Radio Moscow

RADIO MOSCOW

Radio Moscow was the official Radio station of the Soviet Union, it started broadcasting in 1922, powered at 12 kilowatts ,this was at the time the most powerful Radio station in the world.

The call sign of Radio Moscow was "Moscow Evenings" for which the words were

"Not even a rustle is heard in the garden.
Here everything stands still until morning.
If you only know how dear evenings near Moscow are to me"

Words by M. Matusovski
Music by V Sdlovyov-Sedoi

Radio and TV day was celebrated in the Soviet Union on May 7th. This day marks the anniversary in 1895 (7th May) when Alexander Stepanovich Popov(1895 -1906), a teacher of the Kronstadt Mine School, read a paper on "The relation of Metallic Powders to electric Oscillation" and demonstrated the first radio receiving set in the world. Popov effected ship-to-shore communication over a distance of 6 miles in 1898 and 30 miles in 1899. It is therefore probable that Popov and not Marconi can be considered the true Father of Radio.

Popov was a supporter of reform in Russia and strong believer in the principles of academic and political freedom, was ordered by the Tsar to crack down on students at the Electro Chemical Institute in 1905, this it is said caused a deterioration in his already poor health and lead to his untimely death aged just 46.

In 1945, on the 50th anniversary of the reading of Popov's paper at Kronstadt , the Soviet government decreed that May 7th be annually marked in the USSR as Radio Day,

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's radio address on the overthrow of the Provisional Government may be practically considered as the Worlds first radio broadcast.

The following message was broadcast on October 30 (November 12 in the new calendar) of 1917

"The All-Russian Congress of Soviets has formed a new Soviet Government. The Government of Kerensky has been overthrown and arrested. Kerensky himself has fled. All official institutions are in the hands of the Soviet Government."

These initial broadcasts were in Morse code, it was not until around 1920 that a group of Soviet scientists were able to transfer human voice via Radio waves. Finally In 1921, using the new technology, a powerful station was set up to broadcast every day for a few hours. The new program was called the "Spoken Newspaper of the Russian Telegraph Agency,

Lenin later stated that

"Every village should have radio! Every government office, as well as every club in our factories should be aware that at a certain hour they will hear political news and major events of the day. This way our country will lead a life of highest political awareness, constantly knowing actions of the government and views of the people.."


Soviet Radio stations broadcast in 68 soviet and 70 foreign languages. A popular science magazine entitled "Radio" was published monthly in the Soviet Union.

1923 Women's Co-operative Guild Congress

1923 Congress of
The Women's Co-operative Guild

Held at Cory Hall, Cardiff, Wales, June 12th and 13th.

Mrs Prosser presided

Lavender Hill branch, Battersea, South London moved motion on fair trade

"The view was expressed that in the interest of developing international understanding the Co-operative Union should inform the movement of the conditions of labour of all natives employed by British Wholesales."

This was agreed

July 7th 1923 also marked the first International C0-operators Day

Women's Co-operative Guild
28 Church Row, Hamstead, London
President Mrs A.H. Allen Secretary: Miss A Honora Enfield
1,077 branches
51,291 members

Scottish Co-operative Women's Guild
President Mrs McLean
Secretary Miss Kate Callen 71 King Street, Tradeston, Glasgow
300 branches
27,891 members

Irish Co-operative Women's Guild
President: Mrs Green
Secretary Mrs Girvan, 16 Reid Street, Belfast


Co-operative Women's Guild Flowers of the Sections
These were used extensively on branch and sectional banners

Co-operative Women's Guilds

SECTION FLOWER MEANING

Lancashire Cornflower Hope
Mid Southern Red Rose Devotion to Duty
North East Midlands Violet Modesty
Northern Sunflower Brightness
South Eastern Marguerite Alertness
Southern White Rose Purity
South Midland Poppy Purity
South Western Honeysuckle High Endeavour
Western & Welsh Pansy Harmony
Yorkshire Clematis Perseverance

These were used on Co-operative Women's Guilds banners on in particular


Source: The People's Year Book 1924

Denham Agricultural Labourers Union 1872

Denham Branch
National Agricultural Labourers Union 1872

"When at Denham the winter before last I found 18 adults out of the small population, destitute of employment and poor rates higher than they have ever been"
John Bedford Leno May 1872

Average Weekly Wages of Ordinary Agricultural Labourer in Buckinghamshire
1850 8 shillings 6d pence
1872 - (approx 15s)
1898 13s6d
1910 14s8d
1914 16s
1919 36s 6s
1924 27s
1934 30s for 50 hours (new Agricultural Wages Act)
1938 35s 6d
1947 90s

Denham, Buckinghamshire
Local Newspaper Report


At 6pm on Friday 12th April 1872 two to three hundred agricultural labourers assembled at the quiet village of Denham, Buckinghamshire to discuss their grievances and adopted measures for an increase of wages and shorten the hours of labour.

