Ben Tillett and the Rise of the Labour Movement in Britain

In the closing years of the 19th century, British society changed irrevocably. Britain's industrial monopoly disappeared in the face of stiff US and German competition, and Britain's naval prowess was challenged by the expansionism of its emerging rivals. But probably the most serious challenge to the laissez-faire attitudes which had dominated the century was the growth of a Labour Movement which, in Eric Hobsbawm's words, 'was to challenge the very foundations of the capitalist system'. The neglected masses who sustained British industry finally had a powerful voice of their own, their suffering having come to be abhorred by a coalition of progressive intellectuals and ambitious working-class radicals. Among the latter group was Ben Tillett (1860-1943), a working-class autodidact, shrewd, provocative, occasionally impulsive and hot-headed and an agitator endowed with breathtaking oratorical powers.