The Daily Herald and rent strikes in Britain

The Daily Herald started life as a strike sheet in support of a printers’ union in 1911. When it became an established daily newspaper the following year, it continued to champion the socialist cause, reporting on issues directly related to the working man and woman. 

Striking has been a feature of society for centuries, becoming more common from the Industrial Revolution onwards as workers started to develop a collective consciousness around their rights and stand together against poor working conditions, low wages and high rents.

Following the Wall Street Crash in 1929, there was a worldwide economic downturn known as the ‘Great Depression’. This period was characterised by high unemployment, extreme hunger and relentless poverty. The Daily Herald was on the frontline to capture the conflict that ensued.

Rent controls were introduced in 1915 to deal with the increase in rents due to the wartime housing crisis, but were gradually reversed throughout the 1920s and 30s. By 1938, many houses had no rent control at all. Some landlords took advantage of this to defraud their tenants.

Most East End strike action took place between 1938 and 1939 but some happened earlier; a feeling of discontent had been brewing among tenants in the area for years. The Stepney Tenants’ Defence League was set up in late 1937 to help with individual rent and repair problems.

Some of the fights were long and bitter, with tenants in the area striking for periods as long as five months. At first the landlords refused to negotiate and issued eviction orders to some of their most active tenants.

In June 1939, the fight at Langdale Mansions got particularly violent when bailiffs got access to the building. Tenants defended themselves with pans, sticks and shovels. The police were called to the scene and their treatment was brutal, with protestors forcibly taken away.

The Stepney Tenants’ Defence League stepped in, mobilising its members to stand with the tenants. The police withdrew and the landlords caved into tenants’ demands by reducing rents and making repairs. Wishing to avoid such a violent conflict, other landlords followed suit.

Women have been the main protagonists behind rent strikes throughout history. Women were typically in charge of the household budget, and any changes—such as rent increases—were keenly felt and likely to provoke a response. The mass strikes in 1938–39 were no different.

The rent strikes were not confined to Stepney. There were outbreaks in many districts of London, and the issue was so pervasive that they also spread across the country, with strikes taking place in Birmingham, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Sunderland, Oxford and Sheffield.

Many of the rent strikes in Stepney and beyond were a success, but problems with inflated rent still existed in many areas and flared up again after the Second World War. In 1957, the Rent Act removed almost all caps on private rent, proving history does repeat itself after all.