The Grand National Consolidated Trades' Union 1833-1834. Class and Conflict in the Early British Labour Movement

This chapter re-examines the GNCTU’s emergence, workings and historical significance through a look at its divisions. As barometers of social relations, they reveal the nature, structure and purposes of political movements, and as such, they are a powerful tool to move beyond the teleogical assumptions that have plagued the study of early socialism. In 1833-34, the GNCTU aimed to unite all trades in the country and secure workers’ labour control, from production processes to fair wages and access to equitable markets. Building on growing claims for national union among the British working classes, and under the chairmanship of Robert Owen (1771-1858) the GNCTU attracted strong popular support from the spring of 1834, but was torn apart by internal rivalry between moderate, orthodox Owenites opposed to any kind of violent action, and more radical members. Historians have seen the GNCTU at best as a missed opportunity for trade unionism, at worst as a diversion of labour’s alleged true goals through the collusion with Owen’s ‘utopian’ socialism, two conceptions this chapter seeks to challenge.