the Bryant and May matchwomen and their place in history
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Raw, Louise
- Creator
- Rowbotham, Sheila > (forew.)
- Publish Year
- 2009
- Shelfmark
- GR BR 52 2009
- Thesaurus
- stakingen, fabrieksarbeidsters, arbeidersbeweging, betaalde arbeid, industrie, Verenigd Koninkrijk, 1880-1889, 20e eeuw
- Description
- In July 1888, fourteen hundred women and girls employed by the Bryant and May match factory walked out of their factory in London. Returning to the stories of the women themselves, and by-interviewing-their relatives today, the author is able to construct a new history which challenges existing accounts of the strike itself and alters the accepted history of the labour movement in Britain. The author proves that the women themselves, not celebrity socialists like Annie Besant, began the strike. She provides evidence to show that the matchmaking women influenced the Dock Strike of 1889, which until now was thought to be the key event of new unionism, and repositions them as the mothers of the modern labour movement.