ABSTRACT
The continuing conflict between masters and men in dockland, in which Tillett played so important a part, was typical of British industrial relations in general during the new unionist era. In the mines, mills and factories of England’s heartland, in the sweated dens and shops of her cities, unskilled labourers, hitherto without organization, now began combining and taking concerted action against their employers. Tillett has generally been accounted one of the leading socialists among the new unionists. In fact, throughout 1889 he held himself aloof from the socialist movement. The great triumph in London of that year taught him that trade unionism alone was sufficient to reform conditions on the waterfront. The advent of the Shipping Federation spurred new unionist efforts to establish an organization capable of resistance, and led to the formation of the National Federated Union of Sailors, Firemen, Dock-labourers, Wherrymen, Miners, Coalporters, Gas stokers, Flatmen, Bargemen, Carters ‘and other kindred tasks connected with the Shipping Industry’.
