Posted Mar 1, 2011, 7:34 PM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Wiltshire, England
Posts: 1,938
|
|
XXIII – The Match Girls of Bow
An old working class rhyme talks about the British love of the free market; it goes:
“F is for freedom, like the English boast about:
If you can’t afford your dinner, you’re free to do without.” In the nineteenth century, the one and a half thousand workers at Bryant and May’s huge match factory in the East End of London were never outlawed or convicted by London’s authorities, but its free markets visited worse punishments on them than would be faced by any prisoners in the developed world today.
Not only did the women in the factory have to work up to fourteen hours a day, with heavy fines for turning up late, talking or going to the toilet without permission, many also succumbed to a horrible occupational disease called ‘phossy jaw’ - a form of bone cancer that turned one side of the face green, then black, discharging pus before finally causing death.
Phossy jaw was caused by the use of white phosphorus in the manufacturing process. In the 1870s and 80s it was banned in countries like Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland, forcing companies to use the more expensive red phosphorus. In Britain, though, this was seen as a restraint of trade and white phosphorus continued to be used until 1910.
In 1888 a journalist called Annie Besant published an article describing conditions in the factory under the title ‘White Slavery in London’. Bryant and May prepared a paper refuting the article, and ordered its workers to sign it. When they refused, one woman was dismissed. In response, 1,400 of her colleagues went on strike.
It was one of the first successful strikes in London, and after two weeks the management agreed to reinstate the dismissed worker, abolish fines and allow meals to be eaten in a separate room, where they would be much less likely to be contaminated with phosphorus.
Today, the gigantic Victorian factory has been converted into ‘The Bow Quarter’ – a gated community in the middle of the East End. By its entrance, two plaques remember our latest recruits to the ranks of prodigal London: Annie Besant and the Matchgirls of Bow.
Last edited by Bedhead; Dec 11, 2016 at 2:32 PM.
|