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The Special Relationship

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

When the Labour Party led by Ramsay MacDonald took office for the second time in June 1929, Walter Citrine, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), hoped that his organization's ... More

When the Labour Party led by Ramsay MacDonald took office for the second time in June 1929, Walter Citrine, the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), hoped that his organization's relationship with the Government would be more harmonious than with its predecessor in 1924. The unhappiness of trade unions about the 1924 Government stemmed in part from the response of a Labour Government to industrial action by a union affiliated to the Labour Party. During the second Labour Government, labour disputes were initiated typically by employers seeking pay cuts and cost-cutting changes in a context of depression. Against the factors favouring distinctiveness and independence, trade unions in the late 1920s placed much weight on the election of a Labour Government; the corollary was that the Government-TUC relationship should be harmonious and productive. This chapter examines the politics behind the Labour-TUC relationship and how both parties responded to issues such as rising unemployment.Less

Bevin’s Union: Loyalism and Iconoclasm

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

As the Labour Party's political and industrial leaderships moved rapidly to define and to consolidate their position after the August 1931 collapse of the Labour Government led by Ramsay MacDonald, ... More

As the Labour Party's political and industrial leaderships moved rapidly to define and to consolidate their position after the August 1931 collapse of the Labour Government led by Ramsay MacDonald, achievement of these objectives was hindered by accumulating tensions between Labour politicians and trade union leaders. Walter Citrine, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary, had been central to the bargaining over delicate issues between the Labour Government and the TUC. Increasingly, he had become dismayed about what he saw as Government insensitivity towards legitimate concerns of trade unions. Trade union priorities were central to the post-MacDonald Labour Party and they were expressed most forcibly by Ernest Bevin, the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union. This chapter looks at Bevin's approach to politics, loyalism, and iconoclasm as a union leader towards the Labour Party.Less

After the Combination Acts

MARK CURTHOYS

in Governments, Labour, and the Law in Mid-Victorian Britain: The Trade Union Legislation of the 1870s

After the repeal of the Combination Acts in the mid-1820s, the extent of the freedom to combine, and the wisdom of exercising that freedom, continued to be disputed in Britain. Robert Peel, the home ... More

After the repeal of the Combination Acts in the mid-1820s, the extent of the freedom to combine, and the wisdom of exercising that freedom, continued to be disputed in Britain. Robert Peel, the home secretary responsible for bringing in the measure of 1825, had intended that the scope for legal combination should be kept within very narrow limits. Peel's whig successor, Lord Melbourne, appeared to take a slightly more relaxed view of what the new statute meant. Artisan radicals, on the other hand, claimed the liberty to combine on virtually unrestricted terms, provided only that it was peacefully exercised. This chapter examines the criminal liabilities of strikers after the ban on combinations was lifted. The Wolverhampton trials, which involved the National Association of Union Trades and opened the way to a new phase of judicial creativity towards trade unions and strikes, are analyzed.Less

Taking the Lead? The Scottish Labour Movement and Spain

Fraser Raeburn

in Scots and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity, Activism and Humanitarianism

The labour movement represented the single most important constituency for pro-Republican activism in Scotland, representing a considerable concentration of financial resources and political ... More

The labour movement represented the single most important constituency for pro-Republican activism in Scotland, representing a considerable concentration of financial resources and political influence. Yet it was far from clear how far the structures of Scottish trade unionism were suited for waging a long and sustained solidarity campaign for Spain. Despite the willingness of key local and regional institutions such as Trades Councils to take the lead in organising a Scottish response to the conflict, the increasingly centralised structures of the British labour movement often acted to limit the effectiveness of more local efforts. While innovative and increasingly effective approaches emerged over the course of the Spanish Civil War, culminating in a series of successful foodship campaigns in 1938 and 1939, the Scottish labour movement also faced considerable resistance from anti-communist elements, even in traditionally radical sectors such as mining unions.Less

