Middlesex Civil Defence - Wembley Stadium 18th October 1942
"March Past"
Hurbert Morrison and Eileen Wilkinson MP
Showing posts with label ARP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ARP. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Middlesex Civil Defence ARP - Wembley 1942
Middlesex Civil Defence - Wembley Stadium 18th October 1942
"March Past"
Hurbert Morrison and Eileen Wilkinson MP
Saturday, June 15, 2013
The People's Convention of January 1941 - The Peoples Assembly 2013
The People's Convention January 1941
The Peoples Convention
Sunday 12th January 1941
London 2,300 delegates
Delegates tell of their struggle
Daily Worker 14th January 1941
Continuing the discussion on the political resolution in the after noon session of the People's Convention, Councillor Craig Walker, of Yorkshire, spoke of the great movement which had been begun by workers of all kinds—textiles, clothing, miners, engineers, civil servants and administrative workers—in the West Riding. This movement spread far outside the shores of this country;
It was going to revolutionise politics. Mr. Steve Lawther, of Tyneside, said that in this war, as in the last, we were promised a brave, new world.
Depression and derelict industries were Tyneside's share in the new world.
Recently the president of the Dur ham Miners' Association had said that in their struggle the miners and the owners were on one side and Hitler on the other. The biggest coal owner in the north. Lord Londonderry, had been a friend of Hitler. The coal owners' organ had written that there was. something to be said for Nazi methods. These people were not on the same side as the miners.
Mr. Lawther emphasised Point Four of the Convention's purposes, for emergency powers to take over banks, land and industry and organise production in the interests of the people as of vital Importance.
Bomb Proof Shelters
Mr. Warman, of Coventry, spoke of the air bombardment of that city in relation to the Convention. Under the raids, the whole of the social amenities of the town had broken down. Among the people, many had been brought, through the failure to provide adequate bomb-proof shelter, to realise that the policy of the Government was not in the Interests of the people but of the wealthy, and to support demand Number Two, for adequate ARP.
Mr, Scanlon, of Manchester, described how workers in factories and works there had collected large sums to send delegates to the Convention. They welcomed the Convention's economic programme, realising that only the people themselves could solve their problems. The meetings at which these delegates would reported back to the workers who had s them would be most important. The Rev. Bryn Thomas, of Swindon, said the old economic system had failed us. "Ledger wealth" would have to go, "real wealth" would take its place. Mr. Morrison had said the Convention was a Communist plot to entrap the people.
Continuing the discussion on the political resolution in the after noon session of the People's Convention, Councillor Craig Walker, of Yorkshire, spoke of the great movement which had been begun by workers of all kinds—textiles, clothing, miners, engineers, civil servants and administrative workers—in the West Riding. This movement spread far outside the shores of this country;
It was going to revolutionise politics. Mr. Steve Lawther, of Tyneside, said that in this war, as in the last, we were promised a brave, new world.
Depression and derelict industries were Tyneside's share in the new world.
Recently the president of the Dur ham Miners' Association had said that in their struggle the miners and the owners were on one side and Hitler on the other. The biggest coal owner in the north. Lord Londonderry, had been a friend of Hitler. The coal owners' organ had written that there was. something to be said for Nazi methods. These people were not on the same side as the miners.
Mr. Lawther emphasised Point Four of the Convention's purposes, for emergency powers to take over banks, land and industry and organise production in the interests of the people as of vital Importance.
Bomb Proof Shelters
Mr. Warman, of Coventry, spoke of the air bombardment of that city in relation to the Convention. Under the raids, the whole of the social amenities of the town had broken down. Among the people, many had been brought, through the failure to provide adequate bomb-proof shelter, to realise that the policy of the Government was not in the Interests of the people but of the wealthy, and to support demand Number Two, for adequate ARP.
Mr, Scanlon, of Manchester, described how workers in factories and works there had collected large sums to send delegates to the Convention. They welcomed the Convention's economic programme, realising that only the people themselves could solve their problems. The meetings at which these delegates would reported back to the workers who had s them would be most important. The Rev. Bryn Thomas, of Swindon, said the old economic system had failed us. "Ledger wealth" would have to go, "real wealth" would take its place. Mr. Morrison had said the Convention was a Communist plot to entrap the people.
Mr. Thomas said he had made thorough study of the policy of the Communist Party, and he was con-vinced that unless we secured a People's Government and made an ally of the Soviet Union we should be relegated to the limbo of the past.
Land Workers
Mrs. Allison McLeod, of Somerset, declared that the land workers were coming in on the side of the factory workers. No industry was so inefficiently run as agriculture : it needed to be run by the people—collectivised and socialised.
Referring to the bad housing conditions of land workers and the problem of evacuation, Mrs. McLeod said there were many great houses round Bath and Bristol, all standing empty. They should be taken over.
Mr. Parry, speaking for London Tube Shelter Committees, said that when the " blitz " began, the whole Metropolitan population was totally unprovided with deep shelters or adequate protection. He sketched the movement for organising shelter in the tubes, the struggles which they had to secure and maintain rights, the efforts which were still being made to drive them out of such shelters and concluded with a message of support from the Shelter Committees for the aims of the Convention.
During the afternoon session, Mr. W. J. R. Squance introduced the resolution on the organisation and campaign of the Convention, In a speech which was reported In the DAILY WORKER yesterday.
He was followed by Mr, F. Anderson. a worker In. Parkhead Forge, Glasgow who described the intense conviction with which workers in that plant and throughout Clydesidee supported the Convention and were prepared to do anything that was necessary to win a People's Government.
A speaker from the Engineering and Allied Trades Shop Stewards' Council said he believed that the hot reception given to Bevin at Glasgow was a sign that the workers were prepared to do something.
The shop stewards were the key to real leadership in the workshops. The speaker urged that workers in factories should elect shop stewards, get together with workers in other factories and aet up a local shop stewards' movement, join the national organisation, build up their own Press, and particularly the DAILY WORKER. (Applause.)
Councillor Frank Davies, of Ammanford, said he spoke mainly on behalf of unemployed miners, of whom there were thousands in the Amman Valley. Yet when he came to London he was told of high prices charged for coal.
Soldier Speaker
Those
thousands of unemployed miners were ready and anxious to give the
people coal, but they must have a People's Government to make that
possible.
The next speaker was a soldier, and as he mounted the rostrum in uniform he was greeted with tumultuous cheering.
Thanking the Convention for the opportunity to speak on behalf of "civilians in uniform," he gave a vivid and rapid review of conditions of Army life which had made him and other soldiers come to support the People's Convention.
Food—a dominating consideration to a soldier—came, first. He described how good material was spoiled by bad management and unskilled cooks, yet men who commented on it in plain soldier's language were given punishment.
Barrack-room discipline—the Imposition of absurd regulations by officers of public school tradition; promotion given because of family or class relationships; leave given as a privilege when it should be organised as a right—these were matters which had led him and his comrades to think of a People's Government as the way to win the soldier a square deal.
Harry Pollitt, who followed, also received an ovation. He recalled how in 1911 Tom Mann had set afoot a great movement among the people of this country, and showed how the present People's Convention ' movement was in the tradition of the great struggle for democracy Its policy programme was no paper development. This Convention would be followed by such a campaign of reporting to the people as this country had never seen before.
The essence of the Convention was not only the talk for which they had come together, but the bringing of the masses into action by every conceivable means.
It was a race against time. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, hand-picked trade union functionaries would meet to formulate a policy the essence of which was industrial conscription That challenge could only be met in that way, " and you," said Pollitt, " know what that is."
Let them feel that they were the real custodians of the liberties of the people. The soldiers, as the previous speaker had shown, were with them; by uniting and using their forces they had the power to realise the People's Government.
Convention Elects Leaders for New Battles
By FRANK PITCAIRN
The next speaker was a soldier, and as he mounted the rostrum in uniform he was greeted with tumultuous cheering.
Thanking the Convention for the opportunity to speak on behalf of "civilians in uniform," he gave a vivid and rapid review of conditions of Army life which had made him and other soldiers come to support the People's Convention.
