George Peet

George Peet (24 August 1883 – 21 November 1967) was a British communist activist and trade unionist.

Born in Derby, Peet became a fitter in the railway works, and joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE). He soon moved to Manchester, where he worked at the Gorton Railway Works, and for the first time became active in the union, winning election as branch secretary.

Peet became a socialist, joining the Openshaw Socialist Society, and developed an interest in syndicalism, representing Gorton at a national conference on the matter in 1910. Around the start of World War I, he joined the British Socialist Party (BSP), alongside Harry Pollitt. Increasingly prominent in his trade union work, in 1916 he came eighth out of twenty-two candidates for the assistant general secretaryship of the ASE.

Inspired by the Clyde Workers' Committee, Peet worked with William McLaine to form the Manchester Workers' Committee, in April 1916. Initially, it attracted little interest, but in September a decision to increase the wages of hourly paid engineering workers but not those of piece workers led to a strike, which the committee supported. Although the strike was soon over, the dispute was not settled for a further three months, and the strike committee then agreed to merge with the Workers' Committee, forming the Joint Engineering Shop Stewards' Committee, with Peet as secretary.

The Shop Stewards' Committee played a prominent role in subsequent disputes around exemptions of trained engineers from military service and compelling engineers to work on non-munition work. While the ASE supported local action on these issues, the Committee organised a ballot on solidarity action. This was won, and led to a major two-week strike which spread around the country, ultimately involving 200,000 engineering workers. Peet travelled the country supporting the strike, until he and Arthur MacManus were arrested in London. They and their colleagues then agreed to sign an agreement between the ASE and the Ministry of Munitions which settled the strike and, as a result, Peet and MacManus were released.

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