Belfast Trades Council

Belfast Trades Council, also known as Belfast & District Trades Union Council, brings together trade unionists in and around Belfast in Northern Ireland.

The council was founded on 29 October 1881 at a meeting of eleven trade unionists. Their immediate aim was to support an ongoing strike of linen tenters, who were facing a 10% cut in their wages.[1] It was the second trades council to be established in Ireland, after the Cork Workers' Council.[2]

In its early years, the council was dominated by its president, Samuel Munro, and secretary Alexander Bowman. Most of its affiliates were small, local unions representing skilled workers.[2] It affiliated to the British Trades Union Congress in 1882,[3] but achieved little and struggled to survive during the 1880s. It was boosted by affiliations from new unions of unskilled workers during the 1890s. However, their representatives were more radical, and William Walker and John Murphy became prominent, persuading the council to affiliate to the British Labour Representation Committee and run a joint newspaper, the Belfast Labour Chronicle, with their Belfast Labour Representation Committee.[2]

The council played a leading role in founding the Irish Trades Union Congress

The council led opposition to conscription during World War I, organising a meeting of 20,000 people on the issue. It was particularly prominent during the Belfast strike, 1919, when it described itself as a "Council of Action" and largely controlled the movement of goods in the city.[4]

During the 1930s, the council worked with the Northern Ireland Labour Party (NILP) to campaign against unemployment and for improved benefits for unemployed workers.[5] By the 1940s, members of the Communist Party of Northern Ireland held leading roles on the council.[6] In 1965, it organised a conference on civil rights, and with various other groups, it formed the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association the following year.[7]

Secretaries

1881: Alexander Bowman
1886: Robert Meharg
as of 1893: Richard Sheldon
1890s: Alex Taylor
1899: William Walker
1903: John Murphy
1909: David Robb Campbell
c.1920:
c.1930: Robert Morrow
c.1945: John McAteer
1947: Betty Sinclair
1975:
1980s: A. Hope
1990s: Desi Murray
2000s: Kevin Doherty
2012: Paddy Mackle

Presidents

1881: Samuel Munro
1886: John O'Clohissey
1889: W. J. Leahy
1890: John Martin
1895: Joseph Taylor
1907: W. J. Murray
1910s: H. T. Whitley
1920s: Dawson Gordon
Joe Cooper
1980s: Brian Campfield
2010s: Paddy Mackle
2012:

References

  1. ↑ Eugene McEldowney, "Council founded in 1881", Irish Times, 2 November 1881
  2. 1 2 3 Peter Collins, "The Belfast Labour Movement, 1881-1921", Nordirland in Geschichte und Gegenwart, pp.82-98
  3. ↑ Ian Budge and Cornelius O'Leary, Belfast: Approach to Crisis: A Study of Belfast Politics 1613-1970, p.133
  4. ↑ Ed. Micheal O'Flynn, Odette Clarke and Paul Hayes, Marxist Perspectives on Irish Society, pp.10, 12
  5. ↑ Aaron Edwards, A History of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, p.16
  6. ↑ "'Communist stooge' allegation", Irish Times, 25 September 1950
  7. ↑ Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, 'We Shall Overcome': The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968 - 1978

Further reading

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