The Sun.
London, England, 1834-05-02 00:00:00

PROPOSITIONS, &c.

The Committee of Management of the Grand Lodge of
United Operative Tailors of London, having convened this
Special Meeting of Delegates from various Trades' Unions
throughout the kingdom, respectfully beg to explain to it
the inducements which led them to call the meeting, and,
with much deference, to submit to it a set of propositions
comprising objects, the practical adoption of which they
consider to be of immediate necessity, and of the highest
importance.
The committee trust that they shall not be deemed as
assuming to themselves any degree of superiority over other
unions, in thus presuming to advise them upon the direc-
tion of their operations—their only object is the impartial
welfare of the whole. Conceiving that the future success
of the cause of the unions mainly depends upon their acting
in complete concert with each other, and in their being
guided by the same general laws and principles, and, under
the impression that no time should now be lost in supine-
ness, this committee have, after due consideration, ven-
tured to call together their brother representatives to deli-
berate with them upon those measures which appear the
best calculated to insure the general good. And, if the
whole of the different trades cannot be induced thus to act
in unity, they confidently hope that the majority of them
will see the immense advantages to be derived from such a
course, as they would thereby- be enabled to gain with ease
the full restitution of those rights which have been so long
withheld from them by the monopoly of capitalists and the
ignorance of those who have hitherto ruled our destinies.
The paramount necessity of a unity of action by the
unions, on well-defined plans, is rendered evident by the
state of our brethren in Derby, to relieve the unfortunate
condition of whom is indeed one of the principal objects for
the consideration of this meeting. It must be a matter of
deep regret to all of us, that no arrangements have yet
been made calculated for the permanent, profitable employ
of the turned-out operatives of that place :as it appears to
this committee, that had the unions been consolidated,
1 they would have placed those men ere this, by one simul-
taneous movement, beyond the reach of their merciless op-
pressors, and have put them in a position whereby they
would soon have been enabled to commence repaying the
amount which might have been advanced to them.
But in the isolated state in which the unions at present
remain, not one of them can depend with certainty upon
the efficient aid of the others, in any great struggle in
which they may be compelled to engage by the blind oppo-
sition of their employers. It is only by a concentration of
their force upon objects of a permanent nature—in fact, it
is only by their showing to the world that the producers of
real wealth and knowledge can, if they choose, make them-
selves a distinct and separate body from those who produce
neither, that the just demands of industry will be univer-
sally allowed and conceded. It is earnestly to be desired
that measures will emanate from this meeting proportion-
ate to the accomplishment of these aims.
The committee deem it here proper to observe, that
they do not consider a consolidation of the funds of
the different trades' unions necessary, or even expe-
dient. All that they contend for on this head is, that
a unity of action should be maintained throughout
them ;—that they should all be under the same regula-
tions as regards their general government and organiza-
tion ;—and that a perfect agreement should exist among
them as to the males of levying and disposing of all
sums collected for the relief of members on occasions of
emergency, and where, otherwise, a detached society might
fall victims to their oppressors for want of means to enter
upon arrangements of pe manent stability, to procure
which it is not to be expected that the casual donations and
subscriptions of the benevolent will be found adequate.

PROPOSITION I.

The first proposition of this committee is, therefore, that
as many different trades' unions as possible, do mutually
agree, under a perfect awlerstanding with each other, to
maintain a unity of action in all their proceedings, with
respect to their general laws and government, and also
with regard to the levying and disposing of all funds raised
for objects of presumed permanent utility.
It appears to this committee that the endeavour to find
lasting aid to our turned-out brethren of Derby by erect-
ing new machinery for them to produce articles which are
not necessary for, or directly consumable by themselves,
their brother unionists, or the working classes generally,
will prove futile, inasmuch as their labours so directed
Would only tend to glut the already filled markets of such
productions, consequently to lower prices, and thereby re-
duce to the lowest ebb the scanty wages of all those em-
ployed in the manufacture of them. But, if it be prac-
ticable to devise the means and the method of employing
them in the production of articles of essential usefulness
and indispensableness to the working man, such as food,
clothing, &c. &c.,_ they would be at once raised from their
present state of dependency upon that promiscuous suc-
cour for which they are now the humiliated though grate-
ful supplicants ; and their generous benefactors would be
saved that anxiety for their welfare which they now ex-
pZri ence.
To effect this desirable end, the only means apparent to
this committee are the following :