Arthur Horner (trade unionist)

Arthur Lewis Horner (5 April 1894 – 4 September 1968) was a Welsh trade union leader and communist politician. During his periods of office as President of the South Wales Miners Federation (SWMF) from 1936, and as General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1946, he became one of the most prominent and influential communists in British public life.

A founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1921, Horner was imprisoned during the First World War for his opposition to military service and later joined the Irish Citizen Army during his time in Dublin. He played a leading role in the 1926 General Strike and subsequent miners' lockout. During the 1930s, his pragmatic approach to trade union strategy brought him into conflict with Communist Party orthodoxy, leading to the development of "Hornerism" as a distinct political tendency that emphasised working within established unions rather than forming separate revolutionary organisations.

As NUM General Secretary, Horner was instrumental in securing the nationalisation of Britain's coal industry and implementing the comprehensive 1946 Miners' Charter, which established some of the best working conditions in British industry. By his retirement in 1959, he had transformed the position of miners from among the lowest-paid workers to having wages and conditions that rivalled any sector of the British economy.