Bulletin Spring 2018 Public Unrest and the Railways Rail Nationalisation/ Derek Wheatley This factor had been realised by the / John Grigg government as long as 1842. In the early Reading Labour @ 100 th West London history day years of the 19 Century there had been Women’s Suffrage in 1918 growing public unrest brought about by the excesses of the Industrial Revolution which resulted in employers and 1948: the Nationalisation of the shareholders making fortunes whilst the Railways very people who made it all possible By Derek Wheatley worked under appalling conditions, were miserably paid and forced to live in fetid st th January 1 this year marked the 70 slums. At each attempt by the workers or anniversary of the nationalisation of those of a more privileged background Britain’s railways, thus fulfilling one of who were ready to step into their ranks to the pledges contained in the Labour obtain some relief from their drudgery the Party’s manifesto for the 1945 General government of the day often took violent Election, Let Us Face the Future. It had action and introduced legislation to stifle been party policy since 1918 when it had this opposition. For example, the Peterloo adopted a new constitution, including the Massacre of 1819 resulted in legislation late-lamented Clause IV which called for making all meetings of more than fifty the common ownership of’ the ‘means of persons illegal, and the banning of production, distribution and exchange’. It processions and marches. The trial of the is undoubtedly the case that railways fell leaders of the Spencean Philanthropists for under the description of ‘distribution’, high treason (punishable by execution) in being the largest carrier of goods at that 1816 which, although the accused men time, but if there were any possible doubt were acquitted, nevertheless was followed the same conference called for the by an Act suppressing all associations nationalisation of the railways. known as ‘Spencean.’ The Cato Street Interestingly though, the reason behind conspiracy of 1820, orchestrated by a this policy was to ensure that workers in Home Office spy, was followed by the the industries involved enjoyed the ‘full execution of the five ‘conspirators’. The fruits of their labour’, the strategic Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported to importance of the railways not being Australia for daring to attempt to form a mentioned. branch of the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union.

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Riots and strikes followed the rejection by It was the Boer War that saw the British Parliament of a petition signed by nearly Army making extensive use of the one and a quarter million presented by railways although this was confined to the leaders of the People’s Charter (Chartists) workings of the London & South Western in 1839. This culminated in the arrest of Railway between London and the Chartist leaders, the killing of ten Southampton. This was achieved with Chartists in Newport, South Wales, who much co-operation between the railway were calling for the release of one of their and the military authorities and without companions from imprisonment and was direct government interference. It was followed by the arrest of seven of their observed that the concentration of traffic leaders and subsequent transportation. on London was inefficient and, in the build-up to the 1914-1918 War, links Clearly the many attempts to quell this between the military training and rear unrest only inflamed the situation further. concentration areas around Salisbury and Concerned that a new outbreak could the coast were improved. occur anywhere in the country, it occurred to the government that the expanding World War 1 and Government Control railway network could be used to transport troops quickly to any such outbreak. The result was an Act in 1842 that enabled the government to use emergency powers over the railways. However, the Chartists continued with their fight and Parliament began to see that something needed to be done to protect women and children in the mines, ensure that juveniles were not to be employed for more than ten hours a day, and reconsider the law on political groups Before the outbreak of World War 1 the communicating with each other. The Liberal government had begun to consider Chartists therefore switched from an nationalisation of the railways but as war emphasis on demonstrations to political loomed the idea was put aside. Instead action and a sort of peace prevailed. The more extensive powers over the railways need to take control of the railways were put in place. The President of the diminished accordingly. Board of Trade, whose department was The American Civil War (1861-1865) responsible for railways, took control and demonstrated the importance of railways acted as Chairman of the Railway in any conflict and parliamentary scrutiny Executive Committee which had been here in Britain of legislation authorising formed in 1912. The railway companies new lines began to take defence were now directed to provide trains for requirements into account. But even the military purposes at the government’s Great Western Railway’s broad gauge behest. There was, however, no (8’0” as opposed to the standard gauge of requirement to meet any standards as to 4’8½” in use elsewhere) came under attack stock to be used and, frequently, obsolete by the War Office because of the problem stock set aside for the purpose, was used. of the break of gauge on moving men and The worst railway disaster in Britain, materiel from one company’s line to which occurred at Quintinshill, near another. Carlisle (1917), in which at least 227 people were killed and 245 injured most of

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whom were soldiers on their way to France the Midland Railway and the London & from Scotland, involved a troop train South Western Railway, would pass to comprising old obsolete stock, two goods their successors. Excluded from this trains and a northbound express. The reorganisation were narrow gauge railways stock itself was not the cause of the initial and light railways, these latter usually collision but its old wooden bodies were being small companies running a service crushed and then consumed by the between two local communities, and the resultant fire which broke out. London Underground system. One aspect of government control which The four companies created were: the did emerge was a system that enabled London Midland & Scottish Railway resources to be directed to where they (LMS), its constituents being primarily the were most needed rather than allowing London & North Western Railway and the companies to keep equipment for Midland Railway; the London & North themselves while another company Eastern Railway (LNER) absorbing the suffered under wartime pressures. But Great Northern Railway, the Great Eastern while the government had power over the Railway and the North Eastern Railway railways it had no long-term responsibility plus a number of others and the Southern for their technical or financial health. This Railway (SR) comprising mainly the was to prove to be a short-sighted and London & South Western Railway, the improvident policy. London Brighton & South Coast Railway and the South Eastern & Chatham Railway Financially the war years were a disaster with a few others. The fourth, the Great for the railway companies. Compensation Western Railway (GWR) was already in had been paid to them based on pre-war existence but absorbed a number of Welsh earnings. In 1913 the combined profits of Valley lines and the Cambrian Railway. the companies had been £45 million. By 1921, when government control had ended Vesting day was January 1st 1923 and was overall losses of around £9 million had referred to as the grouping. The three new been incurred. This situation occurred companies inherited a number of different mainly because of dramatic increases in working practices and a range of rolling costs of manpower which rose from £47 stock. In both cases the tendency was for million in 1913 to £160 million in 1920 the largest absorbed company’s practices due to improvements in rates of pay. It to be rolled out across their system and, was probably because of their poor with rolling stock, for new builds to be financial position that calls for railway based on the output of the largest nationalisation were dropped. predecessor. Something had to be done to keep the They set about a massive programme of railway system going. Nationalisation investment with the aim of improving having been ruled out, the only solution timings of their inter-city expresses and was to create four more-or-less regional providing modern, comfortable coaching companies which would take over the stock to attract more passengers. more than 120 companies operating within Prestigious trains were introduced into the their designated area, economy of scale late 1930s such as the Cheltenham Flyer being the justification. Joint lines, owned and Cornish Riviera Express (GWR), the by two companies, would continue but Flying Scotsman and Coronation (LNER), under the ownership of the new the Coronation Scot (LMS), and the companies, for example, the Somerset & Atlantic Coast Express and Golden Arrow, Dorset Joint Railway, owned originally by the latter in conjunction with French 3

