BUILT THEIR NION

three: The ASE fights the attack on picketing in rart unree: ine ASE A AT the 1860s and 1870s 1860s and 1870s and engineers campaign for the nine-hour day In the 1860s the entire trade union movement found itself in a crisis when a number of judg. ments in the courts threatened to make the unions illegal.

The occurrence of the Sheffield 'outrages' when violence was committed against non-union men in the cutlery trades, led to a public outcry and the appointment of a Royal Commissior of Investigation into the principles and aims of trade unions in general.

Further, in 1867 the imporcant decisior by Lord Chief Justice Cockburn in the case of Hornby y Close, when it was declared that unions were a conspiracy 'in restraint of trade' and therefore outside the protection of the law regarding security of their assets, stimulated a powerful reaction, especially from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE).

They now found that their assets of upwards of £130,000 were in jeopardy, no longer protected by the Friendly Societies Act of 1855, which was practically annulled by the 1867 judgement.

Labour newspapers of the late 1860s, most notably the 'Miners' and Workmen's Advocate', , the 'Beehive' and the 'Commonwealth' feared the extinction of trade unionism, crepied into impotence by hostile legislation, and urged the organized working class to defend the status of trade unionism with political action against a parliament of employers and their representatives. portance in winning the Second Reform Act of 1867, which extended the vote to most skilled workers in the towns.

Of course, the unions as a body, and particularly the ASE, did not declare their adherence to political action to secure trade union rights, but were spurred on by politicallyconscious leaders like William Allan of the Engineers who played a prominent part in the National Reform League, the working-class, basic organization which from 1865-1867 agitated for universal suffrage.

In order to change the laws and prevent the introduction even harsher legislation against working-class organizations, many workers recognized the need to secure political representation for the working class as an indispensable means of s: feguarding • basic rights, including those of the trade unions.

Although the executive council refused to identify the ASE with the National Reform League, reiterating the view that the society should not allow either political or religious matters to be introduced or discussed at the meetings', it rune shandonad no a fanma e was avanuuncu as a turmality when the very existence of trade unionism itself was at stake.

Among national structing' 'threatening', as under the 1825 Act, caused a widespread outburst of indignation among trade unionists.

As a consequence, the third Trades Union Congress, and the first really national one, was summoned in London. All the important unions were represented, including the engineers. alongside those from other metal and steel trades, ... Dress. -vur ironworkers, ironfounders, boilermakers and iron shipbuilders.

After the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the ASE made a fighting statement in the annual report. The Act was intended to operate in the interests of capital and to prevent, if possible, workmen from maintaining their rights and privileges, it said.

It pledged the union to 'never rest satisfied until this disgraceful Act is totally repealed'. Under its new general secretary,. John Burnett, the ASE participated in the campaign to remove from the Statute Book an Act which was responsible for a stream of convictions against pickets in the years after 1871, until the 1876 Trade Union Act reslurtu we ngul ul peacerus etoned tha ninht of mannafil picketing, but only after a sustained and vigorous trade union campaign.

Besides the legal League.

The north-east engineers of Newcastle and Sunderland led the way with industrial action for a nine-hour day in 1871. The employers tried to destroy the strike movement with the double weapons of imported foreign_ labour and the Criminal Law Amendment Act against the trade unionists who attempted to repel the 'scabs'.

Such was the pressure exerted by the League that even the imported labour force in Armstrong's factory began to express their interest in the nine-hour day and were persuaded to leave.

The successful struggle of the north-east engineers stimulated similar Nine Hours Leagues elsewhere, so that by early 1872 all the districts had achieved a nine-hour day, amid the complaints of the executive council that strike action had constantly been taken without their prior sanction.

The defence of the nine-hour day throughout the 1870s placed the ASE in the forefront of the trade union fight for better conditions, until, by the end of the 1880s, it was eclipsed by the dramatic movement into general unions of the unskilled workmen, pioneered by dockers, gasworkers and matchgirls.

CONTINUED TOMORROW

Press, Saturday Da:3t:3: 23, 1972 PAGE 9