There had been trade union activity in the area from the 1830s onwards and in 1857 a major dispute which became known as the Aberdare Strike occurred.
In 1870, the miners of the Aberdare Valley, like other parts of south Wales, started to organize and demand a wage increase.
By April 1871 there were 3,000 members in and around Aberdare, 1,300 at nine lodges in Mountain Ash further down the valley and a further 1,000 in Merthyr.
[2] In February 1872 Thomas Halliday and Alexander Macdonald addressed a mass meeting at the Temperance Hall, Aberdare.
[4] It survived the collapse of the AAM, affiliating for a short period instead to the Miners' National Union (MNU), but it dissolved before the end of the decade.