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Breaking Their Chains: Mary Macarthur and the Chainmakers' Strike of 1910

by Tony Barnsley - £6.99  Bookmarks (2010)
paperback    ISBN 13: 9781905192649 | ISBN 10: 1905192649

"For two months in the autumn of 1910 hundreds of women chainmakers in the Black Country struck against their employers and won a minimum wage which doubled their incomes. Women who had no vote, who were largely illiterate, who worked 54-hour weeks for a pittance and had to take their children to work with them took on their bosses and proved their economic power.
 
But more than this, the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath returned to work confident in the knowledge that by sticking together in a union they could stand up to the chain masters.
 
The women chainmakers’ strike of 1910 is a slice of British working class history that until recently had largely been forgotten. I hope this book adds to the collective memory of this strike but also informs today’s workers and trade unionists what needs to be done in order to win the struggles and strikes of today and tomorrow.
 
Finally I hope this work helps to rediscover the huge contribution trade union organiser Mary Macarthur made to both the labour movement and the struggle for equality, not just between men and women, but also between classes."
(Excerpt from the introduction)

(Price & availability last checked: January 2019)

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In booklists: Women's History - 20th Century, Trade Unions, Women and Work, Workers' Struggles,
In categories: History & Biography, Politics & Philosophy, Work & Workers Rights, Feminism & Women, Anti-Capitalism & Global Inequality,

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