Strikes and trade union history

Eleanor Marx

Karl Marx's daughter, Eleanor, played a major leading role in the early history of the Trade Union movement. She was active strike organiser and a member of the executive of the Gas Workers and General Labours' Union, one of a number of unions which later fused to form the General and Municipal Workers Union, which became the GMB. Fran Broady describes the life of Eleanor Marx and the early days of the Marxist organisation in the British labour movement. Eleanor Marx was born into the workshop and armoury of scientific socialism on the 16 January 1855. Her father Karl Manx was immersed in the...

Workers' control and D-Day

Last night my father told me a story I had never heard before which I would certainly like to know more about. He was talking about his brother-in-law, who at the start of WW2 was in the fire service but was then called up and put as a Lieutenant in an unit designated as part of the Royal Engineers...

Grunwick 30 years on

Faryal Velmi reports on the Grunwick commemoration event held by Brent Trades Council on 17 September. About 200 people heard Grunwick strike leader Jayaben Desai relive some of the proudest and the most disappointing moments of that battle. Desai now well into her seventies, spoke of what she saw as a sense of duty. “It was what I had to do, and I hope that you would do the same.” Jack Dromey, now TGWU deputy general secretary but then secretary of Brent TUC, described the overwhelming solidarity built between the Grunwick workers and trade unionists from many other industries, as local...

Taff Vale

The Trade Union Freedom Bill is being proposed to coincide with the repeal of the “Taff Vale Judgement”. What was “Taff Vale”? Bit by bit, over the 19th century, British workers rolled back the Combination Acts, passed in 1799-1800, which had made trade unionism illegal in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. But the law was unclear. In 1900 the Taff Vale Railway Company sued the rail union ASRS (forerunner of the RMT) for compensation for the losses caused to the company when its workers struck for union recognition. The company won the initial court case; had the decision reversed...

Leafleting on the Manchester Ship Canal*

This article was based on the experience of Workers Fight, from which AWL has developed and which worked inside the International Socialists (predecessor of the SWP) at the time. It was part of a drive to turn IS towards production of factory bulletins at the end of the 1960s. It has been abridged. It was written by Rachel Lever (Rachel Matgamna), Sean Matgamna and Harold Youd. Memory suggests that Rachel was the main author. SM. The “turn to the class” by IS is currently using the methods of factory leafleting. Presented here is a short report of the experience of using this method on the...

1000 rally to defend pickets

By Cynthia Baldry, Workers’ Fight, March 1973 In Shrewsbury on 15 March, 24 building workers appearing in court were met by a show of solidarity from other workers, meeting outside the court and then marching through the town. They were also met by a massive attempt at intimidation by the forces of ruling class “law and order”. All 24 (and not only six, as wrongly stated by the capitalist press and by the Morning Star) were up on a conspiracy law of 1875. There are also charges of damages, and added 14 days later, unlawful fighting and causing an affray. The police are using conspiracy law so...

Cynthia Baldry, 1949-1975

Exactly 30 years ago, on 19 November 1975 Cynthia Baldry died in Liverpool. She was a member of one of Solidarity/AWL’s forerunners, Workers’ Fight. Aged 26 at her death, she had suffered since the age of 19 from a rare and incurable disease which finally killed her, lupus erythematosus. Her political life spanned five years of gradual physical deterioration. Yet it was by any standards a life of intense activity and dedication to the cause of socialism and the groups she joined to fight in that cause — first the International Socialism group (now the SWP) and then Workers’ Fight. These were...

Trade unions against capitalism

The following extract is taken from Frederick Engels’ Condition of the Working Class in England. Writing in 1845, Engels described the misery of life for English workers at this time, particularly in and around Manchester. The book is a passionate indictment of capitalism, and is well worth reading for that alone. But it is also full of ideas. The nature of capitalism in the UK has changed in some respects — just as early industries were subject to many booms and slumps — but the imperatives of capitalist accumulation still rule our lives. The basic struggle between bosses, out to maximise...

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