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On this day, 31 July 1945, the newly elected Labour government sent 600 conscript troops into the Surrey docks in London to try to break a go-slow of dockworkers fighting for better pay.
A Telegraph journalist described the go-slow: "In everything they did the men were unhurried in a way that looked deliberate. There was evidence that their actions were planned. True, the cranes were working and goods were passing from the dockside to the ship, but there was a leisureliness about the proceedings that made everything seem half-hearted. I soon learned the reason. At the moment bags of sugar were going aboard in slings. But it was pointed out that the slings were carrying only 4 at a time instead of the normal 12."
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10374/labour-government-sends-troops-to-break-dockers-go-slow
Pictured: Troops working as scabs on the docks
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