Poverty as a passing peer inside the cottages evidence that poverty of the direst was prevalent.

The place of meeting was alongside a wall that bounds one side of the highway, a large table to do the duty as a platform

The men had come to hear the union organiser Robert Clay for the National Agricultural Labourers Union.

At the meeting reference is made to the plight of John Smith of Stretton on Dunsmore (near Rugby), who was rebuked for living extravagantly in supporting his family on 11s a week, when a loaf of bread cost 8d.

It was reported at a following meeting of the union in May 1872 that the Denham union branch had fourty members and had sent delegates to the April conference in London (Willis Room,King Street, St James, London now Almack House).

Joseph Arch leader of the union states that at Denham they joined in their hundreds

Auberon Herbert, Liberal Member of Parliament for Nottingham had stated that

"the trade societies (unions) were barriers between us and revolution"

Apart from John Bedford Leno, Lieutenant Whellams was a key organiser of the agricultural workers locally.

One Farmer a Mr King of Denham agreed to advance the wages 2 shillings, he had not been asked to do so but it was a voluntary offer. Meanwhile Major Gaskell JP was sympathetic to better labourers and cottages but "depreciated unionism generally as a selfish principle"

One local report states that a union speaker stated "That the social waggon was deep in the mire but they had got in the thin edge of the wedge and he hoped that they would come forward and help the Denham and Chalfont st Peters men drive it right home"

An elderly man named Robinson spoke at Denham, stating he had followed the plough for thirty five years and once earn't 35s a week and could compete with any man in Bedfordshire.

One of our poets stated
A blessed prospect,

"To toil while there is strength, in age the workhouse, A parish shell at last, and the village bell tolled hastily for the pauper's funeral"

By Robert Southey's

"Jem Pizzey" also spoke

Lieutenant Craesey Whellams the local union organiser stated in May 1872 that

"It was wrong that women should be compelled to work in the field at all, and considered that every Englishmen ought to earn sufficient to provide for his family and keep the women in the household. so far as single women were considered he actually believed that it was the for runner of a great deal of immorality

Whellams speaking at a National Union of Agricultural Labourers meeting on the evening of Friday 24th May 1872 at Chalfont St Peters Buckinghamshire stated "With respect to single women who earn from 3s - 4s a week that they did not get the wages of a general servant in London or £10 per year anywhere he mentioned that women labourers were a bad principle and if young women obtained respectable situations they would not wear out their clothes as they did in the fields"

Burnham National Agricultural Labourers Union It was reported that 60 men had joined the union at Burnham, it was reported that the cottages and sanitation at Burnham was very poor

The men of Wooburn had attended a large meeting (400-500) and joined the union. Whellams being meet at the station and proceeded by the town band to the meeting.

The Chalfont St Peters branch of the National Agricultural labourers Union was established in May 1872
handbills had been circulated in the area and on Monday 20th May 1872

The agricultural labourers rushed to the station to meet Whellams the union organiser he replied "how do you do boys"

The meeting took place in front of the Greyhound Public House, where a table and chairs were arranged for the speakers

150 to 200 were present and they started the proceedings by singing the unions anthem with the chorus "Come and join the union...there's nothing like the union"

at the conclusion of the song there was a "hearty hurrahas as can very seldom heard in the village"

A picture of Joseph Arch the leader of the union was then shown to the meeting,

It should be remembered that Joseph Arch the union President was considered "agitator, an apostle of arson, who was setting class against class

a popular song of the time sung by the labourers had a chorus of

"Joe Arch he raised his voice,
'twas for the working men,
Then let us all rejoice and say
We'll all be union men"

Whellams reported that one agricultural labourer had been horse whipped for daring to join the union.

