Industrial Workers of Great Britain

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Industrial Workers of Great Britain
Formerly called
British Advocates of Industrial Unionism
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The Industrial Workers of Great Britain was a group which promoted industrial unionism in the early 20th century.

The

Daniel de Leon, a leading figure in the American SLP and the IWW. In 1906, the British party formally adopted a policy of industrial unionism.[1]

In 1906, the British SLP founded the British Advocates of Industrial Unionism (BAIU), a small propaganda organisation which called for the formation of revolutionary unions in the pattern of the IWW.[2] The group was officially launched in August 1907,[3] with Tom Bell as its secretary.[4]

In 1908, the IWW split into Chicago- and Detroit-based organisations. In Britain,

E. J. B. Allen and his supporters mirrored the Chicago section's call for the cessation of political activity which was not channelled through trade unions. They founded the Industrialist League and developed links with the Chicago-based IWW.[3]

The BAIU was refounded as the "Industrial Workers of Great Britain" (IWGB) in 1909.

Alexandria and the Albion Motor Works in Scotstoun, all near Glasgow. By the end of the decade, the group claimed a membership of 4,000 at Singer's alone.[6]

In early 1911, a woman working at Singer's was dismissed. In line with the principle of "

postal vote asking staff whether they wished to return to work. While the IWGB attempted to disrupt the vote, asking workers to instead return voting cards to them, the management claimed that a majority wished to end the strike. Workers began to return, the strike was defeated, and leading members of the IWGB at the factory were sacked.[6]

The IWGB remained close to the Detroit-based IWW of De Leon, and when that group renamed itself the

Clyde Workers Committee as its most important continuation.[6]

The British Socialist Labour Party and the WIIU saw their membership shrink dramatically after the war, as many activists joined the newly founded Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1923, the WIIU supported John Maclean's Industrial Unity Committee, which also advocated industrial unionism, but it retained significant doubts about the enterprise and left almost immediately.[8] The American WIIU disbanded in 1924, and the British group appears to have followed suit.

References

  1. ^ Chris Cook, The Routledge companion to Britain in the nineteenth century, 1815-1914, p. 160
  2. ^ Ralph Darlington, Syndicalism and the transition to communism, p. 133
  3. ^ a b c d Peter Barberis et al, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, p. 140, p. 151
  4. ^ Tom Bell, "British Advocates of Industrial Unionism: Glasgow Branch", The Socialist, May 1908
  5. ^ Branko Pribićević, The Shop Stewards' Movement and Workers' Control 1910-1922
  6. ^ a b c Tom Bell, Pioneering Days
  7. ^ a b Ian MacDougall, Voices from the hunger marches, p. 186
  8. Workers Liberty
    #25, October 1995
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