History of British trade unionism

NOWADAYS when one in every three or four adults is a member of a trade union, and when all of us are likely to be affected by the decisions of its leaders, there is no need to emphasise the importance of the study of trade unionism. But why should we examine its past, when what we are really concerned with is its present and future?

For better or for worse, the structure of present-day British trade unionism can be understood only in terms of its historical development. An acute foreign observer de scribed it at the end of the Second World War as 'an ancient city full of architecture of different periods and styles'. This is no less true today: it is a characteristic due in part to the early development of British industry, in part to the absence from our national history in the last two centuries of any social upheavals such as have been caused elsewhere by revolution or military conquest.

But there are other reasons, too, to study British trade union history. It is concerned with the aspirations and the fears of ordinary people, with their endeavours and their struggles, with their modest successes and their setbacks. In following its slow and often painful progress, we may obtain some understanding of human problems in general, and in particular of those likely to exist in an emerging industrial society. Of course, no other country has developed or will develop quite as Britain has done: but as the greatest of the classical historians pointed out, so long as human nature remains as it is, similar situations will recur, and we can learn from history in the same way as from personal experience.