Food—a dominating consideration to a soldier—came, first. He described how good material was spoiled by bad management and unskilled cooks, yet men who commented on it in plain soldier's language were given punishment.
Barrack-room discipline—the Imposition of absurd regulations by officers of public school tradition; promotion given because of family or class relationships; leave given as a privilege when it should be organised as a right—these were matters which had led him and his comrades to think of a People's Government as the way to win the soldier a square deal.
Harry Pollitt, who followed, also received an ovation. He recalled how in 1911 Tom Mann had set afoot a great movement among the people of this country, and showed how the present People's Convention ' movement was in the tradition of the great struggle for democracy Its policy programme was no paper development. This Convention would be followed by such a campaign of reporting to the people as this country had never seen before.
The essence of the Convention was not only the talk for which they had come together, but the bringing of the masses into action by every conceivable means.
It was a race against time. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, hand-picked trade union functionaries would meet to formulate a policy the essence of which was industrial conscription That challenge could only be met in that way, " and you," said Pollitt, " know what that is."
Let them feel that they were the real custodians of the liberties of the people. The soldiers, as the previous speaker had shown, were with them; by uniting and using their forces they had the power to realise the People's Government.
Convention Elects Leaders for New Battles
By FRANK PITCAIRN
AS its National Committee to carry forward the people's fight in these next crucial weeks and months, the People's Convention has elected already 26 men and women whom the people can rely on for fighting spirit, for understanding, for the force that gets things done.
Here they are—and I would like the capitalist Press to give an exhibition of just how it is going to " laugh this off," considering that this National Committee very obviously consists of the leading figures of the militant trades union movement, of the Labour movement, of the scientific world, and of all those who are fighting for a better life for the people.
Harry Adams is known to all. Harry Adams is District Organiser of the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers. Harry Adams knows more about the working conditions in the biggest city of Britain than Bevin and Morrison will ever learn.
There is W. J. R. Squance—needs no introduction, as a former member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress.
There is D. N. Pritt, K.C., M.P.,— expelled from the Labour Party because, in his own phrase "the leaders wouldn't even follow."
Next we have Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Young, whose work to try to save Czechoslovakia from the machinations of our ruling class at the moment when our ruling class was busy handing it and its great arms factories over to Hitler is well known.
J. B. S. Haldane, the man who—if the callous Government had listened to the finest scientific advice In the country could have saved the lives of thousands, is a loudly applauded member of the National Committee.
As
Mr. Pritt said recently: " Just ask yourself whether you would rather
have in charge of A.R.P. a great and expert scientist, who himself has
been in the front line in the last war and in Spain—or Ellen Wilkinson?"
Arthur Horner, President of the South Wales Miners' Federation Is on the Committee.
So is Krishna Menon, of the Indian National Congress.
Arthur Horner, President of the South Wales Miners' Federation Is on the Committee.
So is Krishna Menon, of the Indian National Congress.
And along' with these sit:
The Dean of Canterbury,
W. Zak, ot the Amalgamated Furnishing Trades Association,
R. P. Dutt, of the Communist Party,
William Gallacher, Communist M.P.,
George Dutch, of the London Co-op Society Management Committee,
William Pearson, President of the Lanarkshire Miners' Union,
Jack Owen, famous figure of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in Manchester,
Dr. Barton, of London,
Michael Best London Tenants' leader
Councillor Skilbeck of Hammersmith,
Councillor Craig Walker, of Leeds,
Reverend Stanley Evans, East London clergyman,
Councillor Mrs. Mabel Lewis, of South Wales, famous in ARP work,
Jack Sussman, representing the youth,
W. Swanson, aircraft shop steward,
George Crane, another prominent shop steward.
Miss Beatrix Lehmann, the most famous of West End actresses,
Ben Frankel, internationally known musician,
Miss Mary Baxter, of Scotland.
WHO WERE THERE
You were there at the People's Convention. You had your spokes man there.
The figures prove it. You, man or woman in one or other of the big air craft factories : you, man or woman in the great war industries of the entire country.
So here are the preliminary figures to date: —
Trades Union organisations elected 531 out of the total of more than 2,000 delegates. Through these were represented three Executive Committees, 14 District Councils, and nearly 400 Branches. No less than 20 Trades Councils were directly represented.
From 220 of the biggest factory Jobs in the country—including the whole core of the armament business— came 433 delegates. The Co-operatives—73 organisations- sent 81 delegates—thus much frightening not only 'the Daily Express which has so often attacked the Co-ops, but also the Co-op, leaders who have lined up with the Big Combine men in the Government. Fourteen women's organisations were represented, 57 youth organisations —and remember that from these youth organisations thousands of young men and women have already been called into uniform.
These figures are still Incomplete. The estimate given here, magnificent as it is, certainly falls very far below the real total of, representation.
What They said
THE People's Convention as it really was—not as they had tried to tell the world it was going to be—hit the capitalist Press like a depth charge.
They had tried to smother it with silence. They had tried to get it "suppressed." They had lied and they had sneered. They had said it was a " Communist manoeuvre."
Then this mighty concourse of the men and women, really gathered—and the mixture of astonishment, concern, and general embarrassment in the capitalist Press was pitiable to see.
TIME'S SILENCE BROKEN
Even The Times was compelled by the importance of the event itself to devote a third of a column to a flat little report of a small part of the proceedings—omitting any mention of the speeches from the factory delegates, the Army delegates, the miners' delegates and the youth.
The Daily Mirror Political Correspondent nervously declared that:—
“ It the Government knows lie job it will make a careful study of the ' People's Convention ' held in London. "More than 2,000 delegates drawn from factories, coalfields, railway yards and offices all over Britain attended." Then, after a bit of the customary red-herringism about the Communist Party, he kindly remarks that " 90 per cent. of these men and women, brought from every part of Britain were honest-to-God British citizens."
And he proceeded with the admission that—
" they have too many grievances the Government leaves unanswered. They expected the Labour Ministers in the Government to be their champions. They are disappointed in them.
Labour Ministers behave like pale imitations of Tory Ministers.
" So the people (eel themselves leaderless. They are beginning to turn to the Communist Party."
He concluded with a pathetic appeal to the Government itself to carry out a large part of the Convention demands—just as though the Government had not been furiously rejecting these demands all along and threatening those who raise them.
HERALD IS SCARED
The Dally Herald report was long, bitter, scared, embarrassed, and reeked of red herrings. Apparently suffering a twinge of conscience, Mr.' Maurice Webb, Herald Political Correspondent,
admitted he expected to be denounced tor " Yellow journalism."
Even he had to admit the tremendous success of the Convention and declared in a comical whine that " the Communists " had " exploited a situation which puts even the Labour Party at a disadvantage."
He concluded with a threat "as to what will happen if "they attempt to carry out the decision to start to capture the workshops, factories and armed forces for their policy."
The News-Chronicle sent their gossip writer who found the Convention "typical of an English crowd," and In the course, of a longish story admitted he had found It "difficult to discover"
the new policy the Convention stands for—a dimcutly not experienced by the delegates.
EXPRESS VERSION
The Daily Express sent Its Mr. William Barkley to do his best with a bagful of old jeers and denunciations. He got so excited he nearly doubled the number of delegates actually present—giving an estimate of 4,000. Suddenly dropping the story that the Communists had organised, the Convention, he started a new version—- the Communists, said he, " have muscled in."
Nevertheless he gave, In the course of a violent attack on Mr. Pritt, a number of useful quotations from Mr. Pritt's speech, and lamely declared that the whole thing is due to the political truce—which has prevented people " airing their views."
WHO WERE THERE
You were there at the People's Convention. You had your spokes man there.
The figures prove it. You, man or woman in one or other of the big air craft factories : you, man or woman in the great war industries of the entire country.
So here are the preliminary figures to date: —
Trades Union organisations elected 531 out of the total of more than 2,000 delegates. Through these were represented three Executive Committees, 14 District Councils, and nearly 400 Branches. No less than 20 Trades Councils were directly represented.
