The London Trades Council was an early labour organisation, uniting London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's trade unionists. Its modern successor organisation is the Greater London Association of Trades (Union) Councils

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils is the largest County Association of Trades Councils in the Uk and covers the Greater London area...

Leading figures in the London trade union movement convened occasional meetings of the "Metropolitan Trades Delegates" from 1848, meeting at the Old Bell Inn by the Old Bailey

Old Bailey

The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

. The London builders' strike of 1859 required ongoing co-ordination, and it was determined to organise a trades council.

The formation of the London Trades Council was organised at George Potter

George Potter

George Potter was a prominent British trade unionist.-Biography:George Potter was born in Kenilworth, where his father worked as a carpenter. He was educated for a short time at a local dame school, but left to work at a young age to supplement his father's income of three shillings a day...

's Building Trades Conference and led by George Odger

George Odger

George Odger was a pioneer British trade unionist. He is best remembered as the head of the London Trades Council during the period of formation of the Trades Union Congress and as the first President of the First International.-Early years:...

's Operative Bricklayers' Society

Operative Bricklayers' Society

The Operative Bricklayers' Society was a British New Model Trade Union based in London.The society was founded in 1818 as the London Bricklayers' Society, but by 1829 had developed into a national operative union. By the 1840s the union had about 1,400 members, roughly 2% of the total number of...

. The unions agreed to demand a maximum working day of nine hours from their employers. The employers refused, resulting in strike action

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 and a lockout

Lockout

Lockout may refer to:* Lockout , a type of work stoppage* Lockout * Lockout chip, a computer chip in a video game system to prevent use of unauthorized software* Lock-out device, part of a signaling system used on game shows...

. Eventually the unions conceded, but the solidarity built prompted the formation of a city-wide body able to co-ordinate future action.http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUpotter.htm

The London Trades Council was founded in May 1860, and it may well have been the fourth such organisation in the country, after the Sheffield Trades Council and Glasgow Trades Council (both founded in 1858) and the Edinburgh Trades Council (founded in 1859).http://www.chelmsford-tuc.org.uk/article27.html

As the national Trades Union Congress

Trades Union Congress

The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...

 (TUC) was not founded until 1868 (largely as a response by Trades Councils in Northern England to the perceived dominance of the London Trades Council), the London body initially provided a focus for many national campaigns, and its early leaders became known as the "Junta

Military dictatorship

A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....

". They campaigned for the right of working men

Working Men

Working Men is a live compilation album by Canadian progressive rock band Rush. The compilation documents a shortlist of career-spanning material pulled from the band's three tours during the 2000s. The selections are from the Vapor Trails Tour, the R30: 30th Anniversary Tour and the Snakes &...

 to vote, for legislation to improve working conditions, and for a Conciliation and Arbitration Act. They also supported the Glasgow Trades Council's campaign against the Master and Servant Act

Master and Servant Act

Master and Servant Acts or Masters and Servants Acts were laws designed to regulate relations between employers and employees during the 18th and 19th centuries. An 1823 United Kingdom Act described its purpose as "the better regulations of servants, labourers and work people"...

. However, their support for the United Kingdom Alliance of Organised Trades, founded just before the Sheffield Outrages

Sheffield Outrages

Sheffield's early success in steel production had involved long working hours, in desperately unpleasant conditions which offered little or no safety protection. quotes a local doctor, Dr. Knight, regarding the so-called "Grinder's Asthma" suffered by the Sheffield cutlery workers in the mid 19th...

, did not bear fruit, and the Council were not officially represented at the TUC until its second conference.http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-2878-f3.cfm

The Council co-operated closely with the International Workingmen's Association

International Workingmen's Association

The International Workingmen's Association , sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class...

 (sometimes referred to as the First International), but voted against affiliating to the body.http://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/documents/1868/english-organisations.htm

With the growth of the TUC, the London Trades Council lost its national leadership role, but remained the most important trades council in the country. Over time, it became increasingly radical, until in 1953 it was re-organised by the TUC (who were seeking to purge Communist Party influence in the Trades Councils nationally) and re-founded as the London Federation of Trades Councils

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils is the largest County Association of Trades Councils in the Uk and covers the Greater London area...

, which became the Greater London Association of Trades Councils

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils is the largest County Association of Trades Councils in the Uk and covers the Greater London area...

 (GLATC), covering the whole of the Greater London area (which had been greatly expanded in 1965), in 1974.http://www.glatuc.org.uk/history.html. In 1985 the GLATC published a booklet on its 125 year history - this publication is now out of print but copies still exist in various libraries and collections.

List of Secretaries of the London Trades Council

1860: Tom Jones

Tom Jones (trade unionist)

Tom Jones was a British trade unionist.Born in Ledbury, Herefordshire, he worked in his father's tin plate business, before moving to London in 1839, where he joined the Operative Tin Plate Workers Society...

1861: George Howell

1862: George Odger

George Odger

George Odger was a pioneer British trade unionist. He is best remembered as the head of the London Trades Council during the period of formation of the Trades Union Congress and as the first President of the First International.-Early years:...

1872: George Shipton

George Shipton

-Trade union activity:Shipton worked as a builder and became involved in trade unionism by joining the Land and Labour League, where he became a strong supporter of George Odger. In 1872, he was elected as the General Secretary of the London Trades Council...

1896: James MacDonald

James MacDonald (trade unionist)

-Life:Born in Edinburgh, MacDonald trained as a tailor and moved to London in 1881. He joined the Central Marylebone Democratic Association and the Manhood Suffrage League, but it was reading Friedrich Engels' articles in the Labour Standard that convinced him of socialism. As a result, he joined...

1913: Fred Knee

Fred Knee

Fred Knee was a British trade unionist and socialist politician.Born in Frome, Somerset, Knee became a printer and moved to London in search of work. By 1892, Knee was living in Wimbledon and had joined the Social Democratic Federation and the Co-operative Society...

1914: John Stokes

1917: Duncan Carmichael

1926: Alfred M. Wall

1938: Robert Willis

1945: Julius Jacobs

Source: Julius Jacobs, London Trades Council, 1860-1950, p.155