The Working Class Movement Library welcomed Simon Partridge on Wednesday 9th May who showed his independent film titled Liverpool Labour Police Striker – The William Smith Story.
The film follows the story of William Smith, Mr Partridge’s great-grandfather.
The film is about Liverpool in the 1920s and particularly the events around the 1919 police strike, in which 954 policemen were sacked when they walked out in an attempt to have a recognised union.
Simon Partridge, a Performing Arts lecturer at UCLAN explained that the movie has taken him over 5 years to get all the material that he felt was necessary to present the film fully.
“The second stage, actually physically making the film, was done in spring/summer 2017 and took around three months.” Simon then went on to explain that the project was created on a shoestring budget. “I got permission to use material from many sources including descendants from the actual strikers so they were very helpful to get a different perspective.”
“This all started after I just casually started to help my mother out with family research and from this it just started to become a personal mission of mine to tell the story effectively.”
“The film is based on his life and his perspective, so it gives info on how his life began, how he got involved in the strike and the aftermath.”
When asked why he brought the film to Salford, he said he had received a lot of help from the Working Class Movement Library so he decided to repay the favor and allow them a copy of the film in return for helping him.
Check out my story about the 1918-1919 police strikes https://t.co/p1BO3p4FgU
— Dan (@DanMarland1998x) May 18, 2018
Simon spoke about the film being shown in other places.
“I think this Salford screening will be the last of the current Q&A style but it is a really important one to give the people of Salford an insight into the strikes.”
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