From 220 of the biggest factory Jobs in the country—including the whole core of the armament business— came 433 delegates. The Co-operatives—73 organisations- sent 81 delegates—thus much frightening not only 'the Daily Express which has so often attacked the Co-ops, but also the Co-op, leaders who have lined up with the Big Combine men in the Government. Fourteen women's organisations were represented, 57 youth organisations —and remember that from these youth organisations thousands of young men and women have already been called into uniform.
These figures are still Incomplete. The estimate given here, magnificent as it is, certainly falls very far below the real total of, representation.
What They said
THE People's Convention as it really was—not as they had tried to tell the world it was going to be—hit the capitalist Press like a depth charge.
They had tried to smother it with silence. They had tried to get it "suppressed." They had lied and they had sneered. They had said it was a " Communist manoeuvre."
Then this mighty concourse of the men and women, really gathered—and the mixture of astonishment, concern, and general embarrassment in the capitalist Press was pitiable to see.
TIME'S SILENCE BROKEN
Even The Times was compelled by the importance of the event itself to devote a third of a column to a flat little report of a small part of the proceedings—omitting any mention of the speeches from the factory delegates, the Army delegates, the miners' delegates and the youth.
The Daily Mirror Political Correspondent nervously declared that:—
“ It the Government knows lie job it will make a careful study of the ' People's Convention ' held in London. "More than 2,000 delegates drawn from factories, coalfields, railway yards and offices all over Britain attended." Then, after a bit of the customary red-herringism about the Communist Party, he kindly remarks that " 90 per cent. of these men and women, brought from every part of Britain were honest-to-God British citizens."
And he proceeded with the admission that—
" they have too many grievances the Government leaves unanswered. They expected the Labour Ministers in the Government to be their champions. They are disappointed in them.
Labour Ministers behave like pale imitations of Tory Ministers.
" So the people (eel themselves leaderless. They are beginning to turn to the Communist Party."
He concluded with a pathetic appeal to the Government itself to carry out a large part of the Convention demands—just as though the Government had not been furiously rejecting these demands all along and threatening those who raise them.
HERALD IS SCARED
The Dally Herald report was long, bitter, scared, embarrassed, and reeked of red herrings. Apparently suffering a twinge of conscience, Mr.' Maurice Webb, Herald Political Correspondent,
admitted he expected to be denounced tor " Yellow journalism."
Even he had to admit the tremendous success of the Convention and declared in a comical whine that " the Communists " had " exploited a situation which puts even the Labour Party at a disadvantage."
He concluded with a threat "as to what will happen if "they attempt to carry out the decision to start to capture the workshops, factories and armed forces for their policy."
The News-Chronicle sent their gossip writer who found the Convention "typical of an English crowd," and In the course, of a longish story admitted he had found It "difficult to discover"
the new policy the Convention stands for—a dimcutly not experienced by the delegates.
EXPRESS VERSION
The Daily Express sent Its Mr. William Barkley to do his best with a bagful of old jeers and denunciations. He got so excited he nearly doubled the number of delegates actually present—giving an estimate of 4,000. Suddenly dropping the story that the Communists had organised, the Convention, he started a new version—- the Communists, said he, " have muscled in."
Nevertheless he gave, In the course of a violent attack on Mr. Pritt, a number of useful quotations from Mr. Pritt's speech, and lamely declared that the whole thing is due to the political truce—which has prevented people " airing their views."
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The People's Convention January 1941
The Peoples Convention
Sunday 12th January 1941
London
2,300 delegates
Delegates tell of their struggle
Daily Worker 14th January 1941
CONTINUING the discussion on the political resolution in the after noon session of the People's Convention, Councillor Craig Walker, of Yorkshire, spoke of the great movement which had been begun by workers of all kinds—textiles, clothing, miners, engineers, civil servants and administrative workers—in the West Riding. This movement spread far outside the shores of this country;
It was going to revolutionise politics. Mr. Steve Lawther, of Tyneside, said that in this war, as in the last, we were promised a brave, new world.
Depression and derelict industries were Tyneside's share in the new world.
Recently the president of the Dur ham Miners' Association had said that in their struggle the miners and the owners were on one side and Hitler on the other. The biggest coal owner in the north. Lord Londonderry, had been a friend of Hitler. The coal owners' organ had written that there was. something to be said for Nazi methods. These people were not on the same side as the miners.
Mr. Lawther emphasised Point Four of the Convention's purposes, for emergency powers to take over banks, land and industry and organise production in the interests of the people as of vital Importance.
Bomb Proof Shelters
Mr. Warman, of Coventry, spoke of the air bombardment of that city in relation to the Convention. Under the raids, the whole of the social amenities of the town had broken down. Among the people, many had been brought, through the failure to provide adequate bomb-proof shelter, to realise that the policy of the Government was not in the Interests of the people but of the wealthy, and to support demand Number Two, for adequate ARP.
Mr, Scanlon, of Manchester, described how workers in factories and works there had collected large sums to send delegates to the Convention. They welcomed the Convention's economic programme, realising that only the people themselves could solve their problems. The meetings at which these delegates would reported back to the workers who had s them would be most important. The Rev. Bryn Thomas, of Swindon, said the old economic system had failed us. "Ledger wealth" would have to go, "real wealth" would take its place. Mr. Morrison had said the Convention was a Communist plot to entrap the people.
Mr. Thomas said he had made thorough study of the policy of the Communist Party, and he was con-vinced that unless we secured a People's Government and made an ally of the Soviet Union we should be relegated to the limbo of the past.
Land Workers
Mrs. Allison McLeod, of Somerset, declared that the land workers were coming in on the side of the factory workers. No industry was so inefficiently run as agriculture : it needed to be run by the people—collectivised and socialised.
Referring to the bad housing conditions of land workers and the problem of evacuation, Mrs. McLeod said there were many great houses round Bath and Bristol, all standing empty. They should be taken over.
Mr. Parry, speaking for London Tube Shelter Committees, said that when the " blitz " began, the whole Metropolitan population was totally unprovided with deep shelters or adequate protection. He sketched the movement for organising shelter in the tubes, the struggles which they had to secure and maintain rights, the efforts which were still being made to drive them out of such shelters and concluded with a message of support from the Shelter Committees for the aims of the Convention.
During the afternoon session, Mr. W. J. R. Squance introduced the resolution on the organisation and campaign of the Convention, In a speech which was reported In the DAILY WORKER yesterday.
He was followed by Mr, F. Anderson. a worker In. Parkhead Forge, Glasgow who described the intense conviction with which workers in that plant and throughout Clydesidee supported the Convention and were prepared to do anything that was necessary to win a People's Government.
A speaker from the Engineering and Allied Trades Shop Stewards' Council said he believed that the hot reception given to Bevin at Glasgow was a sign that the workers were prepared to do something.
The shop stewards were the key to real leadership in the workshops. The speaker urged that workers in factories should elect shop stewards, get together with workers in other factories and aet up a local shop stewards' movement, join the national organisation, build up their own Press, and particularly the DAILY WORKER. (Applause.)
Councillor Frank Davies, of Ammanford, said he spoke mainly on behalf of unemployed miners, of whom there were thousands in the Amman Valley. Yet when he came to London he was told of high prices charged for coal.
Soldier Speaker
Those thousands of unemployed miners were ready and anxious to give the people coal, but they must have a People's Government to make that possible.
The next speaker was a soldier, and as he mounted the rostrum in uniform he was greeted with tumultuous cheering.
Thanking the Convention for the opportunity to speak on behalf of "civilians in uniform," he gave a vivid and rapid review of conditions of Army life which had made him and other soldiers come to support the People's Convention.
Food—a dominating consideration to a soldier—came, first. He described how good material was spoiled by bad management and unskilled cooks, yet men who commented on it in plain soldier's language were given punishment.
Barrack-room discipline—the Imposition of absurd regulations by officers of public school tradition; promotion given because of family or class relationships; leave given as a privilege when it should be organised as a right—these were matters which had led him and his comrades to think of a People's Government as the way to win the soldier a square deal.
Harry Pollitt, who followed, also received an ovation. He recalled how in 1911 Tom Mann had set afoot a great movement among the people of this country, and showed how the present People's Convention ' movement was in the tradition of the great struggle for democracy Its policy programme was no paper development. This Convention would be followed by such a campaign of reporting to the people as this country had never seen before.
