ABSTRACT
At the early point in Ben Tillett career, he belonged neither to dying world of radical artisans nor to apolitical, jingoistic, but closed-in, working-class culture which Gareth Steadman Jones believes to have replaced it. Rather, he typified the respectable Victorian working-man, a supporter of Liberal Party who hoped to improve his lot through self-discipline and hard work. Even in mid-1880s, when he was brought by consumption to what he thought was his deathbed, he found breath to rail against the inadequacies of the medical treatment he received. Certain problems which Tillett faced as leader of unskilled union, however, had the potential for driving a wedge between him and the Liberals. He knew from outset that it was futile to limit his organizing to tea workers, or even warehousemen. Greatly influenced by Gladstonian liberalism, they tended to accept the hierarchical world view implicit in nineteenth-century English liberal consensus. In their opinion, semi-skilled workers might imitate labour aristocrats, and successfully establish unions.
