The Great Leap Forward, 1911

Abstract

As mass organisation gradually withered away after 1891, the Stevedores and Lightermen had been left as the only unions of any real influence in the port. Neither of these two societies, as we have seen, were inclined for a long time to exert themselves on behalf of a revival of mass unionism. Thus when, in July 1910, the Dockers’ Union invited these two organisations (among others) to a conference on federation,¹ it was something of a surprise when they agreed to attend. Both had resisted all overtures of a similar kind for nearly twenty years; why the sudden change in 1910? The point is important, for without the adhesion of the Stevedores and Lightermen the National Transport Workers’ Federation could never have got off the ground in London.