Hayes & Harlington UDC 1950

Labour candidates 1950

East Ward
Stanley George Chilton, 66 Hollywood Gardens
R.M. Smith, 23 Shaftesbury Waye
A.Smith, 138 Church Road

South Ward
Ossie Garvin, 44 Church Road,
Mr Fippard, Gordon Crescent

West Ward
Ernest Kirby Harding 62 Central Avenue
H. Blackburn, Bushey Road, Harlington
F.W.D. Rosser, 94 Tudor Road

Harlington Ward
M. Wheeler, 9 St Dunstans Close, Harlington

Prior to the 1950 Council elections the Hayes & Harlington UDC consisted of 24 Labour Councillors and 2 Conservatives.

It is expected that after the election Labour will hold all 26 seats and be 100% Labour council

Councillor R. Bristow (Labour) and Councillor W.W. Chubb (Labour) are standing down this year

Lesbian & Gay Miners Support Group 1984-85

Before the miners' strike it would have been very hard to imagine a miners' minibus running around Dulais Valley in South Wales with the slogan on its doors and dashboard saying, This vehicle was donated by the Lesbians' and Gay men's miners' support group.'

In fact by February 1985 there were eleven lesbians' and gay men's miners' support
groups all over the country. Six of them replied to our survey.

By December 1984 the London group alone had collected over £11,000 by a mixture of pub, club and street collections, benefits, parties and other events. The highlight event was undoubtedly the 'Pits and Perverts' gig at the Electric Ballroom where Bronski Beat headed the bill; it raised £5,650. At the benefit David Donovan, a South Wales miner, said: 'You have worn our badge, "Coal not Dole", and you know what harassment means, as we do.

Now we will pin your badge on us, we will support you. It won't change overnight, but now 140,000 miners know that there are other causes and other problems. We know about blacks, and gays, and nuclear disarmament. And we will never be the same.' The existence and activity of the various groups proves that many lesbians and gay men do support the miners. As the Southampton group remarked in their response to our survey:

'Our best personal experiences were meeting miners who came to the city from Abercynon. After coming down here repeatedly and meeting politically active socialists, seeing them collect money, food and clothing and generally working in support of the strikers, their attitudes were forced to change just by their own experiences, because they know we are just ordinary people, and people who support their struggle .. . They've had to change a lot of their attitudes and as is said so often, things will never be the same again.'

Formation and Activities

The Lesbians' and gay men's miners' support groups responding to our survey were formed later than the other groups were. The London group was the first to be set up in July 1984, and started with 11 members. Six months later it had grown to 50. Responding to our questionnaire they said that the formation of the group was 'one of the most important positive developments in London's Lesbian and gay community in 1984.'

The Lothian Lesbian & Gay Miners Support Group was set up two months later in September 1984 with 12 members raising £40 a week for the White Craige strike centre in East Lothian.

Lesbians Against Pit Closures, London, followed in November 1984, involving more than 20 women. They collected £50 a week for the Rhodisia Women's Action Group, Worksop, and said: 'Women's activities in the strike are obviously a major influence on us.' The lesbians' and gay men's support for the miners has received a fair amount of good coverage in the left-wing and trade union press. At the lesbians' and gay men's 'fringe meeting', attended by some 250 people, at the October 1984 Labour Party conference, the NUM. who dominated the conference, sent the

following message of support:

'Support civil liberties and the struggle of lesbian and gay people. We welcome the links formed with South Wales and other areas. Our struggle is yours. Victory to the miners.' And the Notts Women's Support Groups, to whom the London Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners Group gave £250 in December 1984, wrote:

'I am writing on behalf of the Notts Women's Support Group to express to you our gratitude for the support and solidarity you have shown in forming the Lesbians & Gay Men Support the Miners Group. We also extend to you our total solidarity and support in your struggle against all forms of oppression and prejudice on the grounds of sexuality. Our struggles are part and parcel of the same fight. In particular

we are deeply grateful that you have consistently kept us informed as to your activities and have materially contributed to support groups in order that the dispute can continue to victory.'

Article:

Labour Research Department "Solidarity with the Miners

NOTE
Hillingdon Miners Support Group raised £12,000 pounds (about £50,000 today) during the 1984-85. based at the West Drayton Hillingdon Trades Council Offices above a bike shop on the High street.

Steve Clare Secretary

Mothers Pride Bakery, Bakers Union members gave 50p a week levy

Cuba 3 Britain 2,

So Ended a football match on 11th December 2001 between a team of veterans of the Cuban national squad and a British Ambassador's eleven. The match was commemorating the first ever 'international' football match on Cuban soil on December 11th 1911 between a local team Hatuey and a team of British sailors called Rovers. It was also celebrating a new collaboration aimed at developing Cuban football, one of the few sports which Cuba is not (yet) very good at.

