Great Britain 1909

Synopsis

The finances of the Labour Party (founded in 1900 as the Labour Representation Committee) depended on contributions from affiliated trade unions, which were acquired by a compulsory political levy on the subscriptions of their membership. In 1907 Walter Osborne, a member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), began legal action against his union's political levy; in 1909, the House of Lords (the highest court in the land) declared the levy unlawful. The ruling struck a serious blow against the Labour Party and against the broader political and nonindustrial activities of the unions themselves. The impact of the ruling was mitigated in 1911 by the introduction of payment for Members of Parliament (MPs) and largely overturned by the 1913 Trade Union Act, which established a new legal basis for the unions' political funds and political levy.

Timeline

• 1889: Flooding in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills thousands.
• 1893: Wall Street stock prices...