He stated that agricultural labourers in Canada were earning 28s a week

Whellams also stated that it was his view that they needed their own Members of Parliament
"Until they were able to send men to the legislative who spoke on their behalf they would never be justice done to them"

Union organisation in Buckinghamshire goes back before Joseph Arch's union in 1872. In 1867 some agricultural labourers at Gawcott near Buckingham went on strike for a rise in wages from 9s to 12s a week, but though the movement spread into Hertfordshire, it died away, largely it seems because the agricultural labourers could get no outside help even from prominent Liberals in the area. Later there was more agitation around Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, and a schoolmaster at Dinton is said to have gone around addressing the agricultural labourers and urging them to combine, this could be Edward Richardson who emerges in 1872 as founder of the Bucks Labourer's union/ Buckinghamshire Farm Labourers Union

The local newspaper (15th June 1872) reports that

Edward Richardson a School teacher of Dinton, Buckinghamshire had been for over two months organising the Buckinghamshire Farm labourers Union

However it was reported by Richardson that "it appears that a union calling itself by the name was then in existence in Denham this fact was totally unknown to myself otherwise we should have adopted another name"

"I hold to be the founder and organiser of those unions already formed or bring formed in the immediate neighborhood of Haddenham, Long Crendon , Stone, Aylesbury Cuddington,. (Richardson) "having been the only speaker upon the subject in these parishes at present, having defrayed the whole expenses of thirty open air meetings out of my own private purse."

George Howell, a bricklayer and active trade unionist fought Aylesbury as a Labour candidate in 1868 and again in 1874, a startling and daring innovation for those days. He got much support in the villages, and when threatened by Tory roughs was able to muster a bodyguard of labourers carrying sticks from surrounding villages. The labourers of Haddenham, long a stronghold of radicalism and later on of the union, were prominent in support of Howell

Manitoba Historical Society Site

Creasey J. Whellams (1842-1918)

Immigration promoter.

Born in St. Ives, Huntingtonshire, England on 8 January 1842, he was educated in private schools in Cambridge. In 1866 he moved to Liverpool and entered business as an insurance and shipping agent.

He first visited Canada in 1872 and was successful in obtaining governmental support for agricultural immigrants. In 1876 he was commissioned to visit Manitoba and make a report on its potential for immigration. He travelled west from Winnipeg by ox-cart and was so impressed with the agricultural possibilities that he made application, and obtained for colonization, six townships on the Little Saskatchewan River just west of the old Manitoba boundary line. On this land he founded the present town of Rapid City.

On 14 January 1886, he married Charlotte Emily Sudlow of Liverpool and had seven children. In 1892 he went to St. Paul, Minnesota but returned to Winnipeg in 1910 to become business secretary of the Millions for Manitoba League. He was later secretary of the Western Canada Development Bureau. He wrote many articles for the newspapers and periodicals of the day, in which he extolled the advantages of settlement in Manitoba.

Whellams died in Winnipeg. The funeral was from St. Martin’s Mission with interment in St. John’s Cemetery.

NOTE:

The banner at the top of the page "United we Stand - Devided we Fall" is allegedly the banner of the National Agricultural Labourers Union (NALU) lead by Joseph Arch and was discoverd in Oxfordshire

The banner was left to Nuffield College, Oxford . A 1961 letter in the associated documentation for this banner states:
‘Although the banner is probably the only one in existence belonging to the unique period of Joseph Arch’s great union, it was not… the most unique feature of the collection. Pride of place must go to the minute book of the Oxford branch which [the donor] left to Nuffield College. This showed conclusively that a branch was in existence in the Wychwood area of Oxfordshire before the date of Arch’s meeting under the Wellesbourne chestnut tree. // More important… was the evidence it provided to support [the] theory that one of the chief causes of the failure of the National Agricultural labourers Union was local autonomy. Any of the individual branches based on hamlet or village were at liberty to give strike notice so long as the committee based on Oxford agreed.’