The essence of the Convention was not only the talk for which they had come together, but the bringing of the masses into action by every conceivable means.
It was a race against time. On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, hand-picked trade union functionaries would meet to formulate a policy the essence of which was industrial conscription That challenge could only be met in that way, " and you," said Pollitt, " know what that is."
Let them feel that they were the real custodians of the liberties of the people. The soldiers, as the previous speaker had shown, were with them; by uniting and using their forces they had the power to realise the People's Government.
Convention Elects Leaders for New Battles
By FRANK PITCAIRN
AS its National Committee to carry forward the people's fight in these next crucial weeks and months, the People's Convention has elected already 26 men and women whom the people can rely on for fighting spirit, for understanding, for the force that gets things done.
Here they are—and I would like the capitalist Press to give an exhibition of just how it is going to " laugh this off," considering that this National Committee very obviously consists of the leading figures of the militant trades union movement, of the Labour movement, of the scientific world, and of all those who are fighting for a better life for the people.
Harry Adams is known to all. Harry Adams is District Organiser of the Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers. Harry Adams knows more about the working conditions in the biggest city of Britain than Bevin and Morrison will ever learn.
There is W. J. R. Squance—needs no introduction, as a former member of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress.
There is D. N. Pritt, K.C., M.P.,— expelled from the Labour Party because, in his own phrase "the leaders wouldn't even follow."
Next we have Lieutenant-Commander Edgar Young, whose work to try to save Czechoslovakia from the machinations of our ruling class at the moment when our ruling class was busy handing it and its great arms factories over to Hitler is well known.
J. B. S. Haldane, the man who—if the callous Government had listened to the finest scientific advice In the country could have saved the lives of thousands, is a loudly applauded member of the National Committee.
As Mr. Pritt said recently: " Just ask yourself whether you would rather have in charge of A.R.P. a great and expert scientist, who himself has been in the front line in the last war and in Spain—or Ellen Wilkinson?"
Arthur Horner, President of the South Wales Miners' Federation Is on the Committee.
So is Krishna Menon, of the Indian National Congress.
And along' with these sit:
The Dean of Canterbury,
W. Zak, ot the Amalgamated Furnishing Trades Association,
R. P. Dutt, of the Communist Party,
William Gallacher, Communist M.P.,
George Dutch, of the London Co-op Society Management Committee,
William Pearson, President of the Lanarkshire Miners' Union,
Jack Owen, famous figure of the Amalgamated Engineering Union in Manchester,
Dr. Barton, of London,
Michael Best London Tenants' leader
Councillor Skilbeck of Hammersmith,
Councillor Craig Walker, of Leeds,
Reverend Stanley Evans, East London clergyman,
Councillor Mrs. Mabel Lewis, of South Wales, famous in ARP work,
Jack Sussman, representing the youth,
W. Swanson, aircraft shop steward,
George Crane, another prominent shop steward.
Miss Beatrix Lehmann, the most famous of West End actresses,
Ben Frankel, internationally known musician,
Miss Mary Baxter, of Scotland.
WHO WERE THERE
You were there at the People's Convention. You had your spokes man there.
The figures prove it. You, man or woman in one or other of the big air craft factories : you, man or woman in the great war industries of the entire country.
So here are the preliminary figures to date: —
Trades Union organisations elected 531 out of the total of more than 2,000 delegates. Through these were represented three Executive Committees, 14 District Councils, and nearly 400 Branches. No less than 20 Trades Councils were directly represented.
From 220 of the biggest factory Jobs in the country—including the whole core of the armament business— came 433 delegates. The Co-operatives—73 organisations- sent 81 delegates—thus much frightening not only 'the Daily Express which has so often attacked the Co-ops, but also the Co-op, leaders who have lined up with the Big Combine men in the Government. Fourteen women's organisations were represented, 57 youth organisations —and remember that from these youth organisations thousands of young men and women have already been called into uniform.
These figures are still Incomplete. The estimate given here, magnificent as it is, certainly falls very far below the real total of, representation.
What They said
THE People's Convention as it really was—not as they had tried to tell the world it was going to be—hit the capitalist Press like a depth charge.
They had tried to smother it with silence. They had tried to get it "suppressed." They had lied and they had sneered. They had said it was a " Communist manoeuvre."
Then this mighty concourse of the men and women, really gathered—and the mixture of astonishment, concern, and general embarrassment in the capitalist Press was pitiable to see.
TIME'S SILENCE BROKEN
Even The Times was compelled by the importance of the event itself to devote a third of a column to a flat little report of a small part of the proceedings—omitting any mention of the speeches from the factory delegates, the Army delegates, the miners' delegates and the youth.
The Daily Mirror Political Correspondent nervously declared that:—
“ It the Government knows lie job it will make a careful study of the ' People's Convention ' held in London. "More than 2,000 delegates drawn from factories, coalfields, railway yards and offices all over Britain attended." Then, after a bit of the customary red-herringism about the Communist Party, he kindly remarks that " 90 per cent. of these men and women, brought from every part of Britain were honest-to-God British citizens."
And he proceeded with the admission that—
" they have too many grievances the Government leaves unanswered. They expected the Labour Ministers in the Government to be their champions. They are disappointed in them.
Labour Ministers behave like pale imitations of Tory Ministers.
" So the people (eel themselves leaderless. They are beginning to turn to the Communist Party."
He concluded with a pathetic appeal to the Government itself to carry out a large part of the Convention demands—just as though the Government had not been furiously rejecting these demands all along and threatening those who raise them.
HERALD IS SCARED
The Dally Herald report was long, bitter, scared, embarrassed, and reeked of red herrings. Apparently suffering a twinge of conscience, Mr.' Maurice Webb, Herald Political Correspondent,
admitted he expected to be denounced tor " Yellow journalism."
Even he had to admit the tremendous success of the Convention and declared in a comical whine that " the Communists " had " exploited a situation which puts even the Labour Party at a disadvantage."
He concluded with a threat "as to what will happen if "they attempt to carry out the decision to start to capture the workshops, factories and armed forces for their policy."
The News-Chronicle sent their gossip writer who found the Convention "typical of an English crowd," and In the course, of a longish story admitted he had found It "difficult to discover"
the new policy the Convention stands for—a dimcutly not experienced by the delegates.
EXPRESS VERSION
The Daily Express sent Its Mr. William Barkley to do his best with a bagful of old jeers and denunciations. He got so excited he nearly doubled the number of delegates actually present—giving an estimate of 4,000. Suddenly dropping the story that the Communists had organised, the Convention, he started a new version—- the Communists, said he, " have muscled in."
Nevertheless he gave, In the course of a violent attack on Mr. Pritt, a number of useful quotations from Mr. Pritt's speech, and lamely declared that the whole thing is due to the political truce—which has prevented people " airing their views."
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
A Peoples' History of the Blitz
September 7th 2010 marks the seventieth anniversary of the London Blitz. The real story differs from the one so often recounted writes Michael Walker.
The media will dust off the black and white photos and the TV will show old news reels of Londoners clambering out of the dust and rubble, of their devastated homes, smiling for the camera while union jack flags flutter in the wind.
They will record how the King and Queen were pleased that Buckingham Palace had been bombed because “(We) can look the East End in the face”. (no bombs infact landed on the Palace)
Of course these programmes will not record how the working class of London reacted not by deference or defeatism but by fighting back and not just against the Nazi’s who had destroyed their Capital, but against the British establishment.
The revolt was on an unprecedented scale, the East End was in revolt , the King, Queen and Prime Minister, Winston Churchill were booed and parts had become a no go area.
Harold Nicholson, Minister for Information recalled in his diary;
“Everybody is worried about the feeling in the East End of London where there is much bitterness”.
The bitterness reported by Nicholson was not without substance.
The working class communities of Inner London had suffered badly during the depression of the 1920’s and 30s with its high unemployment and slum housing. Now they suffered the heaviest levels of devastation – large parts of Stepney, Bethnal Green, Poplar, West Ham, Bermondsey, Deptford, Lambeth, St Pancras & Westminster were destroyed.
