Freedom News

Workers’ control in the building industry after World War One

James Lynch considers the brief period in 1918-1921 when British construction workers successfully took parts of the industry into the worker-controlled National Building Guild. Born in Liverpool in 1918, Lynch was a carpenter and joiner (ASW). His interest in labour history arose from reading Robert Tressell’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, a classic of the jobbing building trade.