Editing Trade union (section)

===National general unions===
[[File:London Trades Demonstration.jpg|thumb|upright|Poster issued by the London Trades Council, advertising a demonstration held on 2 June 1873]]
The first attempts at forming a national [[general union]] in the United Kingdom were made in the 1820s and 30s. The [[National Association for the Protection of Labour]] was established in 1830 by [[John Doherty (trade unionist)|John Doherty]], after an apparently unsuccessful attempt to create a similar national presence with the National Union of Cotton-spinners. The Association quickly enrolled approximately 150 unions, consisting mostly of [[Textile and clothing trade unions|textile related unions]], but also including mechanics, blacksmiths, and various others. Membership rose to between 10,000 and 20,000 individuals spread across the five counties of [[Lancashire]], [[Cheshire]], [[Derbyshire]], [[Nottinghamshire]] and [[Leicestershire]] within a year.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Webb | first1 = Sidney | author-link = Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield |last2= Webb | first2= Beatrice | year = 1894| title = [[History of Trade Unionism]] | publisher = Longmans Green and Co | location = London| pages = [https://archive.org/details/historyoftradeun00webb/page/120 120–124]}}</ref> To establish awareness and legitimacy, the union started the weekly ''[[Voice of the People (newspaper)|Voice of the People]]'' publication, having the declared intention "to unite the productive classes of the community in one common bond of union."{{sfn|Webb|Webb|1894|p=122}}

In 1834, the Welsh socialist [[Robert Owen]] established the [[Grand National Consolidated Trades Union]]. The organization attracted a range of [[socialists]] from Owenites to revolutionaries and played a part in the protests after the [[Tolpuddle Martyrs]]' case, but soon collapsed.

More permanent trade unions were established from the 1850s, better resourced but often less radical. The [[London Trades Council]] was founded in 1860, and the [[Sheffield Outrages]] spurred the establishment of the [[Trades Union Congress]] in 1868, the first long-lived [[national trade union center]]. By this time, the existence and the demands of the trade unions were becoming accepted by [[liberalism|liberal]] middle-class opinion. In ''[[Principles of Political Economy]]'' (1871) [[John Stuart Mill]] wrote:

<blockquote>If it were possible for the working classes, by combining among themselves, to raise or keep up the general rate of wages, it needs hardly be said that this would be a thing not to be punished, but to be welcomed and rejoiced at. Unfortunately the effect is quite beyond attainment by such means. The multitudes who compose the working class are too numerous and too widely scattered to combine at all, much more to combine effectually. If they could do so, they might doubtless succeed in diminishing the hours of labour, and obtaining the same wages for less work. They would also have a limited power of obtaining, by combination, an increase of general wages at the expense of profits.<ref>''[[Principles of Political Economy]]'' (1871)[http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/mill/book5/bk5ch10 Book V, Ch.10] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106033951/http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/mill/book5/bk5ch10 |date=6 November 2014 }}, para. 5</ref></blockquote>Beyond this claim, Mill also argued that, because individual workers had no basis for assessing the wages for a particular task, labour unions would lead to greater efficiency of the market system.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=King|first1=John T.|last2=Yanochik|first2=Mark A.|title=John Stuart Mill and the Economic Rationale for Organized Labor|date=2011|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23240389|journal=The American Economist|volume=56|issue=2|pages=28–34|doi=10.1177/056943451105600205|jstor=23240389|s2cid=157935634|issn=0569-4345}}</ref>