"Packers" at English Football 1939

Lost to history - The role of "packers" at English Football matches (to ensure maximum attendance and basic safety)

This picture from the daily Worker August 1939

One of the joys of English non-league football is you can still stand (often drink and smoke) and even change ends at half time.

The First May Day 1890 poem

The First May Day

Punch 3rd May 1890

A universal movement in favour of shorter hours would seem

best fitted to secure the amelioration of the labourer's lot.

The Times. 

Enthusiastic Operative to his Bench-Mate, loquitur:—

We must wake and turn out early, bright and early, 

comrade dear;
To-morrow'll be the biggest day of all the sad New Year;
Of all the sad New Year, mate, the biggest, brightest day;
For to-morrow's the First of May, chummy, to-morrow's our

First of May.

There'll be many a dark, dark eye, chummy, by Thames,

and Seine, and Rhine,
There'll be Salisbury, Alisbury and Carnot and Caprivi to peak

and pine.
For there'll be a stir of the Labourer in every land,

they say,
And Toil's to be Queen o' this May, chummy, 

Toil's to be Queen o'this May.

I do sleep sound at night, chummy, but to-morrow morn

I'll wake;

The Cry of the Crowd will sound aloud in my ear ere dawn

shall break.

'Twill muster with its booming bands and with its banners gay;
For to-morrow's the Feast of May, brother, to-morrow's our

Feast of May.

They've kept us scattered till now, comrade; but that

no more may be:
Our shout goes up in unison by Thames, Seine, Rhine and Spree.
We are not the crushed-down crowd, chummy, we were but yesterday.
We're full of the Promise o' May, brother, mad with the

Promise of May!

They thought us wandering ghosts, brother. Divided strength

is slight;
But what will they say when our myriads assemble in

banded might?
They call us craven-hearted, but what matter what they say?
They'll know on the First o' May, brother; they'll learn 

on the First o' May.

They say ours is a dying cause, but that can never be:
There's many a heart as bold as TELL'S in the New Democracy.
There's many a million of stalwart lads who toil for poorish pay;
And they'll meet on the First o' May, brother, they'll speak on the
First o' May.

The tramp of a myriad feet shall sound where the young 

spring grass is green,
Yon Emperor young shall hear, brother, and so shall our

gracious Queen,
For Labour's hosts to all civic centres shall gather from far away;
The Champs de Mars shall greet Hyde Park on this glorious

First o' May.

The lime is budding forth, brother, lilac our cot embowers,
And the meadows soon shall be a-scent with the snowy 

hawthorn flowers;
But a bonnier sight shall be the tramping crowds in fustian grey,
Flushed with the Promise o' May, brother, the new-born 

promise o' May.

A wind is with their march, brother, that threatens old claims

of Class,
And the grey Spring skies above them seem to brighten as they pass.
Pray heaven there'll be no drop o' rain the whole of the

live-long day,
To sadden our First o' May, brother, to sadden our First o' May!

The labourers of Paris, and the toilers of Berlin,
Will throng to shout for shorter hours, homes happier, 

and more "tin."
Why even the chilly Times, chummy, is almost constrained to say
There is sense in our First o' May, chummy, hope from our 

First o' May.

The Governments are a-gog, brother, Figaro owns as much;
Property quakes when the countless hands of Labour are in touch.
And from Bermondsey to Budapest they are in touch to-day,
Linked for the Feast of May, brother, linked for the

Feast of May!

So we must wake and turn out early, bright and early, comrade,

dear;
To-morrow'll be the grandest day of all the green New Year;
To-morrow'll be of all the year the maddest merriest day,
For Toil's to be Queen o' the May, brother. Labour is

Queen 'o this May!

McCarthyism at John Lewis Partnership 1949

In April 1949, The John Lewis Partnership central council voted 60 to 34 to adopt a recommendation that in future all employees should be asked to sign a declaration that they are neither members nor sympathisers of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

It was made clear that those who refused to sign the declaration or who signed knowing it to be untrue would face immediate dismissal.

A proposal that similar action be taken against Fascist employed was defeated 53 votes to 34.

The proposal was moved by John Lewis Partnerships director of public affairs the dapper, and monocled Conservative Member of Parliament Mr C.N. Thornton-Kemsley (Kincardine)

Thornton- Kemsley had been a loyal supporter of Neville Chamberlain and had moved a vote of censure in Winston Churchill for his role with Attlee in removing him as Prime Minister in May 1940. A censure vote publicly championed by Epping Conservative Association.

