NEW EVENTS ADDED -- See http://londonlandscapeobservatory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/more-matchwomens-festival.html
Two disputes changed the world - both have festivals (Chainmakers 7th-8th June and Matchwomen 6th July)....
In July 1888, several hundred women walked out of an East London match factory.. The strike was a reaction to management bullying and terrible conditions, and it should have failed. Bryant & May were powerful and prosperous, with friends in government. The women were mere ‘factory girls’, and even worse, mostly Irish. But their courage, solidarity and refusal to back down impressed all who saw it. What they revealed about conditions inside the factory, including the horrors of the industrial disease ‘phossy jaw’, shamed Bryant & May, and their shareholders, many of whom were MP’s and clergymen. In just two weeks, the women won better rates of pay and conditions, and the right to form the largest union of women in the country. Their victory was remarkable, but until now, rarely acknowledged as the beginning of the modern trade union movement. Following the Matchwomen’s victory a wave of strikes, including the 1889 Great London Dock Strike, swept the nation. Multitudes of the most exploited workers formed new unions, sowing the seeds of the modern labour movement, and Labour Party. The Dock Strikers never denied the Matchwomen’s influence. In the throes of the Dock Strike, leader John Burns urged a mass meeting of tens of thousands to ‘stand shoulder to shoulder. Remember the Matchwomen, who won their fight and formed a union.’
During the 19th century the Black Country, in particular the Cradley Heath area, became the centre for chain making in Britain. Heavy to medium chains were produced by men in factories, however the smaller chains (often known as 'hand-hammered' or 'country-work' chains) were often hand-worked by women or children in small cramped forges in outbuildings next to the home. The work was hot, physically demanding and poorly paid. Like other homeworking, chainmaking was an example of a "sweated" trade, where workers (often women) were paid a pittance to produce cheap goods at home.
At the start of the 20th century the campaign to end the exploitation of "sweated" labour gained increasing popular support. In 1909 the Liberal government passed the Trade Boards Act to set up regulatory boards to establish and enforce minimum rates of pay for workers in four of the most exploited industries - chain-making, box-making, lace-making and the production of ready-made clothing. In the Spring of 1910, the Chain Trade Board announced a minimum wage for hand-hammered chain-workers of two and a half pence an hour - for many women this was nearly double the existing rate. At the end of the Trade Board's consultation period in August 1910, many employers refused to pay the increase. In response, the women's union, the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW), called a strike.
The strike lasted 10 weeks and attracted immense popular support from all sections of society - nearly £4,000 of donations were received by the end of the dispute from individual workers, trade unions, politicians, members of the aristocracy, business community and the clergy. The founder of the NFWW, Mary Macarthur, used mass meetings and the media - including the new medium of cinema - to bring the situation of the striking women to a wider audience and the strike became an international cause célèbre. Within a month 60% of employers had signed the 'White List' and agreed to pay the minimum rate, the dispute finally ended on 22 October when the last employer signed the list. It established the first sectoral Minimum Wage.Eighty-eight years after the strike, in 1998,the Labour government passed the National Minimum Wage Act which extended minimum pay protection to all industries and raised the wages of an estimated 1.5 million people
The two disputes are linked by the issue of Homeworking http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/womens-history/visible-in-stone/mary-macarthur/
Saturday July 6th 2013 11:00
***CELEBRATE THE 125th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MATCHWOMEN'S STRIKE***
You are cordially invited to a right old knees up in London!
*STRIKING a LIGHT - FIRST ANNUAL MATCHWOMEN'S FESTIVAL*
http://www.matchwomensfestival.com/
Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool Street, on Saturday 6th July 2013.
11am - midnight
Across four rooms and halls we will have children's entertainment, speakers, workshops and in the evening, bands and comedians. And all FREE!
Michael Rosen, no less, will be reading for younger children; older ones can use Wii, and anyone can make matchboxes against the clock (at the end we'll tell you if you would have earned enough to eat and pay your rent!) and make a matchwomen's hat with our very own milliner.
Tony Benn, Frances O'Grady of the TUC, Atilla the Stockbroker and the band that rocked Tolpuddle, Steve White and the Protest Famly, will inform and entertain the grown ups.
Matchwomen's descendants will also be there as VIP guests.
Sponsors include Labour History Publications: www.labourhistory.co.uk,/
the GMB, Unite Brighton Branch, NUT Tower Hamlets and the RMT.
Saturday 8th June 2013, the ninth FREE TUC Chainmakers’ festival in Bearmore Mound Playing Fields, Cradley Heath, B64 6DU
official faceBook page https://www.facebook.com/events/492361420824072/
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/explorefurther/images/cradleyheath/
Announcing Friday Night at The Chainmakers
Friday night at The Chainmakers is to be held at the festival site, Bearmore Park, Cradley Heath, from 7.00 p.m. until 11.00 p.m. This is a free event and forms part of the Women Chainmakers festival which takes place on Saturday 8th June.
http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/Chainmakers-A4-24pp.pdf
Two disputes changed the world - both have festivals (Chainmakers 7th-8th June and Matchwomen 6th July)....