Later in December a decorated double decker bus was due to arrive from Britain to be used by the Cuban national team. It, together with 1600 footballs for use in clubs and schools, had been donated by the Salud International trade union project working with the English Football Association. Salud aims to send 1500 footballs every year and is negotiating to get a major English or Scottish club involved in sending trainers and perhaps even paying a visit.

The new British ambassador Paul Hare is involved in the project and is keen to develop a two way exchange - British football coaches in return for Cuban baseball coaches.

Luis Fernandez, President of the Cuban Football Association, (who scored the winning goal) commented that Cuba was particularly keen to develop football because it was the most international of all sports. His hope is to see Cuba in the World Cup finals by 2010. Raul Castro is also reported to be very keen on it for fitness training in the Cuban army since it requires much more energy that Cuba's traditional national sport of baseball. But baseball is not being forgotten.

In November the Cuban squad retained its world championship crown, winning 5-3 in the final against, most sweetly, the United States.

Phil Lenton - Salud

NOTE

Cuba were the first Caribbean team to make it to the World Cup, which they did in 1938. There, they defeated Romania a replay 2-1 after tying them 3-3. They were then eliminated in the second round by Sweden.

CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT 1958

The first London to Aldemaston march was held on the 31st March 1958.

The Uxbridge Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was established at a meeting at St Andrew's Hall in May 1958.

The Uxbridge CND officer elected officers for 1958 being Chairman: Rev K.J. M. Boggis
Secretary: R. Armstrong
Treasurer Mr Wakefield
Committee: Rev H. Booth, Mr Smith, Mr Stanford-Francis, Mr Cox, Mr Lockton, Mr Wells, Mrs Cooley, Mrs Stack, Mrs Goodwin and Mrs Ellis (must be Peter Smith)

MORE H-BOMB PROTESTS POLICE QUIZ STUDENT WHO LOBBIED M.P's

Mr Robin Fior, the Harefield student barrister, who has stood for Uxbridge Council on behalf of the Labour Party, was one of five students questioned by Scotland Yard men on Tuesday 20th May 1958, when leaflets headed "Official Secrets" were distributed at the House of Commons during the lobbying against the H-Bomb.

The leaflets were a reprint of an article which recently appeared in the Oxford University magazine "Isis" which is the subject of a prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. MrRobin Fior, who was taken first to Cannon-row Police Station and then to Scotland Yard, said he was a member of the organising committee of the mass lobby.

Other members of the Uxbridge nuclear disarmament campaign committee, were among the 3,000 people who lobbied against the H-bomb yesterday.

The Rev. K. J. M. Boggis chairman of the Uxbridge committee, was to have joined the group of Anglican clergy who paraded from St. Martin's in-the-Fields to the Cenotaph, but he arrived too late to Join the procession.

Middlesex Advertiser Friday 23rd May 1958

CND nationally had been established on 17th February 1958.



MARY TYSON

Mary Tyson was a Yorkshire women who moved to Hayes in 1948. Mary Tyson and her husband took part in the first Aldermaston march in 1958.

By 1961 Mrs Mary Tyson had established Hayes & Harlington CND in November 1961 (Mr Tyson was secretary of Hayes & Harlington CND




"The number of young people supporting the cause is gratifying"..."contrary to the public image, these are not a lot of long-haired beatniks looking for a way in which to make themselves conspicuous. They are young and hopeful that they can safeguard their future by bringing about the discontinuation of tests and ceasing of Britain to hold nuclear arms at all"


Hayes & Harlington CND meetings are held weekly at Townfiels School, Hayes

They send representatives to places all over the country to attend other demonstrations such as at Holy Loch (Scotland) earlier this year

Mary Tyson with Joyce Miller established a group for women called Hayes Women for Peace and Mrs Tyson was picked to attend as a delegate to the World Disarmament Congress in Moscow. The group even made a record at EMI with a message of friendship to a similar group in a Soviet town with which it is hoped to set up a link

It is hoped to get as many women in Hayes as possible to send a postcard to Mr MacMillan (Prime Minister) to arrive on the same morning.

Mrs Mary Tyson teaches part time at Hammersmith County Girls School, teaching fifteen and sixteen year olds, she has two sons of her own aged 14 and 10.

The little wife who stays at home glued to her sink is a popular Image, and although there are more and more women shading their aprons to take a vital and important part in social and national problems, there are not enough prepared to take on the responsibilities they should.

But Mrs. Tyson does not belong to this group, she is one of the rare women who have sincere and positive beliefs and acts upon them. She is prepared to travel as our representative and to act as an informal ambassador to other women fighting for their children's future. In the cause of world peace. There must be many in Hayes like me who wish her every success and are thankful for her leadership and initiative."

