THE HERITAGE OF THE GASWORKERS

The gasworkers are now in the front line of the struggle against the Tory government's legally-backed wage-cutting plans.

For many people this may come as a surprise wnen iney 1L ... consider that the gasworkers' union-the General and Municipal Workers' Union-with an extreme right-wing leadership has been one of the most conservative throughout the post-war boom years.

But those with a knowledge of the history of the British working class will find the leading role now being played by the gasworkers far from surprising.

For it was this group of workers who were right in the vanguard of the fight in the 1890s and 1900s, a fight which saw not only the emergence of the New Unionism of the unskilled workers, but one which brought a sharp political turn in the working class leading eventually to the creation of the Labour Party in 1906.

And for the revolutionary movement, now at such decisive point in its history, the gasworkers are of special interest. For at the centre of the fight to organize the gasworkers and turn them in the direction of socialist politics more than 80 years ago was a decisive group of Marxists, led by Frederich Engels and including Marx's most talented daughter Eleanor ('Tussy') and her husband, Edward Aveling.

It was in the late 1880s and early 1890s that the trade union movement was transformed in both size and scope by the entry of the unskilled.

Like all periods of great upsurge in the class struggle, of which today is no exception, this was a time when previously backward groups of workers were thrust by great class forces into the leadership of the entire working class.

Until the 1880s, trade unionism in Britain had been almost entirely the preserve of the skilled groups of workers, comprising. perhaps only one tenth of the labour force.

But the end of the 19th century saw British industry rapidly losing its position of dominance in world markets as imperialist rivalries grew between Britain, Germany and America. Just as today, into employers were thrust 1010 desperate attacks to counter this trend, including the full use of the law to undermine the independence of the trade union movement.

GASWORKERS Lan: сІвапог marx, wno was ai ine themselves into the job in quite a different way, are leading far more colossal masses into the fight, are shaking society more deeply, are putting forward much more far-reaching demands: eight-hour day, general federation of all organizations, complete solidarity. Thanks to Tussy, womens' branches have been formed for the first time - in the Gasworkers' and General Workers' Union. Moreover the people regard their immediate demands only as provisional, although they themselves do not know as yet what final aim they are working for. But this dim idea is strongly enough rooted to choose only openly declared socialists as their leaders. Like everyone else they will have to learn by their experiences and the consequences of their own mistakes. But as, unlike the old trade unions, they greet every suggestion of an identity of interest between capital and labour with scorn and ridicule, this will not take long....

The new union was also at the heart of the reconstituted Second International which met in Brussels in 1889. It was at this gathering that the International adopted the slogan of the Legal Eight-Hour centre of the fight to organize gasworkers' was the first to establish an extensive, national network of branches. Here various socialist organizations, but principally the Social Democratic Federation, were vital in establishing branches in new areas.

The union's first meeting ook place in March 1889 at Canning Town Hall, with leading socialists such as Tom Mann, Harry Quelch and John Burns on the platform. By the end of July over 60 branches had been set up.

But in all these activities the Marxists were . of decisive importance. ' Under Engels' leadership they won a predominant position in the union.

Will Thorne, the union's first secretary was strongly influenced by Eleanor Marx who had taught him to read. She became …à tireless worker for the union in the East End, speaking night after night at meetings as well as carrying out an exhausting programme of open air meetings and other activities.

She became a leading member of the union executive and founder of its first women's branch. She was known affectionally as the 'Boss' of the union.

In all this work she collaborated closely • with Engels until his death in 1895. It was Engels who largely directed operations from behind the scenes in the Yorkshire strike of 1890 which followed the attempts of Thorne and Pete Curran to set up new branches in that area.

The struggle was won and a delighted Engels rewarded Will Thorne with an inscribed copy of 'Capital'.

The new temper of the union can be seen in the preamble to the union rules, revised in 1892. These rules were almost certainly drafted by Eleanor and Edward Aveling.

Preamble to the Rules of the Gasworkers' Union, 1892. (Drawn up by Edward Aveling and Eleanor Marx Aveling.) FELLOW WORKERS: Trade unionism has done -xa cellent work in the past. and the gasworkers. Right: WIll Thorne, formed union in 1889. in it lies the hope of the workers for the future; that is trade unionism which clearly recognizes that today there are only two classes, the producing working class and the possessing master class.

The interests of these two classes are opposed to each other.

The masters have known this a long time; the workers are beginning to see it, and so are forming trade unions to protect themselves, and to get as much as they can of the product of their labour. They are beginning to understand that their only hope lies in themselves, and that from the masters as a they can expect no help; that divided theu tall. united they This is why every form of labour is now organizing, even what called 'unskilled' labour and admits all workers, women as well as men, on an equal footing.

The immediate objects of this union are the improvement of the material conditions of its members; the raising of them from mere beasts of burden to human beings; the making brighter and happier the home of every worker; the saving of little children from the hard, degrading, bitter life to which they are condemned today; the dividing more equally between all men and women the tears and laughter, the sorrow and the joy, the labour and the leisure of the It is important that all members should understand the necessity for and aims of this union; that they should accept and loyally carry out its rules; that they should remember that the interests of all workers are one, and a wrong done to any kind of labour is a wrong done to the whole of the working class, and that victory or defeat of any portion of the army of labour is a gain or a loss to the whole of that army, which by its organization and union marching steadily and irresistibly forward to its ultimate goalthe emancipation of the working class. That emancipation can only be brought about by the strenuous and united efforts of the working class itself.

In 1973, when the decisive struggle in the working class is against all forms of spontaneity and syndicalism, the gasworkers will also be remembered as in the leadership of the struggle to establish the Labour Party.

POLITICAL INSTRUMENT Despite the bitter offensive of the employers and the law courts against the unions throughout the 1890s, a tenacious struggle had to be waged in the movement to convince the unions that they could only advance by creating a new political instrument.

Under the influence of Engels, the gasworkers fought consistently for this policy. Not only did they take part in the negotiations which led to the formation of the Independent Labour Party (1893), but they were also represented at the founding conference of the Labour • Representation Committee (1901) out of which came the Labour Party (1906).

After the Amalgamated Railway Servants—the union involved in the famous Taff Vale case-the gasworkers in 1901 had the largest affiliated membership to the LRC, 48,000.

Thus the gasworkers will be remembered today as among the very first to recognize, in a period of great crisis, the inadequacies of purely trade union, syndicalist forms of The fact that they are once more so determinedly in the vanguard of working-class struggle indicates more clearly than anything that the revolutionary traditions of the British working class are once more being activated.

And just as the Marxists played the crucial role in the great events of more than 80 years ago, so too will the Marxists of today, organized in the revolutionary party