Welsh Journals

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which raised issues of fundamental importance to the whole trade union world. They merit some resurrection, however, both for their local significance and because such impression as is left by the general textbooks suggests that South Wales was relatively backward and quiescent in labour affairs at this time.1 This latter impression is hardly consistent with the evidence provided by a reading of the local press. In fact, South Wales seems to have shared to the full in the great leap forward in trade union growth between 1889 and 1891. This rapid advance was encouraged by the revival in economic activity in the late 1880s and was given its particular force and direction by the rise of the new unionism symbolized by the success of the London dockers in 1889. The participation of South Wales in this movement can be seen, first, in the considerable degree of union-building which took place in the region. In some cases this was achieved through an extension of the activities of societies which were already established in the district. Thus, for example, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (A.S.R.S.) besides increasing its recruitment at existing branches, opened new branches at Pontypridd and Ton-du in the first quarter of 1890,2 and the numerous unions in the building industry grew rapidly through the same means.3 This could not, however, form the typical method of any marked expansion in South Wales where the already-established organizations were com- paratively few and largely confined to the relatively small groups of skilled craftsmen. Thus at the opening ceremony of the Roath Dock in Cardiff in 1887-before the new movement got under way- there was a great parade of friendly societies and trade unions which marched through the town on its way to celebrate the event. The unions which were represented, however, were all organizations of craftsmen, the processions being made up of carpenters and joiners, plumbers, boiler-makers, shipwrights, masons, tailors, engineers, steam-engine makers, plasterers, iron moulders, and printers. Nearly all of these were the members of the local branches and lodges of well-organized national societies. In addition, the numbers of the individual craft contingents were usually comparatively small, 1This impression has largely arisen from the Webbs' view of the miners' unions in South Wales (S. and B. Webb, op. cit., p. 434). but in the absence of other evidence this judgement-disputable even for the miners-tends to be attached to all labour movements in South Wales at this time. South Wales Daily News (hereinafter referred to as S.W.D.N.), 13 January. 25 February 1890. "See. e.g. S.W.D.N., 28 April 1890, for formation of a branch of the Amalgamated Society of House Decorators and Painters at Pontypridd, and ibid., 5 May 1890, for formation of a branch of the Carpenters' and Joiners' Union at Aberavon.