JNF-The-Working-Class-Struggle-of-Half-a-Century

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Trade Unionism The early trade unionists in England had their share of trouble. In the eighteenth century, the workers formed combinations or trade clubs. Sometimes the members met to enjoy a social evening, to make payments into a sickness or burial fund, to seek to keep up and improve the level of their wages and to enforce existing trade customs. However the authorities and the employers regarded these clubs as dangerous. A publication of the British Central Office of Information said, The reaction of authority was to turn the law against these infant bodies. By 1800 nearly forty separate measures prohibited individual combinations, and in that year, through a Combination Act, the ban became general. The aim of this Act was to ensure the freedom of employers to regulate wages and working conditions without and reference to their employees. Workpeople who joined combinations could be prosecuted and savagely punished as many were. Other set-backs cropped up. Robert Owen made a scheme to organize a large national union, but the plan failed because of lack of experience. Within a year Owen’s union had crashed in ruins and the authorities, still bitterly hostile to the idea of trade unionism, stepped in to try to wipe out the remnants of the combination. In this drive their most famous victims were the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six farm labourers from the West Country of Dorset, who were transported to Australia as a punishment for taking an oath on joining a trade union. However a ray of light broke through after a dark period. For more than a decade after 1834, trade unions went into decline though a few combinations kept going and with the development of better communications by rail and road, they began to link together to concentrate their bargaining strength. Co-operatives The history of the Co-operative Movement in Britain also showed how the ordinary people got together to work out their economic salvation. Over a century ago, 28 Englishmen, chiefly cotton weavers by trade started without any money to establish a co-operative shop. Edward Topham and J.A. Hough co-authors of the book The Cooperative Movement in Britain, stated that they Collected a few pence weekly until 18
they had accumulated £28 with which capital they rented for £10 per year a tiny shop in a slum quarter of Rochdale known as Toad Lane. With a store of goods consisting of 50 lbs butter, 56 lbs sugar, 6 cwt flour, 1 cwt oatmeal and two dozen candles, the shop opened just before Christmas 1844 with one of their number as salesman on two evenings per week. Slowly, year by year, they added to their membership and stock until by 1851, the store was opened all day with a full-time shopman. They accumulated capital. There had been other co-operative societies before the Rochdale venture. Some collapsed. Other pioneers drew useful lessons from such failures. A. V. Alexander, a former British Minsiter of Defence, wrote: Originally only a few essential items of groceries and provisions were sold by co-operative societies but now the movement is concerned with all the needs of the consumer from the cradle to the grave. It is concerned with the production, importation, manufacture and distribution of food and other essential items and the importance of the part it plays in the economic organization of Great Britain is immense. Moreover the co-operative movement is responsible for one of the largest banks in the United Kingdom and also controls a very important insurance organisation Indeed knowledge is power. The distribution of British Socialist literature in St. Kitts fertilized the field for the creation and growth of the Workers’ Organization which was soon to be established.. W. R. Davis Another ardent advocate of the cause of the ordinary people also embarked on a campaign to gather recruits. He was W. R. “Robin” Davis, an electrician who had spent several years in New York. On his return to St. Kitts he lost no opportunity for urging the masses to organise. He spoke to people of all classes. The ordinary people where quick to respond but the privileged classes regarded him with disdain and silent fear. Some of them referred to him as a tireless talker filled with ‘Merican’ ideas. Undismayed, he won for the cause many persons in the middle income bracket and the sympathy of prominent persons who 19
Page 1: J. N. FRANCE ______________________
Page 4 and 5: © 2015 Published by The National A
Page 6 and 7: Preface The Working Class struggle
Page 9 and 10: 1 EARLY VISION Where is this countr
Page 11 and 12: With the passing of time, social an
Page 13 and 14: This early attempt at workers' orga
Page 15 and 16: post as a school teacher to succeed
Page 17 and 18: For several years the pressure was
Page 19 and 20: and school houses are being used fo
Page 21 and 22: housing condition arising from the
Page 23 and 24: 3 PREPARING THE GROUND The thought