Hayes Chronicle 15th September 1962

Hayes & Harlington CND part of West Middlesex CND
organised march from the Grapes, Hayes to Ealing Green September 1962
Prof A.C. Offord

NOTE
Robin Fior, I believe this is the famous Harrow school educated designer, who designed CND posters, was a supporter of the Committee of 100 (split from CND) was involved in design work on the radical paper "Black Dwarf May 1968 and 1972 and later moved to Portugal (after the Revolution)

April 1962
NURSES PROTEST MARCH

Nurses from Hillingdon Hospital and Northwood (Mount Vernon Hospital) were represent in a march through Uxbridge on Good Friday.

The nurses who carried a banner saying "Devotion, remuneration ? - 2.5%" marched up and down the Uxbridge High Street for over one hour.

"We propose to hold these protests weekly" one of the campaigners said "we want the public to realise the true position regarding nurses pay and gain support"

"We hope that the marches will snowball and that we will get more and more marching with us as the weeks go by"

"We cannot strike we must remain anonymous because of our profession"

The march was with the sanction of the police

Photo COHSE national nurses demo 29th April 1962 Trafalgar Square

HILLINGDON TRADES COUNCIL

Rule 14
PROSCRIBED ORGANISATIONS

In no circumstances shall the Council co-operate with or subscribe to funds of the Communist or Fascist parties, or any subsidiary organisation of these parties, or any industrial organisation which has been proscribed by the TUC General Council.

The Council shall refuse to accept the credentials of a delegate from an affiliated branch if the delegate in question is a member of the Communist or Fascist Parties or any subsidiary organisation of these parties, or a member of an organisation proscribed by the TUC.

WE SHALL OVERCOME !

We shall overcome became the anthem of the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland.

It was first sung at the end of the initial Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (estb January 1967) march from Coalisland to Dungannon, County Tyrone on Saturday 24th August 1968.

The person to orchestrated and lead the march in singing of this song was a protestant trade unionist and Chair of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, Elizabeth Sinclair.

According to Austin Currie book "All hell will break loose" Betty Sinclair, as Chairperson of NICRA, concluded(The meeting in Dungannon) by leading us in singing "We shall overcome", the first to my knowledge, that the American civil rights anthem had been sung on any public platform in Northern Ireland. it was significant that the editorial in the next days(actually 26th August 1968) Irish News was headed "We Shall Overcome"

We Shall Overcome, was a spiritual song dating back to around 1903, had been made popular by the Folk artist Pete Seeger and was soon adopted by the Afro-American civil rights movement in America in the mid 1960's.

Local Uxbridge Labour MP John Ryan was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement and attended the next (second) Northern Ireland Civil Rights march in Derry on October 5th 1968 and witnessed the brutal attack by the RUC.

We shall overcome We shall overcome We shall overcome some day

CHORUS:

Oh, deep in my heart I do believe We shall overcome some day

Elizabeth Sinclair (1910-1981)

Elizabeth or "Betty" Sinclair was born into a working-class family in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in 1910. Her father was a worker in the Harland and Wolff shipyard and a “Walkerist” (pro-unionist) socialist; her mother was a reeler in Ewart’s mill. After leaving school at the age of fifteen she became a millworker alongside her mother. As an active trade unionist she was elected on behalf of her union to the Belfast and District Trades Union Council, of which she was secretary from 1947 to 1975.

In 1931 she began to attend meetings of the Revolutionary Workers’ Group (forerunner of the CPI) and in 1932 she became a member.

The same year she played an active part in the leadership of the outdoor relief (unemployment assistance) strike and the demonstrations by tens of thousands of unemployed workers. Huge non-sectarian workers’ demonstrations shook the Unionist regime to its foundations. Demonstrations were banned and a curfew was declared. Two demonstrators were shot dead by the British army; another demonstrator who was arrested and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment died later from his mistreatment.

These were the first large-scale non-sectarian political demonstrations in the North, and the last until the advent of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in the 1960s (in which Betty Sinclair was also to play a leading part). Some of the strikers’ demands were met, after which the Stormont regime intensified its promotion of sectarian division.
From 1933 to 1935 she attended the Lenin School in Moscow. In 1940 she was arrested after the CPI paper Unity published an article allegedly sympathetic to the IRA, and she was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. The same year she became a full-time party worker in Belfast. In the 1945 election for the Northern Ireland Parliament she stood as a CPI candidate and received 4,000 votes.

She was a founder-member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association in 1967 and its first chairperson but resigned from this position in 1969 after the organisation had been sabotaged by ultra-leftists and pushed into provocations that would result in further sectarian divisions.
After 1969 she travelled throughout eastern Europe and in the 1970s lived in Prague as the Irish representative on the international editorial board of World Marxist Review. She died in 1981 after a fire in her flat in east Belfast.

Betty Sinclair deserves so much more acknowledgement for her role in trying to combat sectarianism in Northern Ireland.

