Red Friday

On Friday 31 July 1925 the British government agreed to the demands of the Miners Federation of Great Britain to provide a subsidy to the mining industry to maintain miners' wages. The Daily Herald called this day Red Friday; a union defeat four years earlier had been called "Black Friday". The 1926 General Strike followed nine months later.

There had been a long history of labour unrest in the British coal mining industry. A triple alliance had been formed in 1914 of the Miners Federation, the Transport and General Workers Union and the National Union of Railwaymen, for mutual support in trade disputes, but had been unable to undertake united action due to World War I. In 1916, at the height of World War I, Lloyd George's government had taken control of the industry, but with inflation the purchasing power of miners' wages had fallen.

After the war government control was relaxed, and the triple alliance was revived. In 1919, as a conciliatory measure, the government appointed a royal commission to investigate the industry under Mr Justice Sankey, which recommended the nationalisation of mining royalties but did not explain how this would be achieved. The government, citing the lack of unanimity of the commission, declined to implement its report. The government responded to a strike by the Yorkshire miners in July 1919 by planning measures to maintain the mines during the strike.

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