Tom Stephenson (27 April 1895 – 3 December 1962) was a British trade unionist.
Born in Moresby, near Whitehaven, Stephenson left school at the age of fourteen and followed his father in working at the Walkmill Colliery. Inspired by Tom Cape and various socialist speakers, Stephenson joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and became active in the Cumberland Miners' Association (CMA). [1]
Stephenson rose to prominence during a lock-out of miners in 1921, and was also a leading figure in a fifteen-week strike in 1923. During the UK general strike, he called for the nationalisation of the mines. In August 1926, he was convicted of intimidating strikebreakers and was sentences to one month of hard labour. He was elected as a Labour Party member of Whitehaven Town Council in 1923. He supported the ILP disaffiliating from the Labour Party in 1932, although he stated that he would have supported them remaining if the ILP had been allowed to organise in Parliament. [1]
Following the disaffiliating, Stephenson was chosen as the North East representative on the ILP's National Administrative Council. He was consistently re-elected to Ennerdale Rural District Council, and he was selected as the ILP candidate for Whitehaven at the 1935 general election. However, he took only 3.3% of the votes cast and, although he remained loyal to the ILP, he began to focus his work in the labour movement. [1]
Stephenson was elected as financial secretary of the CMA in 1935, then when Cape retired, he became general secretary, moving to Workington. He was elected to the national executive of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1939, where he was the leading proponent of strikes during World War II. Within the ILP, he was criticised for supporting armed support for the Soviet Union. He stood down from its national council in 1942, and left the party in about 1946, his wife paying his membership to the Labour Party. He remained known as a militant trade unionist until he retired in 1960. Shortly after, he suffered the first of several strokes, and died in 1962. [1]
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates. A sitting independent MP and prominent union organiser, Keir Hardie, became its first chairman.
David Kirkwood, 1st Baron Kirkwood, PC, was a Scottish politician, trade unionist and socialist activist from the East End of Glasgow, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for nearly 30 years, and was as a leading figure of the Red Clydeside era.
There have been various groups in Canada that have nominated candidates under the label Labour Party or Independent Labour Party, or other variations from the 1870s until the 1960s. These were usually local or provincial groups using the Labour Party or Independent Labour Party name, backed by local labour councils made up of many union locals in a particular city, or individual trade unions. There was an attempt to create a national Canadian Labour Party in the late 1910s and in the 1920s, but these were only partly successful.
John James Lawson, 1st Baron Lawson, PC was a British trade unionist and a Labour Party politician. A miner and later Member of Parliament in County Durham, he served in the governments of Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee. In 1950 he was ennobled as Baron Lawson, of Beamish in the County of Durham, and is sometimes referred to as Lord Lawson of Beamish.
The Sheffield Trades and Labour Council, usually known as the Sheffield Trades Council, is a labour organisation uniting trade unionists in Sheffield.
Robert Smillie was a Scottish trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was a leader of the coal miners, and played a central role in moving support from the miners away from the Liberal Party to the Labour Party. He had a firm commitment to socialism as an ideal, and militancy as a tactic.
A 1894 by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe on 5 July 1894. It was the first parliamentary election contested by the Independent Labour Party.
Frederick Tait was a British socialist activist.
The Cumberland Miners' Association was a trade union in the United Kingdom.
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) was an organisation of former Independent Labour Party members who wished to remain part of the Labour Party after their former party disaffiliated.
Andrew Sharp was a British trade unionist.
Patrick Walls was an Irish trade unionist.
Abraham Moffat was a Scottish trade unionist and communist activist. He was elected repeatedly to high office in the trade unions and represented the union on government coal boards. He held major union offices: President of the National Union of Scottish Mine Workers; member of the executive committee of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain; Vice-chairman Scottish Regional Coal Board; and member National Coal Board. He served as president of the union from 1942 to his retirement in 1961, when he was succeeded by his younger brother Alex Moffat, also an activist.
John Thomas Abbott was a British socialist activist.
Herbert W. Booth was a British trade unionist.
Kate Florence Spurrell was a British trade unionist and socialist activist.
James Allen Skinner was a British pacifist and trade unionist.
Arthur George Field was a British trade unionist and socialist activist.
Jesse Butler was a British trade unionist and politician.
Henry William Sampson, OBE, often known as "Sammy", was an English-born South African trade unionist and politician.