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George Howell (trade Unionist)
George Howell (5 October 1833 – 17 September 1910) was an English trade unionist and reform campaigner and a Lib-Lab politician, who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1895. Biography George Howell was born in Wrington, Somerset, the eldest of eight children of a builder and contractor. He was educated at a Church of England primary school in Bristol until the age of twelve, when he began work with his father, who owned a small builders. By the week he worked twelve hours a day as a mortar-boy, and later a bricklayer, but dedicated Sundays to reading. Among his favourite books were John Foxe's ''Book of Martyrs'' and John Bunyan's ''The Pilgrim's Progress''. Howell grew to dislike his work as a builder so became an apprentice shoemaker. Some of the men he worked with were active chartists and introduced him to radical newspapers including the '' Northern Star'' and the '' Red Republican''. As a result, he joined the chartist movement in 1848. Others of his colleagues were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrington
Wrington is a village and a civil and ecclesiastical parish on the north slopes of the Mendip Hills in North Somerset, England. Both include nearby Redhill. Wrington lies in the valley of the Congresbury Yeo river, about east of Weston-super-Mare and south-east of Yatton. Its population of 2,633 at the 2011 Census was estimated in 2019 to be 2,759. History The village was inhabited in Roman times and there is evidence of Saxon occupation as well. Historically it was part of the hundred of Brent-cum-Wrington. Wrington Cottage Hospital opened in 1864, initially for 24 patients. The first surgeon was Horace Swete, author of the ''Handy Book of Cottage Hospitals'', to which Florence Nightingale also referred in 1869. Wrington had a railway station between 1901 and 1963, on the Wrington Vale Light Railway that ran from Congresbury to Blagdon. Governance As a parish council, Wrington's sets an annual precept for operating costs and produces annual accounts for public scrutiny. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Bradlaugh
Charles Bradlaugh (; 26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851. In 1880, Bradlaugh was elected as the Liberal MP for Northampton. His attempt to affirm as an atheist ultimately led to his temporary imprisonment, fines for voting in the House of Commons illegally, and a number of by-elections at which Bradlaugh regained his seat on each occasion. He was finally allowed to take an oath in 1886. Eventually, a parliamentary bill which he proposed became law in 1888, which allowed members of both Houses of Parliament to affirm, if they so wished, when being sworn in. The new law resolved the issue for witnesses in civil and criminal court cases. Early life Born in Hoxton (an area in the East End of London), Bradlaugh was the son of a solicitor's clerk. He left school at the age of eleven and then worked as an office ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bee-Hive (journal)
''The Bee-Hive'' was a trade unionist journal published weekly in the United Kingdom between 1861 and 1878. ''The Bee-Hive'' was established in 1861 by George Potter, with professional journalist George Troup as editor and Robert Hartwell as the main contributor. Cooperative Society activist Lloyd Jones was a leader writer for the ''Bee-hive''. It advocated strike action and supported the New Model Trade Unions of the 1860s and had been set up to support the builders' struggle which had started in 1858. It was swiftly adopted as the official journal of the London Trades Council (LTC), but by 1862 only had a circulation of 2700, and had led to Potter accumulating debts of £827. Some members of the LTC complained that the ''Bee-Hive'' gave its support too unreservedly to strike action, with Robert Applegarth accusing Potter of being a "manufacturer of strikes". Potter defended the policy by arguing that each strike had been judged as necessary by a trade union, and therefore des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ..., a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances O'Grady, Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway, Frances O'Grady became General Secretary of the TUC, General Secretary in 2013 and presented her resignation in 2022, with Paul Nowak (trade unionist), Paul Nowak becoming the next General Secretary in January 2023. Organisation The TUC's decision-making body is the Annual Congress, which takes place in September. Between congresses decisions are made by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, General Council, which meets every two mont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1867 Reform Act
The Representation of the People Act 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102 (known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act) was a piece of British legislation that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first time. It took effect in stages over the next two years, culminating in full commencement on 1 January 1869. Before the Act, only one million of the seven million adult men in England and Wales could vote; the Act immediately doubled that number. Further, by the end of 1868 all male heads of household could vote, having abolished the widespread mechanism of the deemed rentpayer or ratepayer being a superior lessor or landlord who would act as middleman for those monies paid ("compounding"). The Act introduced a near-negligible redistribution of seats, far short of the urbanisation and population growth since 1832. The overall intent was to help the Conservative Party, Benjamin Disraeli expecting a reward for his sudden and sweeping backin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reform League
