University of Warwick Institutional Repository: a Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Phd at The
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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/49428 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. THE UNIVERSITY OF WAJ@JCl( Library Declaration and Deposit Agreement 1. STUDENT DETAILS Please complete the following: Full name: Celia Hughes . University ID number: 0529464 . 2. THESIS DEPOSIT 2.1 I understand that under my registration at the University, I am required to deposit my thesis with the University in BOTH hard copy and in digital format. The digital version should normally be saved as a single pdf file. 2.2 The hard copy will be housed in the University Library. The digital version will be deposited in the University's Institutional Repository (WRAP). Unless otherwise indicated (see 2.3 below) this will be made openly accessible on the Internet and will be supplied to the British Library to be made available online via its Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) service. [At present, theses submitted for a [v'laster's degree by Research (MA, MSc, LLM, MS or MMedSci) are not being deposited in WRAP and not being made available via EthOS. This may change in future.] 2.3 In exceptional circumstances, the Chair of the Board of Graduate Studies may grant permission for an embargo to be placed on public access to the hard copy thesis for a limited period. It is also possible to apply separately for an embargo on the digital version. (Further information is available in the Guide to Examinations for Higher Degrees by Research.) 2.4 If you are depositing a thesis for a Master's degree by Research, please complete section (a) below. For all other research degrees, please complete both sections (a) and (b) below: (a) Hard Copy I hereby deposit a hard copy of my thesis in the University Library to be made publicly available to readers (please delete as appropriate) EITHER immediately OR after an embargo period of .............................. months/years as agreed by the Chair of the Board of Graduate Studies. I agree that my thesis may be photocopied. YES (b) Digital Copy I hereby deposit a digital copy of my thesis to be held in WRAP and made available via EThOS. Please choose one of the following options: EITHER My thesis can be made publicly available online. YES JHG 05/2011 3. GRANTING OF NON-EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS Whether I deposit my Work personally or through an assistant or other agent, I agree to the following: Rights granted to the University of Warwick and the British Library and the user of the thesis through this agreement are non-exclusive. I retain all rights in the thesis in its present version or future versions. I agree that the institutional repository administrators and the British Library or their agents may, without changing content, digitise and migrate the thesis to any medium or format for the purpose of future preservation and accessibility. 4. DECLARATIONS (a) I DECLARE THAT: • I am the author and owner of the copyright in the thesis and/or I have the authority of the authors and owners of the copyright in the thesis to make this agreement. Reproduction of any part of this thesis for teaching or in academic or other forms of publication is sUbject to the normal limitations on the use of copyrighted materials and to the proper and full acknowledgement of its source. • The digital version of the thesis I am supplying is the same version as the final, hardbound copy submitted in completion of my degree, once any minor corrections have been completed. • I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the thesis is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge break any UK law or other Intellectual Property Right, or contain any confidential material. • I understand that, through the medium of the Internet, files will be available to automated agents, and may be searched and copied by, for example, text mining and plagiarism detection software. (b) IF I HAVE AGREED (in Section 2 above) TO MAKE MY THESIS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DIGITALLY, I ALSO DECLARE THAT: • I grant the University of Warwick and the British Library a licence to make available on the Internet the thesis in digitised format through the Institutional Repository and through the British Library via the EThOS service. • If my thesis does include any substantial sUbsidiary material owned by third-party copyright holders, I have sought and obtained permission to include it in any version of my thesis available in digital format and that this permission encompasses the rights that I have granted to the University of Warwick and to the British Library. 