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Frederick John Shirley Tanner (28 April 1889 – 3 March 1965) was a
, ''
Frederick John Shirley Tanner (28 April 1889 – 3 March 1965) was a British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
trade unionist
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
.
Born in Whitstable
Whitstable () is a town on the north coast of Kent adjoining the convergence of the Swale Estuary and the Greater Thames Estuary in southeastern England, north of Canterbury and west of Herne Bay. The 2011 Census reported a population of 32 ...
, Tanner grew up in London and became a fitter and turner at the age of 14. He joined the Social Democratic Federation
The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...
and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers
The Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE) was a major British trade union, representing factory workers and mechanics.
History
The history of the union can be traced back to the formation of the Journeymen Steam Engine, Machine Makers' and Mi ...
, soon becoming a prominent activist, and helping found the National Federation of Women Workers
The National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland active in the first part of the 20th century. Instrumental in winning women workers the right to a minimum wage for the first ti ...
. During the 1910s, he was a leading syndicalist
Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of pr ...
, active in the Industrial Syndicalist Education League
The Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL) was a British syndicalist organisation which existed from 1910 to 1913.
History
In May 1910 Guy Bowman and Tom Mann, two dissident members of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) travelled to Fr ...
, and jointly chaired the First International Syndicalist Congress
The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat (NAS) ...
.Tanner, Frederick John Shirley, ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''
During World War I
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 ...
, Tanner worked as an engineer in France and was active in the then-syndicalist Confédération Générale du Travail
The General Confederation of Labour (french: Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.
It is t ...
. He returned to London in 1917 and became active in the Shop Stewards' Movement, and in 1920 along with others such as John S. Clarke, Helen Crawfurd
Helen Crawfurd ( Jack, later Anderson; 9 November 1877 – 18 April 1954) was a Scottish suffragette, rent strike organiser, Communist activist and politician. Born in Glasgow, she was brought up there and in London.
Biography
Born Helen Jack ...
, Williie Gallacher, Wlliam McLaine, JT Murphy, Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with ...
, Tom Quelch
Thomas Quelch (1886–1954) was a British journalist and the son of veteran Marxist Harry Quelch. a member of the British Socialist Party in the early part of the 20th century, becoming a communist activist in Great Britain in the 1920s.
Quelch j ...
, Dave Ramsay
Dave Ramsay (born March 18, 1970 in Saint John, New Brunswick) is a Yellowknife businessman and politician.
Political career
Ramsay first ran for a seat in the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in the 1999 Northwest Territories general ...
and Marjory Newbold
Marjory Newbold (25 May 1883 – 15 November 1926) was a leading Scottish socialist and communist, prominent in the Independent Labour Party and in the 'Red Clydeside' movement demanding reforms for the working class. Newbold organised pacifist an ...
, attended the Second Congress of the Communist International. He did join the 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 CPG ...
but left after only eight months, though he remained close to colleagues who stayed in the party.
Tanner increasingly devoted his time to the trade union movement, and was elected President of the Amalgamated Engineering Union
The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major United Kingdom, British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992.
History
...
in 1939, serving until 1953 and promoting economic planning
Economic planning is a resource allocation mechanism based on a computational procedure for solving a constrained maximization problem with an iterative process for obtaining its solution. Planning is a mechanism for the allocation of resources b ...
in the engineering industry. Increasingly associated with the right-wing of the union, he served as President of the Trades Union Congress The President of the Trades Union Congress is a prominent but largely honorary position in British trade unionism.
History
Initially, the post of president was elected at the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC) itself, and would serve just for the d ...
in 1954, and supported the anti-communist Industrial and Research Information Services from 1956.
References