National Railways (SR). The early years was estimated at just under £5¼ million, it following the grouping were rightly known was inevitable that the government would as the golden years of railways but it was provide a grant of £4 million with the not to last. Increased use of road transport companies left to fund the balance for the carriage of goods ate into the themselves. companies’ revenues. Motor coach travel Part of the money was spent on relocating and, to a lesser extent, where the more the headquarters of the four mainline affluent members of the public were companies with the GWR going to a concerned, the use of the private car location near Aldermaston, the SR to increased. In the last few years profits Dorking, the LMS to a country mansion declined and, therefore, dividends to near Watford, whereas the LNER’s shareholders fell to derisory levels such different departments were spread to a that by 1939 only the SR was reporting a number of different locations. profit and paying a dividend, thanks to its London commuter services and the fact Railway Executive Committee that it carried far less freight than the others. In 1938 a new Railway Executive Committee (REC) was created, initially as In the meantime the first railways to pass an advisory body whilst allowing the into public ownership were those of the companies’ managements to be London Underground with the creation of responsible for operations. Headquarters the London Passenger Transport Board in were set up at the closed Down Street 1933. This was the brainchild of Herbert underground station. Then, just before the Morrison whose aim was to unify and co- outbreak of war in 1939, the government ordinate public transport including buses took control of the railways including light and trams in the London area. This was railways. The 15” narrow gauge Romney achieved and London Transport, as it came Hythe and Dymchurch Railway was even to be known, was to become the most requisitioned by the Army. The REC efficient public transport system in Britain came under the control of the Minister of if not the world. Transport, later the Minister of War Transport. There was some delay in As the 1930s progressed the storm clouds finalising arrangements for compensation of war loomed and it was anticipated that, and, in November, a Labour MP asked the if war came, the immediate threat would government to consider nationalisation, a come from aerial bombardment rather than suggestion which was rejected. Delay an invasion, as had been seen in cinema continued and there were rumours that footage of the Spanish Civil War, the nationalisation was being considered but Italian invasion of Abyssinia and Japanese this might well have been a ploy actions in China. Preparations for this engineered to put pressure on the four eventuality were put in hand as early as companies. 1937 with the formation of a Railway Technical Committee. This committee Finally, in February 1940, agreement was examined all aspects of public and staff reached and it was decreed that the railway safety, protection of key points, provision companies would be contractors to the of stocks for emergency repairs, and government. All revenue was to become possible lighting restrictions on both the the government’s and this would be shared national railways and London Transport. between the four companies and London Funding for these precautions at first was Transport from a pool set at a guaranteed seen to be a problem and, when the cost £40 million, the percentage shares being

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based on the average net revenues (defined were patched up and soldiered on in the as their standard revenue) for the early post-war years because there were companies and London Transport in the few funds available to replace them years 1935-1937. If actual revenues Rail Nationalisation exceeded the guaranteed figure the excess, up to £3.5 million would be disbursed on The new Labour government, committed the same percentage basis. Beyond £43.5 to nationalisation, quickly took steps to million any excess would be shared by the take them into public ownership. This government and the pool, with the latter’s was, of course, opposed by the Tories, but half being shared on the same percentage they failed to come up with any alternative basis. If the revenues exceeded £56 policy to save the railways from collapse. million and one or more of the shares were The Transport Act of 1947 was passed and greater than the companies’ standard the deed was done. This created the revenues, the excess was to be shared out British Transport Commission whose brief proportionately to the remaining extended not only to the railways but to companies. In the event that revenues bus companies offering stage services reached a point where all standard (other than those already owned by local revenues had been disbursed but there was authorities) and road freight haulage, still an excess, this would pass to the docks and inland waterways, railway- government. This arrangement, it was owned hotels and even London Transport, believed, would incentivise all the parties each of which had its own executive. to maximise efficiency and increase revenues. That this was to be case is For the railways the country was divided demonstrated by the levels of excess into six regions, Western (the old GWR), passing to the government totalled £155 Southern (SR), Eastern (LNER), North million for the years 1943-1945! Eastern (the LNER’s lines north of Doncaster), Midland (LMS) and Scottish Thus, the vast amount of freight (including (the former lines of the LMS and LNER). war materiel) and the large number of Nothing much seemed to change at first. troop movements over the years were The four companies no longer existed but handled with speed and efficiency but this their managements were still in place was to be at a cost. Maintenance of stock under the direction of the Railway and infrastructure had been neglected due Executive whose headquarters were at first to the need to prioritise rail operations. The in two upper floors at 55 Broadway (the use of railway workshops for the London Transport HQ) but when these manufacture of equipment for the armed were found to be inadequate a move was services (which was paid for by the made to the Great Central Hotel at government) restricted materials and Marylebone which quickly became known labour for rolling stock maintenance. The as ‘The Kremlin’. result was that, at the end of the war, the railways were on their knees. They had Slowly but surely the railways returned to performed magnificently, sometimes in the normal but as was anticipated they most difficult circumstances, for nearly six required subsidy. This, of course, was a years but they were now in dire straits. bonus for the Tories and their national Many of their locomotives and passenger press friends who belaboured Labour over coaches would have been scrapped and the ‘inefficiency’ and ‘profligacy’ of replaced had there been no war but they nationalisation, conveniently ignoring the were desperately needed. They were now fact that Britain’s railways would not have worn out and only fit for the scrapyard but survived in private hands without subsidy. 5

