Grand National Consolidated Trades Union

Some of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, in an illustration taken from Cleave's Penny Gazette of Variety (1838). All six of the men from Tolpuddle in Dorset, who had set up the first trade union, were found guilty of an ancient law against administering oaths, and transported to Australia. John Cleave (1790-1847) was a publisher who campaigned for political reform and against taxes on newspapers and pamphlets.

First large-scale British trade union founded in 1833 by Robert Owen as a broad-based coalition of working people. At its height, it claimed 500,000 members, drawn from a number of trades, including miners, tailors, bakers, and gasworkers. Its aim of a general strike to force an eight-hour working day provoked a harsh reaction, from both the employers (many of whom locked out workers who would not sign a document renouncing the GNCTU) and the government, including the sentencing of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to transportation. As a result the movement collapsed in October 1834. Its main strength came from the support of the Lancashire cotton workers who had already been organized by John Doherty.