On this day and working class history. The fourteenth of January and on the fourteenth of January nineteen twenty six, a strike broke out among all grades of worker on the Sierra Leone government railway. The strike united precariously employed African daily wage labourers with Creole clerks and artisans who were being forced to in exam to qualify for pay rises,
whilst their European colleagues were not. The day the strike broke out, the British colonial government put the country under virtual martial law, and a few days later railway management fired many strikers from their jobs. In response, the strikers showed increasing militancy, removing the rails in front of the manager's train and attacking it with sticks, removing rails at curves, and pulling down telegraph polls to prevent communication by the
colonial administration. The strikers held out for six weeks, supported by a strie like fund that raised hundreds of pounds from supporters across West Africa, but eventually the strikers were defeated. However, the strike did set an example that would be followed by more groups of workers in the country, and the
sources maps and all of our anniversaries each day. Check out the on this Day section of our stories at at stories, stopworkingclasshistory dot com, and if you value our work, support us at Patreon dot com slash working class History. Links in the show notes the music by a Decade See you tomorrow