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.

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James Keir Hardie, the Ayrshire miners’ leader, who was
destined to become the first leader of the Labour Party.