These communities were more aware of the of the impact of “Total war” on society than any other grouping outside the military. They were not only politically aware but had already given up their best sons and daughters to fight fascism in Spain. They knew from first hand report backs the impact of aerial bombing by Germans and Italians of Madrid, Barcelona and famously Guernica. Unlike the Government, they recognised the need for deep underground shelters for the civilian population. The Republican Mayor of Barcelona stated in early 1938 that:
“Instead of small gas and incendiary bombs, for which officials are trying to prepare the British public, the real danger in Barcelona, just as it would be here, came from large explosive bombs”.
“The only way to provide anything like adequate protection was to build enough underground shelters to house the majority of the population”.
However, the government had failed to pay any attention to the significant air raid precaution agitation preferring to leave such matters to local councils, employers or individuals to do the best they could. Those in the know began to strengthen the spaces under their stairwells, opened up disused cellars and dug up parts of their gardens if they were fortunate to have one. Corrugated iron was in great demand.
The authorities feared that once down in the relative safety of underground shelters Londoners may not return to the surface to carry out vital work. This was called “Deep shelter mentality”. This abdication of responsibility was masked by a supposed concern about children falling onto the underground track.
The establishment had backed Franco, Mussolini and Hitler prior to the war. The Daily Mail had backed the British Union of Fascists. Churchill had flirted with support for Franco though he later came to dislike his politics. Even the Queen had said of Hitler’s Mein Kampf “ even a skip through gives you a good idea of his obvious sincerity”. The Cliveden set, established by the Astors schemed to turn Hitler against the USSR, which was the most public peace force and supporter of collective security through the League of nations. One Tory MP Archibald Ramsay leader of the pro fascist Right Club, while detained in Brixton prison was asking questions about the number of Jews in the armed forces and resumed his seat at the end of the war .
Just as this establishment were denying working class communities deep shelter safety, they themselves were moving to the suburbs or the country. London’s exclusive hotels and clubs were busy building deep shelters under their premises.
At the beginning of the War those that spoke out in favour of deep shelters or produced leaflets highlighting the dangers of the Anderson and trench shelters found themselves harassed, arrested and their publications confiscated.
After Dunkirk (June 1940), the German Luftwaffe had concentrated their attacks upon attempts to destroy British air defences, in the Battle that became known as ‘The Battle of Britain’.
However, frustrated at the failure of the German Air Force to secure a decisive knock out, the German command sought alternative targets. Attention turned to attacking Britain’s manufacturing and munitions industries, much of which was based in cities and in close proximity to densely populated residential areas.
On the first night of what became known as the “Blitz” 7th September 1940 the first large scale attack against London was launched by the Luftwaffe involving some 364 bombers, escorted by 515 fighters attacked the Capital.
London’s defences were ill-prepared for such an onslaught and as a result large areas of the Capital were destroyed.
On the first night of what became known as the “Blitz” over 2,000 Londoners where killed or injured (436 killed and 1,666 injured). This compared to 250 personnel killed in the armed forces for the whole of September 1940.
According to Phil Piratin (future Communist Member of Parliament for Stepney)
"That night the East End burned, the dockside was ablaze...........
it lit up a great part of East and South East London....... It was a night when London was ringed and stabbed with fire."
Daily Worker journalist Fred Pateman writing in the 9th September 1940 edition of the Daily Worker stated
“Yesterday, I walked through the valley of the shadow of death –the little streets of London’s East End.....Along the main roads is a steady stream of refugees – men with suitcases, women, with bundles, children with their pillows and their own cot covers – homeless in the heart of London.
The fires caused by the bombing raged out of control for weeks and merely acted as a beacon to further waves of German bombers. London suffered according to the London County Council a further seventy six consecutive nights of enemy bombing.
The RAF retaliated at the bombing of London by bombing Berlin. Infuriated, Hitler declared to his Luftwaffe commanders,"if they think that they can destroy our cities.......then we shall wipe theirs from the face of the earth....". Orders were given to air crews to bomb at "random" and thereby the German air force gave up any pretence of attempting avoid civilian areas.
Ted Bramley London leader of the CP stated in October 1940, In September...."Sometimes six times a day the raiders come. For weeks every night, as regularly as clockwork, from sunset to sunrise. Ten long, weary hours. Hour after hour the drone of the Nazi planes, the pounding of guns, the whistle and scream of bombs. The tense, clenched teeth and hands, waiting for the explosion. The quiet calculation " How near is it? " The deep breath of relief to be still alive. " Did it go off! " " Is it a time bomb? " " How far away? " A desperate effort to snatch some sleep in the cramped space and the foul air of the basements and shelters where we crouch. Then to stagger out to face another day, pale and weary, more exhausted than the night before."
Initially, the civilian population had attempted to take refugee in government prescribed trench shelters but these soon filled with water, the street level shelters had been destroyed and the famous back garden Anderson shelters, made of corrugated steel, offered only limited protection from bomb blast and splinters.
Anderson shelters were named after Sir John Anderson who stated in the House of Commons in 1938, "I do not think we are prepared to adapt our whole civilisation, so as to compel a large proportion of our people to live and maintain the productive capacity in a troglodyte existence deep underground" and on 12th June 1940 "I am devoutly thankful that we did not adopt a general policy of providing deep and strongly protected shelters".
How the working class paid for such stupidity, as Londoners were, according to Ted Bramley, "uprooted, blasted from their homes, scattered over the face of Britain" . At Kennington a trench shelter took a direct hit killing 104.
The few deeper shelters, which were situated mainly underneath large warehouses, once deserted, were now full to overflowing. They were poorly lit, wet, and unsanitary. People lined up from 12 in Stepney to enter the Tilbury shelter, originally planned for 1,600 now holding 10,000. Meanwhile, Godfrey Phillip’s shelter in the City, a shelter for 3,000 was locked every night at 5.30pm. Ted Bramley estimated another 200,000 safe shelter places were available in the City, but locked at night.
Many Londoners were forced to “trek” from East London to North London, West London or South London and even the Kent countryside (Chislehurst Caves in the side of the North Downs). Others took coaches into the countryside to sleep by the roadside at a cost of 2s 6d.
By mid November 1940, it was reported that some four out of every ten houses in the London Borough of Stepney had been destroyed or damaged. Many factories suffered a similar fate.
The Government had failed seriously to listen to the Communist Party advice about the need for a comprehensive and universal air raid precautions, preferring to leave it to individual councils, employers or individuals to do the best they could. Yet many of the Government’s own appointed observers such as the famous scientist J B Haldane were pressing for deep shelters and came up with many novel ideas to defend the people.
Ted Bramley states "The real reason is to be found in their callous refusal to provide for the people and their cynical disregard for the suffering and lives of working people. They value the lives of the workers cheaply. There are 800,000 unemployed - left on the scrap heap. So long as their own families, their own privileges and profits are secure they don’t care".
One look at Winston Churchill lunch and evening meal menu, shows that he for one was not ready to make some sacrifices.
It is unsurprising that faced with whole sale destruction, looting and a lack of support, working class communities took it in their own hands to stop the looting, secure alternative housing, shelter and when Churchill or the Royal Family turned up to show sympathy they were booed and pelted with rubbish..
SHELTERS FOR THE RICH
Meanwhile, the rich secured access to their own private shelters. None was more famous or elaborately decorated than the shelter beneath the Savoy Hotel, which even boasted nurses on standby.
During the early days of the Blitz Government controlled media tried to show that life in London was carrying on as normal, and there was much coverage in the press of people going to parties, dining out and clubbing in the West End. Buckingham Palace had been hit, but in reality involved minor damage to out houses.
This was all at odds with the experience of the people in the working class areas of London, who were now being systematically bombed day and night.
On Saturday 14th September 1940 to highlight the plight of the people of Stepney, the communist councillor Piratin took fifty workers, including a group of what Time magazine called “ill-clad
children" from Stepney and burst into the Savoy Hotel.
Within minutes and with the help of sympathetic waiters the group had invaded and occupied the Savoy Hotel shelter, stating “ if it was good enough for the rich it was good enough for the Stepney workers and their families”.
