Chapter 1 Introduction

The Derby Lock-Out of 1833-34, was the first practical national expression of the syndicalist project to wrestle power from the capitalists and put it into the hands of the workers, through trades union action. What has previously been seen as little more than a small scale provincial dispute was in fact a confrontation between the ideological forces of the masters’ capitalism and the trades unionists’ labour power. The term ‘trades union’ as opposed to ‘trade union’ is used above deliberately because ‘trades union’ implied general union of all the working classes and, by 1833, a union with an agenda of social revolution. Francis Place (who had earlier campaigned for trade union rights) made the distinction between ‘Trade Clubs’ which he said were "very valuable institutions" and ‘Trades Unions’ which he regarded as "very mischievous associations". This was an important distinction and one missed or glossed over as ideological irrelevance by historians and the Twentieth Century labour movement (see photo of Derby commemorative plaque below).

 fig. 1

The Derby Lock-Out and the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (GNCTU) were born in a period of social and political turmoil. Derby was one of many towns in which "Trades Unionism" made a massive impact in late 1833. A large proportion of the town’s workers had joined the Trades Union by November 1833, the masters took fright and demanded their workers abandon this "great power of darkness". The trades unionists refused to comply and a five month lock-out ensued. This show of solidarity of the working classes in Derby, inspired the trades unions of Britain to form a national body with its prime objective being the support of the Derby Locked-outs but with explicit rules binding it to the ultimate outright change of society. It is important to note that this was a lock-out not a strike (as a number of historians have mistakenly labelled it), no claim for higher wages or terms and conditions were involved. It was a struggle for the outright control of the workplace as both the masters and trades unionists made clear in published manifestos. This showpiece battle ended in April with outright defeat for the workers, a bitter blow to the GNCTUs objectives which they by then represented.

The period between, 1818 and 1834, which G. D. H. Cole describes in his Attempts at General Union, climaxing in the Derby dispute and the formation of the GNCTU is an important period of labour history as it stands at the beginning of the exclusively working class movement and strong signs of the working class becoming conscious of itself as a distinct class. Many historians have therefore attempted to evaluate the events using either S. and B. Webb’s interpretation of the "revolutionary period" of trade union history or alternatively, A. E. Musson’s contention that it is best understood as a continuation of the "patient organisation" based on "trade aspects" of disputes rather than political ones. Both aspects will be considered firstly by, examining previous attempts at general union; secondly through, interpreting the narrative of the Derby Lock - Out; and finally, comparing the central features of the history of the GNCTU proposed by historians against the merits of Derby.

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