A classic example of not letting the truth haste to eliminate steam traction which get in the way of the facts was meant that a large number of steam demonstrated by an article in a failing locomotives were withdrawn with many Tory-supporting Sunday Dispatch in years of working lives still in prospect). January 1953 which was headlined But subsidies continued to grow. Even RAILWAY’S BIGGEST FIASCO - Thatcher, the great destroyer of industry in £500,000 WASTED ON THREE the cause of a ‘reduced state’ and one who USELESS ENGINES/THEY TRIED TO would never travel by train, could not HUSH IT UP!’ and went on to proclaim contemplate privatisation. It fell to Major that ‘Three huge railway engines which to come up with a crazy scheme to sell off cost altogether about £500,000 to build, tracks and signalling (and some mainline now lie rusting and useless in sheds and termini) and create a private company, and sidings – silent and hidden evidence of the offer a number of franchises for the biggest fiasco produced by Britain’s operation of trains over all routes. We all nationalised railways’ and went on with a know of the odd failure with these host of quotes which they had somehow ventures and it has now reached the stage gathered from different sources. where a majority of people are calling for the renationalisation of our railways. We The truth was somewhat different. The also have the stupid situation where the three engines cost £100,000 (admittedly a state-owned railways of France, Germany high figure), had been scrapped in 1951, and even China have taken over franchises and were not of British Railways design. thus enabling them to repatriate profits for They were conceived by the Chief investment in their own railways while, at Mechanical Engineer of the Southern the same time, our own government Railway in 1946 and were of a prohibits any public involvement of its revolutionary design. Five were authorised own. for construction which commenced in July 1947 at Brighton. The first was not Let us hope that Jeremy Corbyn will be completed until June 1949 and then went able to restore ownership where it belongs on trials until September 1950. The fact –with the public. that these were extended was due to a series of problems which occurred on various occasions although the last was successful but by then British Rail management had decided to stop all further testing and work. Without going into the rights or wrongs of the affair it is clear that British Rail’s only fault was in delaying the decision to cancel the project. But even this could be excused because if the revolutionary design had turned out to be successful it would have brought enormous benefits to the railways. Most of us will know the later history of

Britain’s railways in public ownership and the various attempts to cut government subsidy (for example, the Beeching axing of over route 6,000 miles and the indecent

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Fred Jowett 1864-1944 been sent from Devon with two older By John H. Grigg brothers at the age of seven, as part of a consignment by the Poor Law Guardians, In last year’s summer edition of the to work in the mills. In his Bulletin, I wrote that was biography, Fred recalls how she told him the only (ILP) of the Chartist meetings she was at when a member to be appointed to Ramsay child. Fred’s father was a gaffer (foreman) MacDonald’s cabinet in the short lived in a Bradford textile mill. He discussed first Labour Government in 1924. A politics with Fred and it is probable that Labour Heritage member has pointed out Fred’s political views stemmed from his that this was not so and that another ILP parents’ beliefs. In 1882 he married Emily member, Fred Jowett, was also in the Foster, daughter of a wool waste dealer, cabinet as Minister for Works. This and they had three children oversight illustrates how Fred Jowett has Fred was elected chairman of the local Co- been largely forgotten. Yet his operative Association when he was 24. By contribution to the movement was then he was a manager in one of the textile considerable. He was chairman of the ILP mills. He was also a member of the in 1909/1910 and again from 1914 to Socialist League, led by , a 1917. Furthermore he was chairman of the breakaway group from the Marxist Social Labour Party 1921/22. He was one of the Democratic Federation. Later he was a 29 first Labour Party MPs elected in 1906 founder member of the short lived Labour and was the man who proposed that the Electoral Association (LEA), a group that new group in the House of Commons be supported Labour representation in named the ‘Labour Party’. He lost his seat parliament but never managed to settle the a number of times, finally in the Labour question of whether such representation debacle in 1931. Is his obscurity because should remain a part of the Liberal Party, his loyalty was more to the ILP than the as it had been in the past, or totally established Labour Party, or because independent. The LEA was succeeded by unlike nearly all the 1906 Labour MPs, he ’s Independent Labour Party did not come through the trades union (ILP), founded in Bradford in 1893, which movement? was a more successful movement that with Bradford and the ILP a number of trade unions lead to the formation of the Labour Party. Fred was one of eight children. His full time education ended when he was eight What propelled Jowett into active politics when he started work in a Bradford was the Manningham Mills strike/lock out weaving mill. He became a ‘half timer’ – in 1890. It was an industrial dispute that in the mill in the mornings and at school in could be claimed as one of many events the afternoons. This was not an unusual that led to the formation of the Labour childhood for the 29 Labour MPs in 1906. Party. The Manningham Mill owner, Half of them became ‘half timers’ before Samuel Lister, insisted on a wage cut of their tenth year. Only a handful were ‘full 30%. The 5,000 operatives, mostly timers’ at school beyond the age of twelve. women, came out on strike. The Fred’s further education came from the Conservatives and Liberals on Bradford Mechanics Institute and the Bradford Council supported the mill owner and Technical College. banned strike meetings. The Durham Light Infantry were called in to quell a huge rally Both Fred’s parents were active in the Co- of 25,000 or more people that grew into a operative Movement His mother had 7

major riot. A number of local socialists, opposition to the Boer War, which he including Jowett, supported the strikers regarded as an imperialist war in the and formed the Bradford Labour Union, interests of capitalists. Only two Labour later renamed the Bradford Independent candidates were successful, both in two- Labour Party. Poverty forced the workers member seats where the Liberals put up back to work after 19 weeks. only one candidate. Keir Hardie, in Methyr Tydfil, was one of them. In 1892 two men, including Jowett, were returned to Bradford Council in the For the 1906 General Election, Ramsey Mannington Ward standing as Bradford’s MacDonald did a secret deal with the independent Labour candidates. Jowett’s Liberals. Lists of seats were drawn up words on his election address include:- where the LRC and the Liberals would not stand against each other. So in 30 seats the ‘In the Lister strike, the people of Bradford LRC had a free run against Tory saw plainly, as they had never seen before, candidates (ten of these were two member that whether their rulers are Liberal or seats where the Liberals ran only one Tory, they are capitalists first and candidate.) Of these 30 seats the LRC politicians afterwards.’ won 23. Jowett spent the next 15 years on Bradford However, there were 20 other seats not Council battling against the vested covered by the MacDonald deal where the interests of property owners. As chair of local LRC ran candidates against the the Sanitary Committee he overcame Liberals and Tories. Most of these were determined resistance of landlords to the sponsored by trade unions and several by conversion of ash-pit ‘middens’ to water the ILP. Six extra seats were won closets. He had some limited success in including Bradford West for Jowett, slum clearance and the provision of houses sponsored by the ILP, giving a total of 29 under the Housing of the Working Classes in the 1906 House of Commons. So Fred Act. In 1904 Bradford Council was the Jowett’s parliamentary career began in first in the country to provide free school 1906. His first actions included proposing meals, thanks to pressure over many years that the new group in parliament be called from Jowett. ‘The Labour Party’ and a maiden speech Labour’s First MPs on school meals. In 1900 the Labour Representation It has to be remembered that the Labour Committee (LRC) was formed, the main Party was a joint enterprise between the driving force being ILP pressure within the ILP, trade unions and the Fabian Society. Trade Union Congress (TUC). The LRC Membership could only be through these fought 15 seats at the 1900 General organisations that sent delegates to the Election. Five were sponsored by trade Labour Party at national and local level. unions, nine by the ILP - one of them In Parliament, MPs were sponsored either jointly with the Social Democratic by the ILP or by a trade union. The Federation (SDF), and one sponsored Fabians did not sponsor MPs. From the solely by the Marxist SDF. In eight of the outset the ILP was the left socialist wing seats the Liberals stood down to give the of the party and the trade unions were the LRC a free run. One of these was more moderate section although, of course, Bradford West where Jowettt polled the there was some overlap. highest percentage of all LRC candidates The ILP itself had two wings. One (49.8%). But he lost by 41 votes. He opposed any deals with the Liberals, would have certainly won but for his 8