The Evening Standard stated
" This purge threatens the foundations of democratic government by introducing economic sanctions against political opinions.....The methods of inquisition and purge adopted by the John Lewis partnership are a carbon copies of the totalitarian techniques which they affect to combat"

 
DW 26 April 1949

Social Democratic Party - StGeorge's & Wapping Banner

Members of the Social Democratic Party (formally Social Democratic Federation pre 1908) selling their journal Justice

The First May Day - 1890

The First May Day - History Today

In London there was a much smaller demonstration on May 1st supported by those purists who preferred to meet the hopes of the most radical at the Paris Congress for action on the day itself, rather than to recognise the realities of British trade unionism. It was led by Jack Williams, a working man from the East End of London, who was a stalwart of the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF), in his capacity as a leader of the National Federation of all Trades, a short lived general union centred on south-west London. 

However, its main support came from the Socialist League, a breakaway group from the SDF which, by this time, was increasingly being dominated by anarchists. Jack Williams' demonstration mustered between 1,000 and 1,500 people who flocked from the Embankment to Hyde Park. This procession was marked by bands playing the Marseillaise, including one wearing French redcaps, and by companies of young men carrying red flags topped with caps of liberty. On the evening of May Day the Socialist League held a demonstration at Clerkenwell Green, attended by several thousand people, which was addressed by William Morris and other leading League figures. However, as E.P.
Thompson wrote in his biography of Morris, 'For the sake of this principle [demonstrating on May Day itself, which they held to honestly in the belief that they were acting in true international fraternity, they rejected the chance of sharing in the leadership of one of the greatest demonstrations since the last days of Chartism.'

The main demonstration in London, held on Sunday, was one of the largest, quite possibly the largest, in British history. A delighted Engels, who was present on one of the platforms, wrote afterwards:

The demonstration here on 4th May was nothing short of overwhelming and even the entire bourgeois press had to admit it... 250 to 500,000 people, of whom over three-quarters were workers demonstrating...All in all, the most gigantic meeting that has ever been held here.

 

To Karl Marx's daughter Laura, Engels wrote:

I can assure you that I looked a couple of inches taller when I got down from that old lumbering wagon that served as a platform – after having heard again, for the first time since 40 years, the unmistakeable voice of the English Proletariat.

For all its vast size the main London May Day demonstration was notable for divisions among its sponsors. The Times, which testified to the scale of the event, also noted:

The whole affair, long though it had been in planning, was on the whole, not well organised, probably because there was a lack of unanimity among the leaders. The simple truth of the matter appears to be that orders came from three different sources, that three sets of minds were at work, and that the result was confusion.

The three groups were the Central Committee for the Eight Hours Legal Working Day Demonstration, the London Trades Council and H.M. Hyndman and the SDF.

The Central Committee for the Eight Hours Legal Working Day Demonstration had been formed on April 6th, 1890. It represented ninety-four trade union, socialist and radical groups, most of which had been campaigning for the eight-hour day. One of the most important of these bodies was the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers which had won an eight-hour day through strike action in 1889. When its secretary, Will Thorne, was asked to organise a May Day demonstration he turned to Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling (the socialist with whom she lived). As well as being a major influence on Thorne's development as a socialist, Eleanor Marx had been very active in the struggle to set up the gasworkers' union. She and Aveling were leading figures in the Bloomsbury Socialist Society, which itself had started to make preparation for May Day. Along with the gasworkers and the Bloomsbury Socialist Society, the other major body involved in the formation of the Central Committee was the Labour Electoral Association which had been set up by the TUC in 1886. The Central Committee was committed to the statutory enactment of the eight-hour day.

In contrast, the London Trades Council in 1890 would go no further than to declare itself in 'favour of the principle of reducing hours of labour, leaving the precise method to the future'. It was dominated by an older generation of trade unionists who were nervous about supporting even the Sunday demonstration. However, as one of the old guard of trade unionists, 6eorge Howell, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green, put it, 'Goaded by the attacks of the Socialists and New Trade Unionists, the London Trades Council found itself obliged to participate in May Day celebrations in favour of "solidarity of labour", Eight Hours and other idealist proposals' Tom Mann, a leading socialist and New Unionist, succeeded in getting round the majority's opposition to a legal, eight-hour day by proposing that the London Trades Council hold a separate demonstration on May 4th. Hence the Trades Council made its own separate arrangements, including marching to Hyde Park by a different route from the Central Committee's procession and having seven separate platforms for its speakers in the Park.