5. LEGAL INFRINGEMENTS I understand that neither the University of Warwick nor the British library have any obligation to take legal action on behalf of myself, or other rights holders, in the event of infringement of intellectual property rights, breach of contract or of any other right, in the thesis. Please sign this agreement and return it to the Graduate School Office when you submit your thesis. Student's signature: Date: i.~b.J.~~ .. JHG 05/2011 The Socio-Cultural Milieux of the Left in Post-War Britain Celia Penelope Hughes Thesis Presented for the Degree of PhD University of Warwick September 2011 Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract iii Abbreviations v List of illustrations vii Noteontext ix Introduction 1 1 Signposts of Activist Mentalités: Childhood and Adolescence in Post-War Britain 21 All In The Family: Working-Class Family Socialization and Early Left 23 Instincts The Relationship between the Working-Class and the Post-War Labour Party 29 Red Diaper Babies Come of Age: Growing Up Within a Communist Party Network 33 Family Values and Structures of Feeling on the Left 37 The Diasporic Imprint of the Family 53 A Secular Youth? The Role of Religion and Left Sensibility 61 Post-War Secondary Education and the Scholarship Boy and Girl 64 2 The Early Left Self and Initial Encounters with the Left Milieux 78 ‘Angry Young Men’ and Women: The Influence of Radical Literature and Drama 80 Women and the Early Radical Subcultures 87 Don’t You Hear the H-Bomb’s Thunder? CND 96 Young Socialist/Early IS Culture 107 Youth Culture and YS Masculine Sociability 120 3 The University Left Milieu and the Formation of Left Selfhood 131 Collective Identity, Memory and the Radical Left Self 132 Radical Selfhood and the University Experience 141 Radical Students and Marxist Literature 144 Far Left Trotskyist Groups and Student Activism 148 Students’ Entrance into the Emerging Activist Scene 153 The Metropolitan Activist Scene of the Late 1960s 167 4 The New Politics of the ‘Non-Aligned’ Left and Women’s Liberation 192 The Origins of the Camden Movement For People’s Power (CMPP) 198 The Writings of Geoff Richman, CMPP and a New Left ‘Personal Politics’ for Camden Town 205 Political Culture and External Relations between CMPP and the Metropolitan Network 207 Contradictions between the Political and Personal: The Internal Life of the CMPP Collective 210 Sheli and Henry Wortis 214 Intimacy and ‘Family’ Within the Collective 217 New Left, Mutual Politics in Retreat? The Arrival of the Tufnell Park Women’s Liberation Group 213 Personal Relationships Shaping the New Politics of Women’s Liberation 235 Finding New Ways of Being: Tufnell Park and CMPP 239 Tensions between CMPP and Tufnell Park 244 Sue Crockford 248 5 The Adult Life of Non-Aligned and Trotskyist Activists 252 The Personal Politics of Motherhood 253 Gender Roles in the Tufnell Park Women’s Liberation Collectives 259 Childcare 265 The Yellow Brick Wall 270 Iguana Woman and the New Man 273 Maternal and Paternal Subjectivity and the New Politics 277 Activism Within Trotskyist Milieux 282 From Student to Full-Time Adult Activist 283 Branch Life and Recruitment Strategy 286 Worker Activists From Outside 290 Worker Activists From Inside 294 Trotskyist Women 297 IS Women and the Women’s Liberation Movement 300 Women in the IMG 306 Activist As Mother 312 The Trotskyist Personal and Political 315 Conclusion 324 Bibliography 343 Acknowledgements My primary declaration of thanks and gratitude must, above all, go to the ninety respondents who throughout 2009-10 welcomed me as a stranger into their homes, and entrusted to me their stories, private thoughts and feelings that for some had remained unspoken for several years. I have been highly touched by the faith with which they gave me open access to personal archives, and often allowed me to trot off across London back to Warwick carrying bundles of papers, wrapped only in plastic carrier bags, that would have prompted any library or archive to recoil in horror. Several respondents have been especially helpful. Firstly, my thanks to Sheila Rowbotham for starting me off, to Ian Birchall for the unending contacts and useful pieces of information that have kept on coming, and to Richard Kuper for his faith in my project, and willingness to pester and cajole friends to be interviewed. Gilda Peterson and Mike McGrath gave me a week’s stay at their Leeds’ home in June 2009 that will forever remain in my memory. They provided invaluable individual and group memories, space to reflect, and warm hospitality that inspired me further in my thinking about the inter-subjective relationship between interviewer and interviewee. Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to Di Parkin for entrusting me with ‘her life’ the day she allowed me to drive away with her treasured correspondence between her and her dear friend and comrade Lorraine Hewitt.