The Future in our Past: The General Strike, 1926/2026

The Future in Our Past tells the story of the 1926 General Strike on its centenary. It is a compelling on-the-ground account of how workers brought the country to a standstill for nine extraordinary days.

Callum Cant and Matthew Lee take us on a journey through a Britain living on its nerves, from the London docklands to the South Wales coalfields and the railways and warehouses of middle England. Churchill feared that labour militancy presaged a Bolshevik-style revolution. The question of power hung in the air as rank-and-file militants pursued a chaotic, improvised and wildly uneven confrontation with the British ruling class.

This is social history at its most immediate and relevant. Cant and Lee revisit the communities where the struggle burned brightest, uncovering the lessons the General Strike holds for labour movements today.

About our speakers:

Callum Cant, co-author of The Future in Our Past, is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex and co-editor of Notes from Below, a journal of worker writing. His previous publications include Riding for Deliveroo, and he has coauthored of Feeding the Machine. He writes for the Guardian on strikes, the future of work and workers’ rights.

Cailean Gallagher, editor of the Scottish Left Review, is an Associate Lecturer at the University of St Andrews, who worked for many years as an organiser and educator in the Scottish union movement.