"You Could Not Get Any Person to be Trusted Except the State": Poorer Workers' Loss of Faith in Voluntarism in Late 19th Century Britain

Brodie, Marc

doi:10.1093/jsh/shu021

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…By the end of the century, the differing trajectories of mutual benefit societies significantly altered the organizational arena within which trade unions engaged-in the United Kingdom, friendly societies experienced a dramatic and protracted period of crisis, leading to a split between the membership and the leadership over the question of state insurance. 7 Faced with this new schism, British New Model unions came to side with friendly society members in support of state benefits. In the United States, by contrast, the turn of the twentieth century was widely recognized as the "Golden Age of Fraternalism."…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Trade Unions Support Universal Demands? Organizational Context and Trade Union Strategies in the US and UK at the Turn of the 20th Century

Adereth

2024

Inter. Labor Working-Class Hist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When do labor movements come to support universal welfare policies? This article examines this question through a comparative account of the British and American labor movements at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on newspaper and meeting records from the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE), the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), the Cigarmakers International Union (CMIU), and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (BLF) from the mid-nineteenth century to World War I, it considers why, given a common tradition of exclusive benefits, the two movements diverged on the question of universal state health and pension schemes at the turn of the century—with the British labor movement abandoning its voluntarist orientation and the AFL preserving it. Complementing existing sociological accounts that emphasize state and party structure, sectoral composition, pace and quality of industrial change, and the demographic makeup of labor movements, this article builds on approaches from the sociology of organizations in centering the importance of organizational arenas in shaping trade union strategies and aims. In particular, it investigates the role of friendly and fraternal societies in structuring trade union interests over this period. The article demonstrates how changes within the friendly and fraternal society movement shaped the contextual significance and strategic value of benefit provision in each trade union over time. In doing so, it opens the way for a deeper reflection on the importance of organizational reasoning in shaping trade union organizing and the trajectory of welfare institutions.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Trade Unions Support Universal Demands? Organizational Context and Trade Union Strategies in the US and UK at the Turn of the 20th Century

Adereth

2024

Inter. Labor Working-Class Hist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

"You Could Not Get Any Person to be Trusted Except the State": Poorer Workers' Loss of Faith in Voluntarism in Late 19th Century Britain

Cited by 1 publication

References 34 publications

When Do Trade Unions Support Universal Demands? Organizational Context and Trade Union Strategies in the US and UK at the Turn of the 20th Century

When Do Trade Unions Support Universal Demands? Organizational Context and Trade Union Strategies in the US and UK at the Turn of the 20th Century

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About