believing the Labour Party should be Once elected to Parliament in 1906, equally against the old capitalist Jowett carried with him the causes he had supporting parties. The other wing fought for on Bradford Council. He tolerated MacDonald’s arrangements with succeeded on the question of school meals the Liberal party. In 1911 many ILP when the School Feeding Bill was passed, members and branches broke away to unite but his campaigning for government with the Social Democratic Federation funding for working class housing had to (SDF) to establish the British Socialist wait until the first Labour government in Party, which eventually became the 1924. He campaigned for measures to Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920. eradicate anthrax, known as the wool The majority of the ILP members, sorters’ disease because it came from including Jowett, remained with the trade germs in imported wools. It was eventually union dominated Labour Party. eradicated by disinfection at ports of entry. He took up many other issues and was a Parliamentary Reform strong supporter of women’s suffrage and He did not, however, approve of the way their militant activities. He retained his the House of Commons operated. He seat in the two 1910 elections believed too much power rested with the World War 1 Prime Minister and the Cabinet and that MPs were shackled by party whips, often He had become friends with Robert not knowing what they were voting for. Blatchford, editor of The Clarion, and in He wanted a committee system in its columns he propounded his views on Parliament similar to that in local parliamentary reform, the independence of government with Health, Education, and MPs and women’s suffrage. But as the Defence Committees chaired by a minister threat of war with Germany approached, that would bring decisions to Parliament their views diverged. Blatchford favoured for endorsement. He also believed MPs building up the British navy to deter should vote according to their consciences Germany. Jowett saw the danger of and that governments need not resign if international treaties that were dividing defeated except by votes of no confidence. Europe into two armed camps. Britain’s alliances with France and by proxy with When he was chairman of the ILP in 1909 Russia, done without reference to an issue arose when some members of its Parliament, have been described as ‘secret National Council, unknown to Jowett, diplomacy’. However they were not so issued a pamphlet that became known as secret that people like Jowett and the Green Manifesto after the colour of its MacDonald were unaware of what was cover. The pamphlet included support for going on, and they questioned the belief Jowett’s views on Parliamentary reform that such alliances reduced the danger of and the right of MPs to vote as they war. Tragically they were proved right in wished. Jowett was caught in a 1914. controversy between MacDonald, who was an ILP member and who opposed Jowett’s Jowett was once again chairman of the ILP views, and the pamphleteers who had in 1914 and he was part of the ILP’s published their manifesto without his opposition to the war. Many conscientious knowledge or consent. Caught between objectors were ILP members. Jowett was two factions he resigned his chairmanship not a pacifist and believed in national of the ILP. defence, but he opposed entering a war on the grounds that it was one between capitalist and imperialist nations struggling 9

for power. He, like the other ILP MPs, repressive regime there. He was also on a refused to take part in recruiting drives and delegation to Ireland which reported and opposed conscription. He condemned favoured the withdrawal of British troops profiteering from the war. He joined with and the right of Ireland to self- Ramsay MacDonald and others in the determination. As a fraternal delegate to Union of Democratic Control (UDC) to the Polish Socialist Party he discovered oppose the war and seek peace. At the that much of the Polish woollen industry same time he took up numerous cases on was owned by Bradford magnates, who behalf of wounded servicemen and war complained at home about the effects of widows to ensure they received their foreign competition. He was a delegate to rightful entitlements to war pensions. the 1920 International Socialist Towards the end of the war there were Conference in Geneva which he found to attempts by European socialist parties to be unsatisfactory, because the German meet and seek a cessation of hostilities and delegates were made to accept Germany’s a just peaceful settlement. On two guilt for the war and the conference occasions Jowett was part of delegations to endorsed reparations. these conferences but was prevented from Labour into Government attending, once by the government and once by seamen refusing to let them on It was about this time that he was board a ship bound for the conference in clarifying his thoughts on priorities for the Norway. socialist movement. Much emphasis was being put on nationalising industries but However, the bulk of the Labour Party in Jowett thought the priority should be the parliament supported the government and redistribution of wealth and the first thing entered into a war coalition. The ILP to do was to challenge the government to section of the Parliamentary Labour Party meet human needs. As chairman of the was alone in its opposition, but the Labour Labour Party, in an outspoken speech at Party did not split apart and when the war the 1922 Edinburgh national conference, ended in 1918 the Labour Party withdrew he attacked the economic system that from the coalition in time for the 1918 enriched ‘mainly the class which already General Election. Labour achieved a net has more to spend than it can already gain of 15 seats but MPs who had been spend’ - the war had changed from a opposed to the war, like Jowett and military to an economic one in the interests MacDonald, lost their seats in the of capitalism. The speech caused triumphant patriotic fever that dominated condemnation in the press and in the election. Jowett, the ILP and many in parliament. There was fear of a revolution the Labour Party condemned the punitive in the post 1914 – 1918 war years and the terms imposed on Germany which they chairman of the Labour Party talking of claimed would only store up trouble for class conflict added to the fears. But the future – and of course they were Jowett was opposed to violent revolution. proved right. Violence, once let loose, leads to tyranny. Out of parliament he took on the post of He believed in educating the people on the Secretary of the Bradford ILP where the merits of socialism and also in the reform membership grew to 1,600 with eight of parliament. But revolution, which of branches. As a representative of the ILP course was never going to happen in on the Labour Party National Executive he Britain, he emphatically dismissed. went on a Labour Party delegation to Meanwhile the government was grappling Hungary and witnessed the ‘terror’ of the with the huge burden of war debt, 10

