"We must work more than ever in the International Movement. We must hasten the day when the common people of our own and other countries will not merely do the work of the world, but will determine just how and for what purpose that work shall be done."
T.H. Gill
President RCA, 1924 RCA Annual Conference.
The RCA's first international contacts were made during 1903, when, following the end of the Boer War, a large number of railway clerks, frustrated by the lack of promotional opportunities in Britain and Ireland, emigrated to the USA and various parts of the British Empire. Many found that although they had better opportunities for promotion overseas, their rates of pay were often worse, and the problems were similar to those experienced in Britain. This led to Stopford-Challener contacting the South African Amalgamated Society of Rail Employees in 1903 to obtain information on pay and conditions for those who were eager to emigrate. Eventually some clerks who had gone to South Africa formed their own union and asked the RCA to advise any further would-be emigrants that they would be welcomed as members. It is not known if the union survived but by 1908 a Railway Clerks' Association was formed in the Cape and its first secretary was a former member of the RCA, G. Edward Remington,1 who had emigrated in 1902. Based on his experience, the members decided to organise the union on RCA lines but turned down his proposal to adopt its motto "Defence not Defiance". In due course others emigrated to South Africa and assisted in building up the South African Railways and Harbours Salaried Staff Association which, with a membership of 2,000, held its first Annual Congress in 1919. Stopford-Challener also wrote to the National Railway Clerks' Association2 in the USA and it was considered that an interchange of ideas would be beneficial. Nothing came from this correspondence and it was not until 1943 that any further contact took place when H.D. Ulrich, the President of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks attended a meeting of the EC for an exchange of views. In 1951 the RCA sent its President and General Secretary to San Francisco to a conference of the Brotherhood and later that year, George Harrison, its President, visited the Association's conference in Margate.
Continental links were first established when the Association affiliated to the short-lived International Federation of Shopworkers and Clerks in 1907. It was because of the Association's desire to nationalise the railways that the EC decided to send Alexander Walkden and George Lathan to the continent for an extensive tour of state-owned railway systems. This was originally planned for 1911 but it had to be postponed. A further incentive came on 20th May 1912, when, for the second time in four months, Walkden met the Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, along with J.E. Williams, General Secretary ASRS, and W. Thorne MP, Chairman of the TUC. Their objective was to persuade the Prime Minister and Sydney Buxton MP, President of the Board of Trade, that the railway companies should be nationalised. Asquith was not convinced but he did propose inviting the railway companies to undertake an enquiry into the success of state ownership in other countries. It is very unlikely that the EC would have had any faith in such an investigation and they resolved to carry out their own assessment and, if possible, make contact with similar railway trade unions.
Assistance was given by the Foreign Office who provided letters of introduction to British representatives in each country. These, in turn, contacted the various railway authorities, MPs, business representatives and trade union leaders. Walkden and Lathan visited France, Germany, Holland, Austria and Switzerland and gathered considerable information relating to railway matters, but they were unable to find any trace of trade union organisation amongst railway office workers. When Walkden and Lathan reported their findings to the EC they had little difficulty in convincing it that the Association's policy of nationalisation and democratic accountability was correct and that state control was unsatisfactory and ineffective.3
As a result of the First World War thousands of Belgians fled to Britain, amongst whom were a number of clerks who had been employed at Antwerp by the Great Eastern Railway Company. They joined the Liverpool Street branch and were warmly welcomed by its secretary, William Edmund Lee Joyce.4 One of these recruits was A. Depoorter who, when he returned to Belgium during the early part of 1919, formed a branch in Antwerp. This branch, with the exception of the years 1939-1945, remained in existence until 1980.
William Joyce, in his short life, did more than any other member to further the cause of trade unionism on the Great Eastern Railway Company. He had a great affinity with the Association's continental members who, following the war, existed in France, Belgium and Germany. In 1919, due for a few days annual leave, Joyce decided to visit the Antwerp branch, and even though he experienced some hindrance from his immediate manager, the General Manager not only gave him the requested leave but granted him full pay during his absence. Joyce and his wife crossed on the ferry to Antwerp but during the journey he became ill and complained of stomach pains. A doctor diagnosed his illness as cancer, and he died a few days later on 14th November at the age of forty-six.
It was the work of Joyce and the establishment of the Antwerp branch that brought further important contacts on the continent. In April 1923 an invitation to attend their annual conference came from the Bond van Ambtenaren in Dienst der Nederlandsche Spoorwegen (BANS), the Dutch RCA. The delegation was composed of T.H. Gill, A.E. Townend and A.G. Walkden and during the conference contact was made with the Fédération Générale des Fonctionnaires et Employés (FGFE), the Belgian RCA.
At the RCA's 1923 Conference delegates met fraternal guests from BANS including M. Willemsen, its General Secretary and Messrs. Veenhuysen and Mosheuval. The year 1923 was also the first occasion when an overseas branch was represented at conference. This was the Antwerp branch, represented by Eugène Maes who, in his opening speech, paid a moving tribute to Joyce and stressed the benefits of establishing an international federation of railway clerks. This was an attractive proposition but it was the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), which had been revived after the war by the Dutch and Swedish Transport Workers' Unions that the RCA decided to join.
