James MacDonald

James MacDonald (1857 – 21 May 1938) was a British trade unionist. Born in Edinburgh, MacDonald trained as a tailor and moved to London in 1881. He joined the Central Marylebone Democratic Association and the Manhood Suffrage League, but it was reading Friedrich Engels' articles in the Labour Standard that convinced him of socialism. As a result, he joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), but left in 1885 to join the Socialist Union. However, he rejoined the SDF in 1887. In 1888, MacDonald worked with Lewis Lyons to unite both East End and West End tailors, which became the Amalgamated Society of Tailors. He then founded a newspaper, Journeyman, and joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP). In 1891, MacDonald was elected to the executive of the London Trades Council, and in 1896 he became its secretary, a post he held until 1913. Despite being based in London, he twice stood for Parliament in Dundee as an ILP candidate, failing to win a seat. He also spent some time on the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and in 1893 successfully proposed an amendment requiring it to support only those Labour candidates who accepted the principle of collective ownership.