Editorial: What the Strike Fever Points To. (1920)

Editorial from the September 1920 issue of the Socialist Standard

The anxieties and troubles of “peace” seem to be only less wearing than those of war. But a couple of decades ago the biggest of strikes was chiefly the concern of those directly connected with the struggle, and had little effect outside their small circle. The greatest of them – the Great London Dock strike – bitter and prolonged as it was, hardly affected the everyday life of the mass of the people even of London – much less of the country – at all.

In this respect, however, things are changing very rapidly. A year or so ago the Railway strike threatened to plunge the country into the agony of acute industrial warfare; to-day the threatened coal strike menaces our very lives – for there can be no doubt that many workers’ lives must pay the penalty of a stoppage of mining operations of even a few days’ duration.

As the field and extent of these ghastly, even if necessary, operations, develops, and their disastrous consequences take a wider and more deadly embrace, it surely should be borne in upon all workers how futile it all really is, and force them to consider the solution proffered by the Socialists. The private ownership of the means of production threatens society, in “peace” and in war, with disruption so violent as to overwhelm it in chaos.

Surely it must be apparent that the task which inexorably faces the working class is the overthrow of private ownership and the establishment of common ownership of the means of living.