Tom Mann

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Tom Mann

Tom Mann (born April 15, 1856 in Bell Green, † March 13, 1941 ) was a British trade unionist and socialist politician. The autodidact was one of the best known and most popular representatives of the labor movement .

Life

Mann was born on April 15, 1856 in Bell Green, now a district of Coventry , the son of an employee of a coal company. He started school at the age of six, but left school after three years because he had to work in the mine. When the coal mine had to close in 1870, the family moved to nearby Birmingham . Man began technical vocational training there. He soon took part in public rallies, where he heard Annie Besant and John Bright speak, among others , and which aroused his political interest. In 1877 he finished his training and moved to London . Since it was not possible for him to find a qualified job in his profession, he earned his living with various auxiliary jobs.

In 1879, Mann found work in a factory. There the foreman brought him into contact with socialist ideas, which encouraged him to continue his education. He began reading the writings of William Morris , Henry George and John Ruskin , among others . In 1881 he became a member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers and took part in a first strike . In 1884 he traveled to the USA and, on his return, joined the Battersea section of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), the first socialist party in the United Kingdom. There he met John Burns and Henry Hyde Champion , who encouraged him to publish a font for the eight-hour day . Mann then founded the Eight Hour League , which brought the British umbrella organization of trade unions to set up the eight-hour day as a core requirement.

Trade unionists and politicians

In 1886 Mann read the Communist Manifesto . He was convinced that the task of the labor movement was to overcome capitalism and not just, as was prevalent in the British labor movement, to improve working and living conditions in the capitalist system. In 1887 he moved to Newcastle and there began to build the SDF in northern England. He organized Keir Hardie's election campaign in Lanark before returning to London in 1888, where he supported the strike at the Bryant and May Match Factory . Together with Burns and Champion, he founded Labor Elector magazine in 1888 .

In the London dockworkers strike in 1889 , Mann was one of the leading figures along with John Burns and Ben Tillett . After the strike, Mann became chairman of the newly formed Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Laborers' Union . Together with Tillett, Mann wrote New Unionism , which established a new and soon dominating current within the British labor movement. Mann was also elected to the London Trades and Labor Council and was a member of the Royal Commission from 1891 to 1893 . After disputes in the SDF, Mann became a founding member of the Independent Labor Party (ILP) in 1894 , which differed from the more sectarian SDF in its alliance-oriented direction. Mann soon became its managing director. In 1895 he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons. After unsuccessfully running for a leadership position in the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, he supported the establishment of the International Transport Workers' Federation and became its first chairman. He was seen throughout Europe as a successful organizer in the trade union movement. So he visited Hamburg in 1896 together with the House of Representative Joseph Havelock Wilson . Among other things, the two wanted to promote the idea of ​​organization among the port workers. In Hamburg, when he arrived on September 15, Mann was immediately picked up by the police and deported to Great Britain. On November 23, during the Hamburg dockworkers strike , Mann secretly returned to Hamburg and took an apartment in Altona / Elbe , at Langen Strasse 50. However, he was quickly arrested and deported again. In a leaflet he asked the strikers to continue the work stoppage until all demands were met. At the same time he assured them the solidarity of the dock workers in England, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Christiania (now Oslo ) and Gothenburg.

Typical of representatives of the British labor movement, Mann was a deeply religious Christian and supporter of the Anglican Church . He often organized support for strikes through organizations like the Salvation Army .
Mann always campaigned for broad alliances within the economic struggle of the trade unions, but was an opponent of political alliances, for example between the ILP and the Fabian Society . The Fabier Beatrice Webb criticized his dogmatism in this regard. Philip Snowden , a supporter of Mann, criticized Mann's ability to stay with the same organization for long periods of time.

Australia and Liverpool

Mann emigrated to Australia in 1901. From Melbourne he soon became active in the Australian trade union movement and the Australian Labor Party . With the party, however, he came increasingly into conflict. He accused her of being damaged by government activities and only striving to win elections, the MPs were no longer interested in changing society. Eventually, Mann left the ALP again and founded the Victorian Socialist Party .