unemployment and industrial unrest. One firm, despite protests in the House of Labour condemned cuts in education and Commons, was forced to pay £40,000 per health spending that Jowett described as annum extra. Maybe it was this extra ‘impoverishing children’s health of body income from China that enabled him to and mind’. In 1922 the Conservatives finance and gain consent for the £147,000 withdrew from Lloyd George’s coalition to repair the 6,000 temporary dwellings. and in the subsequent general election they He was associated with the provision of won a comfortable majority led by Bonar public telephone boxes, and controversies Law, despite Labour increasing its strength concerning the Nurse Cavell statue near from 76 to 138 seats. Jowett won with Trafalgar Square, and an extraordinary ease in East Bradford and was back in fierce row over the W.H.Hudson Parliament. Memorial in Hyde Park. On both occasions he won battles against the more Bonar Law became very ill and was stilted conventions of what was succeeded by Stanley Baldwin, who went artistically acceptable. to the country again in December 1923, seeking a mandate to introduce general This first Labour government fell before a import tariffs. He lost on that issue. year was up when the Liberals withdrew Labour and the Liberals opposed tariffs support over a minor issue mishandled by and, when the results came in, they MacDonald. In the 1924 general election outnumbered the Conservatives. The Labour lost 40 seats and it has gone down result was: Conservatives 248 seats, Labour 191 seats, Liberals 158 seats. The in Labour history that this was the fault of outcome was a minority Labour the forged Zinoviev letter that appeared in government, led by Ramsay MacDonald, the Daily Mail implying communist precariously propped up by the Liberals. influence over the Labour Party. In fact MacDonald gave Jowett a place in the Labour’s vote went up by a million votes cabinet as First Commissioner of Works. and it was a huge swing from the Liberals He and John Wheatley, the ILP member to the Conservatives that boosted the who was appointed Minister of Health, Conservative vote and gave them 400 seats refused to wear morning dress and top hats – nearly twice as many as all other parties to receive their seals of office from the combined. Labour won 151 seats, a loss King. As Works Commissioner, of 40 and the Liberals won 40, a loss of responsible for all government property, over 100. One Labour casualty was Fred including buildings and parks and even Jowett. The Tories stood down in favour statues, the scope for achieving socialism of a Liberal candidate and, in a straight was limited. However he discovered that fight, he lost by 66 votes. 6,000 temporary estate dwellings left over from the war were in a shocking state of As far as the 1926 General Strike was repair, and he broke convention by concerned Fred believed that the tactics presenting his department’s estimates early were wrong. Instead of the transport including £147,000 for the repair of these workers and other trade unions coming out houses and improving the estate roads and in support of the miners he believed it drainage. He was also responsible for would be more effective if they remained property abroad and extracted considerably in work and put an embargo on shifting higher rents from property leased in China coal. All trade unionists could then be to British firms. levied to sustain the miners in their struggle. Instead the Conservative

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government won and then proceeded with ILP Disaffiliates from the Labour Party anti- trade union legislation. At the 1931 General Election the party’s

National Executive demanded that all The Labour Party went into the 1929 candidates should sign up to accepting the general election with a manifesto of standing orders of the Parliamentary practical proposals to fight unemployment Labour Party (PLP) should they be elected. designed to present Labour as a The ILP had always acted independently in responsible party. An unpopular parliament and Jowett had always valued Conservative government lost seats and for the right of MPs to vote according to their the first time Labour was the biggest party consciences. Nineteen candidates refused in the House of Commons. But there was to sign and the five that were elected in a minor Liberal revival and MacDonald for Scotland were excluded from the PLP. the second time had to form a minority Jowett was prominent in the ILP in government. This time no ILP MPs were defending the independent rights of MPs. given ministries. Jowett and Wheatley The ILP sought a compromise but the remained on the backbenches. Labour Party would not budge and the ILP disaffiliated from the Labour Party in MacDonald’s government was hazardous 1932. It was a matter of regret for Fred. because of the need to have the Liberals The ILP had been the major force behind keeping it in power, and to ward off the Labour Party’s foundation but the socialist proposals from the ILP faction on decision, which was by no means the backbenches. Added to that was the unanimous, was a matter of principle for Conservatives’ use of parliamentary him. He recognised that the decision to procedures to delay government bills, disaffiliate could mean the end of the ILP. which Fred Jowett held would not be But without its independence the ILP possible if Parliament was radically would be meaningless. ‘Indeed there reformed along the lines he had suggested. would no longer be any reason why it Fred was a power in the ILP (he was its should live ….let it die honourably.’ treasurer from 1927 to 1944) and on a number of occasions he and his fellow ILP Jowett was right. From then on the ILP MPs were moving amendments and declined. Some left to join the Labour speaking critically of MacDonald’s Party and others to join ultra-left parties. government. The end came in 1931 when Jowett stuck with the ILP and resisted the international financial crisis brought moves for links with the Communist Party down the government and MacDonald whose ideology he regarded as contrary to formed a national coalition with the his belief that the way forward was to Conservatives. He took a few Labour MPs make a reformed Parliament truly with him. Labour was wiped out in the representative of the working classes. He October 1931 election holding only 52 of also opposed the use of violence against its 289 seats. Fred was defeated by nearly the British Union of Fascists, which he 7,000 votes in East Bradford. A month thought discredited the anti-fascist earlier he suffered the blow of the loss of movement. his wife Emily. They had been married for forty-seven years. She shared his socialist In the 1935 General Election he stood as convictions and gave him devoted support an ILP candidate in East Bradford. Labour during the ups and downs of his political also ran a candidate and the split vote life. allowed the Conservatives to take the seat. It was a bitter campaign and the Labour