Federation Factionalism

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

By the mid-1920s, a pattern of factionalism had developed within the Miners' Federation of Great Britain which would characterize the union for many years. The Right included most District Officials ... More

By the mid-1920s, a pattern of factionalism had developed within the Miners' Federation of Great Britain which would characterize the union for many years. The Right included most District Officials who emphasized a realistic defence of miners' interests backed by thorough expression of loyalty to the Labour Party. The character of the Left was sharpened by the formation of the Miners' Minority Movement in 1924. Its initial strategy of an alliance between Communists and other left-wingers reflected current Communist concerns to achieve a broad left alliance within the trade unions and the Trades Union Congress. This factional alignment crystallized slowly. In 1924, the ‘proper’ relationship between the Communist Party and the Labour Party remained unclear. The unions still jealously protected their power to select their delegates to Labour Party meetings without outside interference. This chapter also looks at Arthur Cook and his politics and industrial leadership compared with Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald.Less

Contests and Contingencies

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

In the Trades Union Congress (TUC) meeting in September 1931, the mood was set by Arthur Hayday in his Presidential address. Hayday, an experienced Labour backbencher, drew the moral of the crisis; ... More

In the Trades Union Congress (TUC) meeting in September 1931, the mood was set by Arthur Hayday in his Presidential address. Hayday, an experienced Labour backbencher, drew the moral of the crisis; ‘courageous and determined action by the national bodies invested with authority in the labour and trade union movement has saved the working class from destruction’. This rhetoric was followed by the calm of Walter Citrine, lucidly chronicling the trade union involvement in the August events. Ramsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden were presented as having capitulated to a deflationary policy resisted by the TUC since the restoration of the Gold Standard. Later in the week delegates debated a report on the financial crisis. The debate was brief; the vote was unanimous. A more emotional passage in the proceedings came with the speech by the Labour Party's fraternal delegate, Arthur Henderson.Less

The Political and the Industrial

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

Trade union priorities lay at the heart of the Labour Representation Committee's formation in 1900, which was evident in the new organization's structure and in its pragmatic electoral and ... More

Trade union priorities lay at the heart of the Labour Representation Committee's formation in 1900, which was evident in the new organization's structure and in its pragmatic electoral and parliamentary strategy. Prior to 1914, the Parliamentary Labour Party led by Ramsay MacDonald often behaved like a trade union pressure group. Its concerns involved the priorities of specific unionized occupations. The shifting party alignments and strengths from 1918 led to heightened trade union hopes for the Labour Party. Liberal disunity and Labour expansion meant that a Labour Government was becoming increasingly plausible. This prospect inevitably raised the question of the appropriate relationship between the individual unions and the Trades Union Congress — and the Labour Party and a Labour Government. This chapter looks at the internal politics of selected trade unions such as the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, as well as the conflict involving particular individuals who were both prominent Labour politicians and important trade union officials like Jimmy Thomas.Less

Constructing Labour Woman

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

In the 1920s, Margaret Bondfield had symbolized more than any other individual the status of women in Labour Party politics; she was a Member of Parliament in 1923-1924 and from 1926, a junior ... More

In the 1920s, Margaret Bondfield had symbolized more than any other individual the status of women in Labour Party politics; she was a Member of Parliament in 1923-1924 and from 1926, a junior Minister in 1924, and the first woman Cabinet Minister in 1929. This was coupled with prominence in the trade union world, playing a key role in the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Her role in both industrial and political activities involved a discourse that played down and often denied the distinctiveness of women 's interests within the labour movement. Pre-1914, Bondfield had been a women's trade union organizer, an adult suffragist, and a prominent member of the Independent Labour Party. Later she marginalized and frequently criticized feminist concerns, her socialism became much more formal, and her union was absorbed into the National Union of General and Municipal Workers. Within both party and the TUC she became a stalwart of the Right, a keen supporter of Ramsay MacDonald and a strong anti-Communist.Less

