Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Citizenship, liberty and community
- Part I Citizenship, populism and liberalism
- Part II Economic democracy and the ‘moral economy’ of free trade
- 6 The National Agricultural Labourers' Union and the demand for a stake in the soil, 1872–1896
- 7 Free trade, protectionism and the ‘food of the people’: the Liberal opposition to the Cattle Diseases Bill of 1878
- 8 Towards the ‘hungry forties’: free trade in Britain, c. 1880–1906
- 9 The strange death of free trade: the erosion of ‘liberal consensus’ in Great Britain, c. 1903–1932
- Part III Democracy, organicism and the challenge of nationalism
- Part IV Consciousness and society: the ‘peculiarities of the British’?
- Index
6 - The National Agricultural Labourers' Union and the demand for a stake in the soil, 1872–1896
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Citizenship, liberty and community
- Part I Citizenship, populism and liberalism
- Part II Economic democracy and the ‘moral economy’ of free trade
- 6 The National Agricultural Labourers' Union and the demand for a stake in the soil, 1872–1896
- 7 Free trade, protectionism and the ‘food of the people’: the Liberal opposition to the Cattle Diseases Bill of 1878
- 8 Towards the ‘hungry forties’: free trade in Britain, c. 1880–1906
- 9 The strange death of free trade: the erosion of ‘liberal consensus’ in Great Britain, c. 1903–1932
- Part III Democracy, organicism and the challenge of nationalism
- Part IV Consciousness and society: the ‘peculiarities of the British’?
- Index
Summary
The year 1871 had witnessed the passage of a government bill into law which gave legal recognition to trade unions and enabled them to protect their funds under the Friendly Society Acts. No difficult provisos regarding the division of funds for benefit and funds for strike purposes remained, although unions were still liable to criminal prosecutions under the 1825 Act for picketing and obstruction. Despite the passing of the Act, very little agitation occurred until the winter which followed. The harvest of 1871, which proved to be a bad one, and caused prices to rise, also contributed to the sudden upsurge of activity in the opening weeks of 1872.
The initial focus of attention was in Warwickshire at Wellesbourne where on 14 February the celebrated union meeting was held on the village green under the great chestnut tree. Yet, almost simultaneously, scattered villages from all over the southern counties where agricultural wages were lower, began to join the action as the down-trodden workers started to take to their feet. In the first weeks of February and March 1872, the picture was one of numerous small local unions springing to life. These were often clustered around one of the larger market towns.
By the spring of 1872 these local unions had become so numerous that some kind of umbrella organisation was called for in order to facilitate coordinated action and protest. The Warwickshire Union led by Joseph Arch (1828–1919), a champion hedge-cutter and a sturdy independent individual who was also a Methodist local preacher, proved to be the most influential among these local unions. On 19 May, Arch's union called a conference of delegates representing twenty-six counties.
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- Information
- Citizenship and CommunityLiberals, Radicals and Collective Identities in the British Isles, 1865–1931, pp. 151 - 167Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996