Gas & Haulage. E P Thompson on the impact of crisis on a sense of people power
The late historian E P Thompson wrote an essay’, Writing By Candlelight’ on the 1970 power strike which led to power cuts, about one of the impacts this had on how people saw the world.
He noted ‘it is only when dustbins linger in the street, unsorted post piles up or petrol pumps run dry that people know suddenly the great hidden unspoken fact about our society, their own daily power’ (paraphrased by Francis Wheen, Guardian 13th September 2000)
The current crisis of gas supplies and shortage of goods due to lack of HGV drivers is not due of course directly to industrial action. It does however serve as a reminder that society works because it is based on what ordinary people do, rather than the pronouncements of the rich and powerful and this is as true now as it was 50 years ago.
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