, libraries, and sites as possible.

What makes this project so exciting is not just the ease in which you will be able to access the history of the General Strike 1926, but the collaboration of many of our biggest trade union, labour, and people's history venues across the UK. Uniting these organisations into one partnership allows us to promote and engage with all these wonderful sites.

We continue to recruit to our partnership and encourage those libraries, museums, archives, and indeed history groups want to join this partnership, everyone is welcome. Our most recent recruit was the wonderful ‘Crab Museum’ in Margate, which boasts a “diorama of a model village, set in 1926 and populated by taxidermied crabs.” If that does not pique your interest, I am not sure what will.

It is this unique partnership, not the creation of an ‘umbrella’ organisation, but a platform to support and promote all the wonderful celebrations of this strike which will happen in 2026. We look forward to taking part in Bristol’s Radical History festival next April, discussing what the General Strike 1926 means in 2026.

This project also has been honest and clear from the outset, that there will be different views, political debates, and reflections of the 1926 General Strike, and that is fine. Our partnership is not about presenting a view of history but about ensuring that people engage in this history at this special anniversary. We are also clear that this is not about some nostalgia of a bygone era that does not relate to our struggles today, the history of workers must be understood as a continuum that takes us up to today.

As organisations involved continue to finalise their plans for 2026, we will be working hard to make this project a huge success, something that is accessible for future generations to look back on. We are lucky that due to the fantastic expertise of those within the partnership, we have managed to mitigate the high costs of a potential project like this by pooling our resources. However, we acknowledge the development costs associated with our website, project design, and initial printing expenses, that is why our launch included a clear call to help us fundraise for this project. 

We have written to the wider trade union and labour movement seeking donations based on the size of the organisation and have also opened this up to individuals to donate to too. 

If you are interested in becoming involved or would like to support this project, please go to: https://bit.ly/GeneralStrike100 .

Alongside our website, we have created a dedicated Facebook page and Instagram account to showcase all the things partners are doing in 2026.   

We live in a period of huge crisis politically and economically, a crisis that has sharp parallels with the build-up to the General Strike[ii].

As we look forward to celebrating 100 years of General Strike together, our motto for this partnership will be that workers continue to make the history, we are not just reliving it.

[i] Renshaw, P. (1975) Nine days: the general strike. Frome and London: Eyre Methuen Ltd.

[ii] Renshaw, P. (1975) Nine days: the general strike. Frome and London: Eyre Methuen Ltd.

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Henry Fowler

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The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.