Police Unrest, Unionization and the 1919 Strike in Liverpool

Abstract

Sixty years ago, during the aftermath of the first world war, labour unrest and disaffection in Britain were pronounced and widespread. The end of hostilities had immediately brought to the fore all those industrial problems which had been either set aside or dealt with on only a temporary basis during the war.' Nowhere was this more apparent than in the police service. Here mounting discontent culminated in strike action in certain parts of the country both in 1918 and 1919 the only period in which independent trades unionism has been openly practised in the entire history of the force. The successful strike in London in 1918 and the attempted, national police strike in the following year which failed are notable examples of the taking of 'direct action' within a hierarchically structured and disciplined organization. In view of the revival of more militant attitudes towards improving pay and conditions among the police in recent years, together with renewed interest in independent union organization and the possibility of industrial action, the time is now appropriate for a reappraisal of certain aspects of this earlier episode of police history. Although up to 10 per cent of the police forces in London and Birmingham came out on strike in August 1919 with more than a thousand policemen out in the Metropolitan area alone, nevertheless it was Merseyside which proportionate to the size of its force was really the key centre of the strike.2 More than half the Liverpool and Birkenhead forces as well as three quarters of the police in nearby Bootle answered the strike call. It was also Liverpool and the adjacent boroughs which were the most seriously affected by the consequences of the strike, in terms of public disorder, looting,