GMB North West & Irish Region
11 February 2013

We are planning on displaying GMB Trade-Union Banners in the main hall at Congress this year so if you would like your Branch banner to be on display please contact your GMB Trade-Union Organiser who will make arrangements.

 
For hundreds of years, organisations that have a marching tradition, have made banners in order to celebrate the people they represent and identify themselves and display their objectives and goals to the rest of society. This includes trade unions, friendly societies, temperance groups, co-operative societies, suffrage, women's and peace organisations and political parties, but also non-political organisations like churches, chapels and Sunday schools. 
 
Interestingly Trade Union banners of the nineteenth and twentieth century can be traced to a time when organisations were concerned not to be identified. The precursors of trade unions were the trade societies and in the eighteenth century, when industrialisation was beginning to make an impact, trade societies were set up to protect the interests of certain skilled workers and trades.Until the repeal of the 1799 Combination Act in 1825, membership of trade societies was illegal. Highly ritualised secret meetings were held in pub rooms where, amongst other items of regalia, textile banners demonstrated the trade's ancient and respectable past.
 
The trade societies evolved into the skilled workers' New Model Unions of the 1850s onwards and these unions' banners retained many of the same elements, such as the tools and processes of the trade, of the earlier trade societies. 
 
The 1889 Great Dock Strike brought about a surge in union membership from unskilled workers and a great demand for banners. Some were made by union members or sign-writers and one or two notable banner makers.The use of banners grew during the 1890s and reached its peak in the years after the First World War. Following the slump of 1921 they declined and then peaked again after the second world war.  A  trendthat simply paralleled the ups and downs of the labour movement. 
 
Banners are much more than simply an expression of a movement's identity or aspirations.  Many of them show a multi layered history of the union, trade or branch.  And whilst often used as a symbol of protest they also stand as a proud statement of workers history and skills.
 
With improvements in technology and access, and a seemingly stronger determination than ever to celebrate the strength of union organisation and history, banners seem to be as popular as ever and growing numbers of ever more colourful and imaginative banners are on display in union halls and workplaces and carried proudly by their members on marches.