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Shop Stewards Movement
The Shop Stewards Movement was a movement which brought together shop stewards from across the United Kingdom during the First World War. It originated with the Clyde Workers Committee, the first shop stewards committee in Britain, which organised against the imprisonment of three of their members in 1915. Most of them were members of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE). In November 1916 the Sheffield Workers Committee was formed when members of the ASE there went on strike against the conscription of a local engineer. The government brought the strike to an end by exempting craft union members such as ASE engineers from military service. However when this policy was reversed in May 1917, this met by a strike involving 200,000 workers in 48 towns. The Shop Stewards Movement arose from organising this strike. In 1917, a National Administrative Committee was established for what was named the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committees. George Peet of the Manchester-based Joint En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shop Steward
A union representative, union steward, or shop steward is an employee of an organization or company who represents and defends the interests of their fellow employees as a labor union member and official. Rank-and-file members of the union hold this position voluntarily (through democratic election by fellow workers or sometimes by appointment of a higher union body) while maintaining their role as an employee of the firm. As a result, the union steward becomes a significant link and conduit of information between the union leadership and rank-and-file workers. Duties The duties of a union steward vary according to each labor union's constitutional mandate for the position. In general, most union stewards perform the following functions: *Monitor and enforce the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement (labor contract) to ensure both the firm and union worker are not violating the terms of the agreement. *Ensure that the firm is in compliance with all federal, state a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Ramsay (communist)
David Ramsay (1883–1948) was a British socialist activist. Born in Edinburgh, Ramsay became a patternmaker and joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers.Graham Stevenson,Ramsay David, ''Compendium of Communist Biography'' He joined the Social Democratic Federation and then its successor, the British Socialist Party (BSP). However, by the start of World War I, he had joined the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and had relocated to Leicester. He was a fervent opponent of the war, and was fined £100 in 1916 for trying to prevent people from joining the Army. The SLP was heavily involved in the Clyde Workers' Committee and, although he did not succeed in starting such a movement in Leicester, Ramsay supported similar initiatives across the country. He became treasurer of the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committees organisation, within which he led efforts to organise the unemployed and was involved in organising ex-servicemen. In 1919, police claimed that he had given a sedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Friday (1921)
Black Friday, in British labour history, refers to 15 April 1921, when the leaders of transport and rail unions announced a decision not to call for strike action in support of the miners. The epithet 'black' derives from a widespread feeling amongst labour radicals that the decision amounted to a breach of solidarity and a betrayal of the miners. Black Friday caused the 1921 United Kingdom census, which had been planned for 24 April, to be pushed back to June. Triple Alliance In the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, increasing efforts were made to bring about amalgamations of small, local trade unions and to forge links between different organisations, with a view to securing united action. The National Transport Workers' Federation was created in 1910 to co-ordinate the actions of trade unions representing dockers, seamen, tramwaymen and others and in 1912 the National Union of Railwaymen was created as an amalgamation of a large number of local and section ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions of political, social, and labour organizations and may also include rallies, marches, boycotts, civil disobedience, non-payment of taxes, and other forms of direct or indirect action. Additionally, general strikes might exclude care workers, such as teachers, doctors, and nurses. Historically, the term general strike has referred primarily to solidarity action, which is a multi-sector strike that is organised by trade unions who strike together in order to force pressure on employers to begin negotiations or offer more favourable terms to the strikers; though not all strikers may have a material interest in the negotiations, they all have a material interest in maintaining and strengthening the collective efficacy of strikes as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communist Party Of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB founded the ''Daily Worker'' (renamed the ''Morning Star'' in 1966). In 1936, members of the party were present at the Battle of Cable Street, helping organise resistance against the British Union of Fascists. In the Spanish Civil War the CPGB worked with the USSR to create the British Battalion of the International Brigades, which party activist Bill Alexander commanded. In World War II, the CPGB mirrored the Soviet position, opposing or supporting the war in line with the involvement of the USSR. By the end of World War II, CPGB membership had nearly tripled and the party reached the height of its popularity. Many key CPGB members became leaders of Britain's trade union movement, including most notably Jessie Eden, Abraham Lazaru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red International Of Labour Unions
