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The Political Activities Of A Trade Union, 1906–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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The British Labour Party was not explicitly socialist until 1918. In February of that year a Special Conference adopted a new constitution which stated that the ultimate aim of the party was:-

“To secure for the producers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry, and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible, upon the basis of common ownership of the means of production and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.”

Before this change, Ramsay MacDonald, writing in 1911, had said: “The Labour Party is not Socialist. It is a union of Socialist and trade-union bodies for immediate political work…” The new party, founded in 1900 as the Labour Representation Committee, was in many ways un manage de convenance of militant Socialists and Glad-stonian Liberal trade-union leaders. The “immediate political work” for which these groups came together was the representation of the working class in parliament. Of the need for such representation both sides were firmly convinced: the Socialists because they hoped to convert the trade unions to their own way of thinking; the trade-union leaders because they were disappointed by the failure of the official Liberal party constituency caucuses to adopt more working-class candidates.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1957

References

page 1 note 1 MacDonald, J. R., The Socialist Movement, London 1911, p. 235.Google Scholar

page 1 note 2 Pelling, H., The Origins of the Labour Party, 1880–1900, London 1954, pp. 236237.Google Scholar

page 2 note 1 Cf. Beer, M., History of British Socialism, London, edn. of 1940, II, pp. 335336.Google Scholar

page 2 note 2 Minutes, L.R.C. Executive, 30 June, 1904. Cited in Pelling, op. cit. p. 239.Google Scholar

page 2 note 3 Arnot, R. P., The Miners, London 1949.Google Scholar

page 3 note 1 Cf. Beer, M., op. cit., II, p. 306Google Scholar; Arnot, , op. cit., pp. 300302Google Scholar; Pelling, , op. cit., p. 206.Google Scholar

page 3 note 2 Derbyshire Miners' Association, Minutes, April 9, 1910.Google Scholar

page 3 note 3 Arnot, Vide, op. cit. pp. 352357.Google Scholar

page 3 note 4 Quoted in Arnot, , op. cit. pp. 352357.Google Scholar

page 4 note 1 Pelling, , op. cit., p. 218.Google Scholar

page 4 note 2 D.M.A., Minutes, 1 August, 1908.

page 4 note 3 Arnot, , op. cit., p. 366.Google Scholar

page 4 note 4 D.M.A., Minutes, 17 March, 1885.

page 5 note 1 Ibid.

page 5 note 2 Ibid.

page 5 note 3 Sheffield Independent, 22 October, 1885.

page 5 note 4 Ibid., 4 November, 1885.

page 5 note 5 Ibid., 14 November, 1885.

page 5 note 6 Ibid., 12 November, 1885.

page 6 note 1 D.M.A. Minutes, 10 March, 1891.

page 6 note 2 Ibid., 28 July, 1891.

page 6 note 3 Ibid., 17 November, 1891.

page 6 note 4 Arnot, , op. cit., pp. 358361.Google Scholar

page 6 note 5 D.M.A. Minutes, 17 October, 1893.

page 7 note 1 Sheffield Telegraph, 23 December, 1905.

page 7 note 2 Hallam, W., Miners' Leaders, London n.d., p. 42.Google Scholar

page 7 note 3 Sheffield Independent, 26 January, 1907.

page 8 note 1 Ibid., 18 December, 1906.

page 8 note 2 Sheffield Independent, 24 December, 1906.

page 8 note 3 D.M.A. Minutes, 22 December, 1906.

page 8 note 4 Sheffield Independent, 3 January, 1907.

page 8 note 5 Ibid., 7 January, 1907.

page 8 note 6 Sheffield Independent, 18 January, 1907.

page 8 note 7 Ibid., 10 January, 1907.

page 8 note 8 Ibid., 22 January, 1907.

page 9 note 1 D.M.A. Minutes, 3 July, 1909.

page 9 note 2 Sheffield Independent, 18 December, 1906.

page 9 note 3 Not “of the Derbyshire Miners” as stated in Cole, G.D.H., British Working Class Politics, 1832–1914, London 1941, p. 287.Google Scholar

page 9 note 4 Sheffield Independent, 17 July, 1909.

page 9 note 5 Sheffield Telegraph, 2 July, 1909.

page 9 note 6 Sheffield Telegraph, 5 July, 1909.

page 9 note 7 Ibid., 6 July, 1909.

page 10 note 1 Ibid.

page 10 note 2 Sheffield Independent, 8 July, 1909.

page 10 note 3 Sheffield Telegraph, 8 July, 1909.

