Sixty Years of Trade Unionism
HE foundation of the Trades Union Congress in
1868, marks the real beginning of the modern
Trade Union Movement. Throughout the
50 years of its existence, the Congress has
exercised a steadily increasing influence upon the
development of Trade Unionism. Before its
appearance, the organised movement possessed no central organ
to direct its activities or to co-ordinate and unify the working-
class organisation. Trade Unionism, partially liberated by the
repeal of the Combination Laws in 1824—25, had been making
considerable progress for more than 4o years before the Congress
was founded. In practically every trade and industry of
importance, unions had been established, and many of the small
local trade societies, weak in numbers, isolated in action, had
come to recognise the necessity of uniting to form national
organisations. But few of the great national unions which
dominate industry to-day were then in existence. There was no
cenfral authority, and no national leadership beyond that which
was supplied by the little group of able men who served as
secretaries of the four or five large unions in what were known
as the amalgamated trades.”
From the beginning of its history, the Trades Union Congress
assumed this function of leadership. There had been previous
national conferences of the Trade Unions, and efforts had been
made to establish a permanent organisation of the kind. The
United Kingdom Alliance of Organised Trades, which was set
up by the Sheffield unions, called three conferences in succession,
in 1865, 1866, and 1867. The five Trade Union leaders known
as the “ Junta” —William Allan, Robert Applegarth, Daniel
Guile, Edwin Coulson, and George Odger—formed in 1867,
the ‘ Conference of Amalgamated Trades.” But these bodies
were intended to serve a more limited purpose than the one which
the organisers of the Trades Union Congress had in view.
Although the Congress was called primarily for the purpose of
meeting a special emergency, those who were responsible for
z
