movement had for long opposed Allied intervention in Russia, and
isolated protests, such as that of the dock-workers who refused to
load a ship with munitions intended for use against the Bolshevik
Government, had been made from time to time. When in the
summer of 1920 it appeared that Poland, then at war with Russia,
was likely to receive active help from the French and British Govern-
ments, the Itrade union movement rose in protest. The members
of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress
and the Executive Committee of the Labour party formed them-
selves into a Council of Action, called a conference of the governing
bodies of all the important trade unions, and this conference an-
nounced to the Government that a general strike would be called if
Great Britain were to enter the Polish war. It was obvious that the
general feeling among trade unionists was entirely in agreement
with this declaration, and the protest was successful. No active
assistance was given to the Polish Government. After the emergency
was over, the Council of Action, despite attempts to place it on a
permanent basis, gradually ceased to function. During the crisis
local Councils of Action, consisting generally of the trade unions
affiliated to the local Trade Councils, or Labour party, were formed
in most of the large towns. These also gradually lapsed after the
crisis was passed (see SYNDICALISM) .
Post-war Problems. The Miners' Federation, during the previous year, after the failure of an attempt to force a reduction in the selling- price of coal the first important instance of a trade union trying to interfere with the price of its product had accepted a settlement under which wages varied nationally with the quantity of coal pro- duced. As a result of this settlement, during the following months the quantity of coal produced was considerably above what could be disposed of at a profit. The Government then announced the termination of their control of the coal industry which had been exercised during the war, and of the subsidy which had been previ- ously paid. The mine-owners therefore gave notice of a series of heavy reductions in wages, varying in the different coal-fields and amounting in some cases to 40 and 50%, and when the Miners' Federation refused to accept these reductions, locked the members out. A " sympathetic " strike of the other members of the Triple Industrial Alliance was announced, and the Government made extensive preparations, including the calling up of the army reserve and the enrolment of a national Defence Force under military discipline, for coping with it ; but at the last moment the sympathetic strike was cancelled. The Miners' Federation, after a long struggle, was forced to come to terms, and to submit to large reductions in wages, varying from district to district, and thus their object of securing national minimum rates for mine-workers received, for the time at least, a severe set-back. The issue of the miners' case seemed to settle the fate of other industries. Few trade unions pursued their resistance to wage reductions to the length of ceasing work; and in fact wages in all industries were considerably lowered during the year. Nor were reductions confined to cases in which the rates were a matter of mutual agreement only; the Agricultural Wages Boards, which fixed the rates for the poorly-paid agricultural industry, were swept away on the repeal of the Corn Production Acts, and an attempt was even made to abolish the Trade Boards.
The result of this was to turn the attention of the trade unions from offensive to defensive action, from advancing wages and shortening hours, to holding as much as they could of what they had already gained, particularly in the matter of shorter hours, and from enrolling thousands of new members to keeping those they already had. It was to be expected that some of these would lapse ; and there was a distinct fall in membership, particularly among the unions of unskilled workers and women, towards the end of the year. But the fall was considerably less in proportion than had been experi- enced in any previous period of bad trade, and in the newer unions of non-manual workers, whose members were less affected by un- employment, it was comparatively slight. There was also, of course, a depletion in the large reserve funds which had been built up during the war, when unemployment benefit and strike benefit were both at their lowest level. The new activities of trade unionism, however, were not curtailed as might have been expected. Trade unions continued to find money to pay the election expenses of Labour candidates; they continued to show interest in research and education, and one of the most important schemes, that for unifying working-class education under the Trade Union Congress, was ac- tually passed during the first year of the depression.