The Reform League was established in 1865 to press for manhood suffrage and the ballot in Great Britain. It collaborated with the more moderate and middle class Reform Union and gave strong support to the abortive Reform Bill 1866 and the successful Reform Act 1867. It developed into a formidable force of agitation at the very heart of the country. Origins During the autumn and winter of 1864–65 members of the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes planned to form a new organisation which would concentrate solely on manhood suffrage. As a result, the Reform League was established on 23 February 1865 and the Universal League for the Material Elevation of the Industrious Classes became defunct. The leadership of the League, which was to remain consistent throughout its life, drew heavily on personalities from the International Working Men's Association, including George Howell, George Odger, William Cremer and Benjamin Lucraft. The father of the I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Suffrage
Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stance, subject only to certain exceptions as in the case of children, felons, and for a time, women.Suffrage ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. In its original 19th-century usage by reformers in Britain, ''universal suffrage'' was understood to mean only ; the vote was extended to women later, during the |
London Trades Council
The London Trades Council was an early labour organisation, uniting London's trade unionists. Its modern successor organisation is the Greater London Association of Trades (Union) Councils History Leading figures in the London trade union movement convened occasional meetings of the "Metropolitan Trades Delegates" from 1848, meeting at the Old Bell Inn by the Old Bailey. The London builders' strike of 1859 required ongoing co-ordination, and it was determined to organise a trades council. The formation of the London Trades Council was organised at George Potter's Building Trades Conference and led by George Odger's Operative Bricklayers' Society. The unions agreed to demand a maximum working day of nine hours from their employers. The employers refused, resulting in strike action and a lockout. Eventually the unions conceded, but the solidarity built prompted the formation of a citywide body able to co-ordinate future action.{{cite book , last1=Jacobs , first1=Julius , ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Potter (trade Unionist)
George Potter (1832 – 3 June 1893) was a prominent English trade unionist. Biography George Potter was born in Kenilworth. He was educated for a short time at a local dame school, but left to work at a young age to supplement his father's income of three shillings a day. He worked as a farm labourer until he was sixteen, when he moved to Coventry where he became an apprentice joiner and cabinet-maker. In 1854 he moved to London to work as a carpenter. In London, he joined a small trade union, the Progressive Society of Carpenters and Joiners, to which he was elected secretary in 1854, and chairman in 1858. He believed that progress could be made if all trade unions representing the building trades were united in one society, so in 1859 organised the Building Trades Conference. At the conference, the unions agreed to demand a maximum working day of nine hours from their employers. The employers refused, resulting in strike action and a lockout. Eventually the unions conceded, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Applegarth
Robert Applegarth (26 January 1834 – 13 July 1924) was a prominent British trade unionist and proponent of working class causes. Biography Robert Applegarth was born in Hull in England. His father was the captain of a whaling brig. He spent a brief period in a dame school but had no other formal education and began work in a shoemaker's shop aged ten. He learned the skills of carpentry, before moving to Sheffield where he met and married Mary Longmore, a farmer's daughter. Applegarth moved to New York City in December 1854, seeking well paid employment, with only a half crown in his possession. He lived with another immigrant from Sheffield for a time, and held a variety of jobs including master at a railroad station. He admired the democracy of the United States, but was appalled by slavery, and visited Mississippi to witness it for himself, where he met Frederick Douglass. By 1857, Applegarth was confident that he could support his wife in America so sent for her from Sheffie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strike Action
Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when Labour economics, mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became a more common practice, governments were often pushed to act (either by private business or by union workers). When government intervention occurred, it was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Builders' Strike (1859)
The London builders' strike of 1859 was a strike and resulting lock out of building trade workers across London. The action did not result in any changes to working conditions, but it led to the formation of new, national trade unions in the United Kingdom. Background In London, building trade workers had secured a maximum ten-hour working day in 1834, but despite several efforts to reduce hours either to nine per day, or to work only half days on Saturday, barely any further progress had been made. The sole exception was the strong Operative Society of Masons (OSM), whose members were generally able to finish work at 4 on Saturdays. In 1856, building workers in Manchester secured the right to finish work at 1 on Saturdays, and this inspired those in London to start a new campaign for shorter hours. In order to gain the support of both the OSM, the Operative Bricklayers' Society (OBS), and the unorganised carpenters, a Central Board agreed in 1858 to campaign for the nine-hou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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