The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-01-10
INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM in
ENGLAND NEARLY A CENTURY AGO
BY Robert Hunter.

BY Robert Hunter.
| Courtesy of The National Socialist.)
Jules Guesde, at the Congress of
the Socialist party of France, held at
Lille, said( in, ,condemning the General
Strike: Before taking stand on the
General Strike, it is necessary to
know what this term signifies. The
General Strike is, in fact, originally
the weapon of the employer" He then
showed that the English employers,
by means of the lockout, forced what
amounted to the General Strike, and
by this action impoverished the work
ers and destroyed the unions.
| Guesde is not altogether accurate.
1t was a General Strike that led to the
lockout. The lockout was the answer
of the employer to what was perhaps
the greatest effort in history to para
lyze industry by means of "one big
union" and General Strike.
The one big union of which we hear
SO much today existed in England in
the early thirties. Several unsuccess-
full efforts were made to form Gen
eral Union Of the Productive Classes"
and at last Robert Owen, toward the
end of 1888, outlined his great plan.
ut is intended" he said, chat ma
tional arrangements shall be formed
to include all working classes in the
great organization, and that each de-
partment shall become acquainted
with what is going on in other de-
partments; that all individual compe-
tition is to cease; that all manufac-
turers are to be carried on by national
companies. All trades shall first
form associations of lodges, to con-
sist of convenient number for carry
ing on the business All
individuals of the specific craft shall
become members.
Immediately after this, we find in
existence" say Sidney and Beatrice
Webb, "a Grand National Consoli-
dated Trades Union'!" This organic
alton seems to have already actually
started in January, 1884. Owen was
it's chief recruiter and propagandist.
During the next few months his activi-
ty was incessant, and lodges were af-
filiated all over the country. Innum
cradle local trade clubs were alb
sorbed. Early in February, 1884, a
special delegate meeting was held at
Owens London Institute in Charlotte
Street, Fitroy Square, at which it
was resolved that the new body
should take the form of federation
or separate trade lodges, each lodge
to be composed usually of members
of one trade, but with provision for
miscellaneous lodges in places
where the numbers were small, and
even for "female miscellaneous lod-
ges." Each lodge retained it's own
funds, levies being made throughout
the whole order for strike purposes.
The conference urged each lodge to
provide sick, funeral, and superan-
nuation benefits for it's members, and
proposals were adopted to lease land
on which to employ "turn-outs," and
to set up cooperative workshops. :.
Nothing in the annals of unionism
in this country at all approached the
rapidity of the growth which ensued.
Within few weeks the union appears
to have been joined by at least half
million members, including tens of
thousands of farm laborers and wo-
men. This must have been in great
measure due to the fact that, as no
discoverable regular contribution was
exacted for central expenses, the af-
filiation or absorption of existing or
ganizations was very easy: Still, the
extention of new lodges in previously
unorganized trades and districts was
for trade unionism set in. In Decem-
ber, 1888, we are told that scarcely a
branch of trade exists in the West of
Scotland that Is not now in a state OF
union The Times reports that two
delegates who went to Hull enrolled
in one evening a thousand men of var
ious trades. Shop assistants
on the one hand, and journeyman
chimney-sweeps on the other, were
swept into the vortex. The cabinet
makers of Belfast insisted on joining
the Trades Union, or Friendly Soci-
ETY., which had for its object the unity
of all cabinet makers in the three
| kindoms.' We hear of 'Ploughmen's
Unions as far as Perthshire, and of a
'Shearman's Union at Dundee. And
/ the then rural character of the Metro
| politian suburbs is quantity brought
home to us by the announcement of
union of the agricultural and other
laborers' of Kensington, Walham
l Green, Fulham, and Hammersmith
1 Nor we're the women neglected. The
| Grand Lodge of Operative Bonnet
Makers vies in activity with the mis-
!, cellaneous Grand Lodge of the Wo-
men of Great Britain and Ireland;
! and the Lodge of Female Tailors'
asks Indignantly whether the 'Tailors'