About Battersea & Wandsworth Trade Union Council
An extract from the booklet “Builders of the Borough” published in 1994 to mark the centenary of Battersea & Wandsworth TUC set up by John Burns in 1894.
In 1894 a workers life was cheap. The onset of ever more exploitative forms of capitalism meant that health and safety, security and decent pay came a distant second to the great god of profit. Hungry children, unshod and dressed in rags, were a common sight.
Battersea in 1894 was in deep poverty and many families lived in single rooms. Diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough and diarrhoea claimed hundreds of children that year. In Wandsworth nearly 100 babies under the age of 1 years old died that year even though the Health Inspector claimed that it was a 'good year' because of the mild winter. The riverside housing areas of Battersea and Wandsworth were poorly drained and the water provided by private suppliers was 'often not better than that of the Thames'. This was all a far cry from the days when lavender was grown on Lavender Hill and Wandsworth Common was the edge of the countryside. Battersea's population grew from a mere 6,887 in 1841 to a cramped 150,558 by 1891. Workers came to this area looking for work and the work that they sought was hard and unpredictable. Saturday working and at least 60 hours per week was the norm. In many trades, especially building and on the docks, daily or even hourly hiring was standard. There was no health service, no unemployment pay, and no social services and 'poor relief' meant the workhouse. The average number of births to women born in 1860 was six, of who two could be expected to die before childhood. In Battersea hard manual labour was demanded on the riverside wharves and factories. The engineering work at Nine Elms and the locomotive building and repair yards were no light tasks. Women did heavy work in laundries, packaging factories and Prices Candles. Many women worked, even though keeping a house and childcare was more than a full time job. Times were indeed very hard for working people.
Nevertheless the late 1880's were witness to a mood of rising hope. After three generations of industrial capital, at last, a true weapon seemed to have been found for the working class - the general trade unions. The had burst onto the London scene in a blaze of strike action which included the match girls strike of 1888.
John Burns, who came to prominence as an organiser of the 'new unions', was elected to parliament in 1892 as MP for Battersea. He and Keir Hardie were the first to espouse the cause of labour in the House of Commons
The 'new unions' as they were known, drew on the experience of the old skilled unions, but also bought the power and volatility of mass membership. Battersea was an important focus of 'new unionism'. One of the prominent organisers of the new unions was John Burns, who was elected to parliament in 1892 as a Social Democratic Federation MP for Battersea. He and Keir Hardie (who went onto to lead The Labour Party) were the first to espouse the cause of Labour in the House of Commons. Burns himself a resident of Shaftsbury Park Estate organised gas workers at the large Vauxhall works. He also recruited for the General Rail Workers Union at the nearby Nine Elms goods yard and locomotive works. In 1889 Burns and the Social Democratic Federation were involved in the founding of the Battersea Labour League. The league served as a co-ordinating body between socialist and radical-liberal wings. Four years later in November 1893 the league set up a local trades union body, the 'Battersea Trades and Labour Council', though membership was also extended to political organisations as well. Battersea was one of the first London areas to form a trades union council and its role was described by its founders as 'a permanent organisation constituted upon a democratic basis, and capable of expressing in an authourative manner the wishes and desires of organised workers in this locality. Judging from the early programmes of the trades council, the first priority of the trades union council was not with pay and conditions, but with housing, lighting, food, health and local amenities.
The Borough of Wandsworth Trades and Labour Council was formed on 6 April 1904 by George Wyver and a 'small band' of colleagues whose regular meeting place was the Sailor Prince pub on Earlsfield Road. Wandsworth was geographically larger than Battersea and its population was much more middle-class. Unlike Battersea and its strong socialist radicalism, Wandsworth was a Tory controlled borough. On the many occasions before the merger the two union bodies carried out much joint work. However we know from reports of organisational meetings in Tooting, Balham and Wandsworth, that Wandsworth trades council was active in union expansion after 1909 and Battersea organised a 'Labour Week' in October 1913 for trade union recruitment. The campaign coincided with a three week strike at Garton's in which nine hundred workers joined the Workers Union, the fore runner to the Transport & General Workers Union. The trade unions were on the rise and the popular goal was 'socialism' - nationalised industry and social equality.
Workers Beer Company
The Workers Beer Company runs bars at events in the UK and Ireland. We have been operating since 1986 and during this time have operated at most of the major festivals.
All the frontline staff in Workers Beer Company bars are volunteers. They are from trade union branches, the labour movement, grassroots organisations, community groups and charities. For every hour they work money will be donated to the organisations, campaigns and charities they support. This was, and still is, a pioneering model that both raises funds and inspires people.
