The Shop Stewards Movement was a movement which brought together

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 ...

s from across 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 ...

during 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 ...

. It originated with the

Clyde Workers Committee The Clyde Workers Committee was formed to campaign against the Munitions Act. It was originally called the ''Labour Withholding Committee''. The leader of the CWC was Willie Gallacher, who was jailed under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 to ...

, 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 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 M ...

(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 Engineering Shop Stewards' Committee was elected as secretary, while

Arthur MacManus Arthur MacManus (1889– February 27 1927) was a Scottish trade unionist and communist politician. Biography Early years Arthur MacManus was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1889, later moving to Glasgow, Scotland, with his parents. Political c ...

of the Clyde Workers' Committee was chair, and

J. T. Murphy John Thomas Murphy (9 December 1888 – 13 May 1965) was a British trade union organiser and Communist functionary. Murphy is best remembered as a leader of the communist labour movement in the United Kingdom from the middle 1920s until his resign ...

from the Sheffield Workers' Committee was assistant secretary.Edmund Frow, Ruth Frow and John Saville, "Peet, George", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.5, pp.170-173 Two months after the formation of the committee, it merged with a movement for the amalgamation of engineering unions, which had been founded in 1915 but had achieved little during the war. The organisation supported the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, and Peet represented it on the committee of the

Hands Off Russia The Hands Off Russia campaign was an international political initiative first launched by British Socialists in 1919 to organise opposition to the British intervention on the side of the White armies against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War ...

movement. The movement became gradually less active until 1920, when Willie Gallacher, David Ramsay,

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 Ca ...

and

organised a national conference of the movement. The conference agreed to affiliate to the

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 a ...

(Comintern). Gallacher, Murphy, Ramsay and Jack Tanner represented the group at the Second Congress of the Comintern, later in the year, but affiliation was not permitted, on the grounds that the organisation was not a political party. Gallacher rejected suggestions that the movement should affiliate to the International Trade Union Council, a recently founded group of communist trade unions, arguing that it was necessary for members to remain active within mainstream trade unions. Instead, in September, a compromise was agreed: the movement would affiliate to the new

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 Comm ...

, while individual members who also held membership of the new

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 ...

would come under the discipline of that group.Reiner Tosstorff, ''The Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) 1920 - 1937'', p.274 The Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee became part of the National Workers' Committee in 1921, and it agitated unsuccessfully for a

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 co ...

on Black Friday. The National Workers' Committee in turn merged with the British Bureau in 1922, Peet remaining joint secretary for a year, after which the Comintern ordered that Gallacher and J. R. Campbell replace Peet and Lismer among the leaders of the movement.

References

{{reflist Labour movement in the United Kingdom United Kingdom in World War I