Levels of industrial militancy and the political radicalization of the Durham miners 1885-1914

Abstract

To date there have been several works written on the Durham Miners' Association, the most notable of which have been G Metcalfe's 'A History of the Durham Miners’ Association' and E Melbourne's 'The Miners' Unions of Northumberland and Durham'. These works have tended to concentrate on the growth of the D.M.A. itself, rather than studying any of the pressure groups which were active within the coalfield. This work is split into two sections. The first alms to discover the levels of industrial militancy and the degree of political radicalisation in the coalfield between 1885 and 1914. In order to do this a careful study has to be made of the official and unofficial disputes in the period, and of the policies put forward by different lodges in the D.M.A. council. As yet there has been little work on the growth of the Labour Party in the North East, an omission which this work starts to remedy by a study of the political fortunes of the miners in certain selected parts of the coalfield. The second section of the work moves away from the ascertaining of the levels of industrial militancy and political radicalisation towards an analysis of factors which influenced their respective levels. In this section four separate influences are studied in some detail, the economic condition of the coalfield, the position of the Methodists regarding both militancy and radicalism, the level of migration and its influence and the relationship which existed between the union leaders and the rank and file. The findings of these studies go some way towards an explanation of the actions of the miners.