ABSTRACT
The post-war years saw a pronounced leftward swing in the political pendulum which was to carry the Labour Party into office in 1924. For a time, too, the advocates of ‘direct industrial action’ enjoyed considerable support. A Triple Alliance of miners, transport workers and railwaymen had been formed in 1915. This was in practice a consultative body which left the individual unions with full autonomy but which was intended, in theory, to secure united action whenever one of the three partners was involved in a trade dispute.1
