Manchester University Press
5 Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s–1914
Abstract
In connection with a proposal to form a Domestic Servants' Union at West Hartlepool, a novel demonstration took place on 4 April 1892. The responses to this procession illuminate the division between domestic servants and the organised working class, and, indeed, wider visions of class and the labour movement. Trade unionists attempted to exclude women from certain occupations, such as surface coal work, by arguing that women could always find work as domestic servants. Domestic servants' unions never lasted for longer than a few years, but they did gain concessions from the State such as workers' compensation and health insurance. Domestic service was the most intimate expression of class domination as a social relation. Welfare benefits for domestic servants became part of the challenge to the political power of the aristocracy by New Liberals and the labour movement.
Abstract
In connection with a proposal to form a Domestic Servants' Union at West Hartlepool, a novel demonstration took place on 4 April 1892. The responses to this procession illuminate the division between domestic servants and the organised working class, and, indeed, wider visions of class and the labour movement. Trade unionists attempted to exclude women from certain occupations, such as surface coal work, by arguing that women could always find work as domestic servants. Domestic servants' unions never lasted for longer than a few years, but they did gain concessions from the State such as workers' compensation and health insurance. Domestic service was the most intimate expression of class domination as a social relation. Welfare benefits for domestic servants became part of the challenge to the political power of the aristocracy by New Liberals and the labour movement.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations xiv
- Introduction 1
-
PART I: Labour’s first century: disputed solidarities
- 1 The Grand National Consolidated Trades’ Union, 1833–1834 21
- 2 The Knights of Labor and the British trade unions, 1880–1900 33
- 3 The struggle for control of the Durham Miners’ Association, 1890s–1915 49
- 4 Contested coordinator 66
- 5 Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s–1914 83
-
PART II: Convergences, divergences and realignments on the left
- 6 ‘The people’s main defence against monopoly’? 101
- 7 The British left’s attitude towards the Battle of Athens, December 1944–February 1945 122
- 8 The decline of revolutionary pragmatism and the splintering of British communism in the 1980s 138
- 9 Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism 153
- 10 English teachers’ unions since 2010 171
-
PART III: The Labour Party today: fragmentation or mutation?
- 11 Dissent in the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1945–2015 193
- 12 ‘What dire effects from civil discord flow’ 221
- 13 The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party 238
- 14 The ‘movementisation’ of the Labour Party and the future of labour organising 254
- Concluding remarks 271
- Index 280
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures and tables vii
- Notes on contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xii
- Abbreviations xiv
- Introduction 1
-
PART I: Labour’s first century: disputed solidarities
- 1 The Grand National Consolidated Trades’ Union, 1833–1834 21
- 2 The Knights of Labor and the British trade unions, 1880–1900 33
- 3 The struggle for control of the Durham Miners’ Association, 1890s–1915 49
- 4 Contested coordinator 66
- 5 Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s–1914 83
-
PART II: Convergences, divergences and realignments on the left
- 6 ‘The people’s main defence against monopoly’? 101
- 7 The British left’s attitude towards the Battle of Athens, December 1944–February 1945 122
- 8 The decline of revolutionary pragmatism and the splintering of British communism in the 1980s 138
- 9 Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism 153
- 10 English teachers’ unions since 2010 171
-
PART III: The Labour Party today: fragmentation or mutation?
- 11 Dissent in the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1945–2015 193
- 12 ‘What dire effects from civil discord flow’ 221
- 13 The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party 238
- 14 The ‘movementisation’ of the Labour Party and the future of labour organising 254
- Concluding remarks 271
- Index 280
