Welsh Journals

LABOUR STRUGGLES IN FLINTSHIRE 1830-1850 PART II. By the late EMLYN ROGERS, M.A. The history of Trade Unionism in North Wales between 1831 and 1850 is shrouded in mystery, although an occasional glimmer of light pierces the darkness now and again. Whether the North Walians joined Doherty's unwieldy organisation The National Union for the Protection of Labour is not known, but there is ground for believing that when a delegate conference of colliers from different counties with a view to joining the N.U.P.L. met at Bolton towards the end of April, 1831, North Wales was re- presented.1 Neither have we any evidence, to the writer's knowledge, of the direct influence of the Utopian from Newtown, Robert Owen, among the Denbighshire and Flintshire cofliers. While the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in 1834 gathered to itself a large number of local bodies and sent its propagandists up and down the country, one searches in vain for specific proof of their mission in this area. One can only surmise that they visited Flint- shire. In a local paper, the Chester Chronicle, 8 April, 1834, appeared a pungent article warning the workers against the delusion of trade unionism. This body" naively remarked the writer has its foundations in ignorance alone," and he proceeds to give to the workers a timely piece of advice in order that they might resist the temptation of itinerant agitators." Dire punishment awaited those in any way involved in secret oaths. Whatever organisation was behind the miners, whether local or national, there is proof that a union flourished. The Report by a Royal Commission of 1835 remarks that during the preceding five or six years the system of combination and striking for wages has prevailed so extensively in the neighbouring collieries as to have called for a permanent station of military at Mold, distant about six miles from Flint. "3 1. Webb History of Trade Unionism, p. 123; Cole A Short History of the British Working Class Movement, Vol. i, p. 107 The Voice of the People April 30th, 1831. While Webb states that Wales was represented at Bolton, G.D.H. Cole mentions North Wales. The paragraph from The Voice of the People runs as follows Sir at a General Meeting held at the Prince William, Bradshaw Gate, Bolton, of fifty representatives from Stafford3hire, Yorkshire, Wales, and other places, it was thought advisable that all colliers, belonging to the Coal Miners' Union should immediately join the Trades Union 2. The writer has consulted the Owenite literature, and after a perusal of newspapers at the British Museum and the Goldsmith's Library, University of London, has failed to trace any reference to Trade Unionism in Denbighshire and Flintshire. 3. Report of Commissioners appointed to enquire into Municipal Corporations of England and Wala, 1835, App. 1, p. 2682.