In
June 1888, Clementina Black gave a speech
on Female
Labour
at a Fabian Society meeting in London.
Annie Besant, a member of the audience,
was horrified when she heard about the pay and conditions of the women
working at the Bryant
& May match factory.
The next day, Annie Besant went and interviewed
some of the people who worked at Bryant & May. She discovered
that the women worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than
five shillings a week. However, they did not always received their
full wage because of a system of fines, ranging from three pence to
one shilling, imposed by the Bryant & May management. Offences
included talking, dropping matches or going to the toilet without
permission. The women worked from 6.30 am in summer (8.00 in winter)
to 6.00 pm. If workers were late, they were fined a half-day's pay.
Annie Besant also discovered that the health
of the women had been severely affected by the phosphorous that they
used to make the matches. This caused yellowing of the skin and hair
loss and phossy jaw, a form of bone cancer. The whole side of the
face turned green and then black, discharging foul-smelling pus and
finally death. Although phosphorous was banned in Sweden and the USA,
the British government had refused to follow their example, arguing
that it would be a restraint of free trade.
On 23rd June 1888, Annie Besant wrote an
article in her newspaper, The
Link. The
article, entitled White Slavery in London,
complained about the way the women at Bryant
& May were being treated. The company reacted by attempting to
force their workers to sign a statement that they were happy with
their working conditions. When a group of women refused to sign, the
organisers of the group was sacked. The response was immediate; 1400
of the women at Bryant & May went on strike.
William Stead, the editor of the Pall
Mall Gazette, Henry Hyde
Champion of the Labour Elector
and Catharine Booth of the Salvation
Army joined Besant in her campaign for better working conditions
in the factory. So also did Sydney Oliver,
Stewart Headlam, Hubert
Bland, Graham Wallas and George
Bernard Shaw. However, other newspapers such as The
Times, blamed Besant and other socialist agitators for the
dispute.
Annie Besant, William
Stead and Henry Hyde Champion used
their newspapers to call for a boycott of Bryant & May matches.
The women at the company also decided to form a Matchgirls' Union
and Besant agreed to become its leader. After three weeks the company
announced that it was willing to re-employ the dismissed women and
would also bring an end to the fines system. The women accepted the
terms and returned in triumph. The Bryant & May dispute was the
first strike by unorganized workers to gain national publicity. It
was also successful at helped to inspire the formation of unions all
over the country.
Annie
Besant, William Stead, Catharine
Booth, William Booth and Henry
Hyde Champion continued to campaign against the use of yellow
phosphorous. In 1891
the Salvation Army opened its own match-factory
in Old Ford, East London. Only using harmless red phosphorus, the
workers were soon producing six million boxes a year. Whereas Bryant
& May paid their workers just over twopence a gross, the Salvation
Army paid their employees twice this amount.
William
Booth organised conducted tours of MPs and journalists round this
'model' factory. He also took them to the homes of those "sweated
workers" who were working eleven and twelve hours a day producing
matches for companies like Bryant & May. The bad
publicity that the
company received
forced the company to reconsider its policy. In 1901, Gilbert
Bartholomew, managing director of Bryant
& May, announced it had stopped used yellow phosphorus.
Annie Besant and the Matchgirls Strike
Committee
(1)
Annie Besant, The Link (23rd June,
1888)
Born
in slums, driven to work while still children, undersized because
under-fed, oppressed because helpless, flung aside as soon as worked
out, who cares if they die or go on to the streets provided only that
Bryant & May shareholders get their 23 per cent and Mr. Theodore
Bryant can erect statutes and buy parks?
Girls are used to carry boxes on their heads until the hair is rubbed
off and the young heads are bald at fifteen years of age? Country
clergymen with shares in Bryant & May's draw down on your knee
your fifteen year old daughter; pass your hand tenderly over the silky
clustering curls, rejoice in the dainty beauty of the thick, shiny
tresses.
(2)
Anonymous letter received by Annie Besant
from a Bryant & May worker (4th July, 1888)
Dear
Lady they have been trying to get the poor girls to say that it is
all lies that has been printed and trying to make us sign papers that
it is all lies; dear Lady nobody knows what it is we have put up with
and we will not sign them. We thank you very much for the kindness
you have shown to us. My dear Lady we hope you will not get into any
trouble on our behalf as what you have spoken is quite true.
(3)
Interview
with Bartholomew Bryant in The Star newspaper (July, 1888)
Q:
What is the cause of the strike?
A: Why, a girl was dismissed yesterday; it had nothing to do with
Mrs. Besant. She refused to follow the instructions of the foreman,
and as she was irregular anyway, she was dismissed.
Q: Is it not very unusual that all the girls should strike because
of one?
A: Yes, but I've no doubt they have been influenced by the twaddle
of one.
(4)
The Times (June, 1888)
The pity is that the matchgirls have not been suffered to take their
own course but have been egged on to strike by irresponsible advisers.
No effort has been spared by those pests of the modern industrialized
world to bring this quarrel to a head.
(5)
Henry Snell, Men Movements and Myself
(1936)
In July 1888 the girls
employed at a match factory in the East End of London came out on
strike. These courageous girls had neither funds, organizations, nor
leaders, and they appealed to Mrs. Besant to advise and lead them.
It was a wise and most excellent inspiration. Money was quickly subscribed
for their support and, within a fortnight, the employers considered
it prudent to concede their demands. The number affected was quite
small, but the matchgirls' strike had an influence upon the minds
of the workers which entitles it to be regarded as one of the most
important events in the history of labour organisation in any country.
(6)
William Stead, Pall
Mall Gazette (July, 1888)
The story is full of hope for the future, illustrating as it does
the immense power that lies in mere publicity. It was the publication
of the simple story of the grievances of the match girls in an obscure
little halfpenny weekly paper called The Link which did the
work.
This picture of matchmakers appeared in
The Child Slaves of Britain by Robert
Sherard (1905)
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