Category: General Blogs

The entrance to Jack Jones House, Liverpool is the location for a Liverpool City Council plaque dedicated to Merseysiders whose spirit of international solidarity saw them risk their lives in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. Internal resistance there in the forms of strikes, demonstrations and acts of sabotage encouraged international solidarity. 

Seafarers and dockers have long been the most successful at organising international solidarity. Gerry Wan, deceased, was a black Liverpool-born seaman who was a chef on the Union Castle Line that sailed to South Africa.

According to Roger O’Hara, the Merseyside Area Secretary for the Communist Party (CP) of Great Britain in 1970, Wan delivered post, propaganda literature and parcels of money to places in Durban. These materials were hidden within ships’ cargo holds before departing from Britain.

Another CP member George Cartwright, deceased, was charged with collecting a crew together to navigate a yacht, the Avventura, from Somalia to close to the coast of South Africa where 19 ANC guerrilla fighters, fresh from training in the Soviet Union, arms and ammunition would come in on two dinghies. Seagoing engineer, Pat Newman, deceased, was one of those who agreed to join the mission. Ex-seaman, Eric Caddick, formerly a professional boxer, was another. He was a local black member of the CP. His father was from Barbados and his mother was from Liverpool. 

Alex Moumbaris, who on a later mission was caught and sentenced to prison for twelve years, for which he served 7.5 as he escaped (1), was in charge of the landing with Bob Newland whilst there was an alternative beach where Bill McCaig and Daniel Ahern were waiting in case something unforeseen happened. In the years leading up to the proposed landing, Ahern and McCaig had worked clandestinely in South Africa on surveying beaches that were suitable for the operation. 

Unfortunately, just off the coast of Kenya, the yacht, which had broken down on its initial journey, developed faults in the cooling system and a lack of spare bearings meant the mission had to be eventually aborted. Sadly, later attempts to get the young men over land into South Africa saw them captured and shot by the security forces.  

McCaig had earlier been involved in propaganda work in South Africa in which he had distributed booklets around cargo holds for South African dockworkers to pick up when they unloaded ships. 

Bill McCaig 

He was given similar material to be posted within South Africa when he sailed there as a merchant seaman for the Union Castle Line. Later he worked permanently on Durban’s docks where he constantly moved around to try and spot opportunities for bringing in people without the port authorities knowing. He later had to leave South Africa quickly when it became apparent the South African police had become aware he was part of an underground network. 

McCaig details his work in South Africa in an excellent book LONDON RECRUITS – The Secret War against Apartheid. This tells the story of a small unit of white anti-racist activists operating out of London that assisted the liberation movement, which found it very difficult to escape police surveillance after the Rivonia trial of Nelson Mandela and other leaders in 1963-64, to rebuild its capacity inside South Africa. 

Moving in and out of South Africa, the recruits began by circulating banned literature through the postal system. They then become more audacious by showering leaflets from city rooftops and unfurling ANC banners and later they employed firework-type ‘bucket bombs’ for discharging leaflets at busy public venues whilst simultaneously blaring out tape-recorded speeches from such as Nelson Mandela. 

Security police were baffled that an organisation they had virtually destroyed had quickly regained its capacity to act whilst the subversive activities inspired the oppressed with many young guerrilla combatants later recalling that the first time they had encountered an ANC message was through such propaganda coups. 

Fortunately the vast majority of London recruits were not caught by the South African Authorities, as the penalties were severe if you were. After a series of successful operations, Sean Hosey was caught in 1971 taking passbooks and money to South African comrades in Durban. He received a physical battering and had to endure solitary confinement and interrogation before he received the mandatory five years in prison for breaching the Terrorism Act that was an effective catchall for anything that threatened white supremacy. Hosey was in Liverpool when the Liverpool City Council plaque to the five Merseyside men was unveiled on Friday 30 January 2015. 

Their actions were praised by Obed Mlaba, the South African High Commissioner and ANC member: “We will never forget the overseas friends of our struggle. We thank them for the wonderful, vital job they did during the hard times we experienced. We look forward to working to continuing to work with British trade unionists.” 

Liverpool-born Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said; “I was an anti-apartheid movement member. All praise for the comrades who risked their lives supporting our ANC members. It is appropriate that the plaque is mounted alongside the one bearing the names of Merseysiders who sacrificed their lives fighting for democracy in Spain in the 1930s. Both are great examples of international solidarity.” 

