Benjamin Tillett and John Ward 29 July 1908

Official Visits To the Western Front, 1914-1918 Q8422

Benjamin Tillett (11 September 1860 – 27 January 1943) was a British socialist, trade union leader and politician. He was a leader of the "new unionism" of 1889 that focused on organizing unskilled workers. He played a major role in founding the Dockers Union, and played a prominent role as a strike leader in dock strikes in 1911 and 1912. He enthusiastically supported the war effort in the First World War. He was pushed aside by

Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–194 ...

during the consolidation that created the

Transport and General Workers' Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland – where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU) to differentiate its ...

in 1922, who gave Tillett a subordinate position. Scholars stress his evangelical dedication to the labour cause, while noting his administrative weaknesses. Clegg Fox and Thompson described him as a demagogue and agitator grasping for fleeting popularity.

Early career

Tillett was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. He started work in a

brickyard A brickyard or brickfield is a place or yard where bricks are made, fired, and stored, or sometimes sold or otherwise distributed from. Brick makers work in a brick yard. A brick yard may be constructed near natural sources of clay or on o ...

at eight years of age and was a "Risley" boy for two years. At 12 years of age, he served for six months on a

fishing smack A smack was a traditional fishing boat used off the coast of Britain and the Atlantic coast of America for most of the 19th century and, in small numbers, up to the Second World War. Many larger smacks were originally cutter-rigged sailing bo ...

, was afterwards apprenticed to a

bootmaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as ''cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen an ...

, and then joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. He was invalided out of the navy and made several voyages in merchant ships. Tillett then settled at the

London Docks London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham, and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port ...

, and took up work as a docker.

Trade union activities

He began his career as a trade union organiser in 1887 by forming the ''Tea Operatives and General Labourers Union'' at

Tilbury docks The Port of Tilbury is a port on the River Thames at Tilbury in Essex, England. It is the principal port for London, as well as being the main United Kingdom port for handling the importation of paper. There are extensive facilities for contai ...

. Tillett and his union, renamed the

Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union The Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers Union (DWRGLU), often known as the Dockers' Union, was a British trade union representing dock workers in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1887 as the Tea Operatives and Gen ...

, rose to prominence during the

London dock strike of 1889 The London dock strike was an industrial dispute involving dock workers in the Port of London. It broke out on 14 August 1889, and resulted in victory for the 100,000 strikers and established strong trade unions amongst London dockers, one of whi ...

, although the strike itself began without union involvement. Tillett also played a prominent role as a strike leader in dock strikes in 1911 and 1912. He was instrumental in forming the

National Transport Workers' Federation The National Transport Workers' Federation (NTWF) was an association of British trade unions. It was formed in 1910 to co-ordinate the activities of various organisations catering for dockers, seamen, tramwaymen and road transport workers. Histor ...

in 1910, along with

Havelock Wilson Joseph Havelock Wilson (16 August 1859 – 16 April 1929), commonly known as Havelock Wilson or J. Havelock Wilson, was a British trade union leader, Liberal Party politician, and campaigner for the rights of merchant seamen. Early life He ...

of the Seamen's Union. Tillett's union was the largest of the unions which came together in 1922 to form the

, however, it was Tillett's deputy,

, rather than Tillett himself, who took the major role in bringing about the amalgamation. Bevin became the General Secretary of the new union, but Tillett held the post of International and Political Secretary until 1931 and retained his seat on the General Council of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, 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 ...

until 1932.

Political career

Tillett was a member of the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...

and a founding member of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, but subsequently joined the Social Democratic Federation instead. He also joined the

Bristol Socialist Society The Bristol Socialist Society was a political organisation in South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the ...

in the 1880s, when he often travelled to that city. At the 1892 United Kingdom general election, he was sponsored by the

Bradford Labour Union The Bradford Labour Union was a political party based in Bradford in England, which was an important forerunner of the Independent Labour Party. In late 1890 and early 1891, there was a major strike at the Manningham Mills in Bradford. Followi ...

and

Bradford Trades Council Bradford Trades Council brings together trade unionists in and around Bradford, in West Yorkshire in England. History The first Bradford Trades Council was founded in July 1867 by six local unions. They were inspired by the London tailors' stri ...

to stand in

Bradford West Bradford West is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2015 United Kingdom gene ...

