Duncan Carmichael
{{Short description|British trade unionist and socialist activist}}
{{for|the English cricketer|Duncan Carmichael (cricketer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Duncan Carmichael (1870 – 31 August 1926) was a British trade unionist and socialist activist.
Biography
Living in Battersea, Carmichael joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1903, and served on its executive committee from 1909 to 1911.{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=David Murray |title=People, place and party |date=2003 |publisher=University of Durham |location=Durham |page=269 |url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3081/1/3081_1106.pdf |accessdate=14 November 2018}} He stood for the group in local elections to the Battersea Metropolitan Borough Council on several occasions.Labour Party, Report of the 26th Annual Conference, p.71 The SDF became the main component of the British Socialist Party (BSP), and Carmichael was elected to its first standing orders committee, alongside C. T. Douthwaite, E. C. Fairchild and Peter Petroff, the four working together to ensure voices within the party which opposed British re-armament were heard.David Howell, Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.XII, pp.72-76
The BSP affiliated to the Labour Party, and this enabled Carmichael to win a seat in the Winstanley ward, which he held until his death in 1924.Mike Squires, Saklatvala: a political biography, p.96 He championed the Battersea Right to Work Movement and the Workers' Welfare League for India. While regarding himself as a revolutionary Marxist, proposed only motions which he believed had the support of a large number of local workers.The Local Historian, Vol.27, p.170Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, Belonging in Europe - The African Diaspora and Work, p.89
Carmichael was one of the leading members of the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks in London. Through this, he unionised workers at Smithfield Market and founded the Journeymen Butchers' Federation of Great Britain. He was also one of the main founders of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers."Duncan Carmichael, J.P.", Social Democrat, vols.42-44, p.17
During World War I, Carmichael sat on the London Food Vigilance Committee, and argued that rationing should be introduced in order to prevent starvation of workers due to food shortages.Bernard Waites, Class Society at War, p.227 He was also a leading campaigner against conscription.Alan Clinton, The Trade Union Rank and File: Trades Councils in Britain, 1900-40, p.64 Following the war, he became the first president of the National Union of Ex-Service Men.Francis Beckett, The Rebel Who Lost His Cause: The Tragedy of John Beckett MP
In 1917, Carmichael was elected as the secretary of London Trades Council, and held the post until his death in 1924. In this post, he was known as an ally of the Communist Party of Great Britain, although he does not appear to have joined the party,Matthew Worley, Class Against Class: The Communist Party in Britain Between the Wars, p.83 and by this time was known for his interest in guild socialism.Alan Clinton, The Trade Union Rank and File: Trades Councils in Britain, 1900-40, p.90
References
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Category:British Socialist Party members
Category:Councillors in Greater London
Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors
Category:British trade union leaders