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[[Image:Ford strike 1978.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Strikes began when 72,000 Ford workers "downed tools" and walked off the job, leaving 23 Ford factories across the country empty.]]
[[Image:Ford strike 1978.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Strikes began when 72,000 Ford workers "downed tools" and walked off the job, leaving 23 Ford factories across the country empty.]]
The phrase '''Winter of Discontent''' refers to the [[British]] winter of 1978-1979, when widespread [[Industrial action|strikes]] marked the largest stoppage of labour since the [[1926 General Strike]] as the working classes and the [[Trade Union]]s rebelled against the [[socialism|socialist]] government incumbent at the time. The period was marked by food shortages, power cuts, household refuse uncollected, and even the dead were left unburied.
The phrase '''Winter of Discontent''' refers to the [[British]] winter of 1978-1979, when widespread [[Industrial action|strikes]] marked the largest stoppage of labour since the [[1926 General Strike]] as the working classes and the [[Trade Union]]s rebelled against the [[socialism|socialist]] government incumbent at the time. The period was marked by food shortages, power cuts, household refuse uncollected, and even the dead were left unburied.
==Origin of the phrase==
''"Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York"'' was written by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] in his play '''Richard III''' (1594). It actually means that the period of discontent or unhappiness is ending, winter marking the end of a cycle. The phrase was used to describe the social and industrial unrest of the 1978-79 winter by the political editor of the British national [[newspaper]] ''The Sun''.