Joe Cotter
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Joseph Patrick Cotter CBE (10 May 1877 – 8 May 1944) was a British trade union leader.
Cotter was born into a Catholic family in Liverpool.[1] He was orphaned at the age of six, and was brought up by relatives until he was eleven, when he went to work in a coal mine. He moved into advertising five years later, and by the age of twenty was the advertising superintendent at Lever Brothers. He married in 1898 and held various jobs before finding work as a cook on a tramp steamer.[2]
Cotter's Union
Cotter subsequently became a ships steward with the Cunard Line. In 1909, he believed that foreign workers were taking the jobs of British workers on ships, and began campaigning against them, an activity for which he was sacked. In response, Cotter founded the Ships' Stewards, Cooks, Butchers, and Bakers Union, of which he became secretary.[3] As he was the dominant figure in the union, it was generally known as "Cotter's Union".[4] He also became vice president of the Liverpool Trades Council.[5]
Around 1910, Cotter identified as a syndicalist, and he and Frank Pearce from the union both joined the Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL).[6] The union played a prominent part in the Seamen's Strike of 1911, working closely with Tom Mann of the ISEL, and the National Sailors' and Firemen's Union (NSFU), and obtained recognition by the Shipping Federation.[7][8]
Cotter became known for his lively speeches and tendency to incautious action, and was nicknamed "Explosive Joe".[9] He continued to oppose non-British workers, claiming that Chinese workers were invading Britain in an analogy to the German threat during World War I.[10]