I have an admission to make, until very recently I had never seen an episode of Peaky Blinders…yes I know, I am very late to the party but over the last few weeks my husband and I have made up for it by watching every single minute available via Netflix (other streaming services are available, I think). What has impressed me the most about the series is the incorporation of real actual history (albeit artistic license has been employed) into a fictional story.
For example, the Peaky Blinders? Genuinely did exist although whether they had someone going “by order of the peaky f*****g blinders” every so often Arthur style I have no idea, plus I do not think their leader was the incredibly charismatic Tommy Shelby (I actually know that it was not, that is all make believe). Other names like Billy Kimber, Sabini, Al Capone…all real and in the later series, Oswald Mosley is a true person and there is a lot you can read about him should you choose to do so. Any of us who have an interest in the Great War will also know that the PTSD and personality changes that so many of the gang are said to suffer from once they returned from - in this case – France was incredibly common back in the 20th century.
The true character who interests me the most is definitely that of Jessie Eden, and whilst I do like Charlie Murphy’s portrayal of her, I wanted to know who she really was.
Born in 1902, and known as Jessie Shrimpton, her mother had been a munitions worker during the First World War. We see Jessie help lead out workers (it was actually the few women who were unionised) during the UK General Strike of 1926, but at this point she was only a small fish in a very big pond. Five years later, she was still working at the Lucas Factory, filling shock absorbers and was to be pivotal in changing the owners plans as to how to monitor their workforce. She had noticed that she was being watched and timed whilst working, and discovered that they planned to observe staff output, and were using her speed and efficiency as a benchmark – the women were already being clocked whenever they went to the toilet and if they took what the overseers felt as being too long, ran the risk of losing their jobs. These were young women, a vast proportion under the age of 21, with some only 14 years old and they saw 29 year old Jessie as a big sister figure. Whilst many of the main trade unions did not allow women to join, she managed to organise a mass walk out of over ten thousand women for a week. This resulted in Lucas backing down with their plans to time the workers, but resulted in Jessie being one of those who lost her job.
It was after this that an invitation to go to Moscow was given to her, as a lifelong member of the Communist party, she was it could be said, an obvious choice. This was also coupled with her difficulty in finding work in Birmingham due to her reputation as being a believer in fairness being seen by many employers as a negative.
I think it was her stand to help with the issue of rents in 1939 which is the most interesting, and underreported, of her achievements.
On the 6th February 1939, Labour MP Cecil Poole asked the Minister of Health in Parliament…
…whether his attention has been drawn to the proposal of the Birmingham City Council to impose a means test on the tenants of their municipal houses, which will result in large increases in rents to many of these tenants; whether he is aware of the large amount of discontent which exists among the tenants in consequence; and whether he is prepared to receive a representative deputation from the tenants with a view to their being enabled to put their point of view before him with the object of alteration or amendment of the proposed scheme?
This was coupled with an increase in rent of between ten and twenty percent to all tenants, and was such an injustice that would appeal to the Communist Jessie. A Tenants Association was formed and in May, a renter’s strike was called. The fascinating thing was that the majority of those who were demonstrating were women, it was the women who controlled household budgets and they felt that these increases were taking food directly out of their children’s mouths. Whilst Birmingham Councillors may have felt that those who could, should pay more than those who were in dire need of financial support, the irony was that the means test included the size of house which you were living in, but did not take into account the number of children you had…a quick glance of the newspapers at the time do show that the method of differential rent was not a popular one.
A renter’s strike was called which lasted for ten weeks, and in the July of 1939 the Local Authority backed down with their plans, it was probably quite terrifying seeing how the working class came together to fight what they felt was injustice.
Just these few things show that Jessie Eden was indeed a strong and amazing woman, who believed in fairness and was not afraid to speak up.