Eleanor was politically active in a time when women were still denied many basic rights and working conditions were dangerous and exploitative. In 1888, the match girls and women at the Bryant and May factory, went on strike.
It was the beginning of what has become known as New Unionism, where workers long considered to be ‘unorganisable’, organised themselves and acted collectively to fight for better working conditions and pay.
Eleanor was a great supporter of these women workers, as she was of other ‘unskilled’ women workers. At the Crosse and Blackwell factory for example, she successfully helped the 400 women onion skinners to victory in their strike against harmful work and little pay.
In fact, Eleanor was involved in all the main struggles that took place in the East End of London in 1889, particularly those of the gas and dock workers.
It was in that year that Eleanor, along with Will Thorne, formed the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers in Beckton, East London. Later it would merge with other unions and go on to become the General, Municipal, Boilermakers, or the GMB as we know it today.
Over 800 gas workers joined on the day of its launch and in just two weeks over 3,000 had signed up, uniting behind the call for an eight hour day. Eleanor formed the union’s first women’s branch and at the union’s first conference in 1890, was unanimously elected onto its national executive, a post she held until June 1895.
As some-one who used to teach literacy at adult education evening classes, it also adds to my admiration of her to know that she helped Will Thorne with his education. As Will had started work in a factory at the age of 6, he had missed out on school and therefore struggled when he became the General Secretary of the Gas Workers’ Union.
It was Eleanor who helped him write the union’s rules and constitution and Will later wrote that Eleanor “helped me more than anyone else to improve my very bad handwriting, my reading and my general knowledge.”
On May Day 1890, at a rally demanding an 8 hour working day, Eleanor stood before a huge crowd in Hyde Park and made an impassioned speech in which she said:
“We must not be like some Christians who sin for six days and go to church on the seventh, but we must speak for the cause daily, and make the men, and especially the women that we meet, come into the ranks to help us.”
That call to get work colleagues, family and friends to join a trade union as protection against the power of employers, is as important now as it was then. Eleanor was some-one who put into practise what she preached, giving working women and men the confidence to build solidarity and fight back.
So, on her birthday, ‘Eleanor Marx Day’, it is only fitting to once again ask for nominations for a GMB woman who has followed in Eleanor’s tradition and deserves to receive the beautiful Eleanor Marx award at Congress in Blackpool.
I look forward to seeing those nominations come in from GMB members over the next few weeks, but on the evening of the 16th January, I will enjoy celebrating the life and legacy of Eleanor at the event that GMB Birmingham and West Midlands region are putting on in her honour.
Cheers Tussy!
In Solidarity,
Barbara Plant
GMB National President
