Arthur James Cook better known as A.J.Cook, was General Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain - the forerunner of the NUM - from 1924 until 1931, a period that included the General Strike of 1926.
Born at Wookey, Somerset, 22 November 1884, son of Thomas Cook, a
serving soldier. After leaving elementary school he worked as a farm
labourer. At 17 he was preaching with the Baptists; at 19 he went to
work to the Lewis Merthyr Colliery, Trehafod, and developed radical socialist views which led to his severing his relations with his
religious denomination.
Cook moved to Porth in South Wales, and later to Merthyr Tydfil, to find work in the mines.
Cook joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1905. He played a prominent part in the Unofficial Reform Committee which
led the struggles in the Cambrian combine in 1911https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2015/11/remembering-1910-cambrian-combine.html and 1912 against the
coal owners and the right wing leaders of the South Wales Miners
Federation. This grouping around Ablett, Hay and Mainwaring producing the famous syndicalist pamphlet
“The Miners’ Next Step” in 1912. Cook was involved in the initial discussions
around the document.The pamphlet- written by rank-and-file miners in South Wales - exposed
the treacherous role in which some of the union leaders had played in
their dealings with the coal-owners. It argued that the left needed to
organise from below to gain control of the leadership of the union.Over the next ten years that is exactly what Cook did.
Even at this stage he was described as being a brilliant and dynamic
speaker. By 1919 he was miners’ agent (a paid union official) in the
Rhondda.
It was on the initiative of the Unofficial Reform
Committee that in 1911 Cook was sent to the Central Labour College which
had been established by the Plebs League as a challenge to anti-Marxist
indoctrination courses taught at Ruskin College. As well as being a
working miner and union activist, Cook gave regular CLC classes in
Marxism on his return to the Rhondda.
The militant activists in South Wales – Cook included – were heavily
influenced by syndicalism. As against the weak-kneed reformism of the
early Labour Party which had become a mere appendage of Lloyd George’s
Liberals in the House of Commons and against the conservative trade
union leaders seeking only to strike deals with the bosses on behalf of
the skilled workers, the Syndicalists had a bolder class perspective.
Their view was of continuous militant union struggle which would step by
step drive the bosses to the wall. Whilst Cook himself became a union
leader and a member of different political parties, he never outgrew
this non-political militant unionism. While working as a collier, he was elected chairman of the Lewis Merthyr
colliery lodge of the South Wales Miners' Federation and a member of
the executive committee of the union; he was also elected a member of
the Rhondda Urban District Council.
His militancy however led to his conviction and imprisonment for three
months in April 1918 under the Defence of the Realm Act; he was also
sentenced to two months' imprisonment in 1921 for inciting to unlawful
assembly.
In many ways it was the organisation and early success of the Miners’
Minority Movement (MMM) that inspired the NMM. The growth of a militant
current among miners can be seen against the background of The Miners’
Next Step, the First World War and the Russian Revolution.
When Frank Hodges, the secretary of the Miners’ Federation, became
lord of the admirality in the first Labour government of 1924, the
Minority Movement was able to force him to resign his union office.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, TUC general secretary Fred Bramley
exploded that Cook was a “raving Communist”. We can understand Bramley’s
reaction by reference to a speech that Cook made to Holborn Labour
Party in June 1924. He declared, “I believe in strikes. They are the
only weapon.”
Although a member of the ILP 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”.
Cook remained a member of the ILP throughout this period, with the
exception of a brief period after the foundation of the Communist Party
(CP). He left the CP in a dispute over tactics in the miners’ lockout of
1921.
He played a leading part in the great general strike of 1926 and the
prolonged miners' strike which followed. During the miners’ struggle of 1926 no figure came to represent
the anger and determination of the miners more than A.J. Cook. He was
adored by the militants in every coalfield as a tireless and selfless
fighter for the cause of the miners. His slogan 'Not a penny off
the pay, not a second on the day' became the cry of the miners
throughout the country. He was hated by the right wing
trade unions leaders. He was pilloried in the bosses’ press.
The fact that Cook could read and write saw him help his fellow miners to fill in the complicated forms necessary to claim their compensation and other entitlements. He worked tirelessly and his front room was converted into a miners' consultation office. He was hated and despised by the
stuck-up parliamentarians who saw the miners’ struggle as futile and
doomed,but despite this he sacrificed his all for the miners’ cause and derived no personal gain from the tenure of office
He endured great physical pain during his last years from an injury
received whilst a miner and aggravated by an attack on him during the
1926 strike. His leg had to be amputated, complications set in, and he
died at the Manor House Hospital, London, on this day 2 November 1931 at only 46 years of age.
Thank you to my friend and comrade Mel Hepworth former striking Yorkshire miner, 1984- 1985 for bringing A.J, Cook to my attention and for providing me with much of the information contained within this post. And here are two links, the first of which you can read an account of this great man's life in his own words. followed by an appraisal of his life by the late Paul Foot.
