Britain in the Twenties and Thirties

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Description: Silent footage of social conditions in Britain in the 1920s and 30s and the British role in the international arena, including footage in India and of British troops during the Russian Intervention. The footage appears somewhat jumbled in places and there is some repetition. The material is from a Soviet film as indicated by the presence of Russian intertitles.
Duration: 19 mins 01 secs
Subjects: Economic recession, Socialism, UK, Protest movements, Imperialism, Heads of state, Armed forces, War, Strikes, Unemployment
Segment 1: The General Strike (1926) Scenes showing deserted railway station, followed by shot of a food van and a close-up of strike breakers driving buses with police protection in evidence. Army trucks and armoured vehicles in the street. Scenes in the streets of towns in the Rhonda Valley. Miners on strike. Groups of strikers talking to each other. other. Close-ups of faces. Henri Barbusse talking to group of unemployed. Riverside slums and poverty. People cooking out of doors. National Hunger March (1932) shots of marching men and then of a Women's Contingent. Group marching with a banner reading 'From Scotland to London.' Marchers on their way through small town. Wide shot of the Houses of Parliament. Early armoured cars on the streets. Trafalgar Square Rally. Banner reading 'Fight Hunger and War'. Big crowds. Banners identify dockers and a South Wales contingent. Marchers arriving in the square. Police and mounted police in evidence. Tom Mann addresses the crowds. Crowd shot with lorry with banner reading Workers International Relief Assists the Unemployed. Shot of another speaker (unidentified). First Russian intertitles occur. This is followed by shots of a group of Government ministers and then of Ramsay MacDonald shaking hands with US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimpson. British troops seen embarking on ship in dock area. Other troops disembarking. Presumably the footage is meant to convey the idea of the British Army constantly on the move. This is followed by footage of a Hyde Park meeting with banners reading "Long Live Egypt" and "Capitalism spells eternal drudgery." Communist Party speakers. Shot of trade union group with banner. This is followed by footage illustrating British intervention across the world. Ships cutting through the sea and then shots of British troops at Murmansk - from the period of the Intervention in the Russian Civil War. Footage of Mahatma Gandhi and entourage getting off train in India. Shots of Maxim Gorki and Romand Rolland together talking and walking in the gardens of large house. Footage of a demonstration in India and police taking violent action. Shot of Nehru addressing a Free India meeting. Dockers demonstration at London Docks. Harry Pollitt speaking. Churchill speaking. Location unknown. Russian subtitles. This is followed by footage of Mahatma Gandhi. A Dockers demo outside Free Trade Wharf. Images of police, workers queuing for jobs. Harry Pollitt again. Crowds cheering. Much of this footage is repeated. Unemployed on benches, more shots of ships on the way to Murmansk and more shots of British troops in Russia during the Intervention. Still of Churchill.
Segment 2: The War in Abyssinia: Haile Selassie with his troops during the Italian invasion. Shots of Abyssinian troops on the move. Setting up a machine gun. Selassie taking bearings. Selassie and troops take aim at plane flying overhead. Selassie seated behind AA gun. Abyssinian troops pushing an ambulance up hill track. Burning buildings after an Italian attack - shots of wounded being brought into Dressing Station for attention. George Bernard Shaw in Russia being welcomed and feted by crowds. Another shot of him getting off a train. Repeated. Montage of different speakers, including H Levy, T Watlins, AJ Cook, M Thorez and Churchill. Sequence of crowds of people on a London bridge, people in vans cars and on bikes in London streets. Long shot of a bus depot with buses parked and stationary. Early armoured car in the streets. Close-up of Ramsay MacDonald laughing and looking pleased with himself. Repeat footage of Churchill speaking - Russian subtitles. More London street scenes. Repeat of London scenes. Footage ends.
Persistent URL: http://edina.ac.uk/purl/isan/0002-0000-0013-0000-0-0000-0000-0
Written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Subject classification by University of Edinburgh Library © 2006