The next day the press was full of stories about the audacious occupation of the Savoy Hotel shelter and the terrible conditions of the shelters in Stepney.
At St Pancras, a picket was organised of Carreras, the tobacco factory, demanding its shelter - capable of holding 3,000- be opened to the public at night. In Walthamstow councillor Bob Smith went with some homeless "bombed out" families to occupy empty houses. Similar actions took place in Chiswick (Heathfield Court) and at Kensington.
OPEN UP THE TUBES
A the beginning of the Blitz, the doors to the Underground stations were surrounded by barbed wire and systematically locked by the Police during air raids, in order to stop civilians seeking refuge.
One Kennington resident stated, “The public shelter was horrible, smelly, it had a mouldy slab of concrete for a roof. But you couldn’t go anywhere else as the Oval station was full of barbed wire they wouldn’t let you near it”
Finally, one night (some state 8th September) at Liverpool Street underground station, with the East End shelters overcrowding due to intense bombing, huge crowds of East Enders forced entry and surged down to the platforms.
Warren Street, Goodge Street and Highgate underground stations were "broken open" and according to Ted Bramley "every inch of stairs, corridors and platforms taken by the people. Working men, women and children of all types and trades, from all parts of London, including soldiers and their families, were and are united in their resolve to share the Tubes".
At other underground stations crowds of people organised by the CP swept past police guarding the stations and used crowbars to force open the underground station network to thousands of Londoners seeking refugee from the bombs.
The people established shelter committees in order to secure proper conditions such as provisions for feeding and amenities from the authorities.
Finally, Herbert Morrison the Labour Home Secretary in the War time Coalition was forced to reconsider the issue of the underground being used for shelters and finally allow civilians to use the underground for shelter.
By the end of September 1940 it was estimated that 79 underground stations catering for 177,000 people were being used for shelter at night.
WOMEN ON THE FRONTLINE
Undoubtedly, during this period of the War it was the East End and it's women in particular who were the front line. It was they who were forced to search for shelter for their families, salvage possessions from bombed out houses and find enough food for their families, despite rationing and a 25% rise in the cost of living. This was in addition to organising childcare so that they could carry out vital war work.
At its peak 1,500 fires raged across London during the Blitz. During the War over 20,000 Londoner's were killed including 327 firemen and women, as well as numerous Anti Aircraft personnel, nurses, police, rescue, salvage specialists and bomb disposal staff.In just two nights in April 1941 148,000 London homes were damaged by German bombs. By the end of the war incredibly only one house out of ten had not received some kind of bomb damage.
Despite the bravery of Londoners’ and the British people, it would take another year after the Blitz (December 1941) before the American’s joined the war, until then the full force of the fascist military was waged against Britain and our Russian allies
The German bombers continued to bomb London for the rest of the War until the front was pushed back so far making it impossible for raids to be effective. At that point Hitler launched his unmanned rockets known as the V1 and V2.
In total, Nazi bombs killed 40,0000 in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol, Portsmouth, Bath, Plymouth, Exeter, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hull, Ipswich and Norwich.
The official date for the ending of the Blitz is 11th May 1941.
The blitz is a special moment in our working class history. Troops fighting desperately on the war front were in constant fear for the safety of their family on the home front.
As a result of these sacrifices the Nazi’s never got to fly the swastika from Senate House, in Central London as they had planned to use it as their English Head Quarters of the Third Reich
When the War in Europe finally ended in 1945, the people of London as elsewhere in the country swept away Churchill and the establishment and gave victory to a landslide Labour Government.
The failure of the government to act is part of our history. That failure led to many unnecessary casualties. The failure of the rich to share the burden, evidenced throughout the economy did much to raise consciousness of class. Most of all it clarified that victory over fascism would only arise from a Peoples’ War in which the people took the lead.
Maya Angelou - History despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived but if faced with courage need not be lived again-
Michael Walker
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The London Blitz 1940
The London Blitz 1940
The role of the Communist Party in the campaign for Air Raid Precautions (ARP).
The Communist Parties expertise and leading role in campaigning for adequate Air Raid Precautions (ARP) during the Second World War, undoubtedly saved the lives of thousand's of British civilians, yet little has ever been written about their fight to protect civilian lives.
LESSONS FROM SPAIN:
The Communist Party was able to play a vital role in Air Raid Precautions (ARP) campaign during the Second World War, primarily because of the experience it's members had gained first hand while fighting or nursing during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1938) in the famous International Brigade.
It was in Spain the fascist had homed and perfected their skills in using air attacks (blitzkrieg) to terrorise the civilian population, most famously on the 26th April 1936, when German and Italian planes bombed the beautiful Basque City of Gurnica, destroying the historic city. Heavy bombings of Madrid and Barcelona followed soon after.
The Mayor of Barcelona warned in the Daily Worker on February 24th, 1938. that
"Instead of the small gas and incendiary bombs, for which officials are trying to prepare the British public, the real danger in Barcelona, just as it would be here, came from large high explosive bombs.
The only way to provide anything like adequate protection was to build enough underground shelters to house the majority of the population. These must be deep and soundly built; cellars under houses were no use at all."
THE LONDON BLITZ
Up until August 1940, the German Luftwaffe had concentrated their attacks upon attempts to destroy British air defences and as a consequence the relatively few bombs that fell on London were of the 250 pounds type.
However, by the end of August the failure of the German airforce to secure a decisive knock out lead them to seek alternative military targets and accordingly turn their attention to attacks upon Britain's wartime manufacturing industries, much of which was based in cities and in close proximity to densely populated residential areas.
On the night 7th September 1940 the first large scale attack against London was launched, some 364 bombers, escorted by 515 fighters attacked the Capital.
London's defences were ill prepared for such a heavy attack and as a result large areas of the Capital were destroyed.
Particularly hard hit areas of London were the areas of Stepney, Poplar, West Ham in the East End and Bermondsey, Deptford in South East London
On the first night of what became known as the "Blitz" over 2,000 Londoner's were killed or injured in the Capital (436 killed and 1,666 injured) this compared to 250 personell killed in the armed forces for the whole of September 1940)
According to Phil Piratin (future Communist Member of Parliament for Stepney)
"That night the East End burned, the dockside was ablaze...........
it lit up a great part of East and South East London....... It was a night when London was ringed and stabbed with fire."
Ernie Pyle a famous news reporter stated,
"They came just after dark, and somehow you could sense from the quick, bitter firing of the guns that there was to be no monkey business this night".
Daily Worker journalist Fred Pateman writing in the 9th September 1940 edition of the Daily Worker stated
“Yesterday, I walked through the valley of the shadow of death –the little streets of London’s East End.....Along the main roads is a steady stream of refugees – men with suitcases, women, with bundles, children with their pillows and their own cot covers – homeless in the heart of London”
A young reporter on the Evening Standard, Michael Foot (later Labour Party leader) wrote on Friday 13th September 1940 that...
"The story of the East End of London is a terrible, tremendous story, a story of anger, hate, love,-defiance; a story of whole streets where you can see women's eyes red with tears, but women's, hearts overflowing with kindness towards their neighbours" ........."A woman sits on, a rickety chair in the middle of a shattered row of dolls', houses, her family about her. She waves her hand at the pile of ruin which was once her own home and her neighbours'. " We don't care about all this stuff," she says, " our only feeling is for the lives of our folk." "How do you like this sort of life ? " says a passer-by. "Well," she replies, "it's nice and airy." She ties up in a paper bundle the last remnant of her possessions in this world. She hoists her child into her arms".
"She is off in search of shelter for the night. She is the mother who in " The Grapes of Wrath " stood up at the end after suffering afflictions beyond those of Job and boasted, "You can't lick the people." ........
"That is why the defection of France can never be repeated here. French courage rested on the Maginot Line, when it was overturned, the rulers failed the masses. British courage rests on no system of defence, not even on the sea, it is rooted in the hearts of the people. Our rulers dare not fail us. Out of the colossal defeat of Flanders we plucked the glorious victory of Dunkirk. Today, out of the raging hell of the Dunkirk of Dockland, rises the prideful shout of the ordinary Briton: " You can't lick the people !" (end)
The fires caused by the bombing raged out of control for weeks
and merely acted as a beacons for further waves of German bombers.London suffered according to the London County Council a further seventy six coconsecutive nights of enemy bombings.
