Organisation For The Maintenance of Supplies - General Strike

General Strike

Following the outbreak of the 1926 General Strike and the introduction by the government of emergency powers, the OMS turned over its membership lists to the newly appointed government civil commissioners and thus became a state organisation. Although the OMS name continued to be used, any notion of independence was abandoned with the OMS an arm of government. The group had some 100,000 members registered at the commencement of the strike, although the middle class status of many of these volunteers meant that they often proved wholly unsuited to the manual work, such as the running the railways and ports. It produced slightly over 5000 volunteers, of whom car drivers, lorry drivers and power station workers were the largest groups. The group did manage to produce the British Gazette, a pro-government newspaper published during the strike.