1.    Inside Out – Escape from Pretoria Prison by Tim Jenkin (Jakana Education, South Africa, 2003) and also at http://www.anc.org.za/books/escape0.html 

London Recruits – the secret war against apartheid is published by Merlin Press at £15.99 post free. www.merlinpress.co.uk

Judged by any criteria, Julia Varley was an extraordinary woman who devoted her entire working life  to fighting for better working conditions for women and men employed in a range of trades and industries. She was also an ardent campaigner for women’s right to vote and was twice sent to Holloway Prison for her activities on this.

Born in Bradford in 1871 she followed her father by becoming a woollen mill worker at aged 12. Three years later she became secretary of the Bradford branch of the Weavers and Textile Workers Union and soon after also joined the Women’s Trade Union League and National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW) as she fought to organise ‘sweated labour’ where men and women worked long hours, were poorly paid and endured terrible working and welfare conditions. Julia moved to Birmingham after Edward Cadbury invited her to establish a NFWW branch at Cadbury’s Bournville Factory. The new branch Julia Varley set up became affiliated in 1909 to Birmingham Trades Council (TC) and soon after she  became the first women to be elected to its executive committee.

Within the TC she was very involved in a series of major campaigns, including a fight to limit the hours of bakery workers and to introduce a minimum wage. In 1910  she was one of the leading organisers of the historic Cradley Heath women chainmakers’ ten-week strike that attracted international attention and resulted in a famous victory for the NFWW, resulting in the payment of a minimum wage.

Although she retained a focus on working women, Julia Varley became a Midlands organiser for the Workers’ Union in 1912. This had been formed on May Day 1898 with Tom Mann, who achieved fame in 1889 as one of the leaders of the London Dock Strike,  prominent in its initial development. The paper for the union – The Record – was clear why she had been appointed: ‘we wish that more working women had the experience of Julia Varley of mill work.’

The WU organised both men and women. In 1913 Varley was a key part of the strike by Cornish China Clay workers that helped lay the ground for trade union development in that region of the country. (see Unite book of the month on this at https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/6328-julia-varley-booklet.pdf

Julia was also heavily involved in many disputes in Birmingham and the Black Country right up until the First World War, during which she particularly worked to organise the increasing numbers of women finding themselves in paid work.

Julia occupied her post with the WU until it amalgamated with the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) in 1929 at which time she became the TGWU’s Women’s Officer. She also served on the General Council of the Trade Union Congress throughout the 1920s and chaired its Women’s Group. In 1931, Julia Varley was awarded an OBE for her services to public work. She retired in 1936 and died in Bradford in 1952 at the age of 81.

A plaque in Julia’s honour was unveiled by the Birmingham Civic Society on 24 May 2013 http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/birmingham-suffragette-julia-varley-honoured-3862243

Unite would like to thank Birmingham Civic Society and in particular the photographer Jamie Justham for allowing us to reproduce Jamie’s photo of the plaque . You can find out more about the society at: – http://www.birminghamcivicsociety.org.uk

You can listen to an audio version of Mark’s UNITE the Union publication on Julia Varley here.

Many thanks to Mark Thomas for these photographs – which are not to be used without permission

A plaque that commemorates the heroic struggle against racism on Bristol’s buses was unveiled at Marlborough Street bus station in August 2014. In 1963 the Bristol Bus Company’s refusal to recruit black people as drivers or conductors was supported by Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) members who threatened to bring the buses to a halt if black workers were employed on bus crews. This colour bar was brought to a glorious end after four young West Indians, Prince Brown, Audley Evans, Roy Hackett and Owen Henry, along with British born Paul Stephenson, set up the West Indian Development Council. 

The 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott inspired them, when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. Black Bristolians and white anti-racists, including Bristol East Labour MP Tony Benn, boycotted the bus company who thus lost income and was badly damaged by the publicity the campaign generated. After four months the bus company announced it would it was ending its bar on ‘coloured labour’ thus forcing white trade unionists to reassess their attitudes and begin working alongside their black colleagues. 

The successful struggle also helped inspire the passing two years later in Parliament of the Race Relations Act that outlaws racial discrimination. 

In 1986, Madge Dresser wrote an account of events in 1963. 