Brawn and bravery: glorifying the working body

Joanne Begiato

in Manliness in Britain, 1760-1900: Bodies, Emotion, and Material Culture

This chapter examines representations of working men’s bodies. Section one explores the nobility assigned to the muscular body, interrogated through the imagined blacksmith and navvy. The second ... More

This chapter examines representations of working men’s bodies. Section one explores the nobility assigned to the muscular body, interrogated through the imagined blacksmith and navvy. The second section addresses the role of heroism, another appealing quality, primarily through miners, firemen, and life-boat men. Such strong and appealing working-men offered a more comforting vision of working-class masculinity than that in which they were politically and socially dangerous. Kindness was attributed to both brawn and brave stereotypes, taming the muscular and reckless body. This was not their only function for a middle-class audience, since the same combination of alluring physical and emotional qualities also rendered the working-class male body desirable as a manly ideal. The chapter then shows that the working classes created and disseminated their own highly emotional and material manifestation of working-class manliness on the material culture of trades unions and friendly societies. However, the emotions associated with them were subtly different and deployed in different ways. For middle-class men, the attractive working man was reassuring and admirable, for working-class men he was a measure of their right to be included in the civic polity. (185 words)Less

Socialism and the Religious Imagination

Dr Philip Lockley

in Visionary Religion and Radicalism in Early Industrial England: From Southcott to Socialism

This concluding chapter reconsiders James Smith’s socialist career from 1833 to the early 1840s in the light of his theological understanding of human agency and the millennium. It first reassesses ... More

This concluding chapter reconsiders James Smith’s socialist career from 1833 to the early 1840s in the light of his theological understanding of human agency and the millennium. It first reassesses the influence of Smith’s Southcottian experience on the ideas he promoted within the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union of 1833-34. Later parts explore Smith’s subsequent ideas articulated in his Shepherd journal, especially concerning socialism (Owenite, Saint-Simonian and Fourierist), individualism and the imagination. Smith’s eventual shift away from all socialisms was not merely the result of disillusion; it stemmed from Smith’s contemplation of the prospective place of religion in a socialist society. Smith resolved that the individualism of the human creative imagination – a reflection of God’s own creativity – must be prioritised over a potentially constrictive socialism. Advocating the importance of ‘practical mysticism’, Smith’s later writings are a significant religious reflection on the limits of all human political plans and imagined futures.Less

The Communist Party and the Labour Movement, 1920–1926

in The Political Trajectory of J. T. Murphy

In December 1920, J. T. Murphy returned to Britain after attending the Second Congress of the Comintern in Russia. While in London, he paid a visit to his ex-girlfriend Ethel Morris, who had been ... More

In December 1920, J. T. Murphy returned to Britain after attending the Second Congress of the Comintern in Russia. While in London, he paid a visit to his ex-girlfriend Ethel Morris, who had been actively involved in the pre-war suffragette campaign as the organiser of the Sheffield branch of the Women's Social and Political Union. In the late spring of 1922, Murphy moved to London with Morris, who was already his wife. This chapter examines Murphy's involvement with the Red International of Labour Unions, his influential role directing the British Communist Party's industrial work, and his relationship with the Labour Party. It also looks at his approach towards the ‘Bolshevisation’ of the Labour Party in 1923–1924 as well as his attitude towards the Trades Union Congress General Council and the ‘left’ union leaders prior to the 1926 General Strike. In addition, it discusses the influence of the Comintern on both Murphy and the Communist Party of Great Britain.Less

Tensions and Fault Lines: The Lib-Lab MPs, the Wider Labour Movement and the Role of Irish Nationalism, 1885–8

James Owen

in Labour and the Caucus: Working-Class Radicalism and Organised Liberalism in England, 1868-1888

This chapter challenges the current orthodoxy concerning the largely untroubled relationship between working-class radicalism and Liberalism in the third-quarter of the nineteenth century. It begins ... More

