The 1942 Betteshanger Miners' Strike

What is it about?

The 1942 Betteshanger miners’ strike is one of the most famous British strikes of the Second World War. Indeed, because Order 1305 made striking a criminal offence, over a thousand miners were prosecuted. This article explores why the prosecutions ultimately failed.

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Why is it important?

This research is based on a Mass Observation survey made in Betteshanger during the strike and never exploited before. It allows for a change of scale which gives priority to a local analysis of the process of the strike in the mining villages rather than the discussions it provoked in Whitehall. We demonstrate that an essential reason behind the escalation of the conflict and the miners’ obstinate resistance was the conflicting descriptions of the strike and the ways three spheres of justice were connected: patriotism, social justice, legality. The article also shows that Mass Observation surveys are essential sources for industrial relations history.