In July 1888, several hundred women walked out of an East London match factory.. The strike was a reaction to management bullying and terrible conditions, and it should have failed. Bryant & May were powerful and prosperous, with friends in government. The women were mere ‘factory girls’, and even worse, mostly Irish. But their courage, solidarity and refusal to back down impressed all who saw it. What they revealed about conditions inside the factory, including the horrors of the industrial disease ‘phossy jaw’, shamed Bryant & May, and their shareholders, many of whom were MP’s and clergymen. In just two weeks, the women won better rates of pay and conditions, and the right to form the largest union of women in the country. Their victory was remarkable, but until now, rarely acknowledged as the beginning of the modern trade union movement. Following the Matchwomen’s victory a wave of strikes, including the 1889 Great London Dock Strike, swept the nation. Multitudes of the most exploited workers formed new unions, sowing the seeds of the modern labour movement, and Labour Party. The Dock Strikers never denied the Matchwomen’s influence. In the throes of the Dock Strike, leader John Burns urged a mass meeting of tens of thousands to ‘stand shoulder to shoulder. Remember the Matchwomen, who won their fight and formed a union.’
During the 19th century the Black Country, in particular the Cradley Heath area, became the centre for chain making in Britain. Heavy to medium chains were produced by men in factories, however the smaller chains (often known as 'hand-hammered' or 'country-work' chains) were often hand-worked by women or children in small cramped forges in outbuildings next to the home. The work was hot, physically demanding and poorly paid. Like other homeworking, chainmaking was an example of a "sweated" trade, where workers (often women) were paid a pittance to produce cheap goods at home.
At the start of the 20th century the campaign to end the exploitation of "sweated" labour gained increasing popular support. In 1909 the Liberal government passed the Trade Boards Act to set up regulatory boards to establish and enforce minimum rates of pay for workers in four of the most exploited industries - chain-making, box-making, lace-making and the production of ready-made clothing. In the Spring of 1910, the Chain Trade Board announced a minimum wage for hand-hammered chain-workers of two and a half pence an hour - for many women this was nearly double the existing rate. At the end of the Trade Board's consultation period in August 1910, many employers refused to pay the increase. In response, the women's union, the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW), called a strike.
The strike lasted 10 weeks and attracted immense popular support from all sections of society - nearly £4,000 of donations were received by the end of the dispute from individual workers, trade unions, politicians, members of the aristocracy, business community and the clergy. The founder of the NFWW, Mary Macarthur, used mass meetings and the media - including the new medium of cinema - to bring the situation of the striking women to a wider audience and the strike became an international cause célèbre. Within a month 60% of employers had signed the 'White List' and agreed to pay the minimum rate, the dispute finally ended on 22 October when the last employer signed the list. It established the first sectoral Minimum Wage.Eighty-eight years after the strike, in 1998,the Labour government passed the National Minimum Wage Act which extended minimum pay protection to all industries and raised the wages of an estimated 1.5 million people
The two disputes are linked by the issue of Homeworking http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/people-and-places/womens-history/visible-in-stone/mary-macarthur/
Saturday July 6th 2013 11:00
***CELEBRATE THE 125th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MATCHWOMEN'S STRIKE***
You are cordially invited to a right old knees up in London!
*STRIKING a LIGHT - FIRST ANNUAL MATCHWOMEN'S FESTIVAL*
http://www.matchwomensfestival.com/
Bishopsgate Institute near Liverpool Street, on Saturday 6th July 2013.
11am - midnight
Across four rooms and halls we will have children's entertainment, speakers, workshops and in the evening, bands and comedians. And all FREE!
Michael Rosen, no less, will be reading for younger children; older ones can use Wii, and anyone can make matchboxes against the clock (at the end we'll tell you if you would have earned enough to eat and pay your rent!) and make a matchwomen's hat with our very own milliner.
Tony Benn, Frances O'Grady of the TUC, Atilla the Stockbroker and the band that rocked Tolpuddle, Steve White and the Protest Famly, will inform and entertain the grown ups.
Matchwomen's descendants will also be there as VIP guests.
Sponsors include Labour History Publications: www.labourhistory.co.uk,/
the GMB, Unite Brighton Branch, NUT Tower Hamlets and the RMT.
Saturday 8th June 2013, the ninth FREE TUC Chainmakers’ festival in Bearmore Mound Playing Fields, Cradley Heath, B64 6DUofficial faceBook page https://www.facebook.com/events/492361420824072/
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/explorefurther/images/cradleyheath/
Announcing Friday Night at The Chainmakers
Friday night at The Chainmakers is to be held at the festival site, Bearmore Park, Cradley Heath, from 7.00 p.m. until 11.00 p.m. This is a free event and forms part of the Women Chainmakers festival which takes place on Saturday 8th June.
http://www.teachers.org.uk/files/Chainmakers-A4-24pp.pdf
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