In
the 1860s Trades Councils were established in most of Britain's main
industrial towns and cities. In 1868 leaders of these Trade Councils
met in Manchester to discuss the possibility
of forming an organisation that would provide a united voice in defence
of trade union rights. At the meeting the 34 delegates
agreed to establish the Trade
Union Congress (TUC) and to hold a meeting every year to discuss issues
of importance to the labour movement.
At the third Trade Union Congress in London
in 1871 a Parliamentary Committee was appointed. Its purpose was to
bring pressure on MPs to amend the 1871 Trade
Union Act. In the 1874 General Election
the Parliamentary Committee asked candidates certain questions on
their attitudes to trade unions, and members were urged to vote for
or against them on the basis of their replies. Those MPs elected in
1874 included two miners, Alexander MacDonald
and Thomas Burt, who fully supported the
policies of the TUC.
In 1896 Robert Smillie president of the
Scottish Miners' Federation helped establish the Scottish Trade Union
Congress. His role was recognised when he was elected chairman at
its first conference, a post he was to hold until 1899. The Scottish
TUC was more radical than the English TUC with many of its leaders
being members of the Independent Labour Party.
On 27th February 1900, the Trade Union Congress and representatives
of all the socialist groups in Britain (the Independent
Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation
and the Fabian Society,) met at the Memorial
Hall in Farringdon Street, London. After a debate the 129 delegates
decided to pass a motion put forward by James
Keir Hardie to establish "a distinct Labour group in Parliament,
who shall have their own whips, and agree upon their policy, which
must embrace a readiness to cooperate with any party which for the
time being may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interests
of labour." To make this possible the Conference established
a Labour Representation Committee (LRC).
The LRC committee established in 1900 included seven trade unionists
and two members from the Independent Labour Party,
two from the Social Democratic Federation,
one member of the Fabian Society. After
the 1906 General Election the LRC became
known as the Labour Party.
Harry Furniss, Punch Magazine
(1884)
(1)
Friedrich Engels, Condition of the Working
Class in England (1844)
When, on the other hand, the working-men received in 1824 the right
of free association, these combinations were very soon spread over
all England and attained great power. In all branches of industry
Trades Unions were formed with the outspoken intention of protecting
the single workingman against the tyranny and neglect of the bourgeoisie.
The objects were: to fix wages and to deal, en masse, as a power,
with the employers; to regulate the rate of wages according to the
profit of the latter, to raise it when opportunity offered, and to
keep it uniform in each trade throughout the country. Hence they tried
to settle with the capitalists a scale of wages to be universally
adhered to, and ordered out on strike the employees of such individuals
as refused to accept the scale. They aimed further to keep up the
demand for labour by limiting the number of apprentices, and so to
keep wages high; to counteract, as far as possible, the indirect wages
reductions which the manufacturers brought about by means of new tools
and machinery; and finally, to assist unemployed workingmen financially.
This they do either directly or by means of a card to legitimate the
bearer as a 'society man', and with which the workingman wanders from
place to place, supported by his fellow-workers, and instructed as
to the best opportunity for finding employment. This is tramping,
and the wanderer a tramp. To attain these ends, a President and Secretary
are engaged at a. salary (since it is to be expected that no manufacturer
will employ such persons), and a committee 'collects the weekly contributions
and watches over their expenditure for the purposes of the association.
When it proved possible and advantageous, the various trades of single
districts united in a federation and held delegate conventions at
set times. The attempt has been made in single cases to unite the
workers of one branch over all England in one great Union; and several
times (in 1830 for the first time) to form one universal trades association
for the whole United Kingdom, with a separate organization for each
trade. These associations, however, never held together long, and
were seldom realized even for the moment, since an exceptionally universal
excitement is necessary to make such a federation possible and effective.
The means usually employed
by these Unions for attaining their ends are the following: If one
or more employers refuse to pay the wage specified by the Union, a
deputation is sent or a petition forwarded (the workingmen, you see,
know how to recognize the absolute power of the lord of the factor
in his little State); if this proves unavailing, the Union commands
the employees to stop work, and all hands go home. This strike is
either partial when one or several, or general when all employers
in the trade refuse to regulate wages according to the proposals of
the Union. So far go the lawful means of the Union, assuming the strike
to take effect after the expiration of the legal notice, which is
not always the case. But these lawful means are very weak, when there
are workers outside the Union, or when members separate from it for
the sake of the momentary advantage offered by bourgeoisie. Especially
in the case of partial strikes can the manufacture readily secure
recruits from these black sheep (who are known as knobsticks), and
render fruitless the efforts of the united workers. Knobsticks are
usually threatened, insulted, beaten, or otherwise maltreated by the
members of the Union; intimidated, in short, in every way. Prosecution
follows, and as the law-abiding bourgeoisie has the power in its own
hands, the force of the Union is broken almost every time by the first
unlawful act, the first judicial procedure against its members.
(2)
Philip
Snowden, An Autobiography (1934)
The
Trades Unions were very dissatisfied with the attitude of the Liberal
Government to the legal position of Trade Unionism. In 1869, at the
instigation of John Stuart Mill, an organisation was formed under
the name of the Labour Representation League to carry out a national
campaign to secure the return of working men to Parliament. It does
not appear to have been the intention of this League to form a party
which could be permanently in opposition to the Liberal Party. Mills'
idea was that, if the working classes put forward working-men candidates
and threatened the Liberal majority, the Liberals would be glad to
come to terms and provide opportunities for the return of working
men. After the election of 1874 the League placed twelve working men
in the field, and of these Thomas Burt and Alexander MacDonald were
elected at Morpeth and Stafford respectively.
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