Noah Ablett (4 October 1883 – 31 October 1935) was a Welsh trade unionist and political theorist who is most noted for contributing to 'The Miners' Next Step', a Syndicalist treatise which Ablett described as 'scientific trade unionism.[1]

Biography

Ablett was born in 1883 in Porth, Rhondda to John and Jane Ablett;[2] he was the tenth child of eleven. Originally intending to join the ministry, Ablett was turned to the plight of the poor pay and working conditions of the Rhondda coal miners. A keen learner, he won a scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford in 1907 and while there was part of the college strike and subsequent movement that saw the creation of the Marxist educational group, the Plebs' League. On returning to the valleys he set up Marxist educational classes and was part of minimum wage agitation.

In 1911, Ablett became a checkweighman at Mardy Colliery in Maerdy and later that year was one of the founders of the Unofficial Reform Committee. The following year he was the main author of 'The Miners' Next Step', a pamphlet demanding a minimum wage for the miners and for the miners to take control of the mines. By 1919 Ablett was an executive of the South Wales Miners' Federation and was chairman of the board of governors of the Central Labour College.[3] In 1919 Ablett was approached by the Labour Party to contest the Pembrokeshire constituency ahead of the 1922 general election. Ablett turned down the invitation, citing the demands of his other responsibilities.[3] 1919 also saw the release of Ablett's sole book Easy outline of economics, published through the Plebs' League. Between 1921 and 1926 he was an executive member of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain.[4]

In his later life, Ablett would struggle with alcoholism. He died in 1935 in Merthyr Tydfil.

Legacy

Aneurin Bevan, Labour politician and founder of the National Health Service, described Ablett as "a leader of great intellectual power and immense influence."[5]

Ablett played the major role in the political education of Arthur Horner, who later served as Secretary General of the National Union of Mineworkers.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch (2008) pg11 ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
  2. ^ Lloyd (1958), pg 1113.
  3. ^ a b "Mr Ablett and Parliament". Merthyr Pioneer. 1 November 1919. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  4. ^ Coalfield Web Materials Noah Ablett
  5. ^ https://journals.library.wales/view/1326508/1327777/20#?xywh=-912%2C720%2C4678%2C3002
  6. ^ https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/most-revolutionary-banner-in-british-trade-union-history-political-identities-and-the-birth-life-purgatory-and-rebirth-of-the-red-follonsby-miners-banner/08A812EE3C0A6ADCAC85BBE9FA365FD2

References

Trade union offices Preceded byThomas Isaac Mardy Jones Checkweighman at Mardy Colliery 1910–1917 Succeeded byTed Williams Preceded byJohn Williams Agent for the Merthyr District of the South Wales Miners' Federation 1915–1933 Succeeded byPosition abolished Preceded byNew position Agent for the Merthyr, Aberdare and Dowlais District of the South Wales Miners' Federation 1934–1935 With: Owen Powell Succeeded byEmlyn Thomas
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