Organization in 1921. British trade unionism in 1921 presented a picture which at first sight appears exceedingly confused. There were upwards of a thousand trade unions, varying in membership from a score to several hundred thousand, and organized upon all manner of different bases, from the pure craft union to the " all- grades " union enrolling everyone, skilled or unskilled, in any industry; and these unions were united in many different federa- tions and cross-federations. Only two or three hundred of these unions were of national importance, the rest being mainly survivals from an earlier date, or local societies organizing localized industries. Even among the larger unions, however, there were important diversities of scope and structure. The largest single unit, the Miners' Federation, was industrial in its character, embracing most of the workers in or about the mines. The Miners' Federation was also the most important instance of a trade union basing its branch
membership upon the place of work of its members, most other trade unions, except the postal unions, adhering to the " locality " branch. Another large trade union on an industrial basis was the National Union of Railwaymen, though in this case two other bodies of some size, the Railway Clerks' Association and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, also organized certain classes of railway employees. Other industries in which industrial unions of this kind existed were the iron and steel trades, the transport trades, other than railways, the distributive trades, the agricultural industry, and the Post Office, though in all these cases there existed rival societies of considerable importance, in some cases claiming a section of the industry, such as in the case of transport, the sailors and firemen of the merchant service, in some cases such as the Workers' Union in agriculture, ready to embrace the whole. On the other hand, the second largest group, the Workers' Union, was an " all-grades " union open to any workman of any trade, and this form of organization was to be seen, in a somewhat less all-embracing form, in the other general labour unions, which were allied with the Workers' Union in the National Federation of General Workers. The third largest group, the Amalgamated En- gineering Union, had yet another basis, being formed by a fusion of kindred craft unions in the engineering trades, open to skilled engineers in all_ industries, and making little claim upon the un- skilled workers in the engineering industry proper. The same prin- ciple was to be noticed in the chief trade union of woodmakers and in the clerks' trade union. The confusion was, however, less than would at first sight appear, owing to the existence of federation. Thus the transport trade union was united with other trade unions in the transport industry, by means of the Transport Workers' Federation, a printing federation included the various trade unions in the printing industry, the textile federation most of those in the cotton industry, an engineering and shipbuilding federation those in the engineering and shipbuilding trades, whether they ca- tered for skilled or unskilled workers and so on. Certain bitter disputes continued to exist, of which the chief raged between the National Union of Railwaymen and the engineering and wood- working trade unions over the workers employed in railway shops; but, speaking generally, most of the trade unions con- cerned with a single class of workers or a single industry, whatever their private disputes, were all represented in the particular federa- tion, and had a means of acting together in case of emergency. This applied for the most part only to the manual workers' unions. The trade unions representing professional, technical and ad- ministrative workers were only in a few cases affiliated to the man- ual workers' federation. They had, however, federations of their own which occasionally entered into cooperation, and individual unions had sometimes close ties with those of the manual workers- Larger groupings also existed. Of these by far the greatest con- tinued to be the Trade Union Congress, to which all the important trade unions of manual workers and a few of the unions of brain- workers were affiliated. In 1921 an attempt was made to provide out of the Trade Union Congress a more efficient governing machine for the trade union movement by electing its General Council from vari- ous industrial groups, instead of, as heretofore, electing it by general ballot vote of the whole Congress. The experience of the Council of Action and of the miners' strike of 1921 had convinced many of the need for a central executive and direction. Trade unions, how- ever, are slow to surrender their individual autonomy, and little but general powers were given to the new General Council at first, though an increase in affiliation fees provided it with additional funds. It was instructed to work in cooperation with the political Labour party in order to arrange for a separation of function between the industrial and political sides of the Labour movement, and for their cooperation in policy. Such separation and cooperation were long overdue. Owing to the much greater age of the Trade Union Con- gress, it had formed the habit of dealing with political questions long before the Labour party was founded, and continued to do so. It thus happened that the same items, both industrial and political, would appear for discussion both at the Trade Union Congress and at the Conference of the Labour Party, and this led to a great deal of useless overlapping, even apart from cases, such as the miners' demand for nationalization, which might be considered both in- dustrial and political. At the same time the machinery for consulta- tion between the two bodies was very inadequate, and it often hap- pened that they would take opposite lines of policy. The new scheme of cooperation was intended to remedy these defects. An alliance between the trade unions, the Labour party, and the working-class cooperative movement was also frequently proposed, but was never consummated except on specific occasions, though the cooperative societies frequently rendered assistance to members of trade unions in disputes. There were also other general groupings of less impor- tance. The General Federation of Trade Unions, once regarded a body almost coequal with the Trade Union Congress, had gradually declined in power to the position of a strike insurance society covering about one-sixth of the trade union movement. The Triple Industrial Alliance was founded in 1915 by the Miners' Federation, the National Union of Railwaymen, and the Transport Workers' Federation, avowedly for the purpose of securing united action by those three bodies on industrial questions. At the time of its formation it excited a great deal of interest, and had it ever
