Tom Mann (1856-1941) was a skilled engineer who moved to London from the Midlands in 1877. Over the next ten years, he worked in many different jobs in London and New York, joining the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1881. In 1884, he joined the Battersea Branch of the Social Democratic Federation, to which John Burns already belonged. He became an eloquent and well known speaker, campaigning in particular for the 8 hour day. In 1889, Mann became one of the leaders of the London Dock Strike, initially in charge of organising relief tickets, then organising pickets and finally of the whole Surrey side organisation.

After the strike, Mann became President of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Workers Union (the Dockers' Union). Between 1891-94, he served as a member of the Royal Commission on Labour and between 1894-96 was the Secretary of the newly formed Independent Labour Party. In 1896, he was the founder and first President of the International Transport Workers' Federation, banned and deported from a number of European countries for union organising, and in 1898, he founded the Workers' Union to support the organisation of unskilled Labourers. He spent 1901-1910 in Australia and New Zealand and returned, committed to the ideas of Syndicalism. He joined the British Socialist Party in 1916 and the newly formed Communist Party in 1920. Between 1919-1921, he was General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. He remained a radical and internationalist all his life, serving terms of imprisonment for his activities.

Title	Tom Mann (1856-1941)
Maker	--
Production Date	1880-1914
Format	Photograph
Copyright	Alpha Photographic Press
Holding Institution	TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University
Related Objects	Tom Mann