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candidate attacked Jowett as a deserter the to a degree the theories of Maynard same as Ramsay MacDonald. Keynes, was the opposite. Banks should be taken into state ownership and spending Rise of Fascism in Europe power controlled and increased to International tensions were increasing in stimulate production. Public works to Europe and Jowett condemned the British strengthen the economy were needed but government’s embargo on selling arms to were not enough. He advocated the Spanish government while Germany distribution to all sections of society a and Italy were supplying munitions to national dividend derived from the Franco’s Fascist insurgency. The result in nation’s wealth. All contributed to the Spain ‘dishonoured Britain and inflicted nation’s wealth and all should justly untold misery and suffering on the benefit. Spanish people’. He saw the drift towards There’s a lot more to Fred Jowett than I’ve war in the 1930s caused by capitalist been able to fit into this article. Fenner imperial rivalries between European Brockway, his biographer, lists four powers. He had a unique ‘passive contributions which were specially defence’ attitude towards British Jowett’s. They were his pioneer works rearmament. Only defensive weapons, for the health of children, the principle of such as anti-aircraft guns and fighter social security for the working population, aeroplanes, should be produced. ‘Long his conception of a truly representative range bombers designed to reach democracy, and his association with the Germany, is the surest way of bringing theory of social credit and socialist rival bombers to this country’. He pointed planning. He died in Bradford in 1944. to the armed force used by Britain in its Brockway, who knew him well, says ‘the colonies that mocked Britain’s simplicity of Fred Jowett was his condemnation of German aggression. He humanity, his honesty, his doggedness, his contended that the abolition of poverty humility.’ He had his faults. His sustained ‘would do more to undermine and destroy opposition to World War 2 was fascist Governments than anything else in questionable. His reliance on the power of this world can do’. With echoes of the the working class was unrealistic. But his calls for international working class integrity cannot be questioned. He never solidarity before the First World War he compromised his principles, and to that I believed that a League of Socialist would add that he was one of those Peoples offered a better a prospect for politicians who resisted all personal ensuring peace than the diplomatic ambition. ‘jiggery-pokery’ between capitalistic governments. His idealist opposition to the Bradford Town Councillor 1892 -1906 war continued after it began in September Independent Labour Party Chairman 1909-1910 1939. and 1914-1917 Independent Labour Party Treasurer 1927 - 1944 In his later years he was writing up his Labour Party Chairman 1921-1922 MP for Bradford West 1906 – 1918 views on a volatile international banking MP for Bradford East 1922 –1924 and 1929 – 1931 system that controlled the world’s First Commissioner of Works and Cabinet Member economy and produced regular crises 1924 which impoverished the working classes. The banks caused these catastrophes and This article is based on Socialism over Sixty Years, forced the governments they controlled to the biography of Fred Jowett, by . An additional source was Left in the reduce the population’s spending power. Centre: the Independent Labour Party 1893 – 1940 The real answer Fred believed, reflecting by Robert E Dowse. 13

Kicking Off 100 Years of Labour pay rises negotiated. The Reading branch in Reading of the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers (forerunner of the GMB) became the largest branch of the union in the country, based on women workers. Reading’s first Labour MP, Somerville Hastings was elected in 1923. Tom Lake said that he was a surgeon who became involved in the Socialist Medical Association, campaigning for a free and universal state health service. He lost his seat in the 1924 General Election, won The centenary of Reading Labour Party again in 1929, but lost in 1931 and 1935. founded in 1918 is being celebrated this He was not to win Reading for Labour year by Reading District Labour Party, again, but went on to become the MP for Reading Trades Union Council and the Barking. local Co-operative Party. Reading Trades Council was set up earlier, in 1891. Reading’s most famous Labour MP was Ian Mikardo, who was elected in 1945. He Reading Labour 100 held its launch event took a resolution to Labour Party on Thursday 25th January, attended by 50 conference in 1944 calling for the people. Members of Reading Labour and nationalisation of the commanding heights the Trades Union Council gave three of the economy. Supported by railway minute presentations on different aspects workers, a key section of the Reading of the history of the labour movement in workforce, this resolution came from Reading. local branches of the NUR, who wanted to The most well known employer in see public ownership of their industry. Reading over the years was the Huntley This was described by Reading RMT and Palmer biscuit factory on the banks of member and President of Reading Trades the river Kennet. Nikki Dancey of the Union Council, Chris Reilly. Ian Mikardo trades council and GMB union gave a gave an impassioned speech to the graphic account of the strike in 1916, when conference, and was congratulated by hundreds of women at the factory came Herbert Morrison, who then went to say out against the victimisation and dismissal (infamously) that it would lose Labour the of one of their colleagues. Attempts by the forthcoming general election! The rest is union to talk to the management were history. refused, and picketing started in earnest. Christine Borgars talked about Mikardo’s Hat pins and sticks were used. The factory achievement in refining election owners were furious when crates of organisation by the invention of the biscuits were thrown into the River ‘Reading pad.’ This was well before the Kennet, and called on their private fire days of computers, and saved hours of service to attack the women pickets with time in committee rooms on election days. fire hoses. However these hoses were Numbers were collected at polling stations, seized by the women, and some hapless and recorded on these pads, as Christine fire fighters ended up in the Kennet described. They were to be used in themselves. The strike ended successfully committee rooms up and down the for the women, they were re-instated and country. 14

Ray Parkes and Tony Jones spoke about build and repair schools and hospitals, and the contribution of two members of to open children’s centres. Sadly the Iraq Reading Labour Party to the Republican war, Gordon Brown’s reversal of the ten cause in the Spanish Civil War. One of pence tax for the lowest paid and some them Thora Silverthorne, a nurse, went out local issues led to results which meant that to Spain in 1936, where she became Labour’s majority was lost, including the known as the ‘Red Matron’. Ray Parkes Council Leader losing his seat. Labour had also talked about Dr Reginald Saxton, and minority control from 2008 to 2010, in an his contribution to saving lives in the issue by issue agreement with the Green Party. blood transfusion service.

Keith Jerrome gave an overview of the In 2010 the Tories and Lib-Debs formed a development of the labour movement in local coalition to match the national Reading. Can anything be learned from situation. They made a major error in the past? Yes, we definitely need to keep allowing the Labour Deputy Mayor, Gul on fighting! Khan, to become Mayor. A year later they realised their mistake – Labour was back Labour on Reading Council up to 22/46 seats and with the Mayor’s casting vote and the two Green Jo Lovelock concluded by sharing her Councillors abstaining Labour regained highlights of the Reading and District minority control. Gul was subjected to Labour Party from the 1980s. The Reading abuse and intense pressure in the run-up to and District Labour Party was formed in the meeting, but he held firm and suffered 1984, combining Reading East and further abuse from Tory councillors, who Reading West Constituencies. It was boycotted the Mayoral reception. critical in winning control of Reading Borough Council. In 1983 Labour had held In 2012 Labour regained overall control only 13 out of 45 seats on the council, with and currently holds 31 out of 46 seats. Of the Tories in control. In 1986 however, course with the Tories’ (supported by the Labour took minority control after a deal Lib-Dems until 2015) austerity regime, it with two disgruntled Tories, Hamza and has been increasingly difficult for all local Pam Fuad. It took overall control in 1987, authorities, particularly Labour-run unitary winning more seats, which enabled it to councils. It is worth noting that between build houses and provide more services 2010 and 2020 the government grant to such as play areas for local children. Reading will have reduced from Support was organised for the Miners £58million to nothing. The council gets Strike 1984/85 with collections of food some special grants for transport projects, but these can only be spent on those and clothes for the families of striking specific projects. miners particularly in South Wales.