The Federation had originally been formed in 1896 when representatives of European dockers' and seafarers' unions met in London for a congress of the Socialist International. It was founded as the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers, but in 1898 opened its doors to all transport workers and changed its name to the International Transport Workers' Federation. In 1904, the headquarters of the ITF was transferred from England to Germany and by 1914 its membership had reached one million. During the war all international contacts ceased. In the post-war period, when the ITF was in the process of reconstruction, the RCA was invited to assist in its development. As contacts with the ITF strengthened, Walkden became keen to affiliate and, in principle, the Executive agreed to do so in June 1922. The EC was, however, concerned at the implications of membership, particularly if the ITF requested industrial action. It was decided to consult a number of branches to ascertain their views and although the majority were in favour, ominously, the Antwerp branch opposed such a move and reiterated Maes's preference for establishing an International Federation of Railway Clerks.
On 21st/23rd October 1923 members of the EC met officials of the ITF at the Terminus Palace Hotel. The ITF representatives were Eduard "Edo" Fimmen, its secretary, and N. Nathans a former railway clerk and now secretary of the ITF's Railway Section. After discussing the role of the ITF it was agreed, on the proposition of Ernest Townend, that the Association should affiliate, and arrangements were made to raise the matter at the 1924 Annual Conference. A number of fraternal guests were invited to the conference including M. Willemsen from BANS, along with Fimmen and Nathans. The Executive proposed:
"That having regard to the interdependence and common interests of the workers in all countries, and the great importance of the development of friendly international relationships amongst trade unionists as a measure towards the prevention of war, this Conference authorises the Executive Committee to arrange for affiliation with the International Transport Workers' Federation."5
Thomas Burden opened the debate and Nathans then told delegates something of the work of the ITF and how its membership had grown to 2,300,000, of whom 1,100,000 were railway workers. He called on the delegates to join the ITF, but opposition came from some on the left who advised caution, preferring to build one union of railway workers within Britain, prior to forging international links. Opposition also came from the right, but all the objections were totally refuted by the veteran Richard Rowlands and Edo Fimmen who said that the reasons why men should join the RCA were the reasons why the RCA should join the ITF.6 At the end of a lengthy debate the proposal to affiliate was carried by a large majority.
In 1924 the first RCA delegation attended an ITF Congress in Hamburg. The delegates were: T.H. Gill, A.G. Walkden, W.E. Williams and two EC members William Burgess7 and L.F. Bottomley8; in all, there were 114 delegates representing 18 countries. At the ITF Congress held at Stockholm in July 1928 the RCA made a major contribution to the transport debate when it put forward proposals for a publicly owned and co-ordinated transport system. This provoked a heated discussion as some delegates, notably the French, had unhappy experiences of state ownership. Eventually the conclusion was reached that Governments should conduct an investigation into their transport services and set up Advisory Committees which would include representatives of workers to secure the public ownership and the co-ordination of different forms of transport.9
International contacts and solidarity quickly became the norm. In 1925, the RCA responded to its first request from the ITF and protested against the destruction of the Italian railwaymen's headquarters by fascists. The Hungarian Government was likewise condemned when the activities of its railway unions were declared illegal and donations were sent to help them in their struggle. £100 was sent to assist Danish trade unionists who had been locked out by their employers and protests were made to the Yugoslavian Legation following its Government's refusal to grant recognition of railway workers in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. In 1934, in response to an appeal from Belgian trade unions who had had all their money seized by the Government, the RCA agreed to loan the Belgian TUC £5,000. Many more cases could be cited.
The policy of the Antwerp branch to promote an international organisation of railway clerks had developed as a result of political differences amongst some of the transport unions on the continent and the ITF about the nature of "the Class War".10 At the 1924 Conference of BANS, which the RCA attended as guests, negotiations between the French, Belgian and Dutch clerical unions took place to form an International Railway Clerical Workers' Bureau.The RCA was invited to join but declined to make a commitment; upon their return, the EC decided that such a development was unnecessary and undesirable.11
The RCA, which had already gained a considerable international reputation and was held in very high regard as a model to be followed by similar organisations on the continent,12 now took on a new role. Aware of the RCA's support for the ITF, BANS asked the Association to liaise between themselves and the ITF who were growing increasingly concerned at the development of an additional international body. The RCA arranged for a meeting to take place at Antwerp in November 1925 with Fimmen and Nathans setting out the ITF's position. In an attempt to resolve some of the differences the Association proposed that the ITF should establish a special group for Clerical and Supervisory Grades and this was agreed. The RCA was invited to submit a paper to the new group on "The development of the Organisation of Railway Clerical and Supervisory Staff in the struggle for better Working Conditions and in the General Struggle of the Working Class." This took place at an international conference of railway clerical and supervisory workers in Amsterdam in March 1926.13 During the conference, which was attended by representatives of 130,000 affiliated and 23,000 non-affiliated railway clerks, a further meeting between the conflicting parties was organised by the Association. At one stage it was confidently expected that they would refrain from establishing the Bureau but the political differences were too wide. When Walkden presented his paper, negotiations had broken down and he said that the new Bureau was not the way forward; that railway clerks should be, and indeed were, part of the class struggle and the International Bureau of Railway Clerks was nothing but a rallying point for conservative and reactionary officials.14 The RCA left the conference with its stature and prestige considerably enhanced.