To add to organisational disarray. H.M. Hyndman and the SDF were a third element in the great demonstration of May 4th, 1890. Hyndman had long fallen out with Engels and with the Central Committee's leading figures. He arranged with the London Trades Council to have two of its seven platforms in Hyde Park.

By all accounts the London Trades Council's attempt at separate organisation was a disaster. The Leicester Daily Mercury's correspondent gave the following assessment:

    The fact is that the Trades Council were beaten by their very numbers. They marched into the park in straggling detachment, and all interest in the demonstration had died away and the crowd had gone before the last detachment arrived, weary and forlorn, at ten minutes to six. Thus the Eight Hours Bill party gained a triumphant victory. They showed their full strength, and their opponents, the numerically stronger, never even looked imposing. They occupied the ground first and engaged the interest of the crowd. They had excellent and well-known speakers, whereas their opponents confined themselves to working men orators. Last, but not least, they had a clear and definite proposition to make.

The only Trades Council platform which drew a large crowd was the main one, at which Tom Mann and Ben Tillett of the Dockers' Union spoke. This was surrounded by dockers, barge-builders, ropemakers and railwaymen. Mann, though he was a well-known advocate of the legal eight-hour day, loyally spoke to the Trades Council motion.

The Central Committee's organisation coped better with the huge number of demonstrators. At 4.00 p.m. a bugle sounded, and their speakers, standing on the seven wagons serving as platforms, began. However as The Times correspondent noted 'Procession after procession came streaming into the park, bands played through speeches and it was a medley of sounds.'

The biggest crowd gathered around platform five, the Gas Workers' Union's platform, to hear John Burns. Burns, then thirty-one, was at the height of his radical reputation; he gave his audience a fiery speech, which included very blunt criticism of the older generation of trade union leaders on the TUC and London Trades Council. He said that he and the men on that platform 'had done more for unionism in the last twelve months and had formed more trade unions in that time than all the Broadhursts and Shiptons put together'. Burns said that although the gas workers 'had got an eight hours day by voluntary effort and by combination', they knew that 'directly trade declined and the boom was passed' the employers would take such gains away unless they were protected by an act of parliament.

While the main theme on the Central Committee's platforms was the eight- hour day, it was not the sole one. On their second platform Thomas Sutherest, then Radical prospective parliamentary candidate for Doncaster, gave a vigorous speech against sweated labour. Michael Davitt, the great Irish Nationalist advocate of land nationalisation, also spoke from that platform, urging not only that 'the land should belong to the people' but also that, 'It rested with the people themselves to send to Parliament men from their own ranks who were really representatives of labour, and the working classes would never achieve any satisfactory reform until they realised and acted upon this fact'. The Central Committee's other platforms had other famous socialist and trade union figures on them. As well as Engels, these included Fabians George Bernard Shaw and Graham Wallas, Edward Bernstein, Eleanor Marx, George Lansbury, R B. Cunningham Graham MP, and Pete Curran.

While the massive London demonstration of May 4th, 1890, received international attention, there were others elsewhere in Britain. These were held in places with marked SDF, Socialist League or New Union activity or a blend of these. Within England, the largest May Day demonstrations appear to have been in Northampton and Leeds. 

In Northampton, in spite of pouring rain, there was a large procession headed by a temperance hand. The Times reported that:
 
Nearly 10,000 working men assembled in the market square, representing almost every branch of labour in the town and district, including about 2,000 agricultural labourers from adjacent villages.

In Leeds some 6,000 workers marched in procession, with a band playing the Marseillaise. At their head was a banner of the Leeds Jewish Tailors, Pressers and Machinists, and those in the march included 1,100 Jewish tailors, 900 slipper makers and 800 gas workers, followed by contingents of dyers, maltsters, teamsters and general labourers. There were also sizeable demonstrations in Bristol and Plymouth.

In Scotland the largest demonstration was in Aberdeen on Saturday, May 17th. Some 6,000 trade unionists took part in the procession and between 10,000 and 20,000 heard H.H. Champion speak at the open-air meeting. In Edinburgh, in spite of the opposition of the trades council to a demonstration, between 400 and 600 people turned out to hear Keir Hardie and other speakers on Sunday, May 4th.