Page 25: That impressive English story told
Page 29 and 30: Commons that since the colony of th
Page 31 and 32: 1922, some of the members of Legisl
Page 33 and 34: On 30 th August 1932 the Dominica T
Page 35 and 36: country and I regard British Guiana
Page 37 and 38: Mr. Marryshow then raised his tone
Page 39: Delegates to the West India Confere
Page 42 and 43: The conference opened its proceedin
Page 44 and 45: protests can be ignored with impuni
Page 46 and 47: Closer Union Commission widened to
Page 48 and 49: He said it was a privilege to him t
Page 50 and 51: possible, an education that must be
Page 52 and 53: and suffering, and in such a condit
Page 54 and 55: The land forming the Hospital compo
Page 56 and 57: ing able to grant the request of th
Page 58 and 59: prison sentences for what was commo
Page 60 and 61: sinned against the Factory. Theirs
Page 62 and 63: 9 FROM PAUPER RELIEF TO PROVIDENT B
Page 64 and 65: 1954 declared the first Monday in M
Page 66 and 67: it has proposed to interfere will b
Page 68 and 69: Change When the League came on the
Page 70 and 71: Children of the working class. 61
Page 72 and 73: had just dumped out a load of cane
Page 74 and 75: There was no reply from London. Twe
Page 76 and 77:
president. When the delegation gave
Page 78 and 79:
Under the law of 1937 only a limite
Page 80 and 81:
Workers who would have benefited fr
Page 82 and 83:
Grenada, and will seek to work in a
Page 84 and 85:
Ferguson, Chairman of the Commissio
Page 86 and 87:
Now let me say in the first place t
Page 88 and 89:
We should like to refer to West Ind
Page 90 and 91:
in West Indies there is a considera
Page 92 and 93:
The 1932 Commissioners commented on
Page 94 and 95:
not regard it as essential that the
Page 96 and 97:
official news of its adoption by th
Page 98 and 99:
gravity of the situation to the att
Page 100 and 101:
On 13 th December, 1934 an unusuall
Page 102 and 103:
employed by those who demand the ad
Page 104 and 105:
concerning the right for the workin
Page 106 and 107:
come relief to a grateful people an
Page 108 and 109:
vance towards the goal of the Feder
Page 110 and 111:
members of the Council. Mr. Marrysh
Page 112 and 113:
see no reason why we should be give
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Unofficial Majority on the Legislat
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tional reform movement in this Pres
Page 118 and 119:
combine to give the Closer Union Sc
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prominent part in marking the close
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when the slaves were set free, and
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The people in those days took it fo
Page 126 and 127:
Sugar Factory workers were “chast
Page 128 and 129:
At West Farm the marchers were prev
Page 130 and 131:
Some of the men, it was alleged, we
Page 132 and 133:
gear was damaged and the employees
Page 134 and 135:
Inspector of Police and Magistrate
Page 136 and 137:
H.M.S. Leander arrived in the port
Page 138 and 139:
satisfied that the action taken by
Page 140 and 141:
16 THE FIRST ELECTION The clash of
Page 142 and 143:
opposed to it. The 1936 Constitutio
Page 144 and 145:
important matter, I promise the Ele
Page 146 and 147:
could have no better representative
Page 148 and 149:
whether it was a fact that the St.
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existing, it is not considered that
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17 THE 1938 ROYAL COMMISSION The 19
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A: Any law-abiding citizen over 16
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appeared and presented the case of
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18 A STAKE IN THE COUNTRY Land owne
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culture and Commercial Society. The
Page 162 and 163:
After this, the land would vest abs
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age. In the following month, Januar
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19 MARCUS GARVEY IN ST. KITTS St. K
Page 168 and 169:
When he made man he said, ‘By the
Page 170 and 171:
oil underneath his feet. Englishmen
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is a little four-page newspaper. Yo
Page 174 and 175:
provided the major portion of the e
Page 176 and 177:
which should be paid for the variou
Page 178 and 179:
In April 1969 the Minister of Labou
Page 180 and 181:
21 POWER OF THE PRESS During first
Page 182 and 183:
Commission headed by Sir Charles Fe
Page 184 and 185:
President wrote, The issues are too
Page 186 and 187:
the sea. The effects were terrible
Page 188 and 189:
mendous crowd packed the Mutual Imp
Page 190 and 191:
territory, the success of the past
Page 192 and 193:
the notice, was that employees were
Page 194 and 195:
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JNF-The-Working-Class-Struggle-of-Half-a-Century

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