The 'Juggernaut Method': The 1966 State of Emergency and the Wilson Government's Response to the Seamen's Strike

In May 1966, in response to a strike by the National Union ofSeamen, Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared the first stateof emergency in Britain for over a decade. This article considerswhy he felt obliged to take such action and how it fitted intoa package of measures aimed at countering the strike. Thesemeasures culminated in his claims of communist influence onthe union, which helped to bring the strike to an end but triggeredhostility towards Wilson from within his party and the tradeunion movement. Furthermore, the article considers, why, giventhe immense emergency powers assumed by the government, it wasso ineffective in ameliorating the hardships caused by the strikeand what implications this had for people throughout the UK.Despite being personally content with the outcome, this wasto prove a pyrrhic victory for Wilson given the ongoing difficultiesfacing the British economy and the bitterness he had provokedamong Labour supporters.