NOTE

As late as March 1949 West Ham Trades Union Council were claiming that they were the pioneers of the first ever may day in 1890 (probably via the Gas workers union militancy)
source Daily Worker 9 April 1949




The 1890 May day procession was marked by bands playing the Marseillaise, including one wearing French redcaps, and by companies of young men carrying red flags topped with caps of liberty.

In London there was a much smaller demonstration on May 1st supported by those purists who preferred to meet the hopes of the most radical at the Paris Congress for action on the day itself, rather than to recognise the realities of British trade unionism. It was led by Jack Williams, a working man from the East End of London, who was a stalwart of the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF), in his capacity as a leader of the National Federation of all Trades, a shortlived general union centred on south-west London. However, its main support came from the Socialist League, a breakaway group from the SDF which, by this time, was increasingly being dominated by anarchists. Jack Williams' demonstration mustered between 1,000 and 1,500 people who flocked from the Embankment to Hyde Park. This procession was marked by bands playing the Marseillaise, including one wearing French redcaps, and by companies of young men carrying red flags topped with caps of liberty. On the evening of May Day the Socialist League held a demonstration at Clerkenwell Green, attended by several thousand people, which was addressed by William Morris and other leading League figures. However, as E.P. Thompson wrote in his biography of Morris, 'For the sake of this principle [demonstrating on May Day itself, which they held to honestly in the belief that they were acting in true international fraternity, they rejected the chance of sharing in the leadership of one of the greatest demonstrations since the last days of Chartism.'
The main demonstration in London, held on Sunday, was one of the largest, quite possibly the largest, in British history. A delighted Engels, who was present on one of the platforms, wrote afterwards:

The demonstration here on 4th May was nothing short of overwhelming and even the entire bourgeois press had to admit it... 250 to 500,000 people, of whom over three-quarters were workers demonstrating...All in all, the most gigantic meeting that has ever been held here.

To Karl Marx's daughter Laura, Engels wrote:

I can assure you that I looked a couple of inches taller when I got down from that old lumbering wagon that served as a platform – after having heard again, for the first time since 40 years, the unmistakeable voice of the English Proletariat.

For all its vast size the main London May Day demonstration was notable for divisions among its sponsors. The Times, which testified to the scale of the event, also noted:

The whole affair, long though it had been in planning, was on the whole, not well organised, probably because there was a lack of unanimity among the leaders. The simple truth of the matter appears to be that orders came from three different sources, that three sets of minds were at work, and that the result was confusion.

The three groups were the Central Committee for the Eight Hours Legal Working Day Demonstration, the London Trades Council and H.M. Hyndman and the SDF.
The Central Committee for the Eight Hours Legal Working Day Demonstration had been formed on April 6th, 1890. It represented ninety-four trade union, socialist and radical groups, most of which had been campaigning for the eight-hour day. One of the most important of these bodies was the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers which had won an eight-hour day through strike action in 1889. When its secretary, Will Thorne, was asked to organise a May Day demonstration he turned to Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling (the socialist with whom she lived). As well as being a major influence on Thorne's development as a socialist, Eleanor Marx had been very active in the struggle to set up the gasworkers' union. She and Aveling were leading figures in the Bloomsbury Socialist Society, which itself had started to make preparation for May Day. Along with the gasworkers and the Bloomsbury Socialist Society, the other major body involved in the formation of the Central Committee was the Labour Electoral Association which had been set up by the TUC in 1886. The Central Committee was committed to the statutory enactment of the eight-hour day.
In contrast, the London Trades Council in 1890 would go no further than to declare itself in 'favour of the principle of reducing hours of labour, leaving the precise method to the future'. It was dominated by an older generation of trade unionists who were nervous about supporting even the Sunday demonstration. However, as one of the old guard of trade unionists, 6eorge Howell, the Liberal Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green, put it, 'Goaded by the attacks of the Socialists and New Trade Unionists, the London Trades Council found itself obliged to participate in May Day celebrations in favour of "solidarity of labour", Eight Hours and other idealist proposals' Tom Mann, a leading socialist and New Unionist, succeeded in getting round the majority's opposition to a legal, eight-hour day by proposing that the London Trades Council hold a separate demonstration on May 4th. Hence the Trades Council made its own separate arrangements, including marching to Hyde Park by a different route from the Central Committee's procession and having seven separate platforms for its speakers in the Park.
To add to organisational disarray. H.M. Hyndman and the SDF were a third element in the great demonstration of May 4th, 1890. Hyndman had long fallen out with Engels and with the Central Committee's leading figures. He arranged with the London Trades Council to have two of its seven platforms in Hyde Park.
By all accounts the London Trades Council's attempt at separate organisation was a disaster. The Leicester Daily Mercury's correspondent gave the following assessment:

