Knights of Labor

The Webbs, on whose ideology, Labour History has been fashioned, argued that lodge 'ceremonies' were used by the British 'tradeunionists' as an artifice of stage-management to impress unsophisticated newcomers. To them, the Tolpuddle labourers were merely 'playing with oaths." Under this Webb treatment the organisational function of the rite simply disappears, it is undeserving of any further exploration. The oaths cannot, therefore, be part of a living culture reflective of the needs, anxieties, expectations or desires of the people using them. They have no history of any significance and are only a temporary aberration in the evolution of 'the trade union movement.' Without such a living culture, for there to be 'real'trade unions, only a belief in certain arbitrary, organisational 'points' is needed to acquire the necessary consciousness. Committment and belief in this organisational 'type' becomes the sine qua non of 'class consciousness. '