Photo Museum of English Rural Life

Hayes - Roof Top Views circa 1930's

Deptford - Gas Workers Union

Gas Workers & General Labourers Union
Deptford - South London


Deptford & Greenwich area worst organised in London and ripe for non union labour

Kentish Mercury
Sunday July 14th July 1907


Pete Curran MP and Will Thorne MP Meeting of local Deptford branch of the Gas Workers & General Labourers Union held a demonstration in Deptford Broadway Thomas Garbek presided and Arthur Hayday of West Ham addressed the meeting




Pete Curran MP for Jarrow spoke after his recent election, he had worked at the Woolwich Arsenal he and others conducted vigorous campaigns in Deptford and Beresford Square they then declared that until Labour rose to the position of being able to send to parliament men from their own ranks and until they paid for their own political representation nothing of a useful character could be done 31 Labour MP's, their union, which now represented in parliament by four of its members they were hoping that the victory of Jarrow would be repeated at every opportunity.

If that were done the day of strikes would come to an end, they would change the venue to the floor of the House of Commons which they might be able to convert from a lounge for the leisured into a workshop on behalf of the impoverished citizens of the United kingdom.

Mr Harry Pickard said that so far as trades unionism was concerned Deptford was the blackest spot in London-the men were too apathetic. trade unionism was only beginning to find out its proper function.


WORST DISTRICTS IN LONDON FOR SCABS

Will Thorne MP for West Ham stated as to the organisation of unskilled labour in that district he expressed the opinion that Deptford and Greenwich were the worst districts in London. as proof he declared that in the event of a dispute those in search of "free labour" went first to those places.

Tolpuddle 1977 - Uxbridge Nat Fed OAP

Dickie Bond leading Uxbridge and Pensioners leader at Tolpuddle 1977

Cunninghame Graham - Bloody Sunday 1887

Robert Bontine Cunninghame-Graham

Bloody Sunday

Born in London on the 24th May 1852 to a prosperous family, he spent much of his childhood in Scotland. Later he made his fortune cattle ranching in Argentina, returning to Britain on the death of his father.

Although a socialist, at the 1886 General Election he stood as a Liberal Party candidate for North-West Lanarkshire.

He stood on a progressive platform which included:

• the abolition of the House of Lords
• universal suffrage
• the nationalisation of land, mines and other industries
• free school meals
• disestablishment of the Church of England
• Scottish Home Rule
• the establishment of an eight-hour-day

Winning the seat he continued his socialist agitation on September 12, 1887 he was suspended from parliament for making a "disrespectful reference" to the House of Lords.

He was the first MP ever to be suspended from the House of Commons for swearing, using the word damn.

He attended the protest demonstration in Trafalgar Square on November 13, 1887 that was savagely broken up by the police. During what became known as Bloody Sunday 300 were arrested and many more injured, Cunninghame- Graham was just one of the many who was badly beaten by the Metropolitan Police and arrested.

The huge march was organised by the Social Democratic Federation and the Irish National League to demand the release from prison of William O'Brien MP, who was imprisoned for inciting a Land League rent strike on Lady Kingston's estate near Mitchelstown, Cork. When William O'Brien MP, was brought to trial on 9th September 1887 for his involvement, a 8,000 strong crowd outside the courthouse was attacked by the the Royal Irish Constabulary, shooting three men dead (John Casey, John Shinnick and Michael Lonergan) and wounding many more, this event was later known as the "Mitchelstown Massacre". An initial coroners report stated that the men had been killed unlawfully but this was soon quashed by the establishment. William Gladstone coined the phrase "Remember Mitchelstown".

On "Bloody Sunday" Alfred Linnell, a radical clerk, was run down by a police horse, trampled and killed. another man W. B. Curner was also killed. At Linnell's funeral on 18th December 1887 became a major political event organised by the socialists. William Morris wrote A Death Song' for the funeral, which was sung by the thousands who attended his funeral at Tower hamlets cemetery.

"We asked them for a life of toilsome earning,
They bade us bide their leisure for our bread;
We craved to speak to tell our woeful learning:
We come back speechless, bearing back our dead.
Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day"

Both Cunninghame-Graham and John Burns were found guilty for their involvement in the demonstration and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment in Pentonville prison.

Undaunted he continued to support workers fighting to improve conditions, He was suspended from the House of Commons in December, 1888 for protesting about the working conditions of chain makers, he gave valuable support to Annie Besant organising the Match girls as well as the Dock strike of 1889.

He was a friend of Kier Hardie and Eleanor Marx, the daughter of Karl Marx, Eleanor Marx being the first women political speaker on West Drayton common September 1890 in support of the local Gas Workers Union (brickmakers & horticultural) branch.

