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From International Socialism, No.19, Winter 1964/5, p.32.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
General Union in a Changing Society: A Short History of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, 1889-1964
H.A. Clegg
Blackwell, 21s.
The Gasworkers’ Union, one of the first of the ‘new unions’ which organised the workers excluded by the old craft societies, was founded by Will Thorne – at the time a revolutionary Social-Democrat and protegé of Eleanor Marx. Yet the NUGMW, the product of its amalgamation with two smaller ‘new un:ons’, has consistently placed itself on the right of the trade union movement. Thorne himself, in his trade union activity, proved more reformist than revolutionary, while politically he was to follow Hyndman’s chauvinism.
For Mr. Clegg, the basic function of a trade union would appear to be the prevention of industrial strife in order to facilitate the smooth operation of capitalism. The history of the NUGMW has followed fairly closely this limited conception of its role; but not perhaps so closely as is suggested by this book, in which the petty squabbles of the leadership receive far greater prominence than the activity of the rank-and-file. Indicative of Clegg’s approach is his treatment of the shop stewards’ movement of the 1914-18 War, which he dismisses in a contemptuous paragraph. As a short history of one of this country’s largest unions, this book provides a useful record. But coloured as it is by its author’s political attitude, this record is scarcely an illuminating one.
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