This chapter challenges the current orthodoxy concerning the largely untroubled relationship between working-class radicalism and Liberalism in the third-quarter of the nineteenth century. It begins by examining the nature of the deals struck between Lib-Lab MPs and organised Liberalism at the 1885 general election, and the tensions that were exposed when a working-class candidate failed to garner the Liberal nomination, paying particular attention to the tactics used by both sides in the subsequent parliamentary campaign. The second part of the chapter analyses the competing definitions of a ‘Labour party’ in the mid-1880s, giving close scrutiny to whether the term stood for a particular group of people or a specific programme. The debates played out at the Trades Union Congress are considered. The third part of the chapter explores how the Irish nationalist movement shaped the ways in which the leaders of the labour movement conceived the notion of what a ‘Labour party’ stood for, and assesses the extent to which the strategies employed by Irish nationalists during the Home Rule crisis served as a model for the labour movement in its dealings with the Liberal party. The chapter concludes by re-examining the significance of KeirHardie's election campaign at Mid-Lanark in 1888.Less

Workers and Politics, 1894–1920

Henry M. Mckiven

in Iron and Steel: Class, Race, and Community in Birmingham, Alabama, 1875-1920

This chapter describes how organized workers used their political power to defend their interests when they confronted challenges to their authority at work and in the community. The Birmingham ... More

This chapter describes how organized workers used their political power to defend their interests when they confronted challenges to their authority at work and in the community. The Birmingham Trades Union Council, through the Labor Advocate, repeatedly warned members against political passivity in an era of rapid change in the relationship between capital and labor. In 1898, the Advocate defined politics as “a craft by which one class oppresses another class. The burdens of laws enacted in the interest of certain classes, cliques, or corporations is the fruit of the present political machine.” It concluded its comments by reminding readers that politicians made possible “the placing of capital over labor; the control of labor by the control of wages constituted the subtle craft which took the place of powder and ball.”Less

From ethos to mythos: the General Strike and Britishness

Rachelle Hope Saltzman

in A Lark for the Sake of Their Country: The 1926 General Strike Volunteers in Folklore and Memory

‘From Ethos to Mythos: the General Strike and Britishness’ surveys and analyzes the ways that different interest groups have selectively reproduced the story of the 1926 General Strike as a ... More

‘From Ethos to Mythos: the General Strike and Britishness’ surveys and analyzes the ways that different interest groups have selectively reproduced the story of the 1926 General Strike as a historical and metaphorical symbol. As a cultural product, the strike served and serves to validate the various political perspectives of former volunteers, Marxist historians, amateur historians, the Labour Party, and the Trades Union Congress, as well as museum curators, novelists, playwrights, educators, and restauranteurs. This chapter shows how one event in a nation's history can transform a multi-vocal cultural symbol into a national metaphor, making it available and relevant for present-day pundits, scholars, politicians, educators, and business people to use for redefining British character.Less

Introduction

Melanie Simms, Jane Holgate, and Edmund Heery

in Union Voices: Tactics and Tensions in UK Organizing

This introductory chapter presents the book's rationale for discussing one of the most significant developments in British trade unionism: the increasing focus on organizing activity. It considers ... More

This introductory chapter presents the book's rationale for discussing one of the most significant developments in British trade unionism: the increasing focus on organizing activity. It considers the impact of the UK's Trades Union Congress (TUC) Organising Academy (OA), the participants in the training program, and the organizing campaigns that union organizers have run. In telling the story of what organizing is “like” on the front line, what organizers do, and how they do it, the book places the workplace struggles of workers and their unions at the core of its investigation. The chapter shows how one of the things that happened as ideas about organizing migrated from other countries to the United Kingdom is that the political conceptualization of why unions are organizing has been underexamined. The book then seeks to understand organizing as a political process, as well as the politics within the wider purpose of organizing.Less