Campaigning for Change
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CAMPAIGNING FOR CHANGE: Lessons from history Friends of the Earth is the collective name for Friends of the Earth Trust, registered charity 281681, company number 1533942 and Friends of the Earth Limited, company number 1012357, registered in England and Wales. In both cases the registered office is: The Printworks, 131-143 Clapham Road, London SW9 0HP. ISBN: 978-0-9957042-0-6 Images: Wellcome Library, LSE Library, Press Association, Getty Contents Acknowledgements 5 Biographies of authors 6 Preface 8 Introduction 11 Britain’s Anti-Slavery Campaigns, 1787-1838, 25 Richard Huzzey, Durham University Chartism, 41 Malcolm Chase, University of Leeds The Anti-Corn Law Campaign, 55 Henry Miller, Durham University The Campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts, 67 Dr Jane Jordan, Kingston University Fighting for the Franchise: The Campaign 81 for Women to Obtain the Vote, Sarah Richardson, University of Warwick Opposition to Irish Home Rule, 1885-1922, 97 Luke Blaxill, University of Oxford Campaigning for homosexual rights 115 in 20th-century Britain, Lucy Delap, University of Cambridge Mary Whitehouse, the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ 129 Association and social movement campaigning, Lawrence Black, University of York The Miners’ Strike in Britain, 1984-85, 143 Jim Phillips, University of Glasgow Conclusions 157 A demonstration in Bow Street by the newly-formed Gay Liberation Front, London, 1971. 5 / Campaigning for Change Acknowledgements This book is a product of historians and campaigners exploring together the history of campaigning and what lessons may be drawn for 21st century campaigners. The following historians and campaigners were involved in this process and we would like to thank them for their time and effort: ■ Historians: Luke Blaxill, University of Oxford; Lawrence Black, University of York; Malcolm Chase, University of Leeds; Lucy Delap, Cambridge University; Richard Huzzey, Durham University; Jane Jordan, Kingston Uni- versity; Henry Miller, Durham University; Jim Phillips, University of Glasgow; and Sarah Richardson, University of Warwick. ■ Campaigners: Tom Baker, Bond; Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth; Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth; Tim Gee, Friends of the Earth; Duncan Green, Oxfam; Elaine Gilligan, Friends of the Earth; Donna Hume, Friends of the Earth; Liz Hutchins, Friends of the Earth; Ed Lewis, Global Justice Now; Jemima Olchawski, Fawcett Society; Andrew Pendleton, Friends of the Earth; Alexandra Runswick, Unlock Democracy; Andrew Simms, The New Weather Institute; Benedict Southworth, Ramblers; and Sarah Wooton, Dignity in Dying. Also we need to thank: Brian Doherty, University of Keele, a political sociologist who contributed to the seminar we held to discuss the case studies; Joanna Watson, a communications expert at Friends of the Earth who has been a driving force for this work, as well as contributing to the thinking in this book. Thanks are also due to Adam Bradbury, Amelia Collins, Leanor Hanny and Alison Dilworth from Friends of the Earth for copy-editing, photo research, design and proofing. 6 / Campaigning for Change Biographies of authors Lawrence Black is Professor of Modern British History at the University of York. His most recent book is Redefining British Politics: Culture, Consumerism and Participation, 1954-70 (2010). Luke Blaxill is Drapers’ Company Junior Research Fellow at Hertford College, University of Oxford, where he is completing research on the language of British electoral politics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Malcolm Chase is the author of Chartism: A New History (2007) and The Chartists: Perspectives and Legacies (2015). He is Professor of Social History at the University of Leeds. Mike Childs is Head of Science, Policy & Research at Friends of the Earth and lead of their Big Ideas Projects. He has led numerous campaigns over the past 25 years, including the Big Ask Campaign that led to the UK’s Climate Change Act. Lucy Delap is University Lecturer in Modern British History at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, and Deputy Director of the History & Policy network. She is author of Knowing Their Place: Domestic Service in Twentieth Century Britain (2011). Richard Huzzey is Senior Lecturer in History at Durham University and author of Freedom Burning: Anti-Slavery and Empire in Victorian Britain (2012). Jane Jordan is Senior Lecturer in English at Kingston University. She is the author of a biography of Josephine Butler (2007). 