The Right to Strike
A rare 1921 novel of industrial action and its consequences
Author
Publisher
Printing Details
First edition. Small hardback bound in green cloth with printed titling to spine and upper board. 19 × 12.5cm, 251pp
A scarce and provocative novelization of the hit 1920 play, published during a period of intense industrial unrest in Britain. It explores the radical and then-shocking concept of a 'doctors' strike' in retaliation to a railway strike. The central theme is the moral justification of strikes by bodies of specialised workers. Set in a large urban area that is dependant on a single line of railway, a doctor is supplying food to the area during a railway strike. The doctor is murdered, a child dies from diptheria, and the local doctors strike by deciding not to attend any of the strikers or their families. The strike leader's wife then needs an immediate operation, and two doctors relent... but meanwhile the strike has ended with a compromise behind the strike leaders' backs.
The authors wrote that they were not propagandists for socialism, bolshevism or established institutions, and their aim is to suggest points for reflection.
Condition
A well-read survivor of a scarce ephemeral edition. While showing the wear of a century—including the loss of the front flyleaf and some marking to the boards—it remains a solid, complete reading copy of an important piece of social-realist fiction.
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Price
£25.00
