Striking a Light
The Bryant and May Matchwomen and Their Place in History

In July 1888, fourteen hundred women and girls employed by the matchmakers Bryant and May walked out of their East End factory and into the history books. The author gives us a challenging new interpretation of events proving that the women themselves, not celebrity socialists like Annie Besant, began it.

This is the story of one of the most important strikes in labour history revealing the significance and truth of what actually happened. In July 1888, fourteen hundred women and girls employed by the matchmakers Bryant and May walked out of their East End factory and into the history books. Louise Raw gives us a challenging new interpretation of events proving that the women themselves, not celebrity socialists like Annie Besant, began it. She provides unequivocal evidence to show that the matchwomen greatly influenced the Dock Strike of 1889, which until now was thought to be the key event of new unionism, and repositions them as the mothers of the modern labour movement. Returning to the stories of the women themselves, and by interviewing their relatives today, Raw is able to construct a new history which challenges existing accounts of the strike itself and radically alters the accepted history of the labour movement in Britain.

Introduction, Methodology and Previous Literature
1. Angels in the House and Factory Girls
2. Haunted by the Woman Question: the Victorian Labour Movement and Women Workers
3. Life, Work and Politics in the Victorian East End
4. Liberals and Lucifers: Bryant &
May and Matchmaking
5. The 'Notorious' Annie Besant: the Strike Leaders Reconsidered
6. 'One Girl Began': the Strike and the Matchwomen
7. The Matchwomen, the Great Dock Strike and New Unionism
Bibliography
Index.