{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb|right|Front page of Finns pamphlet criticising immigration controls from an internationalist perspective '''Joseph Finn''' (1865–1945) was a trade unionist and journalist in Britain.
Born to a Jewish family in Eastern Europe, Finn became a tailors' machiner in Leeds, in England. He was fluent in both English and Yiddish, and became the Leeds correspondent of the radical ''Der Poylisher Yidl''.<ref name="kershen" /> Founded by Morris Winchevsky, it was the first London-based socialist paper in Yiddish, first published in 1884 in Spitalfields, the centre of the tailoring and clothing trades.<ref>{{cite web| title=Today in London radical history: Yiddish anarchist paper Arbeter Fraint founded, Whitechapel, 1885. |date=15 July 2016 |access-date=7 July 2024 |url=https://pasttense.co.uk/2016/07/15/today-in-london-radical-history-yiddish-anarchist-paper-arbeter-fraint-founded-whitechapel-1885/comment-page-1/}}</ref> Finn joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), and tried to promote solidarity between Jewish workers and socialists in the city. He remained with the SDF until 1885, when he was part of the breakaway which formed the Socialist League.<ref name="kershen">{{cite book |last1=Kershen |first1=Anne J. |title=Uniting the Tailors |date=1995 |publisher=Frank Cass |location=Ilford |isbn=0714641456 |pages=63–66}}</ref>
In 1884, Finn worked with James Sweeney of the Jewish Tailors' Society to lead a strike. This was unsuccessful, as the union had no funds and so could not provide strike pay. The following year, Finn led a further strike, calling for a reduction in the length of the working day. This was better planned, and strikebreakers imported from London were given pre-paid return train tickets to encourage them to leave. This was successful, but Finn faced victimisation by employers and struggled to find work, instead relocating to Boston, Massachusetts.<ref name="kershen" />
In America, Finn continued working in tailoring, and was also active in the local socialist group. In 1893, he returned to England, this time settling in the East End of London, and in 1895 he was elected as secretary of the London United Ladies' Tailors' Trade Union. He also wrote a pamphlet, ''Voice of the Alien'', arguing that Eastern European workers were not taking the jobs of English people, but were instead contributing to the economy.<ref name="kershen" />
During the 1910s, Finn was a frequent contributor to ''The New Age'', writing in opposition to antisemitism, and in support of an economic federation of European nations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Redman |first1=Tim |title=Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism |date=1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0521373050 |page=39}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Healey |first1=R. M. |title=A Pre-First World War European Federation formed on Co-operative principles |url=http://jot101.com/2017/01/a-pre-first-world-war-european-federation-formed-on-co-operative-principles/ |website=Jot101 |accessdate=17 October 2018}}</ref>
==External links== * [https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/WES/4/2/9 ''Voice of the Alien''] Papers of Woolf Wess (William Wess) (1861-1946), trade unionist, socialist and Jewish activist, Warwick Modern Records Centre
==References== <references />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Joseph}} Category:1865 births Category:1945 deaths Category:English trade unionists Category:Social Democratic Federation members Category:Socialist League (UK, 1885) members Category:Immigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Trade unionists from Leeds Category:19th-century trade unionists Category:20th-century British trade unionists