Walter Citrine: A Union Pioneer of Industrial Cooperation

Abstract

Moher explores the role of Walter Citrine as leader both of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC) and of the international trade union movement during the heyday of Communism and Fascism. Citrine used his influence at the TUC to redefine the role of trade unionism after the 1926 General Strike, away from an emphasis on mass strikes towards one of principled cooperation with employers and pressure for social democratic policies. And he used his international role to inform British trade unionism and political life more widely of the dangers of dictatorships of both the right and the left. In this way Walter Citrine was able to use his access to all the prime ministers of his day to give the trade unions a major standing in British society.