Today in London’s radical history: London bus strike ends, 1917.

The May 1917 London Bus strike seems to have been sparked when the London General Omnibus Company refused to recognise the Vehicle Workers Union. I haven’t yet been able to find out much about it, but it looks like it lasted a few days, and was mostly solid. Out of a total of 1900 buses, only 20 were running on May 13^th!

The day after, it was reported that

“The situation in the London bus strike today has undergone very little change. There was a repetition this morning of yesterday’s scenes as thousands of workers proceeded to business. Trams and tubes absorbed much possible the extra traffic thrown upon them.”

Services were resumed on May 15 pending negotiations – after discussion the strike was ended on the 18^th.

The strike was part of a huge wave of strikes in 1917, building as prices raises and wage constraints during the war hit hard, as knuckling under ‘to support the war effort’ began to crumble under disillusion with the war aims, horror at the casualities – and the surge of hope inspired by the February Russian Revolution…

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An entry in the 2016 London Rebel History Calendar – check it out online