Introduction

The invocation of Tillett was appropriate in another respect. Like Lord George-Brown, Tillett was a man with a talent for plain speaking which often generated more antagonism than anything else. He was less at home with the politicians than with trade unionists in the Labour Party. Ben Tillett helped to lead the great London dock strike of 1889 and to found the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers’ Union of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was general secretary until 1922, when it was transformed into modern Transport and General Workers’ Union. Since Nairn’s assessment of Tillett is one which currently holds sway, it seems useful to point out that less than two weeks prior to the chauvinist declamation quoted by him, Tillett had appeared before Bristol’s striking dockers to insist that they: must not finish at trade unionism – they must not finish until workers of all grades and degrees commanded absolutely whole machinery of state.