The fact is that the Trades Council were beaten by their very numbers. They marched into the park in straggling detachment, and all interest in the demonstration had died away and the crowd had gone before the last detachment arrived, weary and forlorn, at ten minutes to six. Thus the Eight Hours Bill party gained a triumphant victory. They showed their full strength, and their opponents, the numerically stronger, never even looked imposing. They occupied the ground first and engaged the interest of the crowd. They had excellent and well-known speakers, whereas their opponents confined themselves to working men orators. Last, but not least, they had a clear and definite proposition to make.

The only Trades Council platform which drew a large crowd was the main one, at which Tom Mann and Ben Tillett of the Dockers' Union spoke. This was surrounded by dockers, barge-builders, ropemakers and railwaymen. Mann, though he was a well-known advocate of the legal eight-hour day, loyally spoke to the Trades Council motion.
The Central Committee's organisation coped better with the huge number of demonstrators. At 4.00 p.m. a bugle sounded, and their speakers, standing on the seven wagons serving as platforms, began. However as The Times correspondent noted 'Procession after procession came streaming into the park, bands played through speeches and it was a medley of sounds.'
The biggest crowd gathered around platform five, the Gas Workers' Union's platform, to hear John Burns. Burns, then thirty-one, was at the height of his radical reputation; he gave his audience a fiery speech, which included very blunt criticism of the older generation of trade union leaders on the TUC and London Trades Council. He said that he and the men on that platform 'had done more for unionism in the last twelve months and had formed more trade unions in that time than all the Broadhursts and Shiptons put together'. Burns said that although the gas workers 'had got an eight hours day by voluntary effort and by combination', they knew that 'directly trade declined and the boom was passed' the employers would take such gains away unless they were protected by an act of parliament.
While the main theme on the Central Committee's platforms was the eight- hour day, it was not the sole one. On their second platform Thomas Sutherest, then Radical prospective parliamentary candidate for Doncaster, gave a vigorous speech against sweated labour. Michael Davitt, the great Irish Nationalist advocate of land nationalisation, also spoke from that platform, urging not only that 'the land should belong to the people' but also that, 'It rested with the people themselves to send to Parliament men from their own ranks who were really representatives of labour, and the working classes would never achieve any satisfactory reform until they realised and acted upon this fact'. The Central Committee's other platforms had other famous socialist and trade union figures on them. As well as Engels, these included Fabians George Bernard Shaw and Graham Wallas, Edward Bernstein, Eleanor Marx, George Lansbury, R B. Cunningham Graham MP, and Pete Curran.
While the massive London demonstration of May 4th, 1890, received international attention, there were others elsewhere in Britain. These were held in places with marked SDF, Socialist League or New Union activity or a blend of these. Within England, the largest May Day demonstrations appear to have been in Northampton and Leeds. In Northampton, in spite of pouring rain, there was a large procession headed by a temperance hand. The Times reported that:

Nearly 10,000 working men assembled in the market square, representing almost every branch of labour in the town and district, including about 2,000 agricultural labourers from adjacent villages.

In Leeds some 6,000 workers marched in procession, with a band playing the Marseillaise. At their head was a banner of the Leeds Jewish Tailors, Pressers and Machinists, and those in the march included 1,100 Jewish tailors, 900 slipper makers and 800 gas workers, followed by contingents of dyers, maltsters, teamsters and general labourers. There were also sizeable demonstrations in Bristol and Plymouth.
In Scotland the largest demonstration was in Aberdeen on Saturday, May 17th. Some 6,000 trade unionists took part in the procession and between 10,000 and 20,000 heard H.H. Champion speak at the open-air meeting. In Edinburgh, in spite of the opposition of the trades council to a demonstration, between 400 and 600 people turned out to hear Keir Hardie and other speakers on Sunday, May 4th.
The success of May Day in 1890 ensured that many more demonstrations were organised in 1891. In London some 250,000 people attended the main one on the Sunday. Several thousand people took part in those in Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Norwich. There were also demonstrations in smaller towns such as Jarrow, Sittingbourne and Chatham. In 1891, as in 1890, the new unions were very prominent. The Times noted of Liverpool that the 'processionists were mostly of the unskilled labour class'. As in 1890 the Gasworkers' Union was a major force behind many demonstrations. In the Northeast, at Newcastle and Jarrow, the Tyneside and National Labour Union was prominent. In major ports such as Liverpool and Newcastle the Sailors and Firemen's Union and the Dockers' Union were especially important. In Leeds in 1891, as in 1890, Jewish workers provided a large contingent. In Norwich, Liverpool, Newcastle and elsewhere, the railwaymen, who were pressing for a ten-hour day (eight for shunters in busy yards and for signalmen in busy boxes), were major supporters of the demonstrations. At Newcastle a General Railway Workers' Union speaker spoke bitterly of the parliamentary committee's evidence of men working 'thirty-five hours at a stretch' on the railways.
- See more at: http://www.historytoday.com/chris-wrigley/may-days-and-after#sthash.XHQ6e1IR.dpuf

