The Unemployed Workers' Organisation was an organisation of unemployed workers founded in London in 1923. It was a breakaway from the National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM). They opposed the reformist politics and political control by 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 ...

. It was founded by

Gunnar Soderberg Gunnar Soderberg (born 1896) was a Swedish labour activist. He was the founder of the Unemployed Workers' Organisation The Unemployed Workers' Organisation was an organisation of unemployed workers founded in London in 1923. It was a breakaway fr ...

, a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

seaman who had been active in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He had been the London organiser of the NUWM. The organisation was formed following the 1922 Unemployed March organised by the NUWM, whose objectives the UWO believed had been moderated in order to gain acceptance with the Labour Party.

Manifesto

The "Manifesto of the Unemployed Workers' Organisation" was published on the front page of '' Workers' Dreadnought'' on Saturday 7 July 1923. The Manifesto started by differentiating itself from the NUWM which was viewed as being useless. This was attributed to a political leadership who knew nothing of working class experience. The manifesto advocated a "better policy which was based on the opening paragraphs of "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the ''Preamble of the IWW'': few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth. "The manifesto committed the organisation to

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

and rejected affiliation to any political party. The address given was that of the Bromley Public Hall, Bow Road, in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar, London. A week later they had moved their address to

Poplar Town Hall Poplar Town Hall is a municipal building at the corner of Bow Road and Fairfield Road in Poplar, London. It is a Grade II listed building. History The building was commissioned to replace an aging mid-19th century municipal building with a di ...

, Poplar High Street."

References

{{reflist Unemployment in the United Kingdom Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom