WOMEN PAID HIGH PRICES IN MUNITIONS FACTORY RUN BY PM DAVID CAMERON RELATIVE

The Barnbow 1st National Shell Filling Factory covered 200 acres at Bross Gates in Leeds. It produced 10,000 shells a week.

Created in 1915 the first of many and the biggest in Europe. By 1918 it produced 566,000 tonnes of ammunition and 80 per cent of all British weaponry made by women by 1917. But the men who run it made a fortune out of killing people, one way or another.

The PM's step-great-grandfather Joe Watson, chairman of a committee of businessmen, put the proposal for the factory before Minister of Munition, and future PM David Loyd George.

They had to pay very high wages, around £3 a week, but it was blood money, to attract people to do the dangerous work. The injured women and families of those who died received little or no money of compensation.

Alice Nutter, who written a play about the 'Barnbow Lasses' believes the men who run the plant do not deserve their peer title but a title "They were b*****ds"

"These middle-class men knew the dangers involved for the women. But it wouldn't had occurred to them that the women's lives were just as important as theirs, maybe even more because they were poor and big families. They probably just thought: "But they're getting paid a good wages.

"Yet, when people were killed or injured very few were paid compensation and they didn't get pensions either.

"Then when the war ended in 1918 they were thrown out of work. These women had a taste of freedom and independence then were totally betrayed."

Alice reckon that by 1916 the Government knew that TNT could be lethal. TNT poisoning included blistering eyes, rotten teeth and painful sores. it changed their skin colour and some saw hair go green or orange.

Alice added further: "The women knew the TNT was poisoning them but they felt it was necessary for the war effort, because their men were sacrificing their lives on the front. These women were soldiers too because they were risking their lives too."

The biggest danger was an explosion. Women worn special clothing without any metal to avoid a spark being created. The plant was set-up with individual sheds to prevent a chain reaction.

But on 5 December, 1916 a blast in Hut 42 was caused. It had never been established what caused it. Most of the women working there were blown apart but the few who survived suffered a lingering death. All these women came from big families and the impact was devastating but of no concern to the men who run it.

After the remains of people were removed and only identified by name tags it was rebuilt and ready to run within 24 hours. The accident was cover-up for security reason for Germans not to discover the location of the whole plant.

David Cameron's rich relative Joseph Watson being made a Baron and died in 1922 aged 49. His second son Robert married Enid Levita in 1961. Her only child, from her first marriage to Donald Cameron, was Ian Cameron, father of the PM.

Despite the Watson family' incredible wealth, compensation paid to Barnbow workers for death or injury was minimal.

MY Opinion: 100 years on and it is obvious the characteristics of the upper class have not changed. They still riding on the backs of the people regardless.

REMEMBER 100 YEARS AGO THE BIGGEST COAL MINING DISASTER

At 8.30 on 14 October 1913 miners in South Wales started their shift 2000 ft below the surface and soon after a massive boom were heard. Apparently a spark from an electric bell had ignited a dangerous mix of methane gas and coal dust.  The miners call it “firedamp”. It caused an enormous fireball which went through the pit in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly. It was like a river of flame. The miners had no chance.  They died within seconds.

The 439 miners who died was the worst disaster in British history. The explosion was so powerful it was felt in the Welsh valley above.  The death included 63 teenagers and amongst them were 23 only 14-16 years old.  162 were in their 20s and the disaster let 542 children fatherless and 200 widows.

Just to give the full picture of the impact that one woman had eight coffins in her house. She lost her husband, three brothers and four sons. It is incredible how anybody can bear such a loss.

The grand daughter Hilary who lost both her grandfathers points at the long terraced row of two-bedroom miners’ cottages and said: “This was only a small village. Not a single house was unaffected. Growing up here, all of us had lost a member of our family. Today nothing remains of the mine that produced endless tonnes of coal to fuel the British Empire.”

A sheer miracle occurred of 18 men were rescued because they were in an air pocket. Altogether 489 miners were not brought out alive.

This is one of hundreds of accidents big and small and the impact of the family was always devastating of which the Government and pit owners cokuld not care less.

According to the records the catastrophe could have been avoided. The wealthy pit owners did not take the advice already ordered by Act of Parliament and installed safety methods.  After an earlier explosion in the Universal Colliery Parliament ordered to control electrical equipment to prevent sparking, to water dusty areas, and to have reversible fans so clean air could be provided in emergencies. All this was ignored. The knowledge of it must be the worst to the families who lost their loved ones.

The mine manager Edward Shaw was fined for negligence just £24 which meant 6p for every live lost. The owner was fined £10 because he did not install reversible fans.

