ABSTRACT
The proceedings of the conference terminated by a religious service of the Bradford Labour Church, held in St. George’s Hall, when Mr. Keir Hardie claimed that the balance of power in the country was even then in the hands of the Independent Labour Party.” The situation of “Labour” was last treated in the form which it began to assume after the remarkable London Dock Strike of 1889. The Union accordingly ordered its members to strike against Mr. Livesey’s “enslavement scheme” but, though he was thus deprived of a very considerable part of his labour force, Mr. Livesey was ready for the emergency. The dockers were in early trouble and, indeed, the problem of organising into a disciplined National Union all the discontented port-labour of the country was a tremendous one. In August 1890, for example, the Union aroused tremendous criticism even in “Labour” circles by vainly attempting to secure a monopoly of London dock-labour to its existing members.