Class Distinctions and the War - WW1

Article - November 1914

Class Distinctions and The War

Ever since the outbreak of the war the press and politicians have been telling us that all sections of the community have dropped their differences, and that we are now united people.

That would be very nice and comforting if it were true, it is almost as incorrect as to say that as a nation, we are at peace with Germany.

In the first two or three weeks of the war employers of labour brought pressure to bear on eligible youths in their employment to force them into the army, such as could not be enforced on the use of the propertied class.

That game was only stopped by the growing signs of resentment and the fear that serious trouble might arise. 

When the first two or three casualty list appeared, in which were included "officers and men missing" the War Office issued an order intimating that the pay of "missing officers" would be continued, but the pay of privates missing would be discontinued that is a glaring example of class distinction as any that have emerged since war began.

In the matter of providing comfort troops - socks, woollen helmets, and mittens while the women of the middle class have been free to assist in this if they chose, women who were compelled to work for an employer having a large numbers of cases being given no option. In the printing line for instance in girl and women "feeders" between the finish of one job and the start of another have usually some time to wait stop during such waiting time it has been customary for them to do some knitting or selling themselves. It has indeed been necessary in most cases in order to eke out their wages.

Now they are being supplied with wool and told to "go ahead and do something for the soldiers".

In this way the girls employed by a large Glasgow firm have done an average of five pairs of socks, four pairs of mittens and four helmets each, and then they would not be accepted by the firm until the girls had taken them home and watch them.

If the government is so mean as to shirk its undoubted duty to supply all these articles, and most of the girls and women, many of whom have brothers, fathers, sweethearts, and husbands serving in the Army will voluntary do such work, but they want no interference from the employers.

Another case of which we have heard it in connection with another Glasgow firm and the production of flags for one of those numerous "flag days" which look like becoming a permanent feature of organised charity. The girls employed on them were not paid their usual time rate, but were given a special piece rate so low that they could not make a decent wage.

There seemed a danger of trouble over it, but ultimately the girls were put off by being told that it was an "isolated incident" at and at the normal time and that in any case it was "a good cause"

It is about time that we made an effort to stop these "isolated incidents" and the sweating that is going on for "a good cause"

There is no use, however, railing at charity-mongering and all the evils that accompany it unless we are all prepared to be so "unpatriotic" as to demand that the Government assume full responsibility for satisfying in a generous way all those needs which are at present left to the prying and stingy methods of fussy charity mongers.

In the case of banking, shipping, and property interests generally, the Government has been ready to do almost anything it was asked to do, but towards the interests of the mass of the people it has shown a callous indifference, which fully justifies all that socialists have ever said against class rule.

The treatment accorded to the wife's and the dependents of men in the Army and Navy is to put it mildly, absolutely scandalous.

Thousands of them have received practically nothing of their meager separation allowance supposed due to them, While thousands of others - women of spirit have refused to be pauperised by the acceptance of food coupons at the hands of "superior" middle-class women - food coupons which specify what they are, or are not allowed to eat

The demand now being made for adequate maintenance being guarantee to every widow or dependent of men killed or maimed in battle will probably meet with a good deal of opposition from the well-to-do people who are themselves not worried by any sort of semi-starvation.

Already those carrying on the agitation are being termed mercenaries and sneered at as being devoid of patriotism.

Patriotism is quite fitting for those who get all the best in the country can give, but to men who have never even had a guarantee of a bare subsistence it does not appeal overmuch.

It is certainly mercenary to demand a reward for fighting capitalism and the wage system has been responsible for that. The only thing we regret that the demand is so moderate. It ought to be a demand for the expropriation of the capitalist class.

