2. Trade Unions

2.1 Introduction The two main strands comprising the British Labour Party are the Trade Unions and the ideas of Socialism. Both these topics require separate treatment and are dealt with next, but suffice it to say that by the second half of the 19th century Trade Unions had become a firm part of the social and political landscape and socialism, having struggled to gain a foothold through much of the century, had a major revival in the 1880s. It is the eventual co-joining of these two forces in 1900 that marks the start of the Labour Party.

Trade Union banners at the Durham Miners Gala

2.2 The Precursors If we take the Webbs’1 definition of trade unions as, “a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their working lives” then the origins of trade unions lie in the gradual emergence of the modern working class from the late 17th century and 18th century. Even then the existence of continuous associations cannot really be said to exist. For that you have to jump to the middle of the 19th century. But early examples provide a basis for later development.

2.3 Medieval Guilds Some historians seek to trace trade unions back into the medieval period by drawing parallels with the Guild system. But, these were in many ways restrictive organisations designed to protect monopoly and prevent apprentices

1 The History of Trade Unionism, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb

Page 1 of 10 from earning too much or transitioning into skilled journeymen too soon. Both masters and journeymen were members of the craft Guilds. However, they can be seen as combinations designed to impact employment conditions for sectional interests.

2.4 Hatters and Chapels—the 17th Century Tracing back the origins of modern trade unions is difficult because workers were often forced to act secretly. The masters were deeply hostile to any attempt to improve wages and conditions in trades. The most complete example we have of an early is the Journeymen Hatters Trade Union of Great Britain and Ireland, which was founded in 1667 and carried on for over a century. In the 18th century more examples emerge when Tailor journeymen are recorded as well organised and Printers “chapels”, noted as early as 1666, had become established for compositors.

2.5 Onset of Industrial Capitalism—the 18th Century The onset of industrial capitalism in the late 18th century heralded a much greater effort by workers to establish trade unions. Miners and those working in textiles made valiant efforts to build viable associations during this early phase of capitalism but were usually defeated and driven out of existence. Brief victories were quickly overturned. This was a period of unceasing bravery and determination in the face of impossible odds. The principles of workers unity, solidarity of action and detestation of scabs and blacklegs became scorched deep into the minds of trade unionists during this period. Both the new factory workers and the artisans working in their cottage industries were forced to defend their conditions in the face of relentless pressure from the new class of industrial capitalists.

Cottage Industry Early factory production

To combat this the owners of factories and mines used the law to prevent combinations or to heavily circumscribe any actions such workers might want to take, especially . In addition, leaders and any known members of unions were usually sacked, evicted, if in tied accommodation, and generally harassed.

2.6 Friendly Societies Combinations of workers did not only exist to defend wages and conditions but also to provide benefits in times of sickness and death. These were called

Page 2 of 10 Friendly Societies and were common throughout the 18th century and later form an important aspect of modern trade union purpose.

2.7 Repression—1790s to 1824 In the fevered atmosphere of the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Government adopted numerous repressive pieces of legislation. Their main fears were uprisings and even revolution. The French Revolution and the War with France added to their panic. Among the measures adopted were the suspension of habeas Corpus and the passing of the Combinations Acts of 1799 and 1800. This allowed capitalists to bring tough actions against organisers and agitators for socialism and trade unionism. The Combinations Acts were not relaxed until 1824. In addition, another law, passed in 1797 banning the administering of unlawful oaths, was directly aimed at trade unions. However, these measures failed to stem continued attempts to form trade unions. Some owners of factories, especially the larger ones preferred trying to reach some accommodation with their workers so as to maintain production and profits. The climax of agitation against repressive laws and lack of democracy occurred in 1819 with the event known as the Peterloo Massacre. This will be the subject of a separate piece.

Although constant efforts were made to form trade unions and press for improvements at work the capacity to create lasting and effective trade unions proved much more difficult. This was largely due to the poverty of workers and their inability to afford union dues but the constant oppression by the factory and mine owners also played a significant part. There were also a vast number of workers who were unskilled or subject to frequent lay offs. They proved difficult to organise at this time and they provided a pool of unemployed and desperate workers who could be deployed by the bosses to undermined strikes and other efforts to improve conditions. These workers remained without trade unions throughout most of the 19th century.

2.8 Luddites Artisans in weaving and knitting, usually working from home or in small groups, sought to form trade unions and combinations to defend their position against new mechanisation and the rise of factory production. Their position became desperate and they resorted to conspiratorial action to destroy new machines,

Page 3 of 10 set fire to factories and similar actions. They became known as the Luddites and were eventually defeated by the use of the army and militias and their leaders executed or transported to Australia. These cottage industries gradually collapsed and largely disappeared.

