A. J. Cook (trade unionist)

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For other persons of the same name, see A. J. Cook.

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Arthur James Cook (1883 - 1931), known as A. J. Cook, was a British coal miner and trade union leader.

Born in the small village of Wookey in Somerset, England to Thomas and Selina Cook. He moved to Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales to work in the mines at the age of sixteen. He first came to prominence in the Cambrian Coal Dispute in 1910 and went on to active involvement in the Miners' Unofficial Reform Committee which published the famous syndicalist pamphlet 'The Miners' Next Step' in 1912. Having established a reputation as a left-winger, Cook was elected as the secretary of the South Wales Miners' Federation in 1921. He was General Secretary of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain from 1924 until 1931, a period that included the 1926 General Strike. Although a member of the Independent Labour Party, Cook worked closely with the Communist Party after its formation in 1920 and the National Minority Movement from 1924 to 1929.