Discussion Groups / English Usage / December 2009

In this context fixed = organised or negotiated.

The General Strike of 1926 originated in orthodox
industrial disputes (strikes by coal miners and shipping
longshoremen seeking better pay and conditions) but
was at the time widely considered open "class warfare,"
cf. revolutions and street fighting as recently happened
in Russia, Bavaria, Hungary, Italy, etc.  Partisans of both
"red" working classes and conservative middle classes
braced themselves to defend their interests by violence
if necessary, at exactly the time when the government
was trying to decide what to do (e.g. to have the military
unload food ships, escort milkmen on their rounds to
deliver staples to women and children, etc.)   The
"Defence Corps" proposed by Bill Meadows to his
Bratt's Club cronies was young Oxbridge graduates
ready for a fight with the smelly proletarians.