Thanks to the CPI for information on Betty Sinclair

Order of Industrial Heroism
The Workers V.C

The 'Daily Herald' instituted the Order of Industrial Heroism in 1923 to recognise the ‘deeds of valour' of those workers who had saved their fellow workers from danger or death and became known as the "Workers' V.C.". Many of the 440 awards were posthumous.




The award helped focus attention on workplace hazards. The award continued to be presented until 1964 when the Daily Herald closed to be replaced by the 'Sun'.

The medal for the Order of Industrial Heroism was designed by the sculptor, Eric Gill (of the type face fame) born Brighton 22.2.1882 died 17.11.1940 Uxbridge), who chose the image of St Christopher bearing the Christ Child for his main theme.

INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE

THE FAREWELL

On Saturday October 29 1938 the International Brigaders held their farewell parade in Barcelona, an event deeply etched in the memory of all who were present.

In the presence of many thousands, mainly women and children, Dolores Ibarruri,

"la Pasionaria", one of the most beloved of the leaders of Spanish democracy, spoke for the Spanish people when she said:

"Comrades of the International Brigades!

Political reasons, reasons of state, the welfare of that same cause for which you offered your blood with boundless generosity, are sending you back, some to your own countries and others to forced exile. You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of democracy's solidarity and universality. We shall not forget you, and when the olive tree of peace puts forth its leaves again, mingled with the laurels of the Spanish Republic's victory comeback!"

THE RETURN OF THE INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE

Wednesday 7^th December 1938

From News Chronicle, December 8 1938

When it was all over and the station was almost quiet again, the oldest porter to be found was asked if he had ever seen anything like this. "No", he said, "I saw nothing like it even at the end of the last war" Replying to speeches of welcome to the returning Brigaders, Sam Wild, Commander of the British Battalion said:

"We intend to keep the promise we made to the Spanish people before we left — that we would only change our front and continue to fight in Britain for the assistance of Spain "These extracts from "newspapers of the time convey the atmosphere as the Brigaders returned home:

From the Daily Worker, December 8, 1938

At last the train steamed into Victoria Station;, and from its windows there waved the flags of fifty-two nations. Even before it stopped, mothers and sons, wives and husbands were re-united.

As they left the train, headed by Battalion Commander Sam Wild, Political Commissar Bob Cooney and Quartermaster "Hookey" Walker, they were welcomed by Mr Attlee, leader of the Labour Party. With him were Will Lawther of the Miners Federation, Mr William Gallacher, M.P., of the Communist Party, Mr J. R. Squance, Railmen's Union Leader, Sir Norman Angell, Lord Strabolgi, Sir Stafford Cripps and Tom Mann."

From the evening paper Star December 8 1938

Led proudly by their wounded comrades, the men marched into London. With them marched the spirit of Byron, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Chartists, Keir Hardie ... Britain's bravest fighters for liberty through the centuries. Behind and around them marched twenty thousand British democrats- Men as well as women wept and cheered alternately; It was no political affair for all parties were represented, both on the platform and in the crowd. It was British democracy spontaneously expressing its abhorrence of Fascism and its appreciation of bravery.

These men have made history, by forming part of the greatest international democratic army the world has ever known. They have inspired the world by their example.

Something of this seemed to enter into everyone who was at Victoria last night, and the memory of it will never be eradicated"

Peckham Rent Strike 1931

Alf Maunders

Born in Peckham in 1908, Alf joined the Communist Party in its founding years.

He was a local organiser of the National Unemployed Workers Movement and a comrade of Wally Hannington.

Amongst many struggles, he was involved in the occupation of the Cafe Royal by the unemployed and a number of fierce battles with the police in Hyde Park in the 1930s.

More notably, Alf organised the first successful rent strike of the period at the privately run Nigel Buildings, triggering a wave of tenant’s action in working class London boroughs and beyond.

The first decisive tenants’ battles had been in 1915, when a mass rent strike on the Clyde sparked a major movement across Britain, which was especially led by women. In the run up to the end of the First World War major actions followed in Leeds and Bradford followed suit. Within a year rent strikes were being called across Britain.

When strikes were called in Woolwich and parts of south London, in Handsworth and Lozells in Birmingham, munitions industry bosses were so worried that they forced Lloyd George to order local rents to be reduced. Some 1,000 tenants struck in Edmonton, and protests in Barrow against evictions led to copycat actions in Workington and Coventry. This movement won the first legal controls on landlords raising rents. The next decade saw a major growth in the social housing sector, which for a time diminished the need for such major tenants’ actions.

The Communist Party had been at the heart of this struggle fifteen to twenty years before Alf joined the Party. But, as a youth, he surely would have been more than conscious of the experience of the generation before him. As the recession bit hard in Britain, from 1931, private tenants saw racked rents and insufficient investment made slum conditions worse. The London Communist Party in particular once again thrust itself into tenants’ struggles and scores of epic struggles ensued.