Following angry demonstrations against Jo said: “The election of Matt Rodda as Thatcher’s Poll Tax, the local elections Reading East’s Labour MP in 2017 was a saw some of the biggest majorities that fantastic result – if we can get a Labour Labour had ever achieved in Reading, MP for Reading West elected, then we giving it 36 out of 45 seats on the council. would be on course for the Labour The abolition of the Berkshire County Government the people we represent so Council led to the creation of Reading desperately need”. Borough Council as a unitary body in 1998. In 1997 Labour MPs were elected for both Reading constituencies and Labour Government allowed the council to 15

Party during the years of the Attlee government, and in opposition during the 1950s, when in the shadow of the Cold War, and the atomic bomb, the party was divided on foreign policy. In spite of his reputation as a ‘right winger’ Phillips came to the defense of Aneurin Bevan, praising his spectacular speech in opposition to the attempt by Hugh Gaitskell to get Clause 4, Part 4 (on public ownership) removed

from the Party’s constitution. His father There were a number of exhibits at the had a stroke before he could get his meeting, including a banner from the Major Attlee Company of the British memoirs published, and his son had been Battalion from the Spanish Civil War. The unable before last year to find a publisher. most amazing exhibit was a table cloth In the internet age, he was able to publish a from 1928. All the members of the kindle edition, which attracted interest Reading Trades Council and Labour Party world-wide, and eventually in 2017, the at the time had signed their names on this print edition was published by Spokesman cloth. These were then stitched into the Press for Labour Heritage. It is available cloth by an embroiderer. Some of these for purchase from the Labour Heritage names were recognised by members of the website, is full of interesting anecdotes local party today. Over the course of the from the inside world of Labour year Reading Labour 100 plans to set up conferences, plus the lesser known role exhibitions in the Museum of Reading and that Morgan Phillips played in Museum of English Rural Life. international affairs. Martin Salter, MP for Reading West until 2010, concluded the meeting with cutting a Trico: A Victory to Remember cake, especially made to celebrate Reading Our second speaker was Sally Groves, Labour’s centenary. who has been working hard to get a book published on the 1976 landmark strike for equal pay for women at Trico in Brentford. West London Labour History Day It is now 42 years since this strike, and she said that getting the book published has Labour Heritage held its west London proved to be more difficult than winning history day on Saturday 17th February the strike in the first place! The story of 2018, in the Hammersmith Quaker the strike at Trico has been related in Meeting Hall. It was attended by around previous issues of the Labour Heritage 30 people. On the theme of ‘writing and bulletin, but the story of the book is recording our history’ there were three interesting in itself. Sally was publicity speakers. officer during the strike, and because of Morgan Phillips this, she had kept a vast number of the press cuttings, photos, strike bulletins, and The first of these was Morgan D. Phillips, documents relating to the strike. As Trico son of Labour Party secretary, from 1944- closed its Brentford factory in the 1990s 1962. He spoke about his experiences and the factory was demolished objects when researching sporting, local and such as the donations book, listing the vast family history. For years he had tried to extent of solidarity given to the strikers get his father’s memoirs published. These were lost. The union involved, the were in two parts, running the Labour 16

Amalgamated Union of Engineering Merritt, will be published by Lawrence Workers (AUEW) had closed its local and Wishart, and local book launches will offices in Southall and, later, its national be arranged by UNITE and Ealing Trades office in Peckham, and is now effectively Council. It will appeal to the many who part of UNITE. However Sally managed to remember the ‘Costa Del Trico’ in the track down Roger Butler, former District summer of 1976, and inspire those women Secretary of the Southall AUEW. She who are still fighting for equal pay. found that the first part of the story of the Barbara Castle and the Mau Mau strike written by Vernon Merritt had been Insurgency in Kenya in the 1950s retained by Roger Butler. It was later passed on to the TUC Library Collection at The third and final speaker was Olivia Metropolitan University where Sally was Stewart of the Museum of British Colonial able to photocopy the script and use it as a History. She spoke about the Mau Mau basis to continue writing the book which is insurgency in Kenya 1952-1960, and the due to be published within the next two quest by a Labour politician, Barbara months. Castle to reveal the truth about what was happening in one of Britain’s former As well as including photos from the colonies. Although India had won its strike, Sally made a determined effort to independence in 1947, ending a large contact as many as possible of the chunk of Britain’s colonial rule, African surviving women and some of the men, countries, like Kenya, were not considered who were involved in the strike, to gather ‘ready’ for independence. The anecdotes from them. This was possible Conservatives won the 1951 General because many of them were local people, Election, and with Winston Churchill as one or two living on a housing estate in Prime Minister, they were using violence Brentford, and had worked at Trico for to hold back the growing mood for years. Peggy Farmer who had been born independence across Africa. Churchill was on the estate, and Phyllis Green, an Irish particularly supported by his colonial friend, who had also been on strike helped secretary, Alan Lennox Boyd, appointed in Sally tracking down people. Where the 1954, who was determined to fight the women had married and changed their Kenyan independence fighters, the Mau surnames this was more tricky.The quest Mau, with force. to find Trico strikers involved door knocking and even leafletting in the With the support of the Daily Mirror, Boston Manor Road, and some chance Barbara Castle set out for Kenya to encounters in Wilkos in West Ealing, and conduct an independent investigation into on a local bus! Eleven interviews were the devices used by the colonial conducted. The closeness of the local administration to maintain power. At the community helped in the writing of the same time a small group of Labour MPs, book, as it did in the winning of the including Fenner Brockway and Aneurin dispute. The strikers reveal the diversity of Bevan founded the Movement for Colonial the Trico workforce. They included Irish Freedom. Although they received no co- workers, and some from the Caribbean and operation from the local administration, the Asian community, including young they uncovered instances of detention Ugandan Asians who had escaped Idi without trial, torture of suspects, and Amin’s regime, when they came to Britain. maltreatment of prisoners leading to their death. Furthermore these were not isolated Trico: A Victory to Remember, co- cases. In 1959 the parliamentary Labour authored by Sally Groves and Vernon Party called for an independent inquiry 17

