A new method of consolidation was adopted in the establishment of the British Iron and Steel and Kindred Trades Association and the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation in 1917. The former was, in effect, a new union which the various participating unions in fluenced their members to join. These unions admitted no further members, all new members joiring the B.I.S.A.K.T.A., and they transferred their powers to the Iron and Steel Trades Confedera tion, which conducts the work of organisation and negotiation. When all the members of the participating unions have been transferred to the B.I.S.A.K.T.A. it will assume the duties and powers of the Confederation, which will then cease to exist.
The Amalgamated Engineering Union, one of the largest post war amalgamations, illustrates the consolidation of craft unions. The nucleus of the present union was the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, with which nine other craft unions engaged in en gineering coalesced in 192o. The A.E.U. catered for skilled me chanics, but has now opened its ranks to other grades of workers.
1921, saw the establishment of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, the nucleus of the new organisation being the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners. In the same year, the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative and Com mercial Employees and the National Warehouse and General Workers' Union merged to form the National Union of Distribu tive and Allied Workers. The Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers formed at the beginning of 1921 was an amal gamation of the Operative Bricklayers' Society, the Manchester Unity of Operative Bricklayers, and the Operative Society of Masons, Quarrymen and Allied Trades. In 1922, the Dock, Wharf. Riverside and General Workers' Union formed the nucleus of an amalgamation under the name of the Transport and General Workers' Union, uniting the National Union of Dock Labourers, the National Union of Vehicle Workers, the United Vehicle Workers (which was an amalgamation of the Tramway Workers and the Licensed Vehicle Workers) and several other unions. The Gasworkers' and General Labourers' Union, as it was originally called, became the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, when in July 1924 it absorbed the National Amalgamated Union of Labour and the Municipal Employees' Association, In 1923, the National Federation of Women Workers was merged in the National Union of General and Municipal Workers. Discussions have since taken place with other unions, e.g., the Workers' Union and the Transport and General Workers' Union as to the possibility of further amal gamation. A ballot is taking place of the T. & G.W. Union and the Workers' Union members on the question of amalgamation of these bodies. Other post-war amalgamations include the United Garment Workers (192o) which unified several sectional and local bodies, the 'Union of Post Office Workers formed (1920) by the combination of three unions, and subsequently enlarged by the absorption of half a dozen other organisations of post office employees, the National Union of Blastfurnacemen (1922) which took the place of the National Federation composed of five local unions of blast furnace workers, and the National Union of Sheet Metal Workers (1921) which combined a number of small fed erated societies of steel metal workers and braziers.
The spontaneous movement towards amalgamation which char acterised the first post-war years appears to have come to an end about 1922-3. It was at this time that the matter was taken up by the Trades Union congress. Since then, its general council has played an active part in assisting negotiations for amalgamation. It has held conferences of kindred organisations in the metal trades, the textile trades (other than cotton), the printing trades, the post office, the insurance industry, the dyeing, bleaching and finishing trades, the leather trades, the building trades and amongst distributive and clerical workers. In some cases the conferences broke down after a time ; in others they have continued ; but the process is slow and tedious and many practical difficulties have to be overcome. The Swansea Trades Union congress (1928) showed quite clearly, however, that the practical difficulties must not be allowed to stand in the way of greater consolidation.
During the years preceding the World War there was considerable labour unrest due largely to the steadily rising cost of living but receiving inspiration in some degree from the intellectual ferment in the world of labour. Syndicalism, though never a potent force in the British trade union movement, prompted and encouraged the movement towards militant in dustrial unionism. The persistent propaganda of the Socialist societies had also begun to influence the outlook of the trade unionist. From about 1910 it is clear that the trade union move ment, as may be seen from the resolutions of the T.U.C. was Socialist in temper. It was definitely in opposition to capitalism and private ownership of the means of production. The social ism, however, to which trade unionism gave adhesion, was essen tially collectivist ; but a closer association with the problems of industry, and a widening knowledge of the world of industry led to a sense of dissatisfaction with the arid doctrines of undiluted collectivism, which came indeed to be described as "State capi talism." Syndicalism, whilst it never commanded a large meas ure of support, did, by its emphasis on the workers' right to control, indicate the possibilities of a policy which whilst pro viding for public ownership, escaped the charge of "State capi talism" by the adoption of the principle of democratic control.