This is at:- 

http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/sites/explore/files/explore_assets/2010/03/22/bri_ide_BandWOnTheBuses6.pdf 

Madge Dresser’s book has been republished by Bookmarks with financial support from a number of trade union branches including Bristol Unite Health, Bristol Unite General services and Bristol Finance and Legal. 

It is available at a cost of £5.80 plus postage from http://www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/view/34116/Black+and+White+on+the+Buses%3A+The+1963+Colour+Bar+Dispute+in+Bristol 

In 2013, Unite, as the successor to the TGWU, issued an apology: – 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-21574799 

For more on this historic struggle see:- 

http://www.unionhistory.info/britainatwork/narrativedisplay.php?type=raceandtradeunions 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Bus_Boycott 

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Plaque-commemorating-Bristol-Bus-Boycott-unveiled/story-22844497-detail/story.html 

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Protest-revealed-city-dream/story-19711179-detail/story.html 

Many thanks to Cheryl Nelson, UNITE rep at AXA Bristol office, for sending in the photograph of the plaque and suggesting including it on Rebel Road.

There is a blue plaque to Annie  Kenney at Leesbrook Mill in Lees in Oldham where the working class suffragette started full-time work in 1892 as a weaver’s assistant. She later suffered a serious injury when one of her fingers was ripped off by a spinning bobbin. 

Kenney became involved in trade union activities but she is best known for her involvement in the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). In October 1905, Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst interrupted a politician meeting to ask Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey about their views on whether women should be allowed to vote. 

When neither man replied and the women then got out a banner declaring ‘Votes for Women’ they were thrown out and arrested for obstruction. Kenney went to prison for 3 days. She was later in-volved in many other similar acts and suffered imprisonment on many occasions and during which time she was often force fed after participating in hunger strikes.  

Kenney was unusual in that unlike many of the leading WSPU members she was working class and when the organisation decided to open a branch in the East End of London she agreed to leave the mill and work full-time for the WSPU. 

When Christabel Pankhurst fled to France in 1912 to avoid arrest it was Kenney who was put in charge of the WSPU in London.  After the WSPU began destroying the contents of pillar-boxes and attempted to burn down the houses of two government members opposed to women having the vote, Kenney was again arrested and sentenced to 18 months in gaol for ‘incitement to riot.’ She became the first suffragette released from prison under the provisions of the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ that released women on hunger strike in order to prevent them becoming martyrs and then re-arrested them when they recovered.  

Kenney escaped to France and when the First World War was declared in 1914 she returned home after the WSPU ended their campaign and backed the military conflict with Christabel and Emmeline Pankhurst helping recruit men to the armed forces. 

Kenney later lost interest in politics and she died on 9 July 1953 with her husband, James Taylor, claiming his wife had never properly recovered from her hunger strikes. 

Rebel Road would like to thank Oldham’s Alan Bedford, a Unite safety rep who is a technician at BAE systems in Middleton, Manchester, for information on the plaque to Annie Kenney. 

“I am a life long socialist and my local area of Oldham has a great working class heritage that should be celebrated and brought to the attention of the current generation so they can be inspired to emulate the great people of the past,” said Alan.    

In December 2018 a statue was unveiled to Annie Kenny. https://www.oldham-chronicle.co.uk/news-features/139/main-news/124818/emotions-run-high-as-beautiful-annie-kenney-statue-is-unveiled

In the second decade of the nineteenth century, a lack of suffrage (more than half of all MPs were elected by just 154 votes) and the poor economic conditions that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 combined to create a mass movement that demanded reform of parliamentary representation. 

On 16 August 1819 at St Peter’s Field, Manchester a cavalry charge resulted in the deaths of 15 demonstrators from amongst a crowd estimated at between sixty and eighty thousand. The massacre was to become known as Peterloo, an ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier. 

Amongst the crowd were many women. Nevertheless, radical policy at this period was generally to press for universal male suffrage. Some female campaigners were not content and organised Female Union Societies to demand a vote for all, male and female. Many societies were established in the North-West of England industrialised cotton towns, including at Holcombe Brook, Ramsbottom, just north of Bury. 

An inscribed stone at a cottage in Holcombe Brook is the only surviving evidence of this particular women’s organisation. 

Ernest Bevin 1881 – 1851 

8 South Molton Street, Mayfair, London

Ernest Bevin was one of the labour movement giants of the 20th century. As a Dockers’ Union official, Bevin co-founded and served as general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) from 1922 to 1940, when he became Minister of Labour in Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition government. He successfully mobilised Britain’s workforce and became one of the most important members of Churchill’s war cabinet. 

