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The Labour Governments 1964-1970 and the Other Equalities. Matthew Richard Cooper School of History, Queen Mary University of London. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. i The Labour Governments 1964-1970 and the Other Equalities. Matthew Cooper 2013 ii Abstract This thesis explores the idea that an equality state has evolved in Britain since the 1960s. The policies and institutions that make up the equality state are those that seek to ensure some forms of equality between its citizens. Its latest development has been through the 2010 Equality Act that promotes equality in relation to nine protected characteristics, but just two of these are considered here, race and sex. The study will investigate the origins of the equality state under the 1964-1970 Labour governments through the formulation of policies that explicitly or implicitly promoted sex and racial equality. The main areas examined in relation to racial equality are the anti- discrimination provisions of the 1965 and 1968 Race Relations Acts; measures to promote the integration of immigrants, particularly in employment, education, housing and policing; the institutions which aided integration particularly the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants and Community Relations Commission; and the Urban Programme and other measures taken in response to Enoch Powell's 1968 'Rivers of Blood' speech. With sex equality the areas considered are the 1970 Equal Pay Act; the development of policy to promote equal opportunity in employment; and the reform of law relating to abortion, divorce and the availability of contraceptive services through state agencies. iii The primary focus of the thesis is on the policy making process and the research is based on government papers in The National Archives. Other influences on these policy areas have been researched through primary sources, particularly policies' origins in the Labour Party, the influence of the trade union movement, campaigning groups and, in the case of sex equality, the remaining first wave feminist organisations. Through this the thesis develops an understanding of the nature and limitations of the equality that the equality state promotes. iv Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements. vii Chapter 1. Introduction: the rise of the equality state. 1 1.1: Nature and scope of the research. 1 1.2: Originality of the research. 9 1.3: Equality of what? 14 1.4: The public and the private spheres. 18 1.5: Historiography. 25 1.6: Methodology and sources. 32 Chapter 2: Racial equality and anti-discrimination legislation. 38 2.1: The development of policy 1948-1964. 39 2.1.1: Campaigning groups. 39 2.1.2: Development of policy in the Labour Party. 46 2.2: Labour in power: Soskice and the first Race Relations Act 1965-1966. 52 2.2.1: The' package deal'. 53 2.3: Making the second Race Relations Act, 1966-1968. 62 2.3.1: Roy Jenkins at the Home Office. 62 2.3.2: Employment in 1968 Race Relations Bill. 72 2.3.3: The progress of the second Race Relations Bill after Jenkins. 90 2.3.4: Beyond the 1968 Act. 93 2.4: The personal becomes political. 98 2.5: Conclusion. 102 Chapter 3: Creating an integrated society? 105 3.1: Laissez Faire 1945-1964. 111 3.1.1: Labour Party policy on integration. 111 3.1.2: The institutions of integration c.1954-1964. 121 3.2: Soskice and the White Paper. 124 3.2.1: Soskice, the White Paper and departmental policy. 124 3.2.2: Education. 128 3.3.3: Housing. 130 3.3.4: The NCCI, local funding and the White Paper. 134 3.3: Integrating immigrants: 1966-c.1967. 140 3.3.1: The machinery for 'integrating immigrants'. 1966-1967. 140 3.3.2: Education. 144 3.3.3: Housing. 147 3.3.4: The police. 149 3.4: Crossing the Tiber: immigration, the 'Rivers of Blood' speech and the government's response 1966-1970. 155 3.4.1: Jenkins and the control of immigration. 155 3.4.2: The death of a meritorious community. 156 3.4.3: 'Rivers of Blood' and after. 160 3.4.4. The Urban Programme. 164 3.5: Callaghan at the Home Office 1969-1970. 168 3.5.1: The Community Relations Commission 1968-1970. 168 3.5.2: Immigration policy December 1968-1970. 172 3.6: A melting pot or multiculturalism? 174 3.7: Conclusion. 184 Chapter 4: Women's equality in employment. 192 4.1: Women's equality in the public and private spheres. 192 4.2: Equal pay. 203 v 4.2.1 The oldest pay claim in history: 1811-1964. 203 4.2.2: The Labour government and equal pay 1964-66. 211 4.2.3: The Labour government and equal pay 1966-1968. 217 4.2.4: Equal pay, the Ford strike and Barbara Castle 1968-1969. 