ABSTRACT
The initiative to form the Triple Alliance was taken by the Miners’ Executive who had been so instructed by their Annual Conference in 1913. After the discussions with the Railwaymen and the Transport Workers the programme of the Triple Industrial Alliance was for the three unions simultaneously to formulate a policy of progress in the appropriate trades covered by each union, and then all three were to put in their claims at the same time. The split in the Triple Alliance was thus accomplished, because the Railwaymen and the Transport Workers thought that Frank Hodge’s attitude did warrant serious consideration, and so became at loggerheads with the Miners’ Executive. As despair gained root in the hearts and minds of ordinary people, the unemployed workers’ movement itself dwindled to small numbers, and the Communist Party fell into insignificance as the trade unions’ leaders accepted constitutional methods for alleviating the situation.