Bevin, who was orphaned at aged six and had little formal education, had previously encouraged young men – including Jack Jones, the future national TGWU leader and Tom Jones, the future TGWU leader in Wales – to join the International Brigades and go and fight fascism in Spain in the 1930s.

Following the Labour Party’s landslide victory in the 1945 General Election, Bevin was appointed by Prime Minister Clement Attlee as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. He played an important role in the acceptance of the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO and Britain’s decision to develop nuclear weapons. In poor health, the former docker resigned from the government in March 1951 and died the following year. 

In March 2015, Unite unveiled the world’s first dual-purpose trade union banner, whereby historical images of a Derby strike pre-dating the Tolpuddle Martyrs have been combined with a twenty-first century communication Quick Response (QR) code. When scanned by a mobile phone this leads people to a website which encourages them to get involved by informing them of the nature of the protest.

The banner states We Honour the Derby Silk Workers 1833-34 and is carried on the annual commemorative march organised each weekend before May Day by the Derby Trades Union Council.

Honouring the sacrifices made by early trade unionists, the banner pays tribute to a moment in history when up to 2,000 Derby silk workers left work in November 1833 to June 1834. Following the repeal of the Combination Acts in 1824, the Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, in which Robert Owen was prominent, was established with an important branch in Derby that included weavers, iron workers, builders and silk thrusters.

When silk manufacturer, Mr Frost, discharged one of his employees, his fellow workmates walked out in support. Within a week 800 people, in a town of 24,000, were affected. When many local employers then declared they would not employ trade unionists, another 500 walked out and by February the numbers had leaped to 2,000. Attempts to persuade strike-breakers imported from London led to many strikers being imprisoned. 

The strike continued for many months but eventually collapsed as starvation set in. Many strikers were subsequently victimised and never worked in their trade again. Nevertheless, in late 1834, the Dorchester Agricultural Labourers at Tolpuddle took up the struggle for trade unions, which only exist today because of the sacrifices made by the likes of the Derby silk workers, Tolpuddle Martyrs and London Dockers of 1889. 

In 1934 a plaque was erected by Derby Trades Union Council that commemorates the struggle of Derby Silk Workers a hundred years earlier. It is mounted outside the Silk Mill Museum. 

Many thanks to Bill Whitehead for sending these photographs. Bill’s book, costing £2.20, on the strike remains available for sale here. 

The 5th Diggers’ Festival, Wigan, 12th September 2015

The 5th Diggers’ Festival, Wigan, 12th September 2015

The 5th Diggers’ Festival, Wigan, 12th September 2015

Gerrard Winstanley (1609 – 1676) 

Since 2011, Wigan has played host to a Wigan Diggers’ Festival each September. In 2015 a new Gerrard Winstanley sandstone mounted plaque was unveiled to mark the re-naming of the festival site as the ‘Gerrard Winstanley Gardens’. 

Winstanley was born in Wigan in 1609. Twelve years later, Wiganners dug up common land in a successful access struggle. An inspired Winstanley later became the main propagandist for the Diggers when they sprang up in the 1640s around the English Civil War, at the conclusion of which a strengthened Parliament refused to introduce radical changes to forever eradicate destitution amongst the poor.

The Diggers believed everyone had the right to till the earth. They argued for land to be seized and owned ‘in common’ so as to create a classless society where property and wages could be abolished.

When Winstanley tried to progress these ideas, such as when he took over common land in 1649 at St George’s Hill in Surrey, he quickly attracted violent opposition from landowners. Diggers were beaten, their houses burnt down and legal restraints were imposed. 

Defeat meant that for centuries Winstanley remained unrecognised as one of England’s great radicals. Vladimir Lenin changed that when, following the 1917 Russian revolution, he named Winstanley as one of 19 leading revolutionaries. Years later, Tony Benn praised the Diggers for having “established the clear outlines of democratic socialism.” 

Inspired by hearing Billy Bragg sing The World Turned Upside Down, printer Stephen Hall of Leigh Unite branch, persuaded other local trade unionists to organise the first Diggers Festival in 2011. Key to the growing success of the festival has been the number of Unite members and branches who have backed it. 