The RAF retaliated at the bombing of London by bombing Berlin, Hitler infuriated ordered his Luftwaffe to "if they think that they can destroy our cities.......then we shall wipe theirs from the face of the earth...." and orders were given to air crews to bomb at "random" and thereby the German airforce gave up any pretence of attempting avoid civilian areas.
By mid November 1940, it was reported that some four out of every ten houses in the London Borough of Stepney had been destroyed or damaged.
Ted Bramley stated in October 1940, In September...."Sometimes six times a day the raiders come. For weeks every night, as regularly as clockwork, from sunset to sunrise. Ten long, weary hours. Hour after hour the drone of the Nazi planes, the pounding of guns, the whistle and scream of bombs. The tense, clenched teeth and hands, waiting for the explosion. The quiet calculation " How near is it? " The deep breath of relief to be still alive. " Did it go off! " " Is it a time bomb? " " How far away? " A desperate effort to snatch some sleep in the cramped space and the foul air of the basements and shelters where we crouch. Then to stagger out to face another day, pale and weary, more exhausted than the night before."
Anderson shelters were named after Sir John Anderson who stated in the House of Commons in 1938 "I do not think we are prepared to adapt our whole civilisation, so as to compel a large proportion of our people to live and maintain the productive capacity in a troglodyte existence deep underground" and on 12th June 1940 "I am devoutly thankful that we did not adopt a general policy of providing deep and strongly protected shelters".
How Londoner's paid for such stupidity, as Londoners were according to Ted Bramley "uprooted, blasted from their homes, scattered over the face of Britain"
The few deeper shelters which were situated mainly underneath large warehouses and privately owned and open to the public, once deserted were now full to overflowing, poorly lit, wet, and unsanitary. People lined up from 12 in Stepney to enter the Tilbury shelter, originally planned for 1,600 now holding 10,000. Meanwhile, Godfrey Phillips shelter in the City, a shelter for 3,000 was locked everynight at 5.30pm. Ted Bramley estimated another 200,000 safe shelter places were available in the City, but locked at night.
East Enders joked in the early days of the Blitz on how when caught out during a raid they had learnt to "hug the walls".Many other Londoners were forced to travel “trek” from East London to North London, West London or South London and even the Kent countryside (Chislehurst Caves in the side of the North Downs), or coaches taking people out into the countryside to sleep by the roadside at 2s 6d.
Communist Party who had campaigned for effective Air Raid Precautions before the War, now sought to secure effective and immediate protection for the civilian population.
The Government had failed seriously to listen to the Communist Parties advice about the need for a comprehensive and universal air raid precautions, preferring to leave it to individual councils, employers or individuals to do the best they could.
Ted Bramley states "The real reason is to be found in their callous refusal to provide for the people and their cynical disregard for the suffering and lives of working people. they value the lives of the workers cheaply. There are 800,000 unemployed - Left on the scrap heap. So long as their own families, their own privilefes and profits are secure they dont care".
One look at Winston Churchill lunch and evening meal menu, shows that he for one was not ready to make some sacrificies.
Meanwhile, the rich had already secured access to their own private shelters, and their was non more famous and elaborately decorated than the shelter beneath the Savoy Hotel, which even boasted of their own nurses on standby. The Sunday Express revealed that fourteen Ladies and Twenty Three lords were living at the Dorchester Hotel, sharing luxurious bombproof shelter among them Lord Halifax (who as Foreign Secretary had followed a line of appeasement with Hitler) and other Tory Government Ministers.
During the early days of the Blitz the Government controlled media tried to show that life in London was carrying on as normal, and there was much coverage in the press of people going to parties, dining out and clubbing in the West End.
This sham, was at great odds with the experience of the people in the Working Class areas of London, who were now being systematically bombed into oblivion.
To highlight the plight of the people of Stepney, the Stepney Communist councillor Phil Piratin took on Saturday 14th September 1940, some fifetyworkers, including a group of what Time magazine called “ill-clad children" from Stepney and burst into the Savoy Hotel.
Within minutes and with the help of sympathetic waiters the group had invaded and occupied the Savoy Hotel shelter, stating “ if it was good enough for the rich it was good enough for the Stepney workers and their families”.
During the confusion an air raid alert, (all to helpfully), was sounded, and the Savoy Hotel manager realising that that could not be seen to send the "invaders"out into danger was forced to allow them to remain until the "all clear" siren was sounded.
The group soon settled down and after an element of negotiations the catering staff agreed to provide silver trays laden with pots of tea, bread and butter and for the children.
The next day the press was full of stories about the audacious occupation of the Savoy Hotel shelter and the terrible conditions of the shelters in Stepney. The Communist Party had succeeded in its objective. At St Pancras The Party organised a picket of Carreras, the tobacco factory, demanding its shelter - capable of holding 3,000- be opened to the public at night.
The Party had previously organsed an occupation by 200 people from the East End of the Mayfair Hotel shelter on the night of Thursday 12th September, but this seems not have secured much press coverage.
In Walthamstow Councillor Bob Smith went with some homeless "bombed out" families and occupied empty houses, and similar actions took place in Chiswick (Heathfield Court) and Kensington
Meanwhile, The Communist party who had long demanded that the London’s underground stations be made available for shelter.
However, the reality was that at the beginning of the Blitz, the doors to the Underground stations were systematically locked by the Police during air raids, in order to stop civilians seeking refuge in them. The authorities fearing that once down in the relative safety of the underground network, Londoners may not not return to the surface to carry out vital war work "Deep shelter mentality" or that children would fall onto the track.
Finally, one night (some state 8th September) at Liverpool Street underground station, with the East End shelters overcrowding due to intense bombing huge crowds of East Enders forced entry and surged down into onto the platforms.Warren, Goodge Street and Highgate underground stations were "broken open" and according to Ted Bramley "every inch of stairs, corridors and platforms taken by the people. Working men, women and children of al types and trades, from all parts of london, including soldiers and their families, were and are united in their resolve to share the Tubes".
Meanwhile, at other underground stations crowds organised by the Communist Party swept past police guarding the stations and used crowbars to force open the underground station network to thousands of Londoners who sought refugee from the bombings.
Finally, Herbert Morrison the Labour Home Secretary in the War time coalition (and who loathed the Communist Party and its campaigns) was forced to reconsider the issue of the underground being used for shelters and finally allow civilians to use the underground for shelter.
By the end of September 1940 it was estimated that 79 underground stations catering for 177,000 people were being used for shelter at night. However the authorities had tried various attempts to limit people using the tubes for shelter, no shelter before 4pm then 7pm, then no able bodied men, then ticket only. In Stepney a wealthy military man, Captain Beaumont was appointed advisor to to the Town Claerk (another "Dictator" according the local Communist party) usurping the role of the local councillors accountable to a Regional Commissioner (Tory) Captain Euan Wallace and his boss was London Regional Commissioner for Civil Defence ( The new Shelter "Dictator") a retired Admiral Edward Evans of the Broke. The Communist Party claimed they knew nothing of working peoples lives in the East End and were not accountable.
The Communist Party soon established effective shelter committees (initially Stepney) in order to secure proper conditions such as provisions for feeding and amenities from the authorities. These Shelter committees soon spread across London. The Communist Party even organised the first entertainment in the underground shelters, through the auspicious of the "Unity Theatre" Group.
The Communist Parties main slogan during this period was to "stand firm and demand bomb proof shelters”, they also demanded that private shelters be made available to the general public, that empty flats and houses be commandeered for the homeless who should be entitled to compensensation for lost furniture and clothing.
The Party also did vital work with evacuated families and children from London, to towns and villages outside London to areas such as rural Berkshire and Northamptonshire. campaigning for decent accommodation, rations, and schooling for the evacuees.
Undoubtedly, during this period of the War it was the East End and it's women in particular who were on the front line. It was East End women who were forced to search for shelter for their families, try to salvage possessions from bombed out houses, it was the women upon whom the burden fell to find enough food for their families, despite rationing and a 25% rise in the cost of living. All this while trying to organise childcare so that they could carry out vital war work.
