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Peter de Francia's work was informed by the socialist principles which set him resolutely on the side of the marginalised and oppressed
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Peter de Francia (January 25 1921-January 19 2012)
Peter de Francia's work was informed by the socialist principles which set him resolutely on the side of the marginalised and oppressed
Breaking The Chains
by Tony Barnsley (Bookmarks, £6.99)
Tuesday 24 August 2010
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EmailTony Barnsley has written an interesting and informative book. He begins with a brief introduction of life in early industrial Britain and goes on to outline the importance of the Black Country, especially Cradley Heath, to the chainmaking industry where 90 per cent of all chains in the country were made in the first decade of the 20th century.
The huge chains made for ships were produced by male workers in factories, but smaller chains for domestic use were made by women "home workers" in backyard workshops. The employers producing the large chains in factories commissioned out the production of smaller chains to "middle men" who contacted women workers to make their quota. The women were not unionised and did not benefit when the male workers won wage increases - the vast majority of the women were paid one fifth of the average male worker's wage for a 54-hour week in 1910.
This is when Mary Macarthur appears. Born in Glasgow in 1880 into a comfortable middle-class family, she turned her back on her father's business at the age of 20 to dedicate her life to the trade union movement and women's emancipation.
Macarthur travelled throughout the country taking up the cause of exploited women workers urging them to join unions, and so became involved with the chainmakers of the Black Country.
By skilfully organising and very shrewdly publicising the awful conditions and wages of the women, including using newsreel film to expose the situation to millions in cinemas, under Macarthur's leadership the women chainmakers won a great victory that saw their wages doubled. The strike played a part in the "Great Unrest" of 1910-1914 that saw a huge rise in trade union membership and strike activity for better wages and conditions.
Mary Macarthur died tragically young, of cancer in 1921, and Barnsley's book is a fine memorial to her and the pionering women chainmakers of 1910.
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