Key Legislation- Friendly Society Act (1793)

The Friendly Society Act was passed in 1793 as a consequence to the government's paranoia due to the French Revolution. They sought to ensure a revolution would not happen in Britain. There were many positive and and negative outcomes of the act being passed. 

Overview

• Suspicious of the solidarity between workers
• Began the use of friendly societies which helped with the workers' financial security- positive outcome
• At the same time outlawed trade unions which gave them fewer rights- negative outcome 
• Government would get a bigger profit without trade unions and did not care about the rights of workers
• Largely accepted that the Act was just passed so the government did not have to fund the upkeep of the sick, elderly, and poor (written as "diminishing the public burdens" in the act itself- referring to the aforementioned groups)
• Societies gave workers the ability to recover funds and claim money from the deceased or bankrupt, solve disputed (without appeal)
• Lead to them rushing to prove their loyalty through documents and paperwork
• By the 1800's there were just under 30'000 friendly societies (big and small)
• Most successful societies used a system where they profited at the expense of others
• For a while many societies started failing and were at risk of getting a bad reputation 
• Most were democratic organisations
• Societies organised social events so workers could gain experience in committee work and organisation 
• Some acted as sectaries and treasures which eventually became full time jobs with wages
• Aim of the societies were to give people a sense of mutual benefit and belonging

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