It was one of at least half a dozen such unionist experiments, with a variety of partners, which foundered on the rocks of the would-be partners' infirmity of purpose, fear, suspicion and disdain of this bizarre, arrogant, impetuous upstart.
"Only in those areas of the United Kingdom where there is a real fear and appreciation that British citizenship is conditional is an extra importance attached to symbols".The Good Friday agreement is supposed to have eased such unionist fears.
English trade unionists such as George Odger, former president of the General Council, opposed Marx's support of the Paris Commune.
Old-fashioned protectionists, such as trade unionists, are making common cause with an unruly alliance of greens, human-rights campaigners, consumer-rights groups, sovereignty-obsessed nationalists and others.
One is a need to pacify or please protectionist trade unionists, such as the AFL-CIO, which is supporting Vice-President Al Gore's presidential bid next year.
But the tactics, which alarmed arch Tory unionists such as the former Scotland secretary, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, have left a damaging legacy.
In the Labour party, they are often former trade unionists, such as Dennis Skinner, who still resist any move away from the party's core principles of the 1970s.
As long as rich unionists, such as the train drivers' Bob Crow, can occupy subsidised social housing in London, there will be no room for mobile newcomers.
Hardcore Unionists such as my mom (several of her ancestors fought, including a great uncle, Captain Newton S. Manross, who was killed leading his own company of Connecticut volunteers at Antietam) called it the Civil War, as did the more reputable historians.
No wonder the Tories themselves have fallen out over the issue, with genuine unionists such as the former Scottish secretary Lord Forsyth accusing the prime minister of playing a dangerous game.
He compared the BMA with "real trade unionists" such as Unison, whose goal is to find a solution, and questioned why it is that the NHS never has quite the right amount of funding to promote reform – when it has plenty it doesn't see the need, and when cash gets tight it can't afford to change.
