ABSTRACT
Ben Tillett’s emergence as a labour militant occurred during the new unionist era. The young Lib-Lab supporter became an advocate of independent labour representation and of government intervention on behalf of the working class. With the close of the war, Tillett found himself unable to regain his former leading position in the labour movement. He could no longer pose as a revolutionary socialist, although occasionally he tried, because too many people had heard his pro-government, anti-German tirades. Examination of Tillett’s career would seem, also, to confirm certain generally accepted interpretations of British labour history. For Tillett, as for the other major founders of the Labour Party, according to Henry Pelling’s classic account, need for independent labour representation did not reflect growing strength of the working class, but its self-perceived weakness. The modesty of Tillett’s political and social vision may also have been due, partially, to his attitude towards the rank and file. He distrusted it sometimes to point of contempt.
