The Chartists in Britain were the first raised the question of a general strike. They called it a National Holiday or the the Holy Month. Syndicalists and industrial unionists such as Tom Mann and James Connolly argued that workers should express their economic strength at the point of production and by the general strike take over society. The Socialist Party’s aim is not a general strike but advancing the organisation, consciousness and power of the working class movement which will require an effective working class political party, built on solid foundations of the workers themselves, and confident of the success of the practical and achievable objective of socialism. In 1926 the strategy of the general strike was put to the test and for various reasons it was relatively easily defeated and resulted in a long-lasting set-back for the working class.
An ill-prepared or poorly supported general strike would be an enormous self-inflicted defeat for the working class. Empty sloganeering gets us nowhere. If we are to build towards another general strike in the UK, we need to lay the ground-work in every workplace and every community and we need to ensure that no one is under any illusions that it will be an easy fight against an alliance of employers and the government. The very question of such a momentous event in the struggle against capitalism, needs lengthy discussion and the clear presentation of the successes and failures such strikes have had in the past. For if such an idea is not already being widely discussed and absorbed among the organised and unorganised workers it has little chance of succeeding. The idea for a general strike must be widely accepted by the majority who hold that such a step is possible and practical, or its consequences could be self-defeating. People will not engage in any industrial struggle unless they can believe in a victory. Without a coherent anti-capitalist argument, and an idea of what we are for, we've lost before we’ve begun.
In 1926 The Socialist Party realistically understood that there was no immediate question of revolution. It supported the general strike for the limited objective of exerting pressure upon employers to make concessions on pay or conditions. The Socialist Party recognised that the old traditional sectional mode of industrial warfare was obsolete and that the unions must fight as one. Unions cannot work miracles. Unions cannot make revolutions. What is required in addition to trade union action is socialist political action. The Socialist Party realises that the supreme power is the state machine and to win political power is the the only way to achieve victory for the whole class.
“In reality the mass strike does not produce the revolution, but the revolution produces the mass strike." - Rosa Luxemburg
Some interesting reading of local history of the General Strike
http://libcom.org/history/1926-general-strike-hackney - Hackney
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2012/05/1926-may-days.html - Scotland
http://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/ninedaysinmay.html - Southwark
http://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/text/G%20Strike%20London%20round%20up.rtf - London
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