Cunningham Graham spoke on West Drayton Green, Hillingdon in June 1891

Cunninghame Graham died in 1936 and is buried at Inchmahome Priory on the island of Inchmahome in the Lake of Menteith, Scotland.

Co-operative Stores - West London

Yiewsley & West Drayton Co-operative was formed in September 1893 and covered Hayes, West drayton, Yiewsley, Uxbridge and Harefield and finally merged into the London Co-operative Society in 1930.
Southall
Hayes
Ealing
Fulham ?
Hounslow

Co-operative Tea - Plantations

Co-operative Tea Plantations in the East

English and Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Socities 1923

CEYLON
Mahavilla Group 976 acres
Westhall group 1,931
Bowhill Estate 744
Nagastenne estate 487
Baharundrah estate 567
Kolapatna Estate 642
Gingranoya Estate 352

TOTAL 5,699 ACRES

INDIA
MAGO RANGE GROUP 8,191 Acres
Comprising Mango range, Provident, Attikunna and Glenfruin, Strathearn and Maryland, Trevelyan, Richmond, Harewood and Kintail
MANATODDY GROUP 6,111 Acres
Talapoya, teddington, and Glen Bolten, Cherakara, Jessie, Clifton, tatamala, and Thavenjal
KALPETTA GROUP 4,884 Acres
Comprising Auda Tode and Muracarp, Ripon, Anacarp and palatoor, Kuppa Mudi, Emily, and Nellimunda
ANAMALLAIS GROUP 7,982 Acres
Comprising Murugalli, Sheikal, Mudi, Paralai and Kalianapandal
ASSAM 1,449 Acres
Deckiajulie Estate
TOTAL 28, 617


CEYLON AND INDIA TOTAL 34,316 ACRES OF CO-OPERATIVE TEA PLANTATIONS

Wandsworth Labour Party

The Wandsworth Labour Party was established in 1907 on Wimbledon Common.

The banner here is of Wandsworth Independent Labour Party.

LRC and The Chinese Labour Question

The Chinese Labour Question

This issue of the use of Chinese Labour in South Africa was a major issue for progressives in the early 1900's.

Sir Alfred Milner, Governor of the Cape Colony, South Africa, who along with Cecil Rhodes was one of the main architects in provoking the land grab in Southern Africa which led to the Boer war.




Milner's plan for encouraging British migration to South Africa (to counter the Boer influence) necessitated huge amounts of subsidise to companies and potential migrants. To fund this Milner needed to exploit the numerous gold mines of South Africa.

Given a shortage of cheap native African workers to work in the gold mines, Milner persuaded the British government to sign a treaty with China for the importation of 60,000 indentured Chinese labourers on three year, so called "licences", between 1903 and 1907 .

These indentured Chinese labourers were kept in almost slave conditions and treated brutally, with corporal punishment being handed out at will.

Ironically, Milner started out on the left, in 1885 even standing as the Liberal parliamentary candidate for Harrow. He ended up as Chairman of Rio Tinto Zinic Mining Company and calling himself a "British Race Patriot".

It was around the issue of the Chinese labour question that the early Labour Representation Committee in Ealing mobilised. On 7th May 1904 the Ealing & District Labour Representation Committee Sunday afternoon demonstration against indentured Chinese labour on Ealing Common . William Piggott - Secretary.


NOTES


West Ham and Poplar were the first Councils to fall to Labour in London at the turn of the century and in 1907-1908 at Camberwell and Bethnal Green

The Fulham and Hammersmith Labour Part developed from the South West London Labour Representation Committee, The Secretary and candidate was George Belt a member of the Social Democratic Federation. (circa 1903)

Hammersmith Social Democratic Federation was affiliated to Hammersmith Labour Party (Circa 1903)

By 1914 The British Socialist Party had 55 branches in London with 2,500 members and was the largest socialist organisation in London

Leonard Spencer and the Uxbridge Independant Labour Party

Uxbridge Independent Labour Party (ILP) was established in November 1911, its headquarters were at Rockingham Hall Rec, Uxbridge.

At it's inaugural meeting on 23rd November 1911, the chair was taken by Chair Robert W Hudson. The speaker at this meeting was Dr Charles A Parker who spoke on the private ownership of land.

