IB History Unrest and Protest Notes

The Women's Suffrage Movement

1. By 1897, Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), which pursued constitutional methods - petitions, lobbying, and peaceful demonstrations.
2. The NUWSS built a broad membership base of over 50,000 members by 1914, including working-class women, and maintained alliances with sympathetic Liberal and Labour MPs.
3. In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in Manchester.
4. The WSPU motto was "Deeds, not words" - suffragettes adopted increasingly militant tactics including window-smashing, arson, and hunger strikes.
5. From 1909, imprisoned suffragettes began hunger strikes; the government responded with forcible feeding, which generated public sympathy for the cause.
6. The Cat and Mouse Act (1913) allowed hunger-striking prisoners to be released when weak and re-arrested once recovered - designed to avoid martyrdom while maintaining control.
7. On 4 June 1913, Emily Davison stepped in front of King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby and died from her injuries - her death became a symbol of suffragette sacrifice.
8. Historians debate whether WSPU militancy helped or hindered the cause - it raised awareness but also alienated potential supporters and gave opponents ammunition.
9. By 1914, the suffrage movement was deeply divided between the NUWSS's constitutional approach and the WSPU's escalating militancy, with no parliamentary breakthrough achieved before the outbreak of war.

Trade Union Militancy and the Great Unrest

1. The period 1910-1914 is known as the Great Unrest - a wave of industrial strikes swept across Britain involving miners, railwaymen, and dockers.
2. Real wages had been falling since 1900 due to rising prices, while employers resisted union demands - workers grew increasingly frustrated with parliamentary methods of reform.
3. In November 1910, the Tonypandy Riots erupted in the South Wales coalfield when miners clashed with police after a pay dispute - Home Secretary Winston Churchill sent troops to the area.
4. The 1911 national rail strike paralysed transport across Britain; the government deployed soldiers to key stations, and two strikers were shot dead at Llanelli.
5. The 1912 national miners' strike was the largest industrial action Britain had seen - over one million miners walked out, leading to the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act 1912.
6. The Dublin Lockout (1913) saw employer William Martin Murphy lock out over 20,000 workers in a bitter dispute with Jim Larkin's Irish Transport and General Workers' Union - it lasted eight months and ended in defeat for the workers.
7. Between 1910 and 1914, the number of working days lost to strikes averaged over 10 million per year - compared to fewer than 3 million in the preceding decade.

Syndicalism and the Triple Alliance

1. Syndicalism was a radical ideology arguing that workers should seize control of industry through general strikes rather than parliamentary politics - influenced by French theorist Georges Sorel.
2. Tom Mann and Ben Tillett promoted syndicalist ideas in Britain - the Industrial Syndicalist Education League (founded 1910) advocated industrial unionism and direct action.
3. In 1914, the Triple Alliance was formed between the Miners' Federation, the National Union of Railwaymen, and the Transport Workers' Federation - they agreed to coordinate strike action.
4. The Triple Alliance represented the most powerful concentration of union strength in British history - a coordinated strike could have paralysed the entire economy, but war broke out before it was tested.
5. Although syndicalism influenced strike leaders, most British workers remained reformist rather than revolutionary - union membership doubled from 2.5 million (1910) to over 4 million (1914), but the Labour Party's parliamentary path still held appeal.