The Socialist November 1914
Socialist Labour Party
15 Renfrew Street, Glasgow

The People's advent's coming - Gerald Massey

Room! for the men of mind make way!
Ye robber Rulers, Pause no longer;
Ye cannot stay the opening day;
The World rolls on, the light grows stronger;
The People's advent's coming.

Poem by Gerald Massey (Uxbridge Chartist)

quoted in The Socialist journal of the Socialist Labour Party, September 1914

International Brigaders Pledge to Fight Nazi Germany August 1939

Brigaders will fight fascism

The men of the International Brigade, Britons who fought for peace and democracy in Spain, applied himself to continue the struggle against fascist aggression. A statement issued 3rd September 1939 on behalf the International Brigade Association and signed by Sam Wild (chairman), Malcolm Dunbar (vice chairman) Allan Gilchrist, James Ruskin, William Rowe, say

We pledge ourselves to continue our struggle against fascist aggression where ever it may appear, and offer our services to the forces of this country in the fight, at the same time upholding every principle of freedom and democracy in Britain.

As a number of our members have some difficulty in enlisting in the Armed Forces, we wish to make it quite clear that military experience which we have gained on active service in Spain is always at the disposal of any organised resistance to fascism"

Daily Worker 4 September 1939

CPGB Speakers - Meetings - Meeting places September 1939

Communist Party of Great Britain speakers, meetings and meeting places for September 1939 (soon after the beginning of WW2) published in the Daily Worker

Weekend 30th September 1939 and Sunday 31st September 1939

This repoert not only provides a list offer us the names of key Communist Party speakers in the late 30's, but also a list of areas active as well as pointing to where open-air or venues used for political public meetings were generally held.

West Middlesex meetings

SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 1939

Acton 5pm - Bill Alexander at the Mount, Acton
Ealing 5pm - A. Grandjean - Greenford
Harrow 5pm - M. Robertson - Peel Road, Harrow
Hayes 5pm - Frank McGee - GPO Post Office, Hayes
Hounslow 5pm - Treaty Road, Hounslow
Southall 5pm - G. Thompson - Haddrells Corner, Southall
Wembley 4pm - Evan Ellis London Road, Wembley High Road, Wembley
Willesden   - H. Colbran

SUNDAY 31 SEPTEMBER 1939

Ealing 5pm - R. Dawson - Ealing Common
Hammersmith 11:30am - E. Brown Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith
Willesden 11am Frank Lowe Letchmere Road, Willesden


Communist Party speakers at meetings 30/31 September 1939

Speakers London Area
 
W "Bill" Alexander
W. Brown
A. Winnington
A. Grandjean
P. Devine
K. Coleman
S. Fink
Vic Epstein
M. Robertson
Frank. McGee
Gordon Cruikshank
W. Norris
S. Shipper
T. Bradley
G. Thompson
V. Reid
Norman Kennedy
V. Levitt
Evan Ellis
H. Colbran
Wally Brown
Bill Rust
Pat Devine
R Dawson
D.F. Spinghall
W. Keable
R Graves
E. Brown
D. Michaelson
Marion Robertson
Vera Reid
Frank McGee
R. Curvin
W. Rowe
M. Jordan
C. Branson
J. Mahon
Evan Ellis
Ted Bramley
Phil Piratin
Kitty Coleman
Pat Dooley
Stan Henderson
Stan Forsey
Wheeler Butters
Frank Lowe
Don Renton
Stan Plumridge
V. Levitt

Speakers Provinces
T. Mitchell (Letchworth)
Belsey Goss (Mottingham)
Peggy Stanton (Aylesbury)
George James (Cardiff)
E. Gower (Gorton)
A. Rubin (Leeds)
M. Kline (Leeds)
N. Ellis (Leeds)
E. Cusack (Leeds)
I. Landy (Leeds)
D. Gillies (Letchworth)
Pat Sloan (Newcastle)
B. Edwards (Oxford)
Abe Lazurus (Oxford)
T.H. Hames (Rotherham)
H. Lee (Stockton on Tees)

Speakers Scotland
McLeod Davis (Bridgeton Glasgow)
Willie Gallacher (Glasgow)
J. Gerrard (Gorbals)
F. Hill (Govan Hill)
J. Quinn ( Maryhill)
H. Fraser (Shettleston)
A. Ferguson (Springburn)



 



 
 

Socialist League Branches and Meetings April 1892

The Socialist League, was an offshoot from the more famous Social Democratic Federation (Britain's first socialist party).