Robert W Hudson 1 Swimbridge Terrace, of Rockingham Road, was chairman of Uxbridge Independent Labour Party and L.W."Leonard" Spencer its Secretary.

Councillor Henry Palmer of Hayes was also active in supporting Uxbridge ILP

Not everyone was pleased to witness the arrival of the ILP, the local pro "Tory" Uxbridge Gazette was not enthusiastic about this development stating witheringly and mockingly in its editorial that "The ILP housed and directed as an everyday institution of Uxbridge, will soon cease to be a bogey to anyone".

At the December 1911 meeting of Uxbridge ILP, Mr J.T. Wescott Secretary of Hammersmith Independent Labour Party (ILP) spoke on the strike wave and industrial unrest sweeping Britain and noted "How the general unrest which has its local manifestations had led to the Establishment of that branch of the ILP".

The ILP and Labour Party stood a number of candidates for election to the local Uxbridge council during this period including.
James Cochrane (electrician - Oakleigh, Watford Rd)
Thomas Rowley (Insurance Agent -Tachbrook Rd)
Frederick Rolfe ( Working Tanner-Coss Street)
Ernest Cave
W.A Herbert

The ILP acted as the overtly political wing of the Party while the broader Labour Party was spearheaded by the Uxbridge Labour & Trades Council which had been established in 1910.

LEONARD SPENCER - UXBRIDGE ILP SECRETARY

L "Leonard" W. Spencer was born in Guildford 29th July 1889, educated at Collegete School at Reading, He was the son of Mr. T. B. Spencer, of 66, Kidmore Road, Caversham, Reading.

Aged just 17, he left home to open a business in Uxbridge, living later at Belmont Road, Uxbridge. Leonard Spencer went on to helped establish and became the first secretary of the Uxbridge Chamber of Commerce, while also participating in the establishment of a local parliament (debating society).

As an early motor cyclist enthusiast he was reported to be the first person to have ever successfully motorcycle up Snowdon, he also toured Norway and Iceland as a young man.

Spencer had been a keen supporter of Mr Edmund Dene Morel (later Labour MP for Dundee and married to Mary Richardson) agitation over the brutal rule of King Leopold in the Belgium Congo (Now the Democratic republic of Congo).

Spencer became a Christian Socialist believing "that there was no incompatibility but rather the fullest harmony between Christianity and socialism".

He went on to become the founding Secretary of the Uxbridge Independent Labour Party (ILP) and in 1910 he had been elected to Uxbridge Council as a Labour candidate along with Edwin Westcott. While on the council he was involved in the plan to build some of the first Uxbridge Council houses and it was stated that these "were definitely a monument to the energies and the eloquence of Mr Spencer".

When World War 1 broke he considered it his Christain duty to serve and he was one of the first to enlist as a Cyclist Orderly in the (London Cycling Regiment) later 13th Kensington Battalion in order to defend the sovereignty of "little countries overseas".

He wrote home stating "he would not come home for the world until victory was won" and encouraging others to follow him and enlist.

At Ypres, during the Battle of Neuve Chapel during March and April 1915, A battle which represented the first large scale organised attack undertaken by the British army during the war. Spencer's Battalion took major losses, he underwent a terrible ordeal, suffering from hunger, thirst and sleepless nights. He only took off his clothes to wash and slept every night with his motorcycle by his side (probably providing a vital courier service). He served without respite for seven months.

The Regimental History of the Kensington's Regiment describes their experiences during Neuve Chapelle. C Company was involved on the first day, and advanced at 9 a.m. to the village cemetery, where they had to take cover amidst churned-up graves. On the 12th of March, their C.O. (Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis) noted that by 12.25 p.m. the German bombardment of their positions (in the old front line) was "Perfect Hell".

It seems that this "perfect hell" had finally undermined Leonard Spencer's fundamental Christian beliefs, it was stated later that he had rediscovered his beliefs before his untimely death, shot through the head by a German snipper on the 1st September 1915.

Private (and Comrade) L.W. Spencer is buried at Longuenesse St Omer, France.

WEST LONDON ILP

James Gardner MP for Hammersmith North (elected 1923) was eight years Chairman of West London Independent Labour Party (ILP)

Hillingdon Asian Councillors

Councillor Prakash Auchombit

The well respected, Prakash Auchombit was the first elected Labour Asian (black) councillor in the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1990 in the old Botwell ward, Hayes.