This new phase began with the struggle to improve the lot of the tenants of the privately owned Nigel Buildings. These were a notorious run down series of tenement blocks that were infested with vermin in Peckham, south-east London, now in the borough of Southwark.

The landlord increased the rent by a penny a week and so Alf organised the tenants to withhold their rent. Barricades against the bailiffs were erected around the buildings and local people organised to bring in food and supplies. After several months (one source speaks of the longest of such strikes being of 21 weeks during, and this may well be the Nigel Buildings affair), unsuccessful attempts by bailiffs and police (including mounted police) seeking to storm the barricaded tenements, the landlords gave in and reduced the rent. Alf was arrested and imprisoned for assaulting a bailiff at some point in the struggle

.
Copycat actions now spread across the capital, especially in London’s East End (Stepney). Women once again were at the heart of the tenants' fightback, during the course of which the Communist Party helped local tenants fight against slum conditions and extortionate rents. Future Communist MP, Phil Piratin, wrote, “Tens of thousands of working class men and women had organised themselves for common struggle ... committees were formed, and hundreds of people who had never been on a committee and had no experience of organisation or politics learned those things, and learned them well.”
Following Nigel Buildings, it became the norm in tenants’ struggles in London to barricade the housing blocks to keep out rent collectors, bailiffs and the police. Sentries were posted day and night. Tenants defended themselves with saucepans, rolling pins, sticks and shovels. The rent strikes were epics and gained national publicity, resulting in a wave of emulation around the country. A government feeling vulnerable on the eve of war once again had to give in to tenants' demands. Rents were cut and evictions halted

.
A few years later, militant rent struggles were emulated by the Communist Party in Birmingham amongst thousands of council house tenants in 1939, and reprised in London and throughout the provinces in the squatters’ movement immediately after the end of the war in 1945.
Aside from his role in the tenants’ movement, Alf was also part of the Communist anti-fascist organisation at the battle of Cable Street. He also helped to organise anti-fascist actions in Camberwell and Peckham against Mosley’s Blackshirts and William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw). He always enjoyed telling the story of how Joyce, when climbing on a lorry to speak at the Heaton Arms in Peckham, was swiftly felled by a flying bottle and carried off unconscious never to return. I suspect it was he that threw the bottle at Joyce but he would never admit it!

Around 1935, after accepting a challenge from the local Tory MP to go to the Soviet Union he was offered a one way ticket! Alf travelled overland to Moscow and attended a reception within the Kremlin. He met Kalinin and Dimitrov, a fact of which he was very proud, and often recounted the story of how Stalin entered the room and walked by smiling. Alf joined a British trade union delegation in Red Square to watch a Red Army parade. He also met a young Mao Tse Tung on the platform. On returning to Britain, he had to travel secretly across Nazi Germany with the help of German CP members. Whilst in Hamburg, he was nearly captured by the Gestapo and was smuggled across the North Sea on a tug.

After serving in the RAF during the war, as a skilled carpenter/joiner in the post-war period he took part in many industrial disputes as a shop steward for the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, and was blacklisted on several building sites. Alf supported the Soviet Union over the 1956 Hungary and 1968 Czechoslovakia events, believing that an enemy of the Soviet Union was an enemy of the working class.

A firm Marxist-Leninist, he was not a great lover of the “British Road”, arguing that the capitalist class would never give up power by peaceful means. A lifelong reader and supporter of the Daily Worker and Morning Star, Alf passed away aged 84 in 1991.

Dick Maunders

In 1931 a Workers Defense Movement (a left wing grouping) was established in Camberwell it was active in preventing evictions, most notably during the 1932 Rent Strike at Wakefield House, Goldsmith Estate, Peckham. The Camberwell WDM was also active in support of Hunger Marchers and unemployed.

Note

The leader of the Stepney 1938-1939 strikers was Communist Councillor Maurice "Tuby" Rosen. the Stepney Tenants Defence League (STDL) had been established in 1936. with sporadic strikes from 1935

others included the Communist Party's Housing expert Michael Shapiro, Phil Piratin (later MP) Sarah Wesker, Bertha Sokoloff, Wolfy Millee. The STDL even had two full time CP organisers Harry Conn and Ella Donovan. by 1940 it had 11,000 members.

Tubby Rosen was also involved in the Communist inspired squatters movement after the War, notably at Duchess of Bedford House, Kensington High Street on September 8th 1946. This resulted in a famous Old Bailey court case against the leaders, Tubby Rosen along with Bill Carritt, Joyce Alergant, Stan Henderson and Ted Bramley October 30th to 31st 1946.

Simon Blumerfield's play "Enough of all this" is based on the strikes

Dod Street - Free Speech Fight
East London 1885


The Social Democratic Federation had been established in 1881 as Britain's first avowed Socialist Party. In 1884 a group which included branches from East London, Hammersmith and Leeds broke away and formed the Socialist League with William Morris, Ernest Bax, Edward Carpenter, Edward Aveling, Walter Crane and Eleanor Marx as some of its most high profile members of the Socialist League.

