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The National Council of Labour, 1921–1946*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
The National Council of Labour attempted to coordinate the policies and actions of the Trades Union Congress and Labour party. It had a checkered history and eventually failed. Its existence, however, demonstrated that the leadership of the Trades Union Congress and Labour party were grappling with questions which have constantly confronted modern British labor, especially the ever-present controversy over the TUC and party relationship, as well as whether a unified labor movement is possible or even desirable, or whether the TUC and labour party appropriately represent components within such a movement. If the last is true, do both institutions share fundamental concepts, and can they develop common tactics or approaches in furthering them? Are those “two wings” mutually dependent? Can the party aid the TUC in achieving its political goals? If the concerns of the TUC and party differ, can they or should they be reconciled? Should the TUC-party relationship remain the same whether the party is in government or in opposition?
The National Council of Labour consisted of representatives from the TUC's General Council, the Labour party's National Executive Committee (NEC), and the parliamentary Labour party's Executive Committee (PLP executive). Originally created in 1921 as the National Joint Council, it was reconstituted in 1930 and again in 1931-32, renamed the National Council of Labour in 1934, and began declining in 1940 to impotence by 1946. It was an extra-parliamentary, extra-party body designed to enhance cooperation and coherence within the labor movement.
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- Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1986
Footnotes
*
An earlier version of this paper was presented in November 1983 to the Southern Historical Association, where comments from Professors John D. Fair and Bentley B. Gilbert were most helpful. The research was supported financially by the Middle Tennessee State University Faculty Research Fund.
References
1 This article uses the title National Council of Labour for all general comments. Both Labour Party Archives (LPA) and Congress House (TUC) contain National Joint Council (NJC) and National Council of Labour (NCL) minute books and documents. Both locations contain minutes of most Joint Meetings of the General Council (GC) and National Executive Committee (NEC), sometimes to include the parliamentary Labour party executive (PLP ex.).
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32 NJC, 27 May 1930. Report of Conference to Consider the Question of Joint Consultation (of GC/NEC), 21 January 1930, in Joint Meetings minute book, LPA. Finance and General Purposes Committee, 10 February 1930, FGPC minutes, TUC. GC, 22 January 1930; and 26 March 1930. The General Council even considered eliminating the PLP representation, perhaps solely to balance the membership but also perhaps because the PLP Consultative Committee was unimportant.
33 Committee minutes records are as follows: Joint Meeting of GC/NEC, 20 August 1931. Joint Meeting of GC/NEC/PLP Consultative Committee, 26-27 August 1931. GC, 20-21 August 1931; and 16-17 August 1931. Minutes of GC subcommittee and cabinet subcommittee, 20 August 1931, in GC minute book. NEC 26-27 August 1931. Joint Meeting (of GC/NEC/full PLP), 28 August 1931, in Joint Meeting minute book, LPA.
34 Meeting of the Special Committee (on) … Sub-committees, 29 September 1931, file T932, TUC.
35 The General Council now furnished seven members (one being co-chairman) and a secretary, the NEC furnished three members (one being a co-chairman) and a secretary, and the PLP furnished three members and a secretary. The erroneous view that it was the 1931-32 NJC restructuring when the party was weak (rather than 1930 when the party was strong) which increased the General Council's membership to equal that of the party executive and PLP combined is perpetuated in Pimlott, , Labour and the Left, p. 19Google Scholar; Shackleton, Richard, “Trade Unions and the Slump,” in Trade Unions in British Politics, ed. Pimlott, Ben and Cook, Chris (London, 1982), p. 127Google Scholar (both Pimlott and Shackleton also do not include the joint secretaries as members); and Middlemas, Keith, Politics in Industrial Society: The Experience of the British System since 1911 (London: 1979), p. 321Google Scholar.
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37 NJC, 29 June 1932; 5 July 1932; and (NEC) Report, 20 December 1932. Memorandum Regarding Procedures and Functions of the NJC, 21 January 1932, NJC minute book. NEC, 22 June 1932; and 27 July 1933. Joint Meeting of NEC/PLP, 27 January 1932, NEC minute book. Joint Committee on Party Discipline, 11 February 1932; and 18 March 1932, NEC minute book. Policy no. 64, presented to NEC, 22 June 1932. Policy Committee, 21 July 1932; and 21 June 1933, NEC minute book. Labour Annual Report, 1931, pp. 8, 236–7; 1932, pp. 168-9; and 1933; pp. 6, 166-8Google Scholar. Without benefit of the background documents, McKenzie provided a misleading coverage of Clynes's presentation; British Political Parties, pp. 320-3. See Brookshire, Jerry H., “Clement Attlee and Cabinet Reform, 1930-1945,” The Historical Journal 24 (1981): 179-80, 187Google Scholar.
