Tapestry Themes #6: Trade Unions & Solidarity

Theme Six: Trade Unions & Solidarity

This group has been researching some of the political movements which have shaped Manchester as a city. Manchester Trades Council was founded in 1866 and Manchester & Salford Trade Union Council had a foundational role in the history of the UK's Labour Party.

We are proud to have been the home of so many progressive groups, supporting worker's rights and the women's suffrage movement (more on that coming soon...)!

The team researched the history of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (now it is known across the country as the Co-op), which was founded in Manchester in 1863.

'The wheatsheaf, with the motto ‘labor and wait’, was the first registered trademark of the CWS. The wheatsheaf is a powerful Co-operative symbol, evoking messages of unity in strength as one stalk of wheat can be easily broken but a whole sheaf has great strength. The American spelling of ‘labor’ is not a typo – it was intended as a statement of support for the anti-slavery North in the US Civil War. When CWS was founded in 1863, the American Civil War was in progress, and several early CWS founders were active anti-slavery campaigners. Although the ‘cotton famine’ produced by the blockade of Southern ports caused problems for Manchester’s cotton industry, Britain backed the anti-slavery North and the CWS trade mark showed its founders’ support.' (Wikepedia)

The group also found out about 'The Clarion' newspaper, a weekly socialist newspaper founded in Manchester in 1891 by Robert Blatchford and Alexander M. Thompson.

'The Clarion newspaper was the most influential Socialist newspaper ever published in Britain, creating thousands of Socialists and inspiring a whole social movement. The movement was divided by the First World War and never recovered.

The first issue of The Clarion was published on 12 December 1891. The offices were in City Buildings, Corporation Street, Manchester, although the paper moved to Fleet Street in 1895. (The building still stands unoccupied and derelict opposite the Co-operative Bank). The Clarion was founded by Robert Blatchford.' (Radical Manchester)

It is fascinating to discover how many important organisations were founded in Manchester, thank you to this team who shared these with us!