New Unionism, New Women and Black Friday

Meet at Gardiner Haskins Car Park (near Old Market), New Thomas Street, BS2 0JP

As a belated launch for three new pamphlets released by BRHG in 2012-13 (The Bristol Strike Wave of 1889-1890 Socialists, New Unionists and New Women – Part 1: Days of Hope, Part 2: Days of Doubt and The Origins and an Account of Black Friday – 23rd December 1892) authors Mike Richardson and Roger Ball will navigate us through one of the most intense periods of class struggle in Bristol in the late 19th Century.

In 1889, the emergence of ‘new unionism’ (Gas Workers, Dockers, Seamen) representing unskilled and semi-skilled labourers, women and men, was an expression of independent organisation for workers’ collective voice. And it was the first time that Bristol women workers were able to join a general union on an equal footing to men. The victorious strikes of 1889-90 led to a reaction by employers and the state in 1892-3, culminating in the use of military and police by the local state to break up a pre-Christmas lantern parade organised to collect money for strikers and their families. This event, which popularly became known as ‘Black Friday’, is an iconic moment in Bristol’s history exposing the relations of force between ‘owners’ and ‘workers’.

So join us to hear about the rebellious women of the Barton Hill Cotton Works, feisty Dockers, French revolutionaries and striking ‘Sweet Girls’.

The walk is split into three parts:

2.00-3.00pm The Strike Wave of 1889-90 (Gardiner-Haskins – Barton Hill – Lawrence Hill – Old Market – Hydra Bookshop)

3.00-3.30pm Coffee, cake and discussion at the Hydra Bookshop (34 Old Market St, Bristol , BS2 0EZ)

3.30-4.30pm Black Friday 1892-3 (Old Market – Welsh Back – Castle park – Haymarket/Horsefair – Hydra Bookshop)

Note: The Gardiner Haskins Car Park is open until 4.30pm on Sunday. There are other alternatives for free parking in surrounding streets.

Watch this walk: