The General Strike in Battersea!

You can get a ticket for free or, if you want, pay for one to contribute to the fighting fund of the IWGB union's Universities of London branch, supporting .

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May 2026 was one hundred years since Britain’s General Strike – when millions of workers walked out in support of the country’s miners, in a vast mass mobilisation quickly demobilised, but which many nonetheless saw as a potentially revolutionary challenge to the British ruling class.

South London was seen as one of the “redder” districts during the strike, and the borough of Battersea in particular a hotbed of activity. Battersea had long been a centre of political radicalism, with Battersea North represented in Parliament by the Indian freedom fighter and Communist Shapurji Saklatvala – the very first of thousands arrested during the strike, when he called on soldiers to support the workers.

Join us for a discussion of the General Strike and Battersea in 1926, and inspiration and lessons for radical struggles today.

Speakers:

Edd Mustill is a trade unionist and socialist activist in Sheffield. He is the author of the new book Britain’s Revolutionary Summer: The General Strike of 1926

Sacha Ismail is a trade unionist and socialist activist in Wandsworth. He is author of the 2021 pamphlet Shapurji Saklatvala: a socialist and anti-imperialist rebel in Parliament, 1922-29, republished for the centenary of the General Strike

Copies of both will be available to buy at the event!