What should we be doing to commemorate the centenary of the General Strike 1926?
To mark the 2026 centenary of the General Strike, our project seeks to understand the legacy of the strike in the lived experience of today’s trade unionists. With your help we are trying to reassess the action and its place in our collective memory, as well as appreciate the aspirations and attitudes of those who participated. To that extent, we are attempting to commemorate and catch the last voices and their echoes over time from 1926. Some of the questions we would like to answer are listed below:
- What are the legacies of the General Strike?
- What difference to Britain did the strike make?
- What caused it? Could it have been avoided?
- Is it an event still discussed by different generations of workers today?
- Are there any family/community histories passed down through generations that still live on in today’s collective memory?
- Have these stories shaped the descendants view of the trade union movement?
- Why do people still strike today?
- How and why should the centenary of the strike be commemorated?
We hope our participation at this year’s Durham Miners’ Gala will encourage people to get in touch with their own photographs, family stories and memorabilia to help shed light on the General Strike 1926.
You can contribute your family stories via Remember 1926 Questionnaire link below, as well as let us know of how you think the strike ought to be commemorated. Please include your name and email address, so we may be able to contact you in the future.