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► Labour History

Labour History                                                                           
The British Labour Party has it's roots in the radical political tradition of the nineteenth century. Originally it was formed out of the much smaller socialist parties of the nineteenth century backed by the new power of the Trade Union movement. Due mainly to this heritage the Labour Party originally had a strong focus on working class rights and heritage. Since it's foundation however, it has changed it's focus over time to favour a method of Fabian reform, and at times these changes have provoked massive changes of policy, such as under the Blair leadership.                                                                                                                                                         Trade Unions                                                                                 Trade Unionism is a form of labour force organisation where workers who work together or collectively in similar lines of work organise together in order to show a united face to employers. Trade Unions in Britain were traditionally formed by the skilled workforce in order to protect their jobs against the trend to use unskilled workers at a much reduced pay to undercut them. As a group, Unions can enforce pay, pensions and working conditions upon the empoyers. They can also as a last resort organise industrial action to force employers into rethinking their plans.                            Trade Unions were the successors to the medieval guilds of Europe. For much of their history they were illegal movements, as the rising bourgeoisie powers in Europe saw them as a direct threat to their rising monopoly on power. Trade Unions were legalised in the UK as part of wider reform in the Great Reform Act of 1832, but this only made persecution illegal, not impossible. In 1834 leading Trade Unionists were arrested under an obscure loophole banning oaths not to the crown, and transported to Australia. These men became known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs and later became banner-men for the Trade Union movement. Many politicians were frightened that the Unions would damage property in much the same way as Luddites had, and so were unwilling to provide support. It was this lack of support that forced the Unions to become political, and in 1868 the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was founded to lobby MPs and support radical and socialist candidates for political posts. By the time WW1 had finished Trade Union membership had reached all-time highs, and would remain at over ten million until the post-Thatcher years. Present membership is at around 7.3 million. Unite (Amicus) is the biggest Union, at 2.3 million members, mostly in the private sector. Unison is the biggest public sector Union.                                                                                                                                                                                        Labour Beginnings                                                                          The modern Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) was born out of the dream of Thomas Steels, a Railway worker who wanted to bring together all of the nations left-wing parties and Trade Unions to sponser candidates for parliament. Kier Hardy and fourteen others were instrumental in organising this congress, and were selected to stand for parliament in the upcoming elections. Hardie and Richard Bell, another of the fifteen, were sucessful in their election campaigns, and the PLP was born.

Rising unemployment along with a mismanagement of the economy led to Labour winning 42 seats by 1914. In the post-war period, splits in the Liberal Party made the Labour Party Britain's official opposition. Labour formed a minority government in 1924, but scandel over a supposed revolution in the wings forced Ramsay MacDonald's government from power. During the depression period the Labour Party split over ideological grounds, and after a crushing defeat in 1931 were reduced by more than 225 seats, although MacDonald remained PM as leader of the National Government inter-party alliance.                                                                                                 After the Second World War (during which a coalition government had ruled) Labour contested the 1945 general elections, where Clement Attlee won a landslide victory for Labour. Attlee nationalised a majority of national industries and utilities, created the Welfare State, built the National Health Service, built Britain's nuclear deterrent and began the dismantling of the British Empire. Attlee was a divisive figure, who alienated many members of the population and his party. However, he also commanded the loyalty of a goodly number, and though Labour lost the 1951 elections, they did so with their largest share of the vote to date. Over the next thirty years Labour was defined by the Trade Union movement, which guaranteed it's support but made it difficult to legislate effectively as a government. During the Thatcher years Labour drifted to the right, until John Smith, Tony Blair and New Labour switched focus to a membership-led party, ending nearly 100 years of Trade Union dominance.

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