"No one who witnessed it will ever forget the courage of the mothers of London's East End during those terrible days and nights of the second week of September. Their houses were not palaces, their belongings few, but they spelt home to them, Their world came crashing round their ears on those awful nights, but with grim faces red with crying but alive with righteous anger they marched on - solders all" said War illustrated.
At its peak 1,500 fires raged across London during the Blitz. During the War over 20,000 Londoner's were killed including 327 firemen and women, as well as numerous Anti Aircraft personnel, nurses, police, rescue, salvage specialists, bomb disposal staff
In just two nights in April 1941 148,000 London homes were damaged by German bombs. By the end of the war increadiablly only one house out of ten had not recievied some kind of bomb damage.
The London County Council emergency services, alone employed 50,000 people, providing vital services such as fire, ambulance, salvage, hospital, canteens, nurseries and orphanages. The LCC ambulance personnel for example had gone from a pre war figure of 420 t0 8,500. At Bethnal Green Museum Restaurant 1,000 hot meals a day were being organised.
The German (and Italian) bombers continued to bomb London for the rest of the War, however the continued relentlessly bombing started on 7th September 1940 and continued daily until 2nd November and lasted until 11th May 1941 (the official end of the Blitz).
Anti Aircraft defences (ack Ack) were also improving throughout the month of September, on September 29th accounting for six out of ten downed German aircraft in the South East of England. This success rate also made them targets, such as the AA unit at Borough maned by the local Labour Party which was wiped out by a direct hit.
NOTE
The Home Guard was established in 1940 and was again the brain child of a Communist Party member Tom Wintringham, who had fought with the International Brigade in Spain.
DISASTER AT BETHNAL GREEN
On a wet evening Wednesday March 3, 1943 The East End was once again under attack (retaliation for the RAF bombing Berlin), a crowd of over one thousand people surged into Bethnal Green underground station, a women with a young child tripped on slippy steps deep within the system and those behind fell ontop of her, piling up behind her, as yet more rushed in to avoid the bombing.Despite the best efforts of rescuers, 173 people: 27 men, 84 women and 62 children died in the tragedy.
WEST HAM DISASTER
In the worst single incident in the Blitz 450 were killed when a bomb hit an air raid shelter at a school in West Ham.
PRE WAR CAMPAIGN FOR ARP
The well respected Communist scientist Prof "Jack" J.B.S. Haldane headed the Communist Parties campaign for effective Air Raid Precautions. Crucially, Prof Haldane was keen to move away from the initial poistion of simply condeming the authorities into provided practical advice and suggestions.
Accordingly, the Communist Party had organised a ARP Co-ordinating Group. This committee included architects, engineers and scientists and was established and chaired by Prof Haldane.
Despite producing vital information on the effects of bombing and the need for adequate safety precautions, few local authorities took on board their reccomendations until the first bombs fell. The Labour Party paranoia with regard to the Communist Party even lead them to proscribed Prof Haldane's organisation in 1938 because of it's links to the Communist Party. Prof Haldane's 1938 recommendations included building a system of tunnels in London to provide shelter. A project not begun until the first bombs fell on the Capital.
However, the Party was active locally on ARP matters as early as July 1938, Sheffield had produced a detailed pamphlet, and preliminary memorandums had been produced in Hull, Leeds and St Pancras. ByJuly 1939 Norwich Communist Party had produced a four page leaflet outlining the party’s position regarding ARP and what steps Norwich City council should take take to protect the civilian population.The Norwich leaflet headed air raid precautions, the leaflet announced in bold type the communist party demands adequate protection for the workers of Norwich,
The Norwich Party demanded
Bomb proof shelters for all
Effective gas masks for all
plans for evacuation (of children)
The Party also helped establish many local ARP groups across the country, including women’s ARP committees such as those in Liverpool, Portsmouth, and St Pancras by July 1939.
In ARP Act Now by the Communist Party printed first in May 1938 and which sold over 50,000 copies the Party called for
1. Bomb-proof shelters for all
2. Democratic control of all Air Raid Protection schemes
3. Adequate Government grants to local authorities
4. Make the rich pay
The Communist Party estimated in the booklet the cost of various form of protection
Bomb proof shelters £14 per head
Evacuation (new accomidation) £30 per head
Evacuation (existing accomidation) nil
they estimated that some 45,000,000 would need increased protection at a total cost of £596,000,000
Communist Party ARP Demands 1938
1. A Ministry of Civilian Defence to be formed.
2. Air Raid Precautions personnel to be appointed democratically, including evacuation wardens where needed.
3. Landlords to provide materials for covering lights with Government assistance. Showing of lights to be made a crime.
4. Gas protection for babies to be provided at earliest moment: and pending this, immediate evacuation of children-in-arms with their mothers.
5. Civilians to receive instructions in use of respirators (" gas-masks ") in tear-gas chambers. Reserves of gas-masks (respirators) to be formed to meet loss or damage.
6. An expert committee to investigate existing respirators.
7. Steel helmets for wardens, and allowances during period when they are training their neighbours.
8. Increase in fire brigades and rescue squads. Landlords to provide fire-fighting apparatus in houses.
9. Trenches to be dug in open spaces, as a temporary measure.
10. Compulsory powers of billeting in steel-frame buildings in crowded areas.
11. Underground railways to be made flood-proof and gas-proof.
12. Compulsory billeting of refugees in country and preparation of small camps.
13. Schoolchildren to be evacuated under teachers: and not only from London but from all vulnerable towns.
14. Evacuation schemes to include use of roads as alternative to railways. Private vehicles to be taken over and controlled.
15. Food stores to be accumulated in country for refugees.
16. Negotiations to be opened for evacuation to the Free State and Northern Ireland.
17. Peers to be created if Lords obstruct.
18. Labour movement to be mobilised behind the scheme.
MORE LESSONS FROM SPAIN
Catalan engineer, Ramon Perera, supervised the building of some 1,400 public shelters in Barcelona, his unique design had been proven in battle but the British government refused to learn lessons.
HAYES
On the 7th July 1944 a German V1 rocket landed on the EMI factory in Blyth Road, Hayes, as a result a concrete shelter roof collapsed, killing 34 and injuring a further eighteen.
A memorial to those killed in the bomb attack on EMI can be found in Cherry Tree Lane Cemetary, Hayes
Names of those killed on the memorial include,
Ivy Baker, Maud Bourne, Percy Bullock, Dorothy Edis, Arthur Hewlett, Ronald Hurford, Edward mason, Raymond Nelson, Constance Searle, Alma Stent, Jessie Stephenson, Irene Wickenden, Edith Atkins, Daisy Batchelor, John Bolton, Alice Bradstock, Frank Bridges, May Brooks, Edwin Chalk, Colin Curson, Irene Darwent, Alfred Dean, Charles Echells, Eileen Gayland, Stella Gregory, Dorothy Hammond, Harry Harbour, Charles Huggett, William Hyde, May Kelly, Elizabeth Lewis, Annie Preen, Ivy Rawlins, Cecil Salter, Mary Scott, John Short, Emily Summer.
Further V2's rockets fell in Gledwood Drive, Hayes on October 21st 1944 and another at Hurstfield Crescent and Wrays Way killing six and injuring 22
In total six V rocket bombs fell on Hayes, (other bombs fell on Hayes throughout the War) including bombs on Beechwood Avenue, Princes Park Lane, Glamis Crescent, Mount Road, Wheatley Crescent, Orchard Road and Longmead Road.
Children leaving a service at St Edmunds church at Yeading were "straffed" by a dive bomber 5th October 1940 and a German Heinkel was shot down by Hayes anti aircraft guns and exhibited on Botwell Green (Photo left)in November 1940.
The Hayes UDC provided public shelters in most Hayes parks, most people opting to take refuge in garden "Anderson" shelters.
NOTE:I once heard a recollection that the Communist Party who led the invasion of the underground was a women teacher from Stepney ?.
This article while not highlighting the role of the Labour Party in ARP recognises that many Labour Party members also carried out vital ARP campaigning work.
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