Labour, Labour Movements, Trade Unions and Strikes (Switzerland)

This article analyses the development of the Swiss labour movement and working-class protest climaxing in the National General Strike in November 1918. Subsequent sections discuss the war’s social impact; the structure and development of the Swiss labour movement; pre-war strike activities and strike discourses; various forms of labour protest on the road to the general strike; and eventually the latter’s outcome and aftermath. It is argued that the most serious crisis of the modern Swiss Confederation allows for no simplistic explanation, but resulted from a complex combination of local, national and transnational factors, some of which are still under-researched.