Why not have a Congress of our own _ The First Trades Union Congress ~ “2 The TUC on the brink of a new century KEIR HARDIE, passionate advocate of a truly independent Labour Party, was always a rather unwelcome figure at the Trades Union Congress, which he ruthlessly and _persist- ently attacked as having tepid policies and flaccid leadership. There was, in fact, plenty to criticise. In the first thirty years or so after its foundation, the T.U.C., as such, could chalk up no more than two major achievements to its credit: the Repeal of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, already mentioned; and the introduction of the Fair Wages Clause. The latter originated in a resolution passed by the 1888 Congress. It demanded, successfully, that a principle already practised by H.M. Stationery Office, which was by now allocating printing contracts only to firms observing trade union standards and conditions, should be extended to other Government depart- ments and to local authorities. On the debit side, the T.U.C. had, in the eyes of its critics then and later, let a number of crucial issues go by default. According to. G. D.H. Cole, for example, the Parliamentary ~ Committee’s policy of non-intervention in demarcation disputes between one union and another was continued right through to the end of the century; by which time, demarca- tion disputes were causing havoc among the shipbuilding and engineering trade unions. Then, in the last five years of the century, two things happened which further aroused the anger of the critics. In 1895, the T.U.C. excluded from Congress the local trades councils who had hitherto always been repre- sented there as of right; because, said the T.U.C. leadership, such representation resulted in duplicated membership. But some sceptics believed that the leadership felt that the trades councils were an awkwardly militant element. Next, the Conciliation Act, which empowered the Board of Trade to appoint, on request, , conciliators and arbitrators in industrial “ disputes, passed into law. The intervention of Government as a conciliator in trade disputes was a significant development in industrial relations to which Congress paid not the slightest attention. All the same, the fact that unions were still prepared to pay affiliation fees to the T.U.C. Suggests that Congress had a useful role in bringing the representatives of unions to- gether once a year—and in drawing the attention of Governments and society to the wt , social and economic needs of workers and a their families. From this, at least, a vital sense of movement was already developing. retset ee 3 RiSSTtt ui James Keir Hardie, the Ayrshire miners’ leader, who was destined to become the first leader of the Labour Party.