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46 For instance, see GC, 3 September 1936. NCL, (PLP) Report, March 1937.
47 GC, 27 February 1936: and 25 March 1936. NCL, (PLP) Report, 21 April 1936.
48 NJC, 26 April 1932 and (PLP and GC) Report; 31 May 1932; and (PLP and GC) Report, 20 June 1932. TUC Report, 1932, pp. 190-1. 266 House of Commons Debates, 27 May 1932, cols. 715-24. In early 1935, Attlee defended the PLP's actions on health insurance. NCL, 22 January 1935 and (TUC) Report; 26 February 1935.
49 NCL, 22 February 1938.
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59 NCL, 22 December 1936; 26 January 1937; 23 March 1937 (the General Council alone sent a deputation to the British government over Spain); 23 November 1937; and 21 June 1938. Summarized report of the IFTU executive, 9-10 November 1938, International Committee Papers, T1854, TUC. Labour Annual Report, 1937, pp. 212–7Google ScholarPubMed. Citrine, , Men and Work, pp. 359–60Google Scholar.
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61 NEC, 9 September 1936; 18 September 1936; 1-2 October 1936; 27 January 1937; 24 February 1937; 23 March 1937; 4 May 1937; 26 May 1937; 23 June 1937; and 28 July 1937. International Sub-committee, 19 February 1937, in NEC minute book. Memorandum on Foreign Policy and Defense (by Dalton), n.d., in NEC minute book. NCL, 24 November 1936, 27 July 1937; and 24 August 1937. See Bullock, , Bevin, 1:590–1Google Scholar; and Naylor, , Labour's International Policy, pp. 157-61, 196–202Google Scholar. Naylor incorrectly wrote that an NCL subcommittee drafted the statement, though actually the party executive initiated the draft.
62 NCL, 26 September 1939; 31 March 1941; 27 May 1941; and 22 July 1941.
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64 NCL, 23 June 1940, 25 February 1941, and 11 March 1941. GC, 12 May 1940; 29-30 January 1941; 4 February 1941; and 26 February 1941. NEC, 26 February 1941. Dalton diary, 11 May 1940. Citrine, , Two Careers, p. 48–9Google Scholar, mildly records some other episodes. Citrine was absent in the United States, however, during those January and early February 1941 meetings over the EPA order.
65 NCL, 31 October 1940; 17 December 1940; 21 January 1940; 27 March 1941; 31 March 1941 (the quotation above); and 22 April 1941. GC, 23 October 1940; 22 January 1941; 29 January 1941; 26 February 1941; 10 April 1941, 23 April 1941, 1 September 1941; 3 September 1941; and 22 July 1942. Joint Meeting of GC/NEC/PLP ex., 7 May 1941, in NCL minute book. Joint Meeting of GC/PLP, 15 May 1941, in GC minute book.
66 NCL, 21 July 1942. GC, 22 July 1942. Joint Meeting of GC/NEC/PLP ex., 24 May 1944, in GC minute book.
67 NCL, 27 November 1945; 22 January 1946; and 26 February 1946. NCL subcommittee, 11 and 16 January 1946. Phillips to Morrison, 31 October 1945; Phillips to Citrine, 24 January 1946; and Phillips to Whiteley, 30 January 1946, in Miscellaneous folder on NCL, Morgan Phillips Papers, LPA.
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69 For instance, see Modern British Politics, pp. 211, 352-3, and 389-90; and his Britain Against Itself: The Political Contradictions of Collectivism (New York, 1982), pp. 3-4Google Scholar.
70 Dalton stressed to the government that the NCL represented “many millions of Trade Unionists and electors, and … the alternative Government in this country.” Dalton diary, 25 August 1939.
71 The theme is perhaps best expressed in an early major criticism of it: Miliband, Ralph, Parliamentary Socialism: A Study in the Politics of Labour (New York, 1964), pp. 193–4Google Scholar. A fine analysis of various views on I abour's ideology is presented in Drucker, H. M., Doctrine and Ethos in the Labour Party (London, 1979), pp. 2–8Google Scholar.
72 An analysis of the methodology of studying British pressure groups is found in Eckstein, Harry, Pressure Group Politics: The Case of the British Medical Association (Stanford, 1960), chap. 1Google Scholar, and Martin, TUC, chap. 1.
73 The NCL was proud of its unity in comparison with the French experience. NCL, 19 and 20 September 1938.