South Wales Miners Federation
| Full name | South Wales Miners' Federation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 24 October 1898 |
| Date dissolved | 1945 |
| Merged into | National Union of Mineworkers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
The South Wales Miners' Federation (SWMF), nicknamed "The Fed", was a trade union for miners in South Wales.
The union was founded on 24 October 1898, following the defeat of the South Wales miners' strike of 1898. Numerous local coal miners' union found their funds depleted and decided to merge together. They include:
Despite its name, the new union was not a federation; the former unions were dissolved and became the basis of twenty districts, each with one or more full-time agents. By 1914, four districts had more than 10,000 members: Anthracite, Monmouthshire & Western Valleys, Rhondda No.1, and Tredegar Valley.
The new union affiliated to the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) in 1899.
In the early twentieth century, its leadership were aligned with the Liberal Party; MPs Thomas Richards, William Abraham, John Williams and William Brace all took the Liberal Party whip in parliament. However, when the MFGB held a ballot on affiliation to the Labour Party in 1906, a majority of SWMF members voted in favour. As the national federation narrowly voted against, another vote was held in 1908, by which time SWMF members voted 74,675 to 44,616 in favour. Some in the union were radicalised by such events as the Cambrian Combine Dispute and the Tonypandy Riot of 1910.
Over the years, there were a few splits from the union. The Monmouthshire and South Wales Colliery Enginemen, Stokers and Surface Craftsmen's General Association left in 1903. The South Wales Miners' Industrial Union, a moderate breakaway union was set up in 1926 in opposition to the General Strike but was disbanded in 1938. In 1940, the SWMF also started representing miners in the Forest of Dean.
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