page 10 note 4 Sheffield Independent, 9 July, 1909.

page 10 note 5 Sheffield Telegraph, 6 July, 1909.

page 10 note 6 Sheffield Independent, 7 July, 1909.

page 10 note 7 Sheffield Telegraph, 8 July, 1909.

page 10 note 8 Sheffield Telegraph, 13 July, 1909.

page 10 note 9 Sheffield Independent, 13 July, 1909.

page 11 note 1 Ibid., 8 July, 1909.

page 11 note 2 Ibid., 17 July, 1909.

page 11 note 3 Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants v. Osborne, (1910), A.C. 87.

page 11 note 4 D.M.A. Minutes, 9 January, 1909.

page 11 note 5 Ibid., 13 Feb., 1909.

page 11 note 6 Ibid., 20 November, 1909.

page 12 note 1 Derbyshire Times, 8 January, 1910.

page 12 note 2 Sheffield Independent, 18 January, 1910.

page 12 note 3 Derbyshire Times, 16 July, 1910.

page 12 note 4 Derbyshire Times, 11 June, 1910.

page 12 note 5 Ibid., 29 July, 1910.

page 12 note 6 Ibid., 19 November, 1910.

page 12 note 7 D.M.A. Minutes, 27 August, 1910.

page 12 note 8 Ibid., 22 October, 1910.

page 13 note 1 Derbyshire Times, 18 November, 1910.

page 13 note 2 Sheffield Telegraph, 23 November, 1910.

page 13 note 3 Quoted in Sheffield Independent, 18 November, 1910.

page 13 note 4 Quoted in Sheffield Independent, 18 November, 1910.

page 13 note 5 Derbyshire Times, 26 November, 1910.

page 13 note 6 Sheffield Telegraph, 25 November, 1910.

page 14 note 1 Ibid., 1 December, 1910.

page 14 note 2 Sheffield Independent, 10 December, 1910.

page 14 note 3 D.M.A. Minutes, 8 April, 1911.

page 14 note 4 Ibid., 23 September, 1911; 10 February, 1913.

page 14 note 5 Ibid., 10 June, 1911.

page 14 note 6 D.M.A. Minutes, 12 November, 1910.

page 14 note 7 41 H.C. Deb. 5 s., 3047.

page 15 note 1 2 & 3 Geo. V, ch. 30.

page 15 note 2 M.F.G.B., Minutes, 23, 24, & 25 April, 1913, p. 7.

page 15 note 3 Ibid., p. 9.

page 15 note 4 Ibid., p. II.

page 15 note 5 2 & 3 Geo. V, ch. 30.

page 16 note 1 D.M.A. Minutes, 2 August, 1913.

page 16 note 2 Ibid., 3 May, 1913; 1 August, 1913.

page 16 note 3 Sheffield Independent, 6 August, 1913.

page 16 note 4 Ibid.

page 16 note 5 Sheffield Independent, 7 August, 1913.

page 16 note 6 Ibid.

page 16 note 7 Ibid., 12 August, 1913.

page 16 note 8 Ibid.

page 17 note 1 D.M.A. Minutes, 23 August, 1913.

page 16 note 2 Ibid.

page 16 note 3 M.F.G.B. Minutes, 8 October, 1913, pp. 62–103.

page 16 note 4 M.F.G.B. Minutes, 8 October, 1913, p. 72.

page 16 note 5 Ibid., p. 70.

page 16 note 6 Ibid., p. 99.

page 18 note 1 Ibid., p. 101.

page 18 note 2 D.M.A. Minutes, 29 December, 1913.

page 18 note 3 Sheffield Independent, 21 January, 1914.

page 18 note 4 D.M.A. Minutes, 21 January, 1914; 23 February, 1914.

page 18 note 5 D.M.A. Minutes, 23 February, 1914.

page 18 note 6 M.F.G.B. Minutes, 8 October, 1913, p. 81.

page 19 note 1 D.M.A. Minutes, 6 May, 1913.

page 19 note 2 D.M.A., Report of a Deputation to the Executive Committee of the North-East Derbyshire Liberal Association, 6 May, 1914, p. 7.

page 19 note 3 Ibid., p. 3.

page 19 note 4 Ibid., p. 4.

page 19 note 5 Ibid., p. 12.

page 19 note 6 Sheffield Independent, 8 May, 1914.

page 20 note 1 Ibid., II May, 1914.

page 20 note 2 See above p. 13.

page 21 note 1 D.M.A. Letter from Barnet Kenyon to Frank Hall, 25 February, 1914.