The first Asian Conservative Councillor had been elected in 1982 Dr Ali Khan (not for a Hayes a ward), However, Dr Khan failed to serve his four year term as according to Private Eye (9.9.1983) because "Dr Ali Khan had been struck off the medical register in January 1983 for imprproper prescription of drugs to addicts".

Northwood Co-operative Bank

Northwood Co-Operative Bank Ltd

started trading 29th June 1908


Mr J.R.Mace Secretary








(Picture left Enfield Highway Co-opeative)

Women's Co-operative Guild 1883

WOMEN'S CO-OPERATIVE GUILD

In 1883 Alice Acland persuaded the editor of the Co-operative News to let her have a 'Woman's Corner'. In the issue of 14th April 1883 it was announced that 'The Woman's League for the Spread of Co-operation' had formed and all interested should contact Alice Acland. Her co founder was Mary Lawrenson.

At the Edinburgh Congress of the Co-operative Union in June 1883 the Women's League For the Spread of Co-operation was formally established with fifty members and a subscription of 6d a year.

Its aims were to spread a knowledge of co-operation, to keep alive its ideals, and to improve the conditions of women all over the country.




1. To spread a knowledge of the advantages of co-operation
2. To stimulate amongst those who know its advantages a greater interest in the principles of co-operation
3. To keep alive in ourselves, our neighbours, and especially in the rising generation, a more earnest appreciation of the value of Co-operation to ourselves, to our children, and to the nation
4. To improve the conditions of women all over the country.

The first branch of the Women's Co-operative Guild was formed at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire in September 1883, followed by others in Rochdale and Woolwich before the close of 1883.

The Women's League changed its name in August 1894 to the Women's Co-operative Guild.

Margaret Llewelyn Davies became general secretary in 1889 (MLD right) replacing Mary Lawrenson.

Margaret Llewelyn Davies held the post from 1889 until 1921.


Six years later 1892, the Scottish Women's Co-operation Guild was established and the Irish Women's co-operative Guild in 1906.

By 1910 the Women's Co-operative Guild had 32,000 members.

The National Co-operative Men's Guild was established in 1911.

In 1921 the International Women's Co-operative Guild was established.

By 1933 the Women's Co-operative Guild it had 72,000 members in 1513 branches.

In 1948 the Women's Co-operative Guild still had 62,524 members in 1,774 branches.


WEST LONDON LOCAL NOTE

The Women's Co-operative Guild was strong in West London and the Uxbridge, Southall (circa 1905) and Hayes Women's co-operative Guild were still going strong into the 1980's.

In October 1912 a meeting was held in the School Room, Lawn Road, Uxbridge with Councillor F. Taylor presiding. Mrs Latham advocated the formation of a localWomen's Co-operative Guild, 19 names were handed in at it was agreed to form a branch, The first Women's Co-operative Guild meeting being held on 16th October 1912. I am not sure if this is an Uxbridge branch or a branch named after the local Co-operative Yiewsley & West Drayton which was also reported in the local newspaper

Jack Jones - A Great Man - A Great Life

Jack Jones
Born 29th March 1913
Died 21st April 2009

A Great Man - A Great Life

Trade Unionist, International Brigader and Pensioners' Leader

"They went because their open eyes
could see no other way"

No Pasaran

You are History - You are Legend

Kier Hardie and "Justice" 1909

"Justice" and "The Times."
House of Commons
Debate 05 August 1909







§ Mr. J. CULLINAN (for Mr. J. Dillon)

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his attention had been called to a letter recently published in "The Times" newspaper in which the murder of Sir Curzon Wyllie was defended and political assassination advocated; and why the police seized the newspaper called "Justice" on Sunday, 25th July 1909, and took no action against "The Times" for the publication alluded to above?

§ Mr. H. GLADSTONE

The police seized "Justice" because it contained a letter signed "Wat Tyler," which was a clear incitement to violence, and likely to provoke a disturbance of the peace. Copies of two posters of the same character and issued from the same quarter were also seized. The police acted rightly, and if it is thought otherwise proceedings can be taken against them. I cannot discuss the grounds upon which it is decided that action is to be taken or not to be taken in 1976 such cases; but I may point out, first, that the letter referred to was published in "The Times" with no criminal intent, but with the view of reprobating the seditious matter which it contained; and, secondly, that no copies of that letter, so far as I am aware, were distributed in such a manner as to be likely to incite to crime, or to provoke breaches of the peace, and therefore to call for action on the part of the police.