It was while leading the Socialist League that William Morris had become embroiled in the exploits of the Free Speech Vigilance Committee, formed with the Social Democratic Federation, the Socialist League and the Radical Union to defend their right to speak at what had become a traditional spot, at the corner of Piggot Street and Dod Street at Limehouse, East London. This densely populated factory area of East London was usually deserted and quiet on Sundays, and the open space afforded an ideal venue for open air meetings. Several leading lights in the socialist world addressed the crowds at Dod Street, including Edward Aveling, Eleanor Marx and Lewis Lyons, Jewish Tailors’ Trade Union leader.

On 20 September 1885, at the end of a meeting, the police launched a violent attack on the speakers, arresting and charging eight men, among them Jack Williams and Lewis Lyons. The hearing was set for Tuesday 22 September. Morris wrote to his wife, “I did not go either to the East End meeting or the Parks on Sunday: but, as you will see by the papers, I felt bound to go to the police court today. My adventure there is pretty well told by the Daily News and the Pall Mall I send you.”

At the Thames Police Court, Edward Aveling and Eleanor Marx gave evidence on the men’s behalf, nevertheless Lewis Lyons was sentenced to two months imprisonment. Morris, as he mentions in his letter above, was in amongst the spectators who cried “Shame,” when the sentence was passed. He immediately found himself under attack as the police turned their attentions on him, and two hours later he was in Thames Police Court in front of the magistrate on the charge of disorderly conduct. When the magistrate, Mr Saunders asked, “Who are you?” Morris replied, “I am an artist and a literary man, pretty well known, I think, throughout Europe.” This reply evidently impressed Mr Saunders who dismissed the charges against him.

This episode served only to strengthen the group’s resolve to defy the law and the next Sunday (27th September 1885), an estimated crowd of sixty thousand people turned up in Dod Street to hear Edward Aveling and Eleanor Marx, amongst others, speak. So great was the gathering that it spilled over into East India Dock Road and down West India Dock Road.

This time the police kept away, on the orders of the Home Secretary, who did not want an incident which could be used to the advantage of the Government’s opponents during the run up to the elections, which were being held in November of that year.
Rosemary Taylor

NOTE

Lewis Lyons a member of the Social Democratic Federation was the leader of the 1889
"Great London Tailors Strike". This strike was amongst 6,000 Jewish tailors in the East End. Their strike headquarters was at the White Hart, Public House, Greenfield Road.

The strike began on the 29th August 1889 and received £100 donation from the Dockers also on strike. A huge march to Hyde Park was organised by the tailors.

A Federation of East End Labour (originally Federation of Jewish East End London Labourers) was established 1st December 1889. This was in a tradition of East End Jewish unions running back to the 1870's and the second Jewish Tailors Union was established as a shoot off of the Hebrew Socialist Union on 26th August 1876 at Gun Street.

Lewis Lyons, later established a London Tailors Council in 1909
Lewis Lyons, Socialist, trade unionist, tailor died July 1918.

National Union of Railwaymen

The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), later National Union of Railwaymen now called Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) was established on the 26^th August 1871 by a group of railwaymen who meet in Leeds, within a further two weeks meetings were held in London which enthusiastically endorsed the launching of the union. On March 2^nd 1872 its rules were finally registered with the Registrar of Friendly Societies.

Its first Annual General Meeting was held on June 24^th, 1872 in the Sussex Hotel, Bouverie Street, London and within twelve months of formation had 17,000 members.

The first railwaymen to join in West Middlesex were platelayers (Platelayers Union) in West Middlesex were those working as platelayers between Acton and Slough along the Great Western Railway track earning in 1889 just 18 shillings a week. (photo rail track workers 1908)

Mr W.J. O’Brien of Acton stated they were engaged as platelayers on the line and “upon their skill depended the security of travelers and the rolling stock of the company”, and they demanded 21 shillings per week.

As early as 1897 branches of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS) had been established in Southall and Barnes, which meet on occasions together. (Southall Platelayers Union active from 1889).

At a meeting in November 1897 at the Coffee Tavern, Brentford, Mr Kates of Barnes ASRS introduced a Mr F. Kitley who explained about the principles of trade unionism and congratulated them on such a large attendance. He also referred to the treatment of staff working for the L&SW Railway when they had approached management, he said “the time had come for a united movement of all grades of railwaymen through the ASRS”.

At the same meeting Mr J. Mitchell Platelayers delegate to the recent Birmingham conference gave a resume of the proceedings , he said they had passed a resolution instructing the general secretary of the ASRS to write to several railway companies offering arbitration upon the national programme, meanwhile notices were to be prepared and signed by the men, with a view to handing them in to the companies of favourable replies were not forthcoming by a given date.

