Note 239 — Chapter III

Crisis, October 12, 1833. The history of the General Trades Unions from 1832 to 1834 is mainly to be gathered from the files of the Owenite press, the Crisis, the Pioneer, and the Herald of the Rights of Industry, with frequent ambiguous references in the Home Office Papers for these years. The Poor Man’s Guardian and the Man also contain occasional references. The Official Gazette, issued by the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union itself in June 1834, has unfortunately not been preserved. We have also been unable to discover any copy of the Glasgow Owenite journals, the Tradesman, Trades Advocate, Liberator, etc., mostly edited or written by Owen’s disciple, Alexander Campbell, the secretary of the local joiners’ Trade Union.