Mr. T. F. RICHARDS

Does the right hon. Gentleman say that "Justice" excites to crime and violence, while the letter in "The Times ' docs not excite?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

I have definitely stated that the copies of "Justice" seized by the police contained matter which was a direct incitement to violence and crime.

§ Mr. J. CULLINAN

Are the police to be the sole judges as to whether it is an incitement to violence and crime or are they to be judges of motive, because the right hon. Gentleman has referred to criminal intent?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

I take full responsibility for the action of the police.

§ Mr. KEIR HARDIE

Were the police authorised by the Home Secretary to make the seizure?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

The police are always authorised to take action when they see anything done calculated to incite to violence and to a breach of the peace. They have my standing sanction to such action.

§ Mr. REES

May I ask whether the editorial columns of "The Times" did not express the utmost reprobation of the principles expressed in the letter published, and whether on that account it can be suggested that "The Times" in any way favoured this man and his propaganda by publishing the letter?

§ Mr. GLADSTONE

I have already alluded to that in the answer.

NOTE

Justice was the newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation

1945 Local elections - Communist Party

Daily Worker November 3rd 1945

He knocked out Mayor

In Wolverhampton a communist candidate, Mr Kaye Brutton, knocked out the Conservative Mayor in a straight fight, polling 673 to the Tory's 595

Other Communist Councillors ELECTED November 1945

WESTMINISTER (Covent Garden)
Gabriel "Bill" Carritt
Joan Carritt
Joyce Alergant

STEPNEY
Phil Piratin
Rampling
Kirby
Shapiro
Levitas
Wineberg
Carver
Goldberg
Rosen
Sokoloff

FINSBURY (Old street)
Kay Beauchamp

HACKNEY (Ridley)
Blaston

MAIDSTONE
Hobday

SURBITON (Tolworth South)

WOLVERHAPTON
Kaye Brutton
Lewis

PORTSMOUTH
Russell

HEMEL HAMPSTEAD
Weller

ANDOVER
Brown

NEATH
Jarman

MERTHYR
Williams

WEST HAM
Benton

------------------------------------
COMMUNIST PARTY CANDIDATES
NOT ELECTED

Birmingham candidates
Mrs Jessie Eden 2,887
Mr S Blackwell 1,968
Dr M barrow 1,796

William Rust (Editor of Daily Worker missed by 36 votes in Hackney

Finsbury lost second seat by 3 votes

Betty Mathews missed by 40 votes in Luton

B. Moore polled 1,196 votes in Leamington West

St Albans three Communist candidates secured 4,172 votes (more than Communists in sheffield)

Abe Lazarus polled 2,184 in Oxford

Mrs E. Bramley lost 100 votes in Acton

NOTE

Labour made major gains on almost every council
except Bermondsey where it lost 3 seats

Robert Blatchford - Clarion

"Labour is the only hope of Socialism;
but Socialism is the only hope of Labour".

Robert Blatchford Editor of the Clarion

Hold on Russia - Arms from London are Coming

HOLD ON, RUSSIA !
ARMS FROM LONDON ARE COMING !

Guns, tanks, planes made now in London

Room at once for 8,000 more women to work on them

Can take job today

London women would - will if necessary- man London's barricades as Moscow women man theirs.

It is not likely to come to that so long as Russia holds out.

Just because we know Russians battles are not only their own but ours also, we long to help them !

And the chance to do it is here ! here on the very door step of London where the great factories are turning out tanks and planes ! there is room in these factories NOW for 8,000 women.

How about you being one of that number this week.

Wage rates vary but in practice your pay packet is never lower than £2.5.0 and averages around £3. A few women make £5.15.0. Some factories work two shifts, some three. All factories are near bus routes. there are canteens where you can get a good meals. you have a week's paid holiday a year

See Munitions Being Made Exhibition

Wembley Town Hall, Forty Lane
99 Broadway, West Ealing
147 High Road, Wembley
154 High Street, Acton
Western House, Broadway, Ealing
1a the Broadway, Hanwell

Issued by the Ministry of Labour and National Service
advert Circa late 1941