The town has now built a memorial to all those lives lost and it was unveiled on 14 October by school children featuring stone plaques for each of the men who died.  They also had engraved paving stones for victims of 150 other pit accidents as a tribute to the victims.

All these men working in mines built the British Empire and yet when it came to Margaret Thatcher being Prime Minister she just closed those mines regardless.  These men and some women worked under ground under harsh condition with death constantly at their elbow.  Britain would not have had the great industrial revolution if it was not for the miners bringing up coal. The same men fought so bitterly for their job and not many would have stepped in or envy them but they were proud men and proud of doing their job. 

Margaret Thatcher stepped on them and involves the police paying them highly which earned them the deserved nickname “Maggis Bootboys”.  Not only did she destroy those men’s income but the whole community. All the little shops in their small villages must have gone bust.  It was nothing but a cold blooded crime she committed.

MATCH GIRLS' STRIKE 125 YEARS AGO

MATCHES FACTORY

We are celebrating the 125 years anniversary of the legendary strike of the match girls who are still a shining for example today for incredible courage.

In 1888 women did not have the right to vote and employment right never existed. The employers had all the powers to push them passed the limit and it was just hell. 1,400 appallingly treated women either couldn’t take any more or found the courage to walk out of the match manufacturing Bryant & May, shocked the Victorian Britain.

This historical first time strike inspired workers round the world even today.

Today the law forbids children under 13 to work apart from theatres, modelling and paper boys. However, it is assumed that about 30,000 children between 13 to 16 years old are employed in England under special licence. This is the official figure but it is thought there are a great number of children working unofficial in the Austerity Britain trying to add a few pennies to the family budget.

In the 1888 merciless bosses ruled the factory of Bryant & May like tyrants. Women who were sick were just thrown out like rubbish and never gave it a thought what would happen to them.

Yet the white sulphur they have to work with poisoned them.  Their hair fell out and there was a condition called “phossy jaws” which disfigured them terrible and must have been very cumbersome.

The wage was the lowest and amounted to four shilling a week for 12 hours a day.  Draconian rules were set-up for women to be late or even dropped a match.

ANNIE BESANT

A well known journalist Annie Besant wrote a detailed account of the conditions in a left-wing newspaper The Link.  She torn the owner Theodore Bryant a prominent Liberal apart who had the brutality to take one shilling from the workers wages in order to erect a statue of his hero William Gladstone near his factory.

Besant labelled it an account of one form of white slavery as it exists in London. She said: “With chattel slaves Mr Bryant couldn’t have made his huge fortune, for he could not have fed, clothed, and housed them for four shillings a week each, and they would have a definite money value which would have served as a protection. But who cares for the fate of those white wage slaves? Born in the slums driven to work as children, undersized because underfed; oppressed because helpless, flung aside as soon as worked out. Who cares if they die, provided only that the Bryant & May shareholders get their 23 pc.” According to this nothing has really changed.

The strike in July 1888 which shook the country and still echoes out of history started by a dismissal of a worker who would not call Mesant’s account as lies.  They all walked out and demanded better conditions.

Diana Holland, of Unite, used the anniversary to condemn the ConDem wanting to abolish health and safety laws which were introduced in the aftermath of the strike. These women were nothing but heroic to stand up to those draconian employers at a time where nothing but total obedience was expected.  The health and safety law was issued because they were working with white phosphorus a great health hazard.

Now the austerity-crazed Government tries to cut the health and safety law and justify it that it would burden business. We can’t forget those with horrific health problems because they were made to eat at the work benches and therefore swallow phosphorous. The sacrifices they made to stand up to the employers to achieve the health and safety act being introduced.

Workers today will recognise the threats issued by Bryant & May since they had all the power to play any dirty trick in bad bosses’ books.

Those heroic women had to face threats from the owners that they would move the factory to Norway. They also told them they would bring in scabs to do the job which in those more than desperate days were plenty and the women not only risks losing the job but their live from hunger and their place from not being able to pay their rent.  They faced having to live in the gutter with their family. The incredible courage they must have had to stand up to their bosses knowing very well what it would all mean if they lose.

The managing direct Fredrick Bryant told the newspapers that the strikers told all lies and the working conditions were perfect and supposed fines were imagination of the troublemakers.

However, London started to support the match girls and George Bernanrd Shaw and Sidney Webb donated to their fund. MP Charles Bradlaugh took their plight to the Parliament and after three weeks Bryant & May had to give in because of the bad publicity and loss of business.

The girls went back to work and had improved working condition and no more costly fines for pitiful offences. The girls won a remarkable victory which even shines today.

Rushanara Ali who is the Labour MP in Bethnal Green where the old Bryant & May factory is said the stand of the match girls is encouraging to the poor and suffering of today in 2013. Their historical fight for better working condition and stop exploitation remains a light in our dark times.