Introduction

In: International review of social history, Band 39, Heft S2, S. 1-10

Abstract

We have called this collection of essaysBefore the Unions. What exactly do we mean by (trade) unions and what preceded them? Exactly a hundred years ago Beatrice and Sydney Webb defined a trade union as "a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". These permanent organizations of wage earners of the same occupation, according to most labour historians, started at a local level and tended to develop into national and sometimes even international unions and they formulated political as well as economic demands.