A Mr G.B. Whitby proposed the following resolution “That this meeting consisting of all grades of railway men employed on the line running into Brentford having heard the decision of the Birmingham conference pledge itself to support the ASRS.

In 1898 the Amalgamated Society of Railway servants meet at the De Burgh arms in West Drayton

(Picture ASRS Rickmondsworth,Hertfordshire 1912 first banner ASRS Neasden)

1911 RAIL STRIKE

During the 18^th -19^th August 1911 transport strike, over 200,000 railwaymen were on strike, paralysing West Middlesex.

Members in Southall, like all other branches of the union received the following telegram “Your liberty at stake all railwaymen must strike at once, loyalty to each

other means victory” signed by four rail union General Secretary’s J.E. Williams (ASRS), Fox, Louth and Chorlton.

According to the local Gazette the cry “they’re out “ the words flew from mouth to mouth

The local leader of the railwaymen was the imposing Councillor James Culley of Southall

The Southall railwaymens strike headquarters was at the Co-operative Hall, Kings Street, Southall at which a meeting of over one hundred assembled at 8:00 to discuss the strike but by 7:45 th

en already most men were on strike (I believe this was the evening of 17^th August). According to the local paper the meeting was full of enthusiasm and determination was writ large on the face of each of the hundred or more men present. One of the local rail union leaders stated

“They recognised the responsibility the immense amount of

inconvience and suffering to women and children that would happen should the strike be prolonged. But the companies and the autocratic methods and the non-recognition of their societies were responsible entirely for the present state of affairs. All kinds pf obstacles had been placed in the way to prevent the working of the Consolidation Boards”.

The meeting of Southall railwaymen carried the following resolution unanimously “That this meeting of railwaymen representing all grades heartily appreciates the action of our Executives in calling upon us at last to secure recognition of our Societies and pledge ourselves to faithfully abide by the decisions of those said Executives”

Before the meeting broke up the leaders appealed to the men not to do anything disorderly they had said the picket secretary had a reputation to uphold and wished to keep their hands clean, if the solders were called in they were to treat them as brothers.

All but two signalmen in Southall came out on strike, the two signalmen were place in two signal boxes one in the east signal box and one in west. The pickets furious at the “scabs” entered the box and turned off the lights preventing the men from working, the signalmen refused to move and the strikers with no desire to use violence, endeavored to persuade signalmen to strike (picture signal box 1911 strike sStockinford)

The pickets then established picket lines at various entrances to Southall station and sheds and large numbers of people assembled on the Southall railway bridge and also the iron bridge to look for “scab trains”. Scab workers often being reward not only in generous payments from management but also donations from passengers estimated at £10 a time to drive/work trains.

A movement was a foot to raise a special volunteer (a forerunner of the 1926 strike breaking Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies -OMS) force to take duty on the railway lines in the immediate neighborhood.

Amongst the loco drivers (ASLEF) the strike was also solid , one striker stating “I am a socialist and proud of it ”15 working out of 570 between Slough only two and Paddington.

Southall was described by the local paper as being in a great sense of excitement and ferment, with other local employers voluntarily raising wages as the strike wave swept London, outside the epicenter of Transport.

The local Uxbridge paper reported tat “A well known local factory owner had an unpleasant experience on Friday, he had driven in a motor car to a certain strike infested area of South East London to collect certain articles loaned but the crowd which gathered made such a dire threats about overturning the car if he persisted in his businesses he drove off “.

In Southall it was stated the police were are taking all necessary precautions against untoward events and for this purpose about 100-150 specials” constables have been raised in Uxbridge.

Police were placed on guard and several stationed on the Southall bridges and the local paper claimed “possible” incendiary devices were discovered at Southall and attributed to the strikers.

Elsewhere, in the country there was also turmoil, In Llanelli, South Wales two innocent young men, namely Leonard Worsell and John John, who were shot down by soldiers on 18^th August 1911 during the Railway Riots in Llanelli 17^th and 18^th August 1911.

Meanwhile in Liverpool gunboats were anchored in the Mersey and 3,000 troops and several hundred police swamped the city during the 72 day City wide Transport strike. Two more innocent strikers Michael Prendergast and John Sutcliffe were killed by soldiers on the 15^th August

Meanwhile in Liverpool during the 72 day City wide Transport strike (including 15,000 railwaymen) which started on 5^th August, two more innocent strikers Michael Prendergast and John Sutcliffe had been killed on the 15^th August by soldiers.