On Saturday 12 September 2015 there was lots to do. The unveiling of the £7,000 plaque was loudly applauded. Funding from their Brighter Borough Fund was provided by the Labour Party ward councillors Terry Halliwell and Lawrence Hunt. 

“This is a great day. I never thought that as a young man who often sat around in this area I would return as a proud Labour councillor to help rename the gardens and unveil a plaque commemorating such a unique, radical person as Winstanley, who this festival is making better known each year,” said Hunt, a bricklayer. 

The renaming was followed by actor Brendan Delaney performing a symbolic digging re-enactment  of events in Surrey in 1649, before the live music, poetry, comedy, educational talks on Winstanley and the Diggers, puppet shows and circus performers started with the crowds also able to browse the large number of food and book stalls and enjoy refreshments that included a well stocked beer tent. 

At just before noon came the announcement that Jeremy Corbyn had become the new Labour leader and there was a great roar of approval. The cheers were later resumed when radical film-maker Jimmy McGovern followed in Tony Benn’s footsteps when his outstanding achievements were rewarded with the presentation of the Winstanley ‘Spade.’ 

“I am, of course, delighted to see so many people here on a day when Gerrard Winstanley’s name will go on all maps. Every year we are trying to add a few more events in honour of this great local visionary whose beliefs of justice, equality, community, fellowship and common ownership I believe are shared by Jeremy Corbyn. Winstanley’s fight thus continues today,” said Stephen Hall.  

In what was probably the first strike that can be truly called general, the 1842 General Strike involved nearly half a million workers. Coming at the peak of the Chartist campaign for basic democratic rights it combined resistance to wage-cuts in the coal, cotton and engineering industries with an all-out struggle for universals suffrage. 

The strike lasted almost six weeks and during which the authorities arrested over 1,500 people and killed many people, including some in Blackburn. (recent information would indicate, at least, four were killed by troops) 

The plaque in Darwen Street has been up for many years and it states:- 

‘Here in Darwen Street on 15th August 1842 Textile Workers protesting against Wage Cuts in the Famous ‘Plug Riot’ were fired upon by Troops of the 72nd Regiment. Up to 3 of the demonstrators are thought to have been killed.’ 

As this goes to press there is being assembled fresh information on events in 1842. This will be published in due course. 

Simon Entwistle, a local historian, wrote this back in 2008 

Simon also did a smashing interview on this and which can be viewed on youtube 

There are plans to hold a 175 anniversary commemorative event on 15 August 2017 with a meeting planned for 29 June at 6pm in Blackburn.

Simon Entwistle can be contacted here 

Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898) is the trade unionist best known for devising a load-line to prevent ships being overloaded. To mark his achievement there is a monument to Plimsoll in Whitehall Garden, a Victoria Embankment garden in central London. In Redcar on Teesside there is also a pub, the Plimsoll Line, whilst in Sheffield there is a plaque directly opposite his childhood home. 

In 1864, Samuel Plimsoll was part of a convoy of ships voyaging from London to Redcar when a severe storm not only delayed his arrival by several hours but also wrecked four of the ships. He recognised that his vessel had been properly surveyed. No such luck for the perished sailors, whose contracts meant that if they refused to sail on an unseaworthy vessel they could be, and were, imprisoned.  It was clear that shipowners, which included numerous MPs, were content to send unseaworthy, overloaded and, significantly, overinsured, boats to sea whatever the consequences for the crews. 

Plimsoll, who had previously won the miners’ approval for seeking methods to prevent colliery disasters by detecting fire damp, was determined to end the horrors of the ‘coffin-ships.’ When he was elected as the Liberal MP for Derby in 1867 he vainly sought to have a bill passed introducing a safe load line in ships. When Plimsoll was told in 1875 by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, that the Merchant Shipping Bill was being dropped by the government his angry response resulted in Plimsoll being suspended from the Commons. Plimsoll though had the public with him as they knew that over a thousand merchant seaman were being drowned each year. In 1876 the Board of Trade were given inspection powers for ships and the Plimsoll line or mark was introduced. 

Plimsoll’s maiden Parliamentary speech in 1868 had put forward the case for a repeal of the criminal laws against trade unions. The subsequent 1871 Trades Union Act legalised trade unions for the first time in the UK and meant members could not be liable for criminal prosecution for taking strike action. 