In 1910 Mann returned to Great Britain. On the day of his arrival, thousands of people lined the Royal Victoria Dock in London or walked alongside the ship with a man on board on the bank, which is what Sidney and Beatrice Webb judged that man was "one of the most attractive figures in the New Unionism movement" seemed to confirm. After his return, Mann wrote “The Way to Win”, which put forward the thesis that socialism can only be achieved through trade union work and that parliamentary democracy carries corruption within itself. The font was created under the influence of the great Labor Unrest in pre-war Britain, which was strongly influenced by anarcho-syndicalist ideas. In 1911, Mann led the public transport strike in Liverpool , and in 1912 he was arrested for publishing an open letter to British soldiers in the anarcho-syndicalist newspaper The Syndicalist , calling on them to refuse to give orders if they were to shoot striking workers. The time was marked by more violent clashes between the labor movement and the British state. Mann's imprisonment was lifted after public protests. After the outbreak of the First World War, Mann belonged to the war opponents in the British labor movement for religious reasons and as a staunch socialist and organized pacifist demonstrations and rallies. In 1917 he joined the British Socialist Party , the successor to the SDF. The BSP had joined the Labor Party the year before .

Late years

In 1919 Mann successfully applied again for the office of chairman of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. He held this post until his retirement at the age of 65 in 1921. In 1917 he welcomed the October Revolution in Russia and the revolutionary government. He also campaigned for the establishment of soviets (councils) in the United Kingdom as legislative organs. Like many other former members of the British Socialist Party, Mann founded the Communist Party of Great Britain under the influence of the Russian Revolution in 1920 . Mann became chairman of the British section of the Red Union International .

Until his death in 1941, Mann actively campaigned for the ideas of socialism, communism and the union struggle. He continued to publish some scriptures and made many speeches at meetings in Britain and other countries. Mann was arrested several times, but this did not detract from his popularity. In the Spanish Civil War he wanted to fight the fascists on the side of the Republicans , but was already too old for that. The Centuria Tom Mann was named after him in his honor.

Tom Mann died on March 13, 1941.

literature

  • The ladder of the London dock workers . In: The True Jacob . No. 114 of December 6, 1890, p. 912 digitized .
  • Dona Torr: Tom Mann . Lawrence & Wishart, London 1936.
  • Dona Torr: Tom Mann and His Times. Volume 1 (1856-1890). Lawrence & Wishart, London 1956.
  • Joseph L. White: Tom Mann. Manchester University Press. Manchester 1991.
  • Chushichi Tsuzuki: Tom Mann 1856–1941. The Challenges of Labor. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1991 ISBN 0-19-820217-2 .
  • John Bennett: Tom Mann. A bibliography . Coventry, 1993 ( Occasional publications / University of Warwick Library / University of Warwick, Library. - Coventry 22 ).

proof

  1. ↑ after White 1991, p. 1; Sidney and Beatrice Webb, however, name Coleshill (Warwickshire) near Birmingham as their place of birth , in: The History of British Trade Unionism, Stuttgart 1895, p. 327.
  2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Bieber: The strike of the Hamburg port workers 1896/97 and the attitude of the Senate , in: Zeitschrift des Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte, vol. 64 (1978), p. 91–148, here p. 110 f.
  3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Bieber: The strike of the Hamburg port workers 1896/97 and the attitude of the Senate , in: Zeitschrift des Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte, vol. 64 (1978), p. 91–148, here p. 115 f.
  4. ↑ Report in: Justice , May 14, 1910
  5. ^ B. and S. Webb, The History of British Trade Unionism, Stuttgart 1895
  6. ^ The Unity , March 23, 1912
  7. ↑ Sebastián Herreros Agüí: The International Brigades in the Spanish war 1936–1939: Flags and symbols (English; PDF; 6.4 MB), accessed on September 3, 2012

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personal data
SURNAME Man, tom
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British trade unionist and socialist politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Bell Green
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1941