The National League of the Blind and Disabled (NLBD), currently a section within the

Community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

trade union, was a

trade union 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 benefits ( ...

in its own right in the

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 continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

throughout the twentieth century (1899–2000), and is said to be the oldest surviving disabled person's organisation in the world.

History

Originally called the National League of the Blind, the NLB was founded in 1893, and registered as a trade union in 1899.Arthur Ivor Marsh, ''Trade Union Handbook'', p.132 It affiliated to the

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 tra ...

in 1902. It was initially led by

Ben Purse Benjamin Ormond Purse (29 August 187431 March 1950) was a British trade unionist and campaigner for the rights of blind people. Purse, who was completely blind by the age of 13, was a piano tuner. He became a founder-member of the National Lea ...

, a

piano tuner Piano tuning is the act of adjusting the tension of the strings of an acoustic piano so that the musical intervals between strings are in tune. The meaning of the term 'in tune', in the context of piano tuning, is not simply a particular fixed ...

,The National League of the Blind
,

Public and Commercial Services Union The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the sixth largest trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in UK government departments and other public bodies. History The union was founded in 1998 by the merger of th ...

born in Salford in 1874. During the early 1900s its General Secretary was

Thomas Summerbell Thomas Summerbell (10 August 1861 – 10 February 1910) was an early British Labour Party Member of Parliament. Born at Seaham Harbour in County Durham, Summerball worked from the age of twelve in a variety of jobs before becoming an apprentice ...

.Margaret 'Espinasse, ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.IV, pp.165-166 The League organised its first strike in 1912. In April 1920 it organised a march that converged towards

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson commemo ...

from

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and Newport in support of what became the

Blind Persons Act 1920 The Blind Persons Act 1920 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since repealed. It provided a pension allowance for blind persons aged between 50 and 70 (after which they became eligible for the old age pension), directed local a ...

. This action inspired the later

Jarrow March The Jarrow March of 5–31 October 1936, also known as the Jarrow Crusade, was an organised protest against the unemployment and poverty suffered in the English town of Jarrow, near Newcastle upon Tyne, during the 1930s. Around 200 men (or "Crus ...

. Purse left the union in 1921, forming the National Union of the Professional and Industrial Blind, which later became the National Association of Blind Workers in 1933, and focused on providing benefits to its members. The National League of the Blind organised a further march in 1936, which met with less success, although it did achieve a further Blind Persons Act in 1938. The NLB campaigned strongly for and organised its membership within state-provided sheltered employment workshops for blind workers, and it resisted any charity-based alternatives in welfare or employment for blind people. In later years this tradition of advocacy contributed, with other organisations of disabled people, to some advances in disabled people's welfare, including the introduction of disability benefits and the creation of the Disability Rights Commission and the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. The union voted to rename itself the "National League of the Blind and Disabled" in 1968, and by 1979 had a membership of reportedly just under 5000. A book giving a detailed history of the League was published in 2015 - ''Blind Workers Against Charity'', by Matthias Reiss.

Recent times

In 1981 the NLBD was one of the founding organisations which created the radical

British Council of Organisations of Disabled People The British Council of Organisations of Disabled People (BCODP) was a radical national voice of disabled people for legal, social and cultural change in Britain from 1981 to 2017, with a high profile in the 1980s and 1990s. Origins BCODP was foun ...

. The NLBD was represented by Mike Barratt, George Salughter, and two observers at the meeting in London on 13 June 1981. By February 2000 it had 1,755 members, and it merged with the much larger

Iron and Steel Trades Confederation The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC) was a British trade union for metal-workers and allied groups, being the largest union in these fields. It was formed on 1 January 1917 as a merger of existing steel-workers' unions and it is now pa ...

on 8 February 2000 to form the basis of the nascent millennial trade union

, four years before the latter's official launch. By 2014 the membership number was "around 800 people".

General Secretaries

:1897:

(Northern Section of the League) :1899: Peter Miller :1900: William Banham :1903: Joe Gregory :1926: G. E. Glester :1928: Alec Henderson :1949: Thomas H. Smith :1969: Thomas J. Parker :1979: Mike Barrett :1995: Joe Mann :2013: John Park

References

External links

Catalogue of the NLBD archives
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

{{Authority control Trade unions established in 1899 Trade unions disestablished in 2000 Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom 1899 establishments in the United Kingdom Blindness organisations in the United Kingdom Health and disability rights organizations in the United Kingdom Iron and Steel Trades Confederation amalgamations Disability organisations based in the United Kingdom Trade unions based in London