To the amazement of the Syndicat National (the Belgian NUR), and the Nederlandsche Vereeniging (the Dutch NUR), the RCA maintained its relationship with the Dutch and Belgian Clerks' unions. This matter was raised with the RCA delegation at the 1928 ITF Stockholm Conference. When the delegation reported these views to the EC Walkden set up a sub-committee to examine the allegations that their colleagues were guilty of anti-trade union practices15 and were not even linked to their trade union centre. He also asked both unions to place their allegations in writing. This they did, revealing an unhappy state of affairs.
In Holland there existed five railway unions based on different religious and political groups that had been engaged in bitter warfare for some years. BANS had been formed in 1917 from an amalgamation of ten small unions and now had 3,600 members. Its leadership, and in particular the General Secretary Willemsen (who had attended the RCA's Annual Conference as a fraternal guest), was accused of being anti-Labour. He was in fact a Liberal Democrat. Despite the hostility between the Nederlansche Vereeniging and BANS, the RCA was asked to encourage BANS to affiliate to the Dutch TUC and also the ITF. The Belgian equivalent of the RCA, the FGFE, had been formed in 1919 as a breakaway group from the Syndicat National who accused it of being practically a Fascist Federation.
16 Faced with this situation the EC decided to write to both the Dutch and Belgian clerical unions indicating the difficulties that had arisen. Walkden pointed out, in a very friendly letter, the advantages that had developed from their exchanges, but in view of its international commitments to the ITF, they could not continue. He was, however, willing to use his influence to secure the fullest possible measure of understanding and co-operation with all the organisations concerned, and in a separate note to BANS Walkden added:
"Our information goes to show that if it were found possible for your committee to recommend to your members that your organisation should affiliate to the National Trade Union Centre and/or to the International Transport Workers' Federation, no objection would be raised by the other affiliated Railway Union, but on the contrary such a step would tend substantially to create a happier condition of affairs."17
From this moment on all contact with BANS and the FGFE stopped, but the RCA's relationship with the ITF continued to flourish. At the 1930 Annual Conference, N. Nathans presented the Association with a red banner with the letters ITF across the middle and the RCA badge in one corner. Nathans said he was donating the banner as an expression of gratitude and as a symbol of international unity.18 The banner remains one of the Association's most treasured possessions and each year it is displayed at the TSSA Annual Conference. In 1938 the guest of honour was Charles Lindley19 a founder member of the ITF and now its President. The ITF had, and still has, a remarkable record of international solidarity throughout the world, including its campaigns against fascism and colonialism. Alexander Walkden was the first General Secretary of the Association to be elected to the ITF General Council from 1928-1935. He, in turn, was succeeded by others who took up a variety of responsibilities within its management bodies and the Association is justly proud of its continued affiliation.
[1]. G. E. Remington (Cambridge). Attended 1902 RCA Annual Conference.
[2]. The American RCA was formed in 1901. It amalgamated with similar bodies to form the Order of Railway Clerks of America. It adopted the title Railway Clerk for its magazine and the badge of the Order was virtually identical to that of the first badge of the British RCA.
[3]. The Railway Clerk July 1912.
[4]. William Joyce (Liverpool Street). Formed the Liverpool Street branch at the age of 23 and was its secretary. Former Liberal, joined the Labour Party.
[5]. RCA Annual Conference Minutes 1924 item 28.
[6]. The Railway Service Journal June 1924.
[7]. W. Burgess (Preston). EC 1919-1933. Distinguished painter; elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Many of his paintings were exhibited abroad. In 1934, the TUC purchased his painting "The Arrest of the Martyrs" and placed it in the hall of the Memorial Cottages at Tolpuddle where, in 1996, it was item 98. Elected Labour Councillor at Preston, 1929.
[8]. L. F. Bottomley (King's Cross No.1). Joined RCA 1919. Secretary North London Divisional Council; EC 1920-1933.
[9]. The Railway Service Journal September 1928.
[10]. RCA EC Minutes 30th/31st March 1926.
[11]. RCA Annual Report 1925.
[12]. RCA EC Meeting 18th August 1925.
[13]. RCA EC Minutes 30th/31st March 1926.
[14]. ITF Report of Proceedings 1926.
[15]. Report of RCA sub-committee to consider relationships with Belgian and Dutch Railway Clerical Workers' Associations 5th February 1929.
[16]. Report of RCA sub-committee to consider relationships with Belgian and Dutch Railway Clerical Workers' Associations 5th February 1929.
[17]. Letter to BANS Modern Records Centre, Warwick University MSS.55B/3/WEH/I/50/2i.
[18]. The Railway Service Journal June 1930.
[19]. C. Lindley came to Britain in the 1880s as a seafarer and was instrumental in forming the Sailors' and Firemen's Union. He helped to form the ITF and in 1897, the Swedish Transport Workers' Union, becoming its General Secretary.
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