The deaths murder of innocent strikers could not sway one prominent local resident, the Vicar of Harefield the Rev A.A. Harland stated in August 1911 that “All these strikes had been ruthlessly conducted against law and order….. The police, the custodians of public safety had been cruelly maltreated by rioting mobs of so called hooligans and the solders who had suddenly been called out to protect life and property and assist the police in the discharge pf their duties had been compelled much against their will to fire upon the more violent and savage wrongdoers”

Despite the railway companies being well prepared and confident prior to the strike and direct government intervention with the extensive use of the army and police. The Railway Companies were forced into meeting union representatives, the first great rail strike being terminated on the 19^th August 1911. The outcome was a new Conciliation Scheme and union recognition.

One legacy of the strike was the move towards the amalgamation of rail unions. The three main “general” unions, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, The United Pointsmen & Signalmen’s Society and the General Railway Workers Union agreing to amalgamate and this was completed on the 23^rd August 1913 becoming the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and by 1915 the new union had 267,611 members.

1919 RAIL STRIKE

The second national Railwaymen’s strike took place at midnight on the 26^th September 1919 primarily over the issue consolidation of war bonuses of 33 shillings. The strike being settled with the intervention of Downing Street on the 5^th October 1919 (pictiure Soldier at Slough 1919)

When the Hayes branch established 1922, a Mr W.T. Pollard of Hayes recalled he had walked many miles to attend branch meetings and that he had been a member since March 1900 “They had to fight in the dark and dare not come out into the open but they got things done”

A Southall Railway Women’s Guild was established by wives of husbands in the NUR by B (Barbara?) A. Chard the wife of a Southall signalman, also involved in the Women’s Railway Guild was Mrs Nottingham. (pictire WW1 women rail worker)

1926 GENERAL STRIKE

The third national rail strike took place during the General Strike in 1926 (3^rd-12^th May 1926)

1962 BEECHING STRIKE

The next (fourth) national rail strike was not called until thirty six years later in 1962, when faced with the Beeching Plans proposals to the closure of large sections of the rail network, stations and workshops. The NUR organised 189 meetings opposing the proposals and organised a strike on the 3^rd October 1962, This strike secured widespread public support. The union winning a number of concessions to the redundancy agreements

1968 WORK TO RULE

In 1968 the National Union of railwaymen opted for a work to rule which was conducted between the 24^th June and5th July 1968 over the issue of pay.

1989 ONE DAY STRIKES

The National Union of Railway under the excellent leadership of Jimmy Knapp conducted a series of six one day strikes in July/July 1989 which secured high levels of public support.

LOCAL NOTES

Mrs B.A. CHARD

Councillor Mrs B (Barbara) A Chard came to Southall in 1898, helped found the Women’s Co-operative Guild and the Women’s Railway (Union) Guild.

During the World War 1 she helped women munitions workers, in groups of up to eighty to find accommodation in Hayes and

Southall area.

Elected as Southall Labour Councillor in 1919 and onto the Board of Guardians, became Chairman of Southall Urban District Council in 1926

Mr Albert J Chard was her husband, also a Labour JP a railway guard

Positive this is Barbara Chard born in 1872 at Cardigan, Wales aged 29 at 1901 census

NOTES

Hayes National Union of Railwaymen's branch established in 1922. At Hayes their was a railway estate built for workers on the Great Western Railway and a Mr Doubbley was the leader of the West Drayton/Uxbridge National Union of Railwaymen who played a key role during the 1926 General strike. In the 1940’s a Mr Slade was the active in Hayes Trades Council

In January 1929 a Rail Minority Movement (Communist Party) was established with branches from Perth, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Derby, Keig

hley, Birmingham, London and Exeter represented. Soon prominent members of the RMM were elected into senior branch roles in Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby and Leytonstone. The RMM also had an important group as Stratford, London's largest rail cleaning and repair depot.

Mr W.C. Loeber (NUR) being important leader of rank and file railwaymen, he was a carriage cleaner from Hornsey. He joined the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants in 1912 and by 1924 was Chairman of the Wood Green & Hornsey branch of the NUR. NUR Executive member 1938-1940. Close friend of Harry Pollitt, Loeber was a Communist Party member and national executive member. He retired from the Railway's aged 65 in 1956. "He saw the Minority Movement as the only way to prevent a decline in working class conditions, and the Communist Party as the only way to bring Socialism nearer (The Railway Vigilant September 1932)

Newsletters included "The Signal (Manchester), Hornsey Star, The LMS Rebel and Kings Cross Star.

The Railway Minority Movement merged with the Railway Vigilance Movement (named after the Vigilance Committee's established during WW1. (and various Railway Vigilance Committees had continued after the war)

At the first conference of the Railway Vigilance Committee held on 3rd December 1932 with 35 NUR branches, 31 ASLEF and 18 Depot committees represented

The objective of the Railway Vigilance Committee was....."a movement organised in the local depots and branches and embracing all workers irrespective of grade or union division.....(which)..... can be a most powerful means of defeating the wage cuts demands of the companies


Its newspaper "The Railway Vigilant" appeared in November in November 1932 and circulation peaked at around 12,000