The Origins and Development of the Labour Movement in West London 1918-1970
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The Origins and Development of the Labour Movement in West London 1918-1970 A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History Barbara Humphries November 2018 1 Abstract This PhD will look at the origins and development of the labour movement in Ealing and Hillingdon from 1918 to 1970, with a focus on the Labour Party, trades unions, co-operative movement, Independent Labour Party and Communist Party. Written as a ‘history from below’ and based on extensive archival resources, it will assess the role played by different sections of the working class, including ethnic groups (Welsh, Irish and Asians from the Indian Punjab) and women, in forging and sustaining Labour’s presence in west London. In particular, it examines how population change altered the political landscape via large-scale industrialisation in the 1920s and 1930s and the building of new housing estates. Suburbia is considered as a mixed area of working-class communities and middle-class commuter land, feeding into analysis of Labour’s electoral fortunes at the general and local level. Ultimately, the thesis concludes that population change was not responsible alone for the political changes that took place over the century. As important was the building of political organisation at a ‘grassroots level’, thereby necessitating an emphasis on industrial and community organisation. Finally, the thesis evaluates the relationship between national political developments and local politics, feeding into a multi-faceted thesis that contributes to wider debate as to the fluctuating fortunes of Labour in and out of government. 2 ‘Declaration: I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged.’ Barbara Humphries 3 Acknowledgements Much of this thesis has been written from primary sources and the author would like to thank the staff of the following libraries and archives for their assistance – the LSE Library and Archives, (where I was a member of staff for over 30 years), TUC Library, London Metropolitan Archives, Ealing Local History Library, Hillingdon Local History Library, Bishopsgate Institute Library, Modern Records Centre (University of Warwick) and the Labour History Archive and Study Centre in Manchester. I would like to thank my supervisor, Matthew Worley for his guidance and help throughout my research, members of Labour Heritage for years of inspiration and solidarity, especially John Grigg with his shared interest in west London and thanks to my partner Mick Brooks for his encouragement and support throughout the last few years. Finally this thesis is dedicated to those who built the labour movement in west London, some of whom I have interviewed for this thesis and had the privilege of knowing. Some were interviewed for the Labour Oral History Project which was co-ordinated by Dan Weinbren in the 1990s. 4 Contents Abbreviations p.6 Introduction p.7 Chapter 1 The Economic and Social Background p.35 Chapter 2 Labour and the Electorate p.66 Chapter 3 Labour Party: Class, Organisation, Structure and Membership p.92 Chapter 4 The Trades Unions affect Political Change? p. 122 Chapter 5 Immigrants and Ethnic Identity in the Formation of the West London Labour Movement. p.150 Chapter 6 Women in the West London Labour Movement p.181 Chapter 7 The Co-operative Movement and its Impact on West London p.206 Chapter 8 Labour and Other Left Political Parties p.235 Conclusion p.265 Appendix 1 West London Maps p.271 Appendix 2 Election Results by Year p.274 Appendix 3 Election Results by Parliamentary Constituency p.278 Bibliography p.281 5 Abbreviations AATVW Amalgamated Association of Tram and Vehicle Workers AEU Amalgamated Engineering Union ASLEF Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen ASRS Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants CLP Constituency Labour Party CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain DLP District Labour Party ILP Independent Labour Party IWA Indian Workers’ Association LAI League Against Imperialism LCC London County Council LCS London Co-operative Society LPU London and Provincial Union of Licensed Vehicle Builders LPWS Labour Party Women’s Sections LRC Labour Representation Committee MCC Middlesex County Council NC National Committee NFWW National Federation of Women Workers NMM National Minority Movement NUDAW National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers NUR National Union of Railwaymen NUWU National Unemployed Workers’ Union RCA Railway Clerk’s Association SJC Standing Joint Committee of Industrial Organisations TGWU Transport and General Workers Union TUC Trades Union Congress UDC Urban District Council WCG Women’s Co-operative Guild WLICS West London Industrial Co-operative Society WLL Women’s Labour League WMDCP West Middlesex District Communist Party WPSU Women’s Social and Political Union WRG Women’s Railway Guild 6 Origins and Development of the Labour Movement in West London 1918-1970 Introduction The basis, the roots of our movement, is in the localities, in the towns and villages. Without local movements a national movement is inconceivable. We cannot have a national trades union without it possesses branches in towns and districts spread over the country; nor can we have a truly national Labour Party without local Labour parties in every town and hamlet throughout the kingdom. The national movement arises from the combination of the local movements. Address to York Trades Council 13 December, 1930 by A.A.Purcell of Manchester and Salford Trades Council.1 This thesis will look at the origins and development of the labour movement in west London, focusing on two boroughs, Ealing and Hillingdon.2 It will show how economic and social change in the first half of the 20th century in this area provided the background for a working class political movement. This will include the growth of industries in the interwar years, and the expansion of house-building. It will look at migration into west London and how the population changed, leading to the creation of working-class communities in what had been a rural and suburban area, not officially part of London, but the county of Middlesex. It will consider how this brought about the potential for political change and will look at how the labour movement was built in a politically contested area of suburban London. It will consider the question of whether industrialisation alone caused the change in political landscape, or whether it was the importance of political organisation, both at a local and national level. This will include estimating the impact at different times of the three wings of the labour movement, the trades unions, Labour Party and the Co-operative Movement, and assess how they took root in west London. It will acknowledge the importance of human agency in creating history, with reference to the individuals who built the labour movement. It will also take into account the role of national political events, and their capacity to override local economic and social change. The time scale for this thesis is from 1918, when 1 A.A.Purcell,The Trades Councils and Local Working Class Movement (Manchester, 1930) (LSE Pamphlet) p.5 2 The labour movement includes the Labour Party, trades unions, the Co-operative movement, and also the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and the Communist Party. Some of the major industrial developments to affect this area took place in Park Royal and the Great West Road, partly in the neighbouring boroughs of Brent and Hounslow. For maps of the area covered see Appendix 1. 7 the Labour Party first ran candidates in west London, up until 1970, although it is written thematically, rather than chronologically. This thesis begins in 1918. There had been a labour movement presence in west London before this date, but this was the first time that the Labour Party had stood candidates in any of these parliamentary divisions. The chapters are concentrated on the years between 1918 and 1945 because it was over this time that the substantive changes to the political landscape of west London took place. However post 1945 it was necessary to illustrate why this part of London never became a Labour heartland, and how it remained an area to be contested by the two main political parties. It was also necessary to extend the chronology of the thesis up to 1970 to allow a comparison to be made of the role of ethnic groups in west London politics, including Indians from the Punjab who began arriving in Southall in the 1950s and 1960s. At the beginning of the 20th century, Middlesex had been a largely rural area, devoted to market gardening and the production of bricks for London. Parts of it were commuter land, such as Ealing, the ‘Queen of Suburbs’, home to City workers and retired colonial officials.3 The local laundries, in Acton and Ealing, employing women, supplied a service to middle- class households. In the interwar years, parts of Hillingdon, such as Ruislip became part of suburbia’s ‘Metro-land’ and therefore not promising electoral territory for the Labour Party.4 However, as West Middlesex sprawled in the interwar years, it was gathering in its path, industrial towns which were to change the area for ever. It is important to bear in mind that industrialisation had come relatively late to this part of Britain, and it was based on new industries such as electrical engineering and food-processing, which were engaged in production for the home market, not export. This happened at a time when the labour movement had long established a base in the country’s old industrial heartlands, and had made an impact on the national political scene.5 3 There have been a number of local histories written about the boroughs of Ealing and Hillingdon, which will be referred to in more detail in Chapter 1.