A little remembered strike, inspired in part by the determination of 19th century Irish women in London's East End, deserves a place in labour history, writes Louise Raw
Young Irish women in London's East End were responsible for changing the lives of working people forever, new research has shown.
The Bryant and May "matchgirls" walked out on strike in the summer of 1888, kick-starting the modern union movement. Yet history has largely ignored both the women's Irish heritage and their influence.
The matchgirls, many as young as 13, worked 12-hour days for as little as four shillings a week, €22 by today's standards. They faced violent abuse from factory foremen, and could be sacked on the spot for the slightest misdemeanour. Because they were Irish, unskilled and female, they were at the bottom of the labour hierarchy, and could not even join a union.
The matchgirls' biggest fear was the grisly industrial disease known as "phossy jaw". Poisonous yellow phosphorus was used in match production, and because Bryant and May's workers had to eat on the factory floor, they ingested toxic particles with their bread.
The disease began by decaying the jawbone, so that pieces of bone the size of peas would work their way out through the gums. As it spread, the entire lower face could be destroyed. Many sufferers died, and once they became too ill to work, Bryant and May would lay them off without a penny.
Because the Irish in London were so badly paid, home for the matchgirls was often one room in slum conditions, shared with parents and five or six siblings.
And yet their spirit and solidarity were legendary throughout the East End. The young Beatrice Potter wrote that a matchgirl could be easily identified ". . . by the freedom of her walk, the numbers of her friends and the shrillness of her laugh. On Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons she will be found promenading up and down the Bow Road arm in arm with two or three other girls."
She might well be gleefully sporting a new hat - the girls clubbed together to buy them and were known to have a weakness for black velvet and enormous feathers. Another observer agreed on the matchgirl's cheekiness, but also noted her fellow feeling. She might be "insolent" and "laugh at passers-by", but was ". . . like wax when a fellow worker falls ill. She lends her clothes and boots . . . she shares her last crust with a girl out of work".
It was this ability to stick together which led the matchgirls out on strike in 1888. With no trade union and no recognised skills, and unemployment at record levels, no one in the East End thought they stood a chance against their powerful employer. But the girls had other ideas.
The roots of the strike lay in Bryant and May's profiteering. They had been able to force down wages by buying out rival firms, while paying huge dividends to shareholders. When they announced record profits in June 1888, Annie Besant, a middle-class socialist and journalist, wrote a scathing article about the firm and the poverty in which its workers lived.
Bryant and May knew someone on the inside had talked to Besant, but despite threats and intimidation the girls would not name names. When one girl was sacked as a warning, 1,400 of her colleagues immediately downed tools and streamed out of the factory.
The girls marched to the Houses of Parliament, attracting considerable press attention. Poor women were scarcely seen outside the East End, and on-lookers laughed at their ragged clothes.
MPs agreed to meet with a small delegation, and were surprised by the girls' intelligence and quick wits. One girl of 13 shocked the politicians by suddenly sweeping off her hat, revealing a bald scalp from carrying heavy wooden palettes on her head.
After less than a fortnight, Bryant and May succumbed to media and public pressure - and falling share prices - and acceded to the girls' demands. These included the reinstatement of the sacked girl, higher wages, a proper dining room and the freedom to form a trade union.
News of their victory swept through the East End. In the following months a wave of strikes took place, and dozens of new unions were formed. The foundations of a new movement, open to all workers, had been laid. It would go on to fight for better pay and safer conditions for all.
However, many historians deny the matchgirls their rightful place in history.
It is the Great Dock Strike of 1889 that is generally credited with changing things for the better, and some histories of the period do not even mention the match strike. But evidence shows that the dockers' and matchgirls' actions were inextricably linked. The majority of the dockers were Irish too, and many of them had wives, daughters or mothers who were matchgirls. The two groups of workers lived in the same streets, went to the same churches, and almost certainly took part in the same mass demonstrations against British repression in Ireland, which were a regular feature of East End life in the 1880s.
The Irish had strong community links in the East End in the face of external prejudice and hostility. They defended themselves fiercely when necessary, as social commentator Charles Booth noted in his report on one street in 1889:
Three policemen wounded there last week. This block sends more police to hospital than any other in London. Men are (like) wild beasts. You take a man or a woman, a rescue is always organised. They fling bricks, iron, anything they can lay their hands on. All are Irish cockneys. Not an Englishman or Scotchman would live among them.
Most historians ignore the matchgirls' Irish roots, and the strong influence of their victory on the dock strikers. But documents show the men themselves repeatedly praised the matchgirls for inspiring them, and for sparking the beginnings of a new union movement. Dockers' leader John Burns urged the men to ". . . stand shoulder to shoulder. Remember the matchgirls, who won their strike and formed a union".
We should indeed remember the matchgirls. A reassessment of their place in history is long overdue. These were smart and courageous Irish women who taught the union movement a thing or two about solidarity in the face of injustice, "striking a light" for generations to come.
• Louise Raw is a post-graduate student researching the matchgirls for the University of North London. She would like to hear from matchgirls' or dockers' descendants with family tales about the strike, or anyone who can identify the matchgirls in the photographs. She may be telephoned at 0044-775-113 8077