Pat Healy Labour Candidate London North West European Constituency 1984
Mr Turner condemed the "Living In" scandal (forced to live above the shop) and spoke of the need for better wages and improvement of the treatment.
John Mansfield - Mr Hayes
John Mansfield was born 1920 in the Regents Park area of Camden Town, London. He was the son of a former World War One