This year we are celebrating 30 years of fundraising.
Find out moreThe Bread & Roses Pub
The Bread and Roses is our award-winning free house. With large outdoor spaces, a garden room, food, live music stage and separate theatre, this offers a great place to relax and be entertained. Come down to experience some fantastic fringe theatre, spectacular live music gigs, monthly blues jams, the Clapham Comedy Club, writing groups and social clubs, or just to have an excellent drink.
We decided to buy our own pub back in 1995 to give us a permanent base and licence. After some searching we bought the Bowyer Arms, a Grade 2 listed building designed by Thomas Cubitt. The following year the Bread and Roses opened its doors and won CAMRA best pub refurbishment of the year.
The pub’s name is inspired by a poem associated with the 1912 US textile workers’ strike that makes the point ‘Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses!’
Find out moreThe Bread & Roses Theatre
A 50-seat fringe theatre venue in South London, The Bread & Roses Theatre programs a wide-spread variety of productions for local as well as far-reaching audiences whilst providing theatre-makers with a space to develop and present their work.
Located upstairs at the Bread & Roses Pub in Clapham (Zone 2, near Clapham North, Clapham Common, Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road), the theatre has, since 2014, hosted anything from one-off-shows to three-week-runs and welcomed award-winning theatre companies as well as new ensembles.
Find out moreMilestone
Celebrating 30 Years of Trading
At the monthly meeting of Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council in spring 1980 there was a discussion as to how we should respond to a call from the national TUC to mark the first anniversary of the election of Margaret Thatcher’s government. The consensus was that the unions should be prepared for a long haul and that marching and street protests would not be enough to get a change of course in government economic and social policy. It was decided to stage a free concert on Clapham Common to rally the anti-Tory forces in the area for a day of fun and politics.
Peter Clay and I were allocated the job of organising a bar at the festival. This was the political genesis of what five years later led BWTUC to set up a separate company wholly owned by the trades union council. I was elected to chair a volunteer committee to oversee the operations.
What can be easily missed from this history is the extent of the defeats and setbacks the labour movement endured in the 1980s. Some five million manufacturing jobs migrated to China and other low-cost nations, leaving millions of UK trade union members out of work. The miners’ union was defeated and most of the mines closed. Bastions of the movement like the printers were wiped away by ruthless newspaper owners armed with new technology. Local councils and hospitals outsourced ancillary services, which were de-unionised.
Numbers attending meetings of BWTUC dwindled as the factories on the Thames and the Wandle closed and council services were de-unionised. It was not obvious that the organisation set up in 1894 would survive. There can be no question that without the decision to set up a trading arm to raise funds, it would have gone the way of neighbouring trades union councils that have not survived.
Running the bars was always a means to an end. The purpose was to raise funds to stop the decline in the unions in the area and to re-unionise the outsourced services. This has been done. The 30th anniversary is a tribute to the tenacity, drive, passion, courage and stamina of the volunteers who kept going against all the odds.
One aspect of the Workers Beer Company is its impact on the working lives of people who volunteered. Many who in their day jobs had run-of-the-mill roles were given responsibility for bars with dozens of staff serving thousands of customers. These workers were able to use the confidence gained to progress in their careers.
I would like to place on record our sincere gratitude to all those who served on the Management Committee, those who worked in the office, all the servers and volunteer managers in the bars and the suppliers and contractors who helped us to become one of the premier festival bar operators in the UK and Ireland. We thank the organisations that supply the servers year in and year out.
We owe a big thank you to Michael Eavis, who gave us the break 30 years ago and has continued to have faith in us, to Melvin Benn, a founder member of WBC now head of Festival Republic, to Vince Power of Mean Fiddler, and to Denis Desmond at MCD. Without support from these music promoters the company could not survive in what is a highly competitive commercial environment.
For the future, BWTUC is looking to help develop technology to enable millions of workers in free trade zones around the world, manufacturing merchandise on sale in UK high streets, to unionise their workplaces to improve their living standards. The technology should enable shoppers to establish conditions of the workforce in the supply chain of UK retailers.
We should not forget that in 1979 there were 120 million trade union members worldwide and the numbers have grown to nearly 170 million now. Workers Beer Company is an innovative part of this international movement for economic and social justice.
Steve Pryle
Workers Beer
Company
30 years works for human rights
The organisation has an illustrious history spanning more than 125 years.
More history is on the walls of the Bread and Roses pub in Clapham Manor Street which is owned by BWTUC.
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