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21-567: The council was founded in 1860, and remained small during its first decade, largely consisting of a few local unions. In 1871, the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science held a conference in the town, and a speaker at the event denounced trade unionism. The trades council wrote an address in response to this, and then called a national conference on 2 December, chaired by its president, E. C. Denton. This marked

42-613: A Leeds LRC, which worked closely with the trades council. In January 1914, around 300 tenants living in the Burley area of Leeds went on rent strike against a 6d increase in rents imposed by the landlords. A week later, the Leeds Trades Council hosted a Labour conference intended to organise mass rent resistance, and this formed a Tenants' Defence League. After eight weeks the strike ended in defeat; committee members were evicted and blacklisted from renting any other home in

63-657: The British Parliament with the aim of representing the working classes , while remaining supportive of the Liberal Party in general. The first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the 1870 Southwark by-election . The first Lib–Lab candidates to be elected were Alexander MacDonald and Thomas Burt , both members of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB), in the 1874 general election . In 1880 , they were joined by Henry Broadhurst of

84-624: The General Railway Workers' Union as a candidate for Leeds South at the 1892 UK general election , but the leadership of the trades council then withdrew backing for him. Mahon took over the candidature, facing strong opposition from the trades council, which organised heckling at his meetings. His nomination papers proved invalid, so he did not ultimately stand, and the Electoral Union was soon dissolved. In its place, Mahon, Tom Maguire and Alf Mattison established

105-863: The Liberal Party 's refusal to select any workers as candidates for the 1890 local elections led the trades council to put together a programme which they asked all candidates to support. At the 1891 elections, Judge initially stood in North ward, but withdrew as the Liberal candidate accepted the trades council programme. Bune in West Hunslet and John Leach in Holbeck were not adopted by the Liberal Party, and so withdrew, but were replaced by John Childerson and Maundrill respectively, both of whom stood as independent trades council candidates, and were defeated by

126-658: The Operative Society of Masons and the movement reached its peak in 1885 , with twelve MPs elected. These include William Abraham (Mabon) in the Rhondda division whose claims to the Liberal nomination were essentially based on his working class credentials. The candidates generally stood with the support of the Liberal Party, the Labour Representation League and one or more trade unions . After 1885, decline set in. Disillusion grew from

147-989: The Amendment of the Law, the National Reformatory Union, and the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (the Langham Place Group ). It took as model the British Association for the Advancement of Science , holding an itinerant annual meeting, which provided a forum for social reformers. The objective of the Association was defined as "to coordinate the efforts of the experts and the politicians". One factor in

168-560: The House of Commons, there were two groups of MPs containing trade union–sponsored MPs , sitting on either side of the chamber (about 28 took the Labour whip and about 23 took the Liberal whip). The Trades Union Congress decided to instruct its affiliate unions to require their MPs to stand at the next election as Labour Party candidates and take the Labour whip. Of the 23 trade union–sponsored Liberal MPs, 15 were sponsored by unions affiliated to

189-741: The Leeds Independent Labour Party. This became part of the Independent Labour Party , but did not see any success in local elections, whereas Connellan and Marston won election as Liberal-Labour candidates. In the late 1880s, several smaller towns near Leeds established their own trades councils. In 1891, J. Sweeney of the Leeds Trades Council proposed the formation of the Yorkshire Federation of Trades Councils, which came about in 1893. Initially led by Ben Turner , its founding members were

210-594: The Promotion of Social Science (NAPSS) , often known as the Social Science Association , was a British reformist group founded in 1857 by Lord Brougham . It pursued issues in public health , industrial relations , penal reform , and female education . It was dissolved in 1886. The efforts of George Hastings brought together three groups of the 1850s to form the NAPSS: the Society for Promoting

231-671: The area. In 1926, the Trades Union Congress set up the Trades Councils Joint Consultative Committee, with six members elected by trades councils. The secretary of Leeds Trades Council was generally one of the six. The trades council has remained active and is now known as the Leeds Trades Union Council . National Association for the Promotion of Social Science The National Association for

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252-497: The city' tramway workers. In 1890, the council formed a joint board of conciliation with the local Chamber of Commerce . This was a period of rapid growth, with affiliated membership of the trades council quadrupling between 1886 and 1892. By 1889, Judge was encouraging the council to stand candidates for Leeds Town Council through the Labour Electoral League, but there was initially little interest. However,

273-695: The defeat of the Manningham Mills Strike , a series of decisions restricting the activity of unions, culminating in the Taff Vale Case and largely unchallenged by the Liberal Party, and the foundation of the Independent Labour Party in 1893 followed by its turn towards trade unionism. The formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, followed by the Labour Party in 1906, meant that in

294-679: The end of the 1880s, the union began helping un-organised workers unionise, including women tailors, and launched recruitment campaigns for the Amalgamated Jewish Tailors, Machinists and Pressers and the Huddersfield and District Power Loom Weavers' Association . Following the emergence of general unions in 1889, it admitted the National Association of Builders' Labourers and the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers , and also campaigned to unionise

315-554: The eventual decline of the NSPSS was that the objectives of medical reformers changed. Legislation and the efforts of central government to improve public health became less important to them. Its first secretary was Isa Knox . Twenty-eight Social Science Congresses took place: A committee of the Association produced Report on Trade Societies and Strikes (1860). This report was highly regarded: Sidney and Beatrice Webb later called it "the best collection of Trade Union material and

336-407: The most impartial account of Trade Union action that has ever been issued". There were contributions by three Christian Socialists ( Thomas Hughes , John Malcolm Forbes Ludlow , and F. D. Maurice ). Hughes was one of two secretaries to the committee (with P. M. Rathbone). The committee included the Liberal politicians William Edward Forster , and Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, 1st Baronet . There

357-541: The official Liberal Party candidates. John Lincoln Mahon of the Gas Workers stood as an independent labour candidate in the School Board election, against the trades council's opposition, and was ejected from one of the council's meetings. In opposition to Mahon, Judge proposed excluding "professional agitators" from the council, but was defeated. The Gas Workers withdrew from the trades council in protest at

378-537: The start of greater prominence for the council, which over the following decade attracted the affiliations of local branches of the national unions. During the 1880s, the council was dominated by supporters of the Liberal Party , including William Bune, Owen Connellan , John Judge , William Marston and Henry Maundrill. In 1887, it unanimously opposed the campaign for the Eight Hour Bill , describing it as Parliamentary "interference" in trade matters. Towards

399-608: The trades councils of Bradford, Brighouse, Castleford, Doncaster, Huddersfield, Leeds, Mexborough, Morley, Shipley, Spen Valley, Wakefield and York. The council affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in 1900, against the wishes of Connellan, who attempted to resign as secretary, but was persuaded to remain in post. At the 1900 UK general election , it sponsored William Pollard Byles as an LRC candidate in Leeds East , though he could take only third place. By 1903, labour candidates were instead being co-ordinated by

420-539: The treatment of Mahon, but Judge led the trades council in trying to get the union to remove Mahon from its leadership, claiming that he drank too much. This was unsuccessful, and Mahon was readmitted to the trades council, with a compromise that the Leeds Trades and Labour Council Electoral Union was founded, with trades council support. This was to stand trade unionists for political office, with or without Liberal Party support. Initially, it put forward G. Solley of

441-402: Was one trade unionist as member, Thomas Joseph Dunning . The Association's Quarantine Committee was set up in 1858. Its report was published officially by Parliament. Liberal-Labour (UK) The Liberal–Labour movement refers to the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions . These candidates stood for

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