into the events in Kenya, but with the Cooper, in the campaign for the right of Conservatives in power, their motion in women to vote. These women, who were the House of Commons was lost by 288 to part of the National Union of Women’s 232 votes. The Tory Press denounced the Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), did not so-called ‘failed ploy of the socialists’. support the tactics of the militant suffragettes, but used peaceful After Kenya won its independence in campaigning and lobbying as a means of 1963, it was revealed that thousands of getting the vote. They were known as documents related to the Mau Mau suffragists and their colours were not insurgency, had been lost or destroyed. white, green and purple, but white, green This was revealed in 2005, as five and red. Kenyans sued the British government for violent crimes endured at the hands of the There were a number of parallel British colonial administration. A workshops, covering the Women’s Co- documentary, Operation Legacy, dealing operative Guild and its role in the with the destroyed and concealed records campaign for women’s suffrage, the right of the colonial administration across the of married women to work, and how Empire will be screened later in the year gender and class issues were brought to the by Dan Snow’s new digital history fore by the campaign. There was a paper channel, History Hit TV. on Countess Lytton, who disguised herself as a seamstress in Liverpool, ensured that Members of the audience were able to she got arrested by throwing a brick, in comment on their own experience in the order to find out what prison conditions RAF in the 1950s, and in the formation of would be like for working women. She the Movement for Colonial Freedom, now found out that a working woman was called Liberation. treated very differently from a ‘lady!’ This ‘Women’s Suffrage and Political took her to the path of prison reform. Activism’ Conference held at Murray Jane Robinson gave a presentation on the Edwards College, Cambridge, February Great Pilgrimage of 1913. Weeks before rd 3 2018 the death of Emily Wilding Davidson at Epsom, this event did not remain so long There have been a number of events to in public memory, but it involved commemorate the centenary of (some) thousands of women from all parts of the women getting the vote in 1918. This country, who marched to London for a conference was surely one of the best, as it rally. Some of them were on the road for had an impressive line up of keynote weeks, holding public meetings en route. speakers and workshop papers. It was At the height of the Suffragette campaign focussed on working women and the vote, of direct action, they frequently met with and received sponsorship from the Labour hostility as well as support. For instance History Unit of Anglia Ruskin University, one of their overnight caravans was set and the Cambridge Labour Party. alight in Oxfordshire. Jane has written the The conference was opened by Jill story of these women in a new book Liddington, writer of a number of books entitled Hearts and Minds, published by on the history of women’s suffrage, Penguin Books. including One Hand Tied Behind Us, published in 1978. It was about the involvement of women textile workers in the Lancashire cotton mills, like Selina

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International Women’s Day at the League and the Women’s Co-operative West London Trades Union Club Guild. I was asked to speak at this annual event, The Pankhursts were an ILP family, but organised by Ealing Trades Council, about Emmeline set up the Women’s Social and the women who did not get the vote in Political Union (WPSU) when she and her 1918, because they were too young or too daughters felt that the ILP was not doing poor. enough to prioritise the women’s suffrage issue. There were to be further rifts with The 1918 Representation of the People Act sections of the labour movement, when the trebled the British electorate, the largest WPSU signalled that it would accept a increase ever. The number of voters ‘Ladies Bill’ as a step forward, even increased from seven to twenty one though very few women would have been million. In parts of London and other enfranchised. There were still millions of cities, the increase was more like six fold. working class men who did not have the Fourteen million were enfranchised for the vote. The militant tactics of the first time, and of these, roughly six million Suffragettes also did not always have the were working class men over 21. The support of the NUWSS, which continued remaining eight million were women over to use peaceful methods to get women the 30, who were ‘registered property vote. Nevertheless the tactics of the occupiers’ of homes with an annual Suffragettes was to target property, not rateable value of £5 or more, or their human life, and it was acknowledged that wives. In all only 40% of women got the they suffered disproportionate vote in 1918. It did include some working mistreatment in prison, which put their class women, the wives of miners, own lives in danger. transport workers or engineers, but not the many young women who were lodgers, For working women, the vote was a step working in munitions factories during towards an end. For many, dangerous World War 1, or those who worked in working conditions in factories, domestic service, or who were live-in shop overcrowded housing and high maternal assistants. So women’s access to the ballot and infant mortality rates were their main box was via their husband’s status. Those concerns. Sylvia Pankhurst founded the under 30 comprised a larger percentage of East London Federation of Suffragettes, the population than today, as 35 was which organised soup kitchens as well as considered to be ‘middle aged’ then. campaigning for the vote. The fight for equal pay of course continues. The fight for women’s suffrage went back 50 years to 1867, when John Stuart Mill The evening included a speaker from attempted to get the word ‘person’ rather Sister Supporters , who are campaigning to than ‘man’ into the Suffrage Reform Bill. protect women attending a local clinic in Unfortunately this was spotted and Ealing from intimidation and harassment, rejected by MPs. Millicent Fawcett led the Janine Booth, who treated us to more of Suffragist Movement, which became the her political poems, and a singer, Kirsty NUWSS. Women like Selina Cooper and Newton. others took this campaign out of Victorian Reports by Barbara Humphries drawing rooms and into the factories. It had the support of the Women’s Trades Union League, the Women’s Labour

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Acton Education Committee: Remembering Frederic Women Teachers and Marriage Douglass By John H. Grigg By Archie Potts

Councillor Reverend R. G. Davies moved On 28th February 2018 the Lord Mayor of that women teachers intending to be Newcastle upon Tyne, Linda Wright, married shall tender resignation to the unveiled a commemoration plaque to committee and the resignation should be Frederic Douglass at 5 Summerhill Grove accepted unless there are special reasons in the city. The ceremony took place on for retention. This was an easing of the the 200th anniversary of the birth of former rule where under no circumstances Frederic Douglass, who was born a slave would married teachers beretained. Davies in Maryland, USA in 1818. At the age of argued that many women were excellent twenty he escaped from the bonds of teachers and should not automatically be slavery and became one of the 19th compelled to relinquish their posts on century’s most famous abolitionists. marriage. He campaigned against slavery across the world and this included a tour of North Labour Councillor Fred Carter moved an East England in the 1860s, where he spoke amendment to entirely discard the at the Music Hall in Newcastle and the obligation to resign upon marriage. To Albion Assembly Rooms in North Shields. consider each case on merit meant that During his time on Tyneside he stayed preferential treatment might ensue. The with the Richardson family, Henry, his old rule prevented many women from wife Anna and sister Ellen. The marrying and should be entirely removed. Richardsons were Quakers, who lived at 5 Carter’s amendment was rejected by 11 Summerhill Grove – which still survives votes to 10 and the Reverend Davies and they raised the money to buy the proposal was carried. fugitive his freedom. In his autobiography he wrote ‘Newcastle had a heart that could Reverend Davies further moved, and it feel for three millions of oppressed slaves was agreed, that those retained women in the United States.’ Frederic Douglass teachers be allowed six months leave of died in 1895. absence before the birth of a child and three months after the birth. During the absence the woman to be paid the difference between her salary and the salary of a supply teacher.

Report in the Acton Gazette and Express, 25th May 1919.

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