After voluntarily leaving Parliament in 1880, Plimsoll became in 1887 the first president of the newly inaugurated National Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union (NSFU), where he drew attention to the horrific conditions of animals being transported under appalling, over crowded conditions. 

Plimsoll died in 1898. In 1929 the National Union of Seamen, the NSFU’s successor, erected a memorial to Plimsoll on London’s Embankment Gardens. There is also a Plimsoll Road in many towns and a Plimsoll Bar in Bristol. The Plimsoll Line in Redcar is a Wetherspoon’s pub on the High Street and where there is also a blue plaque erected by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in honour of Samuel Plimsoll “The Sailors Friend.” There is also a plaque commemorating Plimsoll opposite his childhood home in Sheffield. 

Many thanks to John Harvey for taking the accompanying photographs for this article. 

The Lydia Becker blue plaque was unveiled at her family home of Foxdenton Hall, Foxdenton Park on 28 September 1999. She was born in 1827 and was the eldest of 15 children. After hearing Barbara Bodichon lecture on women’s suffrage at a meeting in Manchester in 1866 she became converted to the idea that women should have the vote and spent the rest of her life campaigning on the issue. 

Becker supported Radical MP John Stuart Mill when added an amendment to the 1867 Re-form Act that would have given women the same voting rights as men. The amendment was lost. In 1870, Becker established the Women’s Suffrage Journal and when the 1870 Educa-tion Act allowed women to vote and serve on School Boards, Becker was elected to the Manchester School Board and took a keen interest in raising the educational standards of girls in the city. 

Between 1881 and 1884 Becker was the paid secretary of the Central Society for Women’s Suffrage and was elected in 1887 as president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage. She died on 21 July 1890. 

Many thanks to Alan Bedford, a Unite safety rep at BAE Systems at Middleton, Manchester for ensuring Lydia Becker features on Rebel Road. “As a local Oldham lad I am proud of my town’s radical traditions and want to see them replicated today. I am delighted to know Unite has the Rebel Road project,” said Alan. 

For more information on Lydia Becker go to:-  https://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/lydia-becker-1827-1890-the-fight-for-votes-for-women/ 

Tom Mann, who was one of the three main union leaders of the 1889 London Dock Strike, is one of Britain’s greatest trade unionists.

After a year working as a miner, ten year-old Mann began a seven-year engineering apprenticeship and after which he moved from Coventry to London to find work. He joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and published his pamphlet on the eight-hour day. In 1887 Mann moved to Newcastle where as the Social Democratic Foundation’s organiser he helped form the North of England Socialist Federation. Having read the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Mann became a communist who aimed to overthrow the capitalist system.

Back in London, Mann helped Ben Tillett, John Burns and Cardinal Manning to organise dockers when they struck in 1889 for 6d (2.5p) an hour and a minimum of four continuous hours of work. With the employers aiming to starve the 10,000 plus men out on strike the arrival of £30,000 from trade unions in Australia helped maintain the struggle and after five weeks the employers conceded defeat by granting all the dockers’ main demands.

Mann became President for the new General Labourers’ Union but in 1897 he helped form the Workers Union, which after a slow start blossomed in the decade prior to World War One. The WU eventually merged with the Transport and General Workers Union in 1929.  In December 1901, Mann emigrated to Australia and where he was active in trade unionism and politics and suffered imprisonment for sedition. On his return to England in 1910, Tillett as an organiser for the Dockers Union employed Mann. He played a crucial role in the successful 1911 transport workers strike in Liverpool and was also heavily involved in the unsuccessful Dublin ‘right to unionise’ strike of 1914.

Mann, a religious person throughout his life, was strongly opposed to workers slaughtering each other during the First World War. He was a firm supporter of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917 when for a brief period the working class took control of its own destiny. He retired from full-time employment in 1921, but remained actively involved for many years afterwards and he was sent to prison in 1932 after he criticised cuts in poor relief during a speech he made in Belfast.

When it was decided in 1936 to develop a volunteer international legion to fight on the side of the Spanish Republican government the Tom Mann Centuria became one of the first International Brigades formed. Tom Mann died in Leeds on 13 March 1941. He is buried in Lawnswood Cemetery in Leeds, where Leeds Trades Council has placed a plaque in his honour.

Many thanks to Alan Mann (no relation), the secretary of Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery, for this photograph of the Tom Mann plaque  www.friendsoflawnswoodcemetery.co.uk