Trade Unions in Great Britain

Abstract

MRS. MARY AGNES HAMILTON'S pamphlet "British Trade Unions" (Oxford Pamphlets on Home Affairs, No. H.47. Oxford University Press. 6d. net), which gives a brief survey of trade union history in Britain, is of particular interest for its description of the position of the trade unions in relation to the State and to society in Britain to-day. While the value of the trade union as a training ground for democracy is well brought out, and also its dependence upon democracy as a condition of effective functioning, neither the essential strength nor the weakness of trade unionism is indicated so clearly as might be expected. Mrs. Hamilton quotes Mr. Bevin's enunciation of the central idea "the liberty of the ordinary man and the right relationship between fellowmen "which is also the central idea of democracy; but she fails to point out that the co-operation and collective bargaining represented by the trade unions is indispensable in the industrial and economic conditions of to-day. Without them our war effort could not easily have attained its present pitch, nor could many advances in welfare and the like have been so readily achieved. Equally she overlooks the innate conservatism of the trade unions, which is the real weakness that has hindered their making their full contribution to the development of democratic ideas and practice and to social and economic progress—a weakness as marked in the newer unions of technical and professional workers as among the older unions of manual workers in its customary sense.