Hidden Histories of Rebellion: My Home, East Anglia, and the story of the ‘Longest Strike in History’
By Elsie Roberts, 2nd Year Law
Growing up in rural East Anglia I have always had an impression that I live in a part of the country that is especially sleepy and conservative, which I am sure is a feeling shared by others. The area around where my family home is very much dominated by traditional and long-standing farmlands that have consistently voted Tory in general elections.
In 1911, Tom and Kitty, who were teachers, started working in the school in Burston. They were both Christian Socialists and (Tom especially) had an important role within trade unions. The state of countryside education provisions at the time were often inadequate and conditions in the Burston school were damp, unhygienic, and lacking proper heating and lighting. Looking for a way to punish the Higdons for being critical of the school management, the Board reprimanded Kitty for lighting a fire without permission (she had lit this fire to dry the clothes of the children who had walked 3 miles in the rain). After this, there were further allegations levelled at the Higdons which were widely believed to have been fabricated. This culminated in 1914 and both the Higdons were sacked, most likely because of their objections to the Board and their left-leaning views.
As a response to this, the children at the school, led by Violet Potter, came out on strike and instituted a boycott of the Norfolk Education Authorities that would last 25 years (ending in 1939.) The Higdons set up a ‘strike school’ to continue the education of the children on strike which gained support from national unions, trades councils, independent branches of the Labour Party and Co-operative Societies. This is the school that still stands, around 10 minutes from my house, in Burston today.
Burston Strike School today, Heritage Network Norfolk
Every year, this event is celebrated with a rally that follows the route that the children took in their original protest against the sacking of their teachers. It has brought the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Mick Lynch into the depths of East Anglian countryside in respect for a history that so clearly captures and promotes the message of the enduring importance of the right to strike. It is an event that affirms continuing solidarity with workers and their 21st Century struggles. I was made aware of this history myself through my parents taking me to this rally for many years since I was small.
Mick Lynch and Jeremy Corbyn pictured at the Burston School Rally in 2022, The Morning Star Online
I think that it is clear that this history has particular resonance with the contemporary state of politics, nationally and across the globe. There has certainly been an increase in the poltitical visibility of striking over the last few years. This is especially so for students, like me, who faced such a large amount of disruption to our academic lives over the last year and are expecting potential disruption going into the next. On a global level too - only a matter of weeks ago, in September 2023, we saw Joe Biden becoming the first US President to join a picket line.
This small-scale example of the power of the strike truly highlights the way in which abuse by those in authority and hostility towards the needs of the working class can be challenged and overcome. During the strikes last year, I was often saddened and confused by the anger directed towards lecturers and other university staff by students. The story of Burston shows how striking is a force for unification between pupils and teachers in the cause of universal social justice, against those in positions of power.[1] The pupils showed sacrifice in coming out on strike but, ultimately, positive outcomes for everyone cannot be achieved without the solidarity that the Burston Strike showed.
The original Burston School Strike
I am proud of this history. It makes me feel that my views and politics do have a long-standing root in the place that I am from. There are often important and progressive histories hidden in places where you would least expect to find them. In our contemporary world, it must be important to look back and learn from these sorts of social histories. I think the significance of these small stories is captured in an excerpt of a speech of Eleanor Roosevelt’s in 1958, where she stated of human rights: “Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person -- the neighborhood he lives in, the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.”[2]
[1] Ian Duckett, ‘The Burston Strike School 1914 -1939’, Ragged University <https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2020/08/05/the-burston-strike-school-1914-1939/?> accessed 01/10/2023
[2] From a speech of Eleanor Roosevelt’s titled ‘Where do human rights begin?’ infront of the United Nations, at the tenth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Can be accessed here: Amesty International, ‘What is the Universal declaration of Human Rights?’ <https://www.amnesty.org.uk/universal-declaration-human-rights-UDHR> accessed 09/10/2023