Large union membership produced caution and conservatism rather than revolutionary zeal

Evidence

Indeed the size of this army of workmen was perhaps the best security that the unions would pursue a prudent policy. In a highly civilized country there are not a million or a million and a half revolutionaries; and of the British unions, about the year 1895, the most conservative and cautious were precisely those whose membership included the largest proportion of the men employed in the trade. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1213

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to Weber’s and Michels’ arguments about organizational size producing oligarchy and conservatism.

Related

• Larger British unions were the most conservative, tempering militancy (similarity 0.92)
• Large union membership made British unions prudent and conservative (similarity 0.81)