The break from the Social Democratic Federation occurred in in 1884 by those opposed to the SDF leadership of the maverick socialist Henry Hyndman.

Those that split from the SDF to join the Socialist League included high profile socialists such as William Morris, Eleanor Marx, Ernest Belfont Bax, Sam Mainwaring, Edward Averling, Edward Carpenter and the artist Walter Crane.

The Socialist League established a monthly (soon weekly) journal entitled Commonweal in Feburaty 1885 with William Morris as editor.

However, by 1887 the Socialist League had taken a turn towards Anarchism and by 1889 the organisation had been captured by Anarchists as a result William Morris resigned as Editor of Commonweal in 1890 to be replaced by David Nicholl.


After the jailing of the editor of Commonweal, David Nicholl for his reporting of the Walsall Anarchist Plot and the role of police agent provocateurs in January 1892 the paper changed its name to the Anarchist.

The socialist League was finally dissolved in 1901

The Commonweal

April 16, 1892

Socialist Co-operative Federation, 7 Lamb's Conduit Street, London WC

Club Autonomie, 6 Windmill Street, Tottenham Court Road,  lectures every Wednesday at 8pm

International Club,  40 Berner Street, Commercial Road,  lectures every Tuesday evening at 8pm

South London Socialist Society, 149 Manor Road South East London or communication should be addressed to F.A. Fox secretary

Commonweal Group, meets every Wednesday at 8pm at 145 City Road

Aberdeen Revolutionary Socialist Federation, meetings at Oddfellows small hall, Crooked Lane on Tuesday evenings at 8pm

Glasgow Socialist League meets in the Liberal Association rooms 20 at Adelphi Street S.S, every Friday evening at 8pm, lectures and discussions every Friday evening, First Friday in the month social evening. French class every Wednesday evening at 8.30pm in 105 London Street, fee voluntary to be devoted to the anarchist school

Hull Club Liberty, 1 Beets Court, Blanket Row

Leeds Anarchist Communist Group and International Group meets at Barley-corn Inn in Hope Street North Street every Friday at 8pm

Leicester - Room No7 Co-operative Hall, High Street. members meet on Friday at 8pm, Lecture in the Spiritualist Hall, Silver Street every Sunday at 6.30pm

Manchester, communications to 13 Shaftesbury Street, Chorlton on Medlock (C-on-M) Manchester

Newcastle Anarchist Communist Group - Open-air meeting every Sunday morning at the Quay. Discussion every Monday at 8:30pm in Lockhart's Cocoa Rooms, Bigg market.

Norwich, members meeting held every Tuesday at 8:30pm at 65 Pitt Street
 
Oxford, Temperance Hall 25 1/2 Pembroke Street, First Friday in every month at 8:30pm

Sheffield,  Sheffield Anarchists meet every Wednesday evening and 63 Blonk Street,  at 8pm. All letters and papers etc to be sent to W.G.Bingham  5 Earl street, Sheffield, Comrades please note

Walsall Socialist Club, 18 Goodall Street, Walsall meeting every night

Yarmouth, Socialist League Club, 56 Row, Marketplace. Open every evening. Business meeting Tuesday at 8pm. Singing practice Wednesday at 8:30pm, discussion class, Thursday at 8:30pm. Elocution class Friday at 8:30pm



Open-Air Propaganda Meetings

Aberdeen, Sunday Castle Street at 6:45pm

London, Sunday Regents Park 11:30am, Fountain, Great Eastern Street 11:30

Edinburgh, Sunday Leith Links at 2, Meadows at 6

Glasgow, Sunday evening Parkhead Cross in St George's Cross at 5pm

Leeds, Sunday Market Gates, Kirkgate at 11:30am and 7pm

Leicester, Sunday Russell Square at 10:45am and 6:15 and Humberstone Gate at 8pm

Liverpool, Landing stage Sundays at 11:30am and 3pm

Manchester, Sunday Phillips Park Gates at 11:30, Stevenson Square at 3pm.

Norwich, Saturday Haymarket 8pm Sunday Marketplace at 11am, 3pm and 7:30pm 

Sheffield, Sunday Moonlith, Fargate at 11;30, West Bar at 11:30am, Newhall Road, Attercliffe at 11:30am, Grimethorpe at 11:30am, Rotherham 3pm, Woodhouse at 3pm, West Bar at 8pm, Attercliffe Road at 8pm.

Yarmouth, Sunday Priory Plain at 11am, Fish Wharf at 3, and Hall Quay at 7pm