. He won 30.2% of the vote, but took third place and was not elected. Tillett began a political career as an alderman on the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

from 1892 to 1898 and was a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford North from 1917 to 1924 and again from 1929 to 1931. Before his victory at the Salford North by-election in 1917, he had stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at four general elections:

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies fo ...

and

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

; at Eccles in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

; and at Swansea in January 1910. He often disagreed with the liberal tendencies of the Labour Party, claiming in 1918 that 'If the Labour Party could select a King, he would be a feminist, a Temperance crank, a Nonconformist charlatan...an anti-sport, anti-jollity advocate, a teetotaller, as well as a general wet blanket.' Tillett courted controversy with some of his supporters in the labour movement through his outspoken support of Britain's involvement in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, an issue which split the Labour Party. In article in the 3 July 1915 issue of ''

The Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication i ...

'', the pro-war writer G. K. Chesterton offered his explanation: :It is the moderate Socialists who are Pacifists; the fighting Socialists are patriots. Mr. Ben Tillett would have been regarded by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald as a mere firebrand; but it is precisely because Mr. Tillet was ready to go on fighting Capitalism that he is ready to go on fighting Krupp. It is precisely because Mr. Macdonald was weak in his opposition to domestic tyrants, that he is weak in his opposition to foreign ones. The wobblers who wanted a one-sided arbitration to end the strikes would to-day accept a one-sided arbitration to end the battles. But the men who wanted strikes want nothing but shells. That great artist, Mr.

Will Dyson William Henry Dyson (3 September 1880 – 21 January 1938) was an Australian illustrator and political cartoonist. In 1931 he was regarded as "one of the world's foremost black and white artists", and in 1980, "Australia's greatest cartoonist" ...

, laid aside the lethal pencil with which he had caricatured the sweaters and the middlemen, and sharpened a yet deadlier one to draw all the devils in Prussia. Before the First World War, Tillett had defended the idea of an international general strike in case of war, but like most trade union leaders, Tillett decided in 1914 to support the British war aims, writing a pamphlet published in 1917, "Who was Responsible for the war and why ?" in which he declared "Despite our former pacifist attitude, the forces of Labour in England have supported the government throughout the war. We realised that this is a fight for world freedom against a carefully engineered plan to establish a world autocracy".

Opposition to Jewish immigration

In contrast to his support for friendly relations between English and Irish Catholic dockworkers in the East End of London Tillett was strongly opposed to Jewish immigration. Tillett associated Jewish arrivals with creating undesirable working conditions and poor housing: "the influx of continental pauperism aggravates and multiplies the number of ills which press so heavily on us...foreigners come to London in large numbers, herd together in habitations unfit for beasts, the sweating system allowing the more grasping and shrewd a life of comparative ease in superintending their work". In 1891, Tillett formulated what the historian Satnam Virdee has described as a "proto-fascist discourse" in a series of letters to the ''

London Evening News The ''London Evening News'' was a newspaper whose first issue was published on 14 August 1855. Usually, when people mention the ''London Evening News'', they are actually referring to '' The Evening News'', published in London from 1881 to 1980, ...

''. Tillett argued that Jewish workers should be removed from Britain and that British politicians were in thrall to Jewish financial power: 'Our leading statesmen do not care to offend the great banking houses or money kings.... For heavens' sake, give us back our own countrymen and take from us your motley multitude.'Satnam Virdee (2017) Socialist antisemitism and its discontents in England, 1884–98, ''Patterns of Prejudice'', 51: 3–4, 356–373, here 368

Personal life and death

Tillett died on 27 January 1943, aged 82

Works

*''A Brief History of the Dockers' Union'', commemorating the 1889 dockers' strike (1910) *''A History of the London Transport Workers' Strike'' (1911)
''Some Russian Impressions'' (1925)
*''Memories and Reflections'', an autobiography (1931)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tillet, Ben 1860 births 1943 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies British trade union leaders Members of London County Council Independent Labour Party National Administrative Committee members Trade unionists from Bristol Social Democratic Federation members Transport and General Workers' Union-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 UK MPs 1929–1931 People of the Victorian era Members of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress Presidents of the Trades Union Congress Royal Navy sailors British Merchant Navy personnel Independent Labour Party parliamentary candidates Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Salford North