Worldwide 1911

Synopsis

On 14 June 1911 dockworkers in Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the East Coast of the United States went on strike. It was probably the first internationally organized strike. In Britain it developed into a general strike of transport workers. The demands and the tactics of the trade unions that participated in the strike differed from country to country and sometimes from port to port. In addition to two general demands, the participants made diverse local demands. The various unions conducted decentralized negotiations, which contributed to the disparate course of the conflict and its resolution. In some cases it ended within a few days; in others it continued for a matter of months. Due in part to increasingly favorable economic conditions, in most cases the conflict ended in triumph for the strikers.

Timeline

• 1891: Construction of Trans-Siberian Railway begins. Meanwhile, crop failures across...