A. J. Cook (trade unionist)
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Arthur James Cook (1883 - November 2 1931), known as A. J. Cook, was a British coal miner and trade union leader. He is remembered as one of the United Kingdom's best known miners’ leaders and a key component of the National Minority Movement (NMM) around the General Strike of 1926.
Born to Todd and Julie Cook on 24 August, 1883, in Wookey,[1] he spent the early part of his life in the county of Somerset, England. Cook later described his childhood as a troubled one, which included both a poor relationship with his family as well as genuine struggle in school.
As a result, at the age of 16 he moved to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales to find work in the coal mines. It was in this mining town where Cook first became involved in politics, committing active service to the Independent Labour Party (ILP). He first came to prominence in the Cambrian Coal Dispute in 1910 and went on to active involvement in the Miners' Unofficial Reform Committee which published the famous syndicalist pamphlet 'The Miners' Next Step' in 1912. The pamphlet argued that the left needed to organize from below to gain control of the leadership of the union.
He opposed World War I and in 1918 was arrested and charged with sedition, 1918 under the Defence of the Realm Act. He was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.[2]
Having established a reputation as a left-winger, Cook spent the next ten years following through on this initiative; finally getting elected as the secretary of the South Wales Miners' Federation in 1921.[1] In 1924 the Miners' Minority Movement was able to force Frank Hodges to resign his union office, and thus an election was held to determine the next leader of the movement. The South Wales Miners’ Federation nominated AJ Cook to replace him, and he beat a Yorkshire miner for the post by 217,664 votes to 202,297. Cook was then 39 years old. On learning of his election, Trade Unionist Committee general secretary Fred Bramley exploded in outrage against Cook's election, claiming him to be a “raving Communist”. Regardless, he was General Secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain from 1924 until 1931, a period that included the 1926 General Strike, about which he wrote the pamphlet "The Nine Days".[3] He was also elected as secretary of the International Miners' Federation.[4]
Although a member of the Independent Labour Party, Cook worked closely with the Communist Party after its formation in 1920 and the National Minority Movement from 1924 to 1929. Arthur Horner, a leading South Wales Communist and mining militant described Cook's tenure as General Secretary as “a time for new ideas — an agitator, a man with a sense of adventure”.
He died in 1931, aged 47.[5]
Notable Quotes
"Not a penny off the pay, not a second on the day".
“I believe in strikes. They are the only weapon.”
"Say what you will about the tenets of socialism, at least it is an ethos."
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Frank Hodges |
General Secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain 1924–1932 |
Succeeded by Ebby Edwards |
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Cook, Arthur James (1883–1931)". The history channel. http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/encyclopedia/article_show/Cook/m0083100.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
- ^ "Cook, Arthur James". Oxford Dictionaryu of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32539. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
- ^ Cook, Arthur James (1926). The Nine Days. Co-operative Printing Society. pp. 24. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yD7cGAAACAAJ&dq=Arthur+James+Cook.
- ^ "Arthur James Cook". SCRAN. http://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=000-000-465-020-C. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
- ^ "A.J. Cook". Archives Network Wales. http://www.archivesnetworkwales.info/cgi-bin/anw/fulldesc_nofr?inst_id=35&coll_id=11662&expand=. Retrieved on 2009-04-07.
