How the Bristol labour movement responded to this initiative and how it handled the differences that surfaced between organisers who advocated separate unions for women, and stressed welfare over militancy, and those who agitated for an alternative model of unionism open to women and men, are some of the key issues addressed. Despite their strenuous efforts in organising tailoresses in the Bristol area, the difficulties they encountered, and the defeat suffered in a second strike at John Lysaght’s galvanising plant, sowed seeds of doubt in the minds of labour organisers. This may explain why new and old trade unionists were drawn into arbitration and conciliation as a way in which to resolve disputes and establish or maintain a union presence.
While the fervent hopes of the Bristol socialists aroused by the 1889-90 strike wave were not to be realised, Bristol’s working class had appeared on the political, economic and social agenda as a force not to be ignored.