7 / Biographies of authors Henry Miller is Senior Research Fellow and project manager for the Petitions, Parliament and People in the long nineteenth century research project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, at Durham University. He is the author of Politics personified: Portraiture, caricature and visual culture in Britain, c.1830– 80 (2015). Jim Phillips is Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. His most recent book is Collieries, Communities and the Miners’ Strike in Scotland, 1984-85 (2012). Sarah Richardson is Associate Professor of History at Warwick University. She is the author of The Political Worlds of Women: Gender and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2013). 8 / Campaigning for Change Preface Lucy Delap, Deputy Director, History & Policy network and University of Cambridge This collection is particularly important in the current British political climate, in which recent and proposed legislation chal- lenges the rights of activists to campaign freely. The articles gathered here illustrate the role campaigning has had in shaping our society over the past 200 years. It reminds us how much of what we now treasure, in terms of freedoms and rights, is due to the hard work of activists. It both celebrates campaigning and enables readers to draw lessons on how campaigning can change our world. Campaigning for Change: Lessons from History is the result of an exciting collaboration between Friends of the Earth and History & Policy. These two organisations share a commitment to expanding the range of debates and ideas that can be brought to bear on how we imagine the future. Since our establishment in 2002 History & Policy has facilitated the sharing of expertise of a network of more than 500 historians across universities through- out the world. Our members contribute to independent inquiries, parliamentarians, civil servants, civil society and European policy networks. We exist because we know that historical perspectives can bring important insights, as well as an exciting sense of possi- bility and innovation, to debates on policy and society. We have been delighted to find a willing partner in Friends of the Earth, whose project Big Ideas Change the World engages with broad and deep questions that necessarily require thinking about historical precedents and contexts. History & Policy has partnered with Friends of the Earth in a series of events which have enabled campaigners to explore how history can inform their current practice. In summer 2015, for example, we hosted a conference on how change happens, promoting a dialogue between historians and representatives of charities and campaigning organisations in fields spanning social 9 / Preface justice, environment, criminal justice, women’s rights, and law reform. This collection has grown from a follow-up seminar, held in November 2015, which brought together historians and campaigners from civil society groups to consider histories of campaigning and to learn from each other. As the case studies in this book illustrate, documenting activism and organising for change in the past gives us greater understanding of strategic choices, communications strategies, timing and serendipity in campaigning, as well as some extraordi- nary examples of mobilisation on a scale that today’s campaigners can scarcely dream of. The use of the past in policymaking will always be contested. But History & Policy exists to ensure that such a dialogue flourishes – we are proud to create opportuni- ties for historical scholars to communicate their research to a broad audience. And we are proud of this collection and our col- laboration with Friends of the Earth, because as academics we understand the importance of campaigning and campaigners in safeguarding our freedoms and creating a better future for people and the planet. Margaret Dobb, the wife of a Nottinghamshire miner, holds up a placard reading: ‘Wanted: A Living Wage’ at a strike meeting at Tower Hill in London, 1972. Introduction Richard Huzzey, Historian, Durham University ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’ has become, with some varieties of mis-quotation, a common- place in British political discussion. However, while politicians and pundits often stretch into history to understand our own times, the terms on which they do so are rarely thought through carefully. The famous phrase itself comes from George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher who wrote these words in the first decade of the 20th century with a very particular notion of how ideas of the past shape present experience. Rather than assume a simple, timeless truth to his words, any consideration of past and present has to consider the terms on which we can relate the one to the other. This volume brings together academic historians and profes- sional campaigners to consider how the past might provide new 12 / Campaigning for Change insights for campaigners today. In producing this collection, we wanted to offer accessible histories of past campaigns and then show what