The Red International of Labor Unions (russian: Красный интернационал профсоюзов, translit=Krasnyi internatsional profsoyuzov, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern, was an international body established by the Communist International (Comintern) with the aim of coordinating communist activities within trade unions. Formally established in 1921, the Profintern was intended to act as a counterweight to the influence of the so-called "Amsterdam International", the social democratic International Federation of Trade Unions, an organization branded as class collaborationist and an impediment to revolution by the Comintern. After entering a period of decline in the middle 1930s, the organization was finally terminated in 1937 with the advent of the Popular Front. Organizational history Preliminary organization In July 1920, at the behest of Comintern head Grigory Zinoviev, the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International established a temporary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd World Congress Of The Comintern
The 2nd World Congress of the Communist International was a gathering of approximately 220 voting and non-voting representatives of Communist and revolutionary socialist political parties from around the world, held in Petrograd and Moscow from July 19 to August 7, 1920. The 2nd Congress is best remembered for formulating and implementing the 21 Conditions for membership in the Communist International. Overview The 2nd World Congress of the Communist International, held in the summer of 1920, has been regarded by scholars as "the first authentic international meeting of the new organization's members and supporters," owing to the ad hoc nature of the 1919 Founding Convention.Branko Lazitch and Milorad M. Drachkovitch, ''Lenin and the Comintern: Volume 1.'' Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1972; pg. 271. The gathering is also significant for the level of participation of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, who participated in the affairs of the gathering more intensely than at an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Tanner (trade Unionist)
Frederick John Shirley Tanner (28 April 1889 – 3 March 1965) was a British trade unionist. Born in Whitstable, Tanner grew up in London and became a fitter and turner at the age of 14. He joined the Social Democratic Federation and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, soon becoming a prominent activist, and helping found the National Federation of Women Workers. During the 1910s, he was a leading syndicalist, active in the Industrial Syndicalist Education League, and jointly chaired the First International Syndicalist Congress.Tanner, Frederick John Shirley , '''' During |
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the state". The Comintern was preceded by the 1916 dissolution of the Second International. The Comintern held seven World Congresses in Moscow between 1919 and 1935. During that period, it also conducted thirteen Enlarged Plenums of its governing Executive Committee, which had much the same function as the somewhat larger and more grandiose Congresses. Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, dissolved the Comintern in 1943 to avoid antagonizing his allies in the later years of World War II, the United States and the United Kingdom. It wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Lismer
Edward Lismer (1883 – 1947) was a British trade unionist and political activist. Ted was born in Sheffield, the eldest son of Edward Lismer, a draper and his wife Harriett. His brother was Arthur Lismer who became a prominent artist in Canada. He became a mechanical engineer and in about 1902 joined the Steam Engine Makers' Society. In 1905, he joined the Independent Labour Party, but he was part of the minority who left in 1911 to join the British Socialist Party, resigning from this group in 1914. He became increasingly involved in trade unionism, and in 1912 was elected to the executive of the Sheffield Trades and Labour Council. During World War I, Lismer was elected as the president of the Engineering Trades Amalgamation Committee, which sought to bring together shop stewards from across the engineering trades. This body was later renamed as the Sheffield Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee, and he worked closely with J. T. Murphy to establish the movement on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Gallacher (politician)
William Gallacher (25 December 1881 – 12 August 1965) was a Scottish trade unionist, activist and communist. He was one of the leading figures of the Shop Stewards' Movement in wartime Glasgow (the 'Red Clydeside' period) and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He served two terms in the House of Commons as the last Communist Member of Parliament (MP). Early career Gallacher was born in Paisley, Scotland on 25 December 1881, the son of an Irish father and a Scottish mother. His father died when he was seven years old, and one of his earliest ambitions was to earn enough money so that his mother would no longer have to work as a washerwoman. With his sisters, he finally achieved this goal at the age of nineteen, but his mother died shortly afterwards at the age of 54. He began working at ten years old, and left school aged twelve. After a spell as a delivery boy for a grocer – where he had his first dispute with an employer – he found work in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many List of islands of the United Kingdom, smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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