John Williams was born in 1888 in Kenfig Hill and started work at the International Colliery in the Garw Valley at the age of thirteen. In 1922, Williams was selected for the paid post of agent for the Forest of Dean Miners Association (FDMA), which was the trade union representing Forest of Dean miners. Williams remained committed to representing the Forest miners until his retirement in 1953 and lived in the Forest from 1922 until he died in 1968.
The social, political and industrial movements that emerged in the Garw valley during Williams’s early life had a profound effect on his approach to industrial relations and inspired him to believe that a radical social and economic transformation of society was possible.
This talk will consider Williams’s early experiences as a teenager working with his father at the International Colliery, his membership of the Social Democratic Federation, the Independent Labour Party and the South Wales Miners’ Federation. The talk will consider the influence of syndicalism on his political philosophy and how it provided a grounding for his approach to industrial relations while he was the agent for the FDMA.
Ian Wright is author of a new book We Will Eat Grass: John Williams and the Forest of Dean Miners’ Association, 1922–1928 which considers Williams and the Forest Miners.
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