In 1888, the London matchgirls' strike, which consisted of a mass of the women and teenage girl laborers of the Bryant and May Factory in Bow, occurred in revolt to severe working conditions. However, while these terms undeniably dedicated pretext to the eventual strike, it was the dismissal of one worker which ignited the flame that should and would change the course of the British Empire, the world, and history for the rest of the 19th century and the 20th century throughout…
The Ire of the British Workers - The Seeds of Revolution (1888-1895)
The unofficial conversion of the British industrial state into a form of communism was first acknowledged in and during the London matchgirls strike, partly in thanks to the brilliant investigations by one Annie Beasant. Beasant, a journalist whom happened to be located in London on that particular July day during the strike, revealed a strike fund which became a form of welfare that did not rely on the state. This ingredient, which at first was quite unrecognized by the strikers involved in the 1888 revolts, soon became key in devoting the assets needed to gain British statist communism national attention.
Having already assumed the widespread support of public opinion, the Bryant and May Factory appeared to inevitably be caving into the demands of the people. However, the company, assuming the role of authority, adamantly denied improving wages and working conditions. The successors whom had taken up the mantle of ownership of the company, a brainchild of the late Francis May and William Bryant, made a pivotal error in so choosing to remain firmly against the workers’ strike. The independent welfare fund that Beasant had discovered soon gained support from the matchgirls strikers, who agreed with the ethical practice of such an early form of communism. While not fully reliant on the dogmatic principles of Marx’s theory, this would soon change with a rapid transition into a Workers’ Union.
Outrage at the refusal by Bryant and Mays to stand down to the demands of the workers resulted in an even larger strike. The match factory soon found itself among a crowd of industrial sites located all across the British Isles facing persecuted workers demanding a change in “barbaric and uncivilized methods in the workplace.” Worker strikes, indefinitely patched in industrial regions, were zoned in on southern England, Wales, and Scotland. The movement went even as far as worker’s marches in London, a fantastic upheaval with revolutionary demands.
The British government, in an attempt to appease the dangerous prospect the labor revolt had proposed, forced the Bryant and May Factory to comply with the aggressively insists of the matchgirls, threatening military action should they refuse once more. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the liberally sympathetic Prime Minister of Britain, a conservative unlike every requirement, sympathized with the factory companies. His ignorance towards the situation was faulty and resulted in the subsequent denial of his continuance of power later on. The British military, which was liberally loyal to the conservative order of the British government, mostly in part due to the patriotic attitude any nation’s army should hold, happily complied with calming the strikes. Inevitably, the violence expressed by the riled peasants of Great Britain clashed with the rifles aimed by the British home army. Surprisingly enough, the matchgirls were not the ones to be at the end of a firing Magazine Rifle Mark I. The Revolutionary Conduct, as the monumental national British strike came to be called, turned aggressive on a fateful day in early September.
Unplanned by organizers on both sides, a member of the marches clashed in a violent interaction with British guards containing London marches. As British guards lined the sidewalks, an order was given by a British commander to defend from an attack by protestors.
As the chaotic environment of London bolstered, a group of protestors, later revealed to be members of one of the many factions that had arisen amongst the strikers, entered into argument with five British guards whom attempted to diffuse the situation. However, by the British guards' own bad luck, the group was drunken and angry, rallied by the spirits of the march. The strikers began throwing tomatoes, tin cans, and more at the guards. In an effort to avoid violence, they backed up and aimed their guns. One protestor charged but was swiftly dealt with as one soldier butted them to the ground with their rifle. In anger, the protestors became rowdy and trampled towards the guard, this time withholding very clearly knives in each of their hands. The commander hesitantly ordered the guards to fire. One protestor's face was mangled, many others were crippled, and a handful were killed either instantly or later in critical care.
As the incident spread like wildfire through an increasingly treacherous landscape of London, newspapers would go onto describe the murder as the ”London Massacre" (hilariously adopting American Revolution terms.) The commanders was put on temporary discharge from the British armed forces whilst his trial was scrambled together. International outrage at said commander threatened his life whilst fearful lawyers attempted to stand their ground. Lawyers of the commander described his actions as “justified in the means of self-defense.” This point stood well in court as the jury took a fine clarification to its main point: Should the rights of men, so passionately inscribed in the code of British law be obstructed in favor of political bias? The Court recognized this argument and allowed the commander off his discharge with an insignificant punishment.
Widespread anger and passionate disgust was expressed towards the court ruling and was considered amongst many to be biased and unjust, taking a bandwagon effect as many more straddled this idea. Workers and strikes across Great Britain, in a ploy for insurgency against a government they considered to be too corrupt to live on, united into one singular workers' syndicate. Mysteriously, the streets that were once filled with the anguish of yeomen, laborers, and peasants alike, calmed to a deadly silence. The pitchforks of a once violent line of soldier men disappeared and an eerie fog crawled onto the streets of London nights while an adequate business of regular people filled the sidewalks of London daytime. Whatsoever struck a chord in the heart of revolutionary out-turn? A plot, one unlike ever seen in the history of the British Isles.