Sam Mainwaring
Sam Mainwaring | |
|---|---|
| Born | Samuel Mainwaring 15 December 1841 Penrhiwtyn, Neath, Wales |
| Died | 29 September 1907 (aged 65) London, England |
| Occupation | Machinist |
| Part of a series on |
| Anarcho-syndicalism |
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Samuel Mainwaring (15 December 1841 – 29 September 1907) was a Welsh
Biography
Early years
Known to his contemporaries as Sam, Mainwaring was born 15 December 1841 in Penrhiwtyn, Neath, Wales. He was a native speaker of Welsh and retained an affinity for the tongue throughout his life.[1] Mainwaring was raised by his family as a Unitarian. He developed into a quiet yet persuasive public speaker and a tireless worker for activities which he believed important.[1] In 1868, he married the daughter of a customs officer from Cardiff.[2]
Mainwaring worked as an engineer, moving to the United States for a short period of time before returning to the United Kingdom to work in London, where he was a member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.[3]
Political career
Late in the 1870s, Mainwaring joined the East London Labour Emancipation League and was an early member of the Social Democratic Federation.[3] However, this group proved to be a disappointment, failing to garner support of an appreciable section of the working class and was believed by many members to overly dominated by the intellectual pretensions and nationalist political views of its patriarch and patron, Henry Hyndman.
In 1885, there came a split in which Mainwaring joined with
In 1891, Mainwaring moved to Swansea and there started the Swansea Socialist Society.[3] He became associated with the fledgling anarchist newspaper Liberty, edited by James Tochatti, formerly of the Hammersmith branch of the Socialist League.[3]
In 1900, he played an active role in the movement opposing the Boer War.[2]
In September 1903 and March 1904, Mainwaring published two issues of a short-lived newspaper called The General Strike, a publication which made detailed criticisms of the "officialism" of union bureaucracy and which publicised strikes in Europe making use of syndicalist tactics.[4]
Death
In his later years, Mainwaring lived in
Legacy
Mainwaring is credited with coining the phrase "anarcho-syndicalism" and it is for this he is best remembered.
Mainwaring was cited as a major intellectual inspiration by the radical
Mainwaring was the namesake of a
Footnotes
- ^ a b Mat Kavanagh, "Some Little Known Anarchists: Sam Mainwaring," Freedom, 1934. Reprinted in KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library, no. 9 (1997).
- ^ a b Heath, Nick (10 January 2007). "Mainwaring, Sam, 1841-1907". LibCom. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Tom Mann, Tom Mann's Memoirs. London: Labour Publishing Co., 1923; pg. 47.
- ^ "The Great Dock Strike of 1889," Direct Action #47," August 11, 2009. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
- ^ Ken John, "Sam Mainwaring and the Autonomist Tradition," Llafur, vol. 4, no. 3 (1986).
Further reading
- Kenneth John. "Anti-Parliamentary Passage: South Wales and the Internationalism of Sam Mainwaring (1841–1907)". University of Greenwich. PhD thesis. 2001.
- Hermia Oliver. The International Anarchist Movement in Late Victorian London. London: Croom Helm. 1983.