The large public sector strike in the UK on Wednesday got me thinking of depictions of industrial unrest in literature so here’s my top 5 strike related (fiction) books, to be honest when I say top 5 I couldn’t actually think of too many more although I suspect there must be many:
1. In Dubious Battle – John Steinbeck. Fruit workers strike in California valley and the Communist's attempts to organise and lead it.
2. Germinal - Emile Zola. Coalminers strike in northern France in the 1860’s.
3. GB84 – Dave Pearce – about the year long UK miners strike 1984-85.
4. Last Exit to Brooklyn – Hubert Selby jr. Set in the 1950’s Brooklyn, the book became a cult classic because of its harsh, uncompromising look at lower class Brooklyn life in the 1950s. It is divided into 6 parts one of which is Strike about Harry, a machinist in a factory who becomes an official in the union. A closeted homosexual, he abuses his wife and gets in fights to convince himself that he is a man. He gains a temporary status and importance during the strike, and uses the union's money to entertain the local toughs and buy the company of drag queens.
5. Brideshead Revisited – EM Forster. Charles Ryder returns from France to volunteer his services during (breaking) the 1926 General Strike, delivering milk in London’s East End.
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