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Total number of strikes and total number of days (in thousands) lost to strikes each year
1880 190 ...
1881 209 ...
1882 271 ...
1883 181 ...
1884 112 ...
1885 123 ...
1886 195 ...
1887 194 ...
1888 517 ...
1889 1211 ...
1890 1040 ...
1891 906 6809
1892 700 17382
1893 615 30468
1894 929 9529
1895 745 5725
1896 926 3746
1897 864 10346
1898 711 15289
1899 719 2516
1900 648 3153
1901 642 4142
1902 442 3479
1903 442 2339
1904 355 1484
1905 358 2470
1906 486 3029
1907 601 2162
1908 399 10834
1909 436 2774
1910 531 9895
1911 903 10320
1912 857 40915
1913 1497 11631
1914 972 9878
1915 672 2953
1916 532 2446
1917 730 5647
1918 1165 5875
1919 1352 34969
1920 1607 26568
1921 763 85872
1922 576 19850
1923 628 10672
1924 710 8424
1925 603 7952
1926 323 162233
1927 308 1174
1928 302 1388
1929 431 8287
1930 522 4399
1931 420 6983
1932 379 6488
1933 357 1072
1934 471 959
1935 553 1955
1936 818 1829
1937 1129 3413
1938 875 1334
1939 940 1356
1940 922 940
1941 1251 1079
1942 1303 1527
1943 1785 1810
1944 2194 3710
1945 2293 2835
1946 2205 2158
1947 1721 2433
1948 1759 1944
1949 1426 1807
1950 1339 1389
1951 1719 1694
1952 1714 1792
1953 1746 2184
1954 1989 2457
1955 2419 3781
1956 2648 2083
1957 2859 8412
1958 2629 3462
1959 2093 5270
1960 2832 3024
1961 2686 3046
1962 2449 5798
1963 2068 1755
1964 2524 2277
1965 2354 2925
1966 1937 2398
1967 2116 2787
1968 2378 4690
1969 3116 6846
1970 3906 10980
1971 2228 13551
1972 2497 23909
1973 2873 7197
1974 2922 14750
1975 2282 6012
1976 2016 3284
1977 2703 10142
1978 2471 9405
1979 2080 29474
1980 1330 11964
1981 1338 4266
1982 1572 5312
1983 1364 3754
1984 1221 27135
1985 903 6402
1986 1074 1920
1987 1016 3546
1988 781 3702
1989 701 4128
1990 630 1903
1991 369 761
1992 253 528
1993 211 649
1994 205 278
1995 235 415
1996 244 1303
1997 216 235
1998 166 282
1999 205 242
2000 212 499
2001 194 525
Sources:
B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics: Europe 1750-1993 (London:MacMillan Reference, 4th ed.), p. 172-.
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/labor30a.htm
Engels said in an 1883 letter to Kautsky: "You ask me what the English workers think about colonial policy. Well, exactly the same as they think about politics in general: the same as what the bourgeois think. There is no workers' party here, there are only Conservatives and Liberal-Radicals, and the workers gaily share the feast of England's monopoly of the world market and the colonies." At the time he said that there were 181 strikes that year in England, a country of about 25 million people.
Since that time the English population has doubled. Yet there were actually fewer strikes in 1998 than Engels's 1883.
If Engels said what he said in 1883, can we imagine what he would have said today? It would be the same or likely an even more harsh judgment. That's not to mention that Engels would not even count the English and U.$. strikes, because they would be apolitical and over economics only.
When Engels died, we started to have figures on the intensity of strikes related to how many days were lost in them. In 1895 when he died, there were 5.7 million days lost. 1926 was the peak year. By 2000, the population had doubled but the days lost to strikes was less than one tenth what it had been at the time Engels's letter to Kautsky.
The difference between dialectical materialists and idealists is that we dialectical materialists learn from practice. What we need to do is learn how to sum up that practice. This graph sums up that practice better than any individual could from persynal experience.
We would not say to sum up a class's existence or non-existence from an individual or even a patch of years. However, looking at 100 years or more of history since Engels, we have a good basis to judge. There should be no intellectual divisions over this extensive data. The only error that could occur is trying to predict something based on what we wished were true instead of what has happened and we already know. That is an important difference between what Marx called contemplative materialism and dialectical materialism.
The real problems in Marxist politics stem from people's truthiness as a comedian put it. What we should learn is that there is no English proletariat in practice.
The likelihood of an English persyn's losing a day of work from a strike in England in 1989--just one day-- was one in a thousand. In the years since, we do not have a figure more than 2 in 1000. It would be slightly higher if we counted only workers, but the point is that as a social influence, the theft of a vehicle is about as likely in England with 241,850 stolen in 2004-5.(1) MIM is guessing that both the imperialists and English petty-bourgeoisie feel more badly about a car stolen than a day lost at work.
In 2004, there were 34 days lost per 1000 workers, the latest year of data. The figure ranged from 10 to 55 in the 1994 to 2004 period.(2)
Something like the British Miners' Strike so talked about by fetishists is such a rare event that it might as well be a serial killing for its novelty. Actually, serial killings are more common. The British Miners' Strike is no way a reflection of something larger going on in society unless we count the disappearance of strikes as something going on. It did not lead on to other similar and more political strikes, but rather to a last gasp sort of situation.
From one year to another, perhaps leaders could improve or go backward. Blaming a long term trend like this on misleadership though is historical idealism. Classes make history, not individuals.
In some countries this trend could appear for decades because union leaders have been shot or imprisoned. In England's case there is no need. The situation is so tame that England's ruling class dares to leave as few as 50,000 troops inside all of England at times. Engels knew the situation for England. Unfortunately, his perception is still accurate, even moreso now.
Notes:
1. http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page31.asp
2. Source: Eurostat,
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/extraction/retrieve/en/theme3/strk/strk_dw_ec?OutputDir=EJOutputDir_62&user=unknown&clientsessionid=A4D70ECED45EB89D6E0E105651DF0AF2.extraction-worker-1&OutputFile=strk_dw_ec.htm&OutputMode=U&NumberOfCells=341&Language=en&OutputMime=text%2Fhtml&
People interested may also want to look at:
http://www.iisg.nl/research/strikes-intro.php