223 4.2.5: The passing of equal pay 1969-1970. 234 4.3: Unequal opportunities. 241 4.4: Protective legislation. 251 4.5: Conclusion. 254 Chapter 5: Women's equality in the private Sphere. 258 5.1: Campaigning on reproductive rights, and abortion reform to 1964. 260 5.1.1: Early campaigning on contraception. 260 5.1.2: Abortion law reform 1930-1964. 264 5.2: The Labour Governments 1964-1970 and the development of abortion law reform. 276 5.2.1: Early attempts under the 1964-1966 Labour government. 276 5.2.2 Reform under the 1966 Labour government and the Steel Bill. 285 5.2.3: Conclusions on abortion law reform. 296 5.3: The Campaign for contraception. 299 5.3.1: The campaign 1930-1934. 299 5.3.2: The extension of access to contraception 1964-1970. 303 Section: 5.4: Divorce law reform. 310 5.4.1: Divorce law reform to 1965. 310 5.4.2: The Labour government 1964-1968: the Wilson Bill. 317 5.4.3 Divorce reform 1968-1970: The Jones Bill. 328 5.4.4: Conclusions on divorce reform. 331 5.5: Conclusion. 334 Chapter 6: Conclusion. 341 Annex 1: Policy making in the Labour Party and the TUC. 352 Annex 2: Terminology used in this thesis. 356 Race 356 Gender 358 Annex 3: Statistical tables. 360 Bibliography 364 vi Acknowledgements. First and foremost I wish to thank my supervisor, Professor Peter Hennessy, for his advice and support throughout the long process of writing this PhD. I am grateful for others who have looked at the draft and offered advice along the way, particularly Drs Helen McCarthy and Morgan Daniels. This thesis could never have been completed without the numerous archivists and librarians who responded to my requests and kept me in files and brown boxes of documents. I would like to give special mention to the staff of the Women's Library, entrusted by the Fawcett Society in 1977 to what was then the City of London Polytechnic, and from 2002 housed in the Heritage Lottery Fund financed Wash House Building in what was now London Metropolitan University. The decision of that university's management to close the library in 2013 is the worse form of academic vandalism and breach of trust, although the archival material has been transferred to the LSE. My especial thanks go to the staff of the Women's library. Other archivists too deserve my thanks, those at The National Archives: Public Record Office in Kew; the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick; the Labour Party Archive and Study Centre in Manchester; the TUC Library Collection at London Metropolitan University; the Wellcome Trust Library, London; the Archives Study Room at the LSE; and the archivists at SOAS Library. Additionally, I am most grateful to the library staff at Senate House and the Queen Mary, University of London Lastly I would like to thank my partner, Liz Dixon, for her patience, support and proof reading. My daughter Miriam's life so far has been coincident with the writing of this thesis, and I hope that she has not suffered too much neglect as a result. vii Chapter 1. Introduction: the rise of the equality state. 1.1: Nature and scope of the research. In July 1943 the former West Indies cricketer Learie Constantine1 was preparing to play for the Dominions against England in a charity match at Lord’s, a game that would draw a record wartime crowd of 25,000.2 He was working for the Ministry of Labour and National Service as a welfare officer seeing to the needs of temporary wartime workers from the Caribbean and made broadcasts for the BBC to the Caribbean in support of the war effort. Having arrived at the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square, London, where he had booked rooms for himself and his family, the manager told a colleague of Constantine's that 'we will not have any niggers in the hotel because of the Americans' and that if they stayed, in the morning they would find their bags put out on the street and their door locked. Constantine took the hotel to court where Justice Birkett,3 while clearly sympathetic to Constantine's action and stating that the language used was 'deeply offensive', ruled that damages of five guineas would be awarded only for failing to honour the common law duty to provide a room when one was available.4 1 1901-1971. Trinidadian and British cricketer, journalist, politician and diplomat. Created Baron Constantine of Maraval in Trinidad and Nelson in the County Palatine of Lancaster (1969). 2 'Cricket', The Times 3/8/1943. 3 Norman Birkett, 1883-1962. Politician, barrister and judge. Liberal MP, Nottingham (1923-1924, 1929- 1931). High Court Judge from 1941, Created Baron Birkett (1958).