ABSTRACT
Until recently there has been little systematic local research on the links between the earlier nineteenth-century breakdown in industrial law and
order and the development of labour’s political consciousness. It is, therefore, difficult to assess the general relevance of the findings presented here.3 But even though Oldham’s experience was probably somewhat exceptional, it seems likely that something of the same kind (in greater or less degree) happened elsewhere. Clearly, state power was dangerously eroded in a whole number of areas. Clearly, too, labour took advantage of it. The value of the Oldham evidence is to reveal the depth of cultural reorganization that could, in certain circumstances, result. The effective practice of illegal unionism demanded more than just the elaboration of a mass of institutional supports. It compelled the formation of a labour community. It is this process with which the present chapter will be concerned. It will begin by looking at the extent (and logic) of illegal unionism itself, then examine the capture of power in the local community, and finally describe the methods by which the state won back control.