2.9 Attempts at General Unions The repeal of the Combination Acts in 1824 and 1825 made it lawful for workers to belong to peaceful trade unions. But, new harsher penalties were put into place for violence and intimidation. Trade Unions were still subject to criminal law when trying to pursue their objectives. In order to try to escape from the limitations of small unions efforts were made to form more general unions. The Builders, mainly in were able to establish a brief viable general union in the 1830s and this together with the impact of the ideas of the socialist, Robert Owen, led to the creation of one big union for all workers. This was formed and called the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (1833-34). It was met with enthusiasm and several workers sought to join from different trades.

2.10 Tolpuddle Martyrs In 1834 some Dorset agricultural labourers from Tolpuddle formed a Friendly Society and decided to affiliate to the Grand National Union.

Page 4 of 10

As there was considerable unrest throughout farming communities at this time the Government acted quickly and arrested six labourers who were charged with administering unlawful oaths. They were transported to Australia for 7 years. This led to massive protests and demonstrations and they were eventually pardoned in 1836. The Grand National Union collapsed after little over a year because very few of the half a million members were able to afford to pay the Union dues.

2.11 The Aristocracy of Labour The new era of trade unionism began on a smaller scale through the creation of industry-specific trade unions during the 1840s and 1850s. Carpenters, shoemakers, stonemasons and engineers achieved some success this way and gradually other craft trades followed suit. These new formations were less inclined to strike and placed emphasis on building up their finance, organisation and benefits, rather in the manner of Friendly Societies. They had full-time secretaries and gradually a small union bureaucracy was established. The success of trade unions at this time was largely limited to skilled workers and they adopted a superior attitude to the rest of the working class, their leaders often adopting the style and modes of the middle class or the bourgeois. This “aristocracy” of labour as it was termed began to develop ingrained “conservative” values and in so far as they took an interest in politics saw their place in urging support for the Liberal Party and occasionally the Tories. These mid years of the 19th century represented the most stable period of Victorian Britain, when the new bourgeois class was confident in their power, the British Empire was expanding rapidly and the British economy dominated the world. This laid the basis for what Engels was later to call the “bourgeoisification” of the leaders of these skilled workers, the so-called aristocracy of the working class.

2.12 Trades Councils Trades Councils form an important part of our story as they played a significant role in the development of both the trade union movement and the early Labour Party. Probably the first such organisation was the Liverpool Trades Guardian Association, formed in 1848 to protect Trade Unions from suppression by the employers’ use of the criminal law.

Page 5 of 10 Glasgow too had an early series of joint committees of delegates from Trade Unions with a similar purpose. An Association of Organised Trades was formed in Sheffield in 1857. In 1860, after several precursors, the was formed, by far the most powerful and significant of the Trades Councils. As a movement the idea spread so that between 1858 and 1867 Trades Councils were established in 12 of the largest towns. This number doubled between 1870 and 1873 and in 1889-91 over 60 new Councils were established.

2.13 The Junta The Junta was a name given by the Sidney and Beatrice Webb to describe the leaders of the five strongest, craft-based unions who established their headquarters in London with full-time secretaries and a small staff. These leaders dominated the London Trades Council and asserted themselves as the leaders of the national Trade Union movement, although provincially based Trade Unions and Trades Councils resented this assumption. The Junta achieved national prominence when they persuaded the Government to involve the Trade Unions in the Royal Commission on Trade Unions in 1867. The Junta comprised, , secretary of the Amalgamated Carpenters Union, William Allan, secretary of the Amalgamated Engineers Union, , leader of the a Shoemakers Union, , general secretary of the “London Order” of the Bricklayers and Daniel Guile, secretary of the National Society of Iron founders. These leaders combined extreme caution in trade matters and energetic agitation for political reforms. Although London-based this powerful group had strong links around the country too, notably with Alexander MacDonald, Scottish organiser of the Miners’ National Union, John Kane of the North of England Ironworkers and William Dronfield leader of the Sheffield compositors.

2.14 The Formation of the 1868 The 1860s witnessed an increasing move by trade unionists to collaborate and form national organisations to defend individual trade unions. This was partly prompted by a downturn in trade and consequent efforts by the capitalists to reduce wages and conditions. If trade unions resisted this employers began to use the tactic of locking out workers and starving them back to work on reduced wages and conditions. The employers formed Federations to strengthen their position. The first effort by the Trade Unions to counter these moves was the formation, in 1866, of the UK Alliance of Organised Trades, based in Sheffield. It was resolved that Unions would contribute to a shared fund that could then be used to assist any Trade Union being locked out or involved in a dispute. Within a year the Alliance had folded due to lack of financial support by the individual unions.

In 1868 Sam Nicholson, President of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council and a compositor, together with Sam Wood the secretary, issued a fresh call to Trades Councils and Trade Unions to come together in a Congress for the purposes of discussion and publicity. This proved more fruitful.

Page 6 of 10

The meeting took place in 1868 in Manchester with 34 delegates representing 11 provincial trades councils and several national and local trade unions. This is generally taken to be the founding year of the Trades Union Congress. The Junta and London Trades Council deliberately cold-shouldered the Congress, seeing it as an unwelcome rival to their assumed dominance in the Trade Union sphere. This first Congress was a small beginning, scantily reported, but it did decide to hold annual congresses. The London Trades Council soon affiliated.

2.15 The TUC: Law and Parliament—the 1870s The Royal Commission on Trade Unions referred to above eventually led to fresh legislation in 1871. The Trade Union Act, 1871 was a big step forward for the trade union movement as it legalised Trade Unions for the first time and enabled them to protect their funds by registering under the Friendly Societies Act. The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1871, however, outlawed even the most elementary form of picketing and criminal damages could still be sought from trade unions undertaking any strikes.

The passing of these new laws led to the end of the Junta as their job was effectively completed and the leaders retiring or moving into Government jobs. The TUC assumed the role of advancing the cause of trade unions through Parliament and set up a permanent Parliamentary Committee. It is from this point on that Trade Unionists began to enter the political affray, largely as Liberals. The Liberal Party was seen as the radical party that was more open to working class aspirations and the most likely to introduce fresh legislation both in favour of Trade Unions and in improving the lives of working people. The franchise had been extended in 1867 and again in 1884. Thus, by the time of the 1874 election, better-off workers could vote and this created the opportunity for new working class representatives to be elected. The first two elected MPs who were working class were Alexander MacDonald, the miners’ leader elected at Stafford and Thomas Burt, the Northumberland miners’ leader, elected for Morpeth, both as Liberals. Thus began a 25-year period of so-called Lib-Lab MPs.

Page 7 of 10

Alexander MacDonald MP Thomas Burt

The latter half of the 1870s saw a recession in the economy that dampened the growth of trade unionism. This phase lasted until well into the 1880s.

2.16 —The 1880s The later 1880s marked something of a watershed in both Trade Union development and the politics of socialism. We will come on to the political context in another episode but for now it is important to highlight the growth of what has been termed “new unionism”. This was the breakthrough of trade unionism into the previously, largely unorganised, sector of unskilled labourers. This process started in London in the 1880s but there had been intimations of a new mood in the working class in the 1870s. This was especially manifest in Tyneside where miners and engineers combined in a 5-month strike to force the Nine Hour Day in 1871. This was a remarkable feat of organisation, public relations and endurance. But it wasn’t until 1888 that another significant victory blazed on the scene with the successful strike by the Bryant and May women match makers. They were supported by several prominent socialists, among them Annie Besant, a Fabian and Eleanor Marx, the daughter of Karl Marx.

Page 8 of 10

The match girl’s strike achieved considerable publicity and was followed very quickly by the organisation of some Gas workers in London in 1889. They were ably led by one of their own number, Will Thorne, who formed the Gas Workers and General Labourers’ Union (the first manifestation of what became the General and Municipal Workers Union). They demanded, from the South Metropolitan Gas Company, an end to the long hours of a two-shift system of work and won, without a strike, a three-shift pattern, thus securing an 8-hour day. Will Thorne was assisted in the technical organisation of the Union by Eleanor Marx. Two figures who became giants in the development of trade unionism and labour politics, both engineering workers, and also provided valuable support in developing the union and helping to organise action. With their help the union quickly spread into the provinces and became one of the most important unions in the TUC.

In 1889 the London Dockers went on strike for a pay rise. Ben Tillett who led the Tea Operatives Union on the docks was overwhelmed when a spontaneous strike developed to demand a wage increase. It quickly spread to involve thousands of dockers, steverdores and lightermen. Tom Mann and John Burns again stepped in to help. John Burns was especially dominant and became the leading figure on their daily, colourful marches through London.

Huge amounts were collected, in support of the strike including £30,000 from Australian labour movement and the Dockers won their main demand for 6d an hour extra (the dockers’ tanner as it was called). Tillett then set up the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers Union (the forerunner of the Transport and General Workers Union). Other workers inspired by these successes set up their own new unions. The General Railways Workers Union was established to fill the gap caused by the refusal of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants to adjust their subs to accommodate labourers. Havelock Wilson, a seaman working from Sunderland set about creating a new union that catered for both seamen and fire-fighters and by 1887 was able to form the National Amalgamated Sailors and Firemen’s Union. The National Union of Agricultural Labourers revived in 1890 under the leadership of Joseph Arch. Many other

Page 9 of 10 existing unions that had been declining now revived and expanded, especially the miners, bricklayers and boot and shoe operatives. After this there was no going back and trade unionism began to assume a major role in society.

2.17 Independent labour representation Throughout this period the TUC and especially its Parliamentary Committee, continued to be dominated by craft union leaders who were members and several of whom were Liberal MPs. The key figure was Henry Broadhurst, the leader of the Stonemasons Union from 1875 to 1885. Broadhurst was a Liberal MP and resolutely opposed all ideas of independent labour representation. How this changed so that the TUC was able to lunch the Labour Party will be part of a later instalment.

The next topic will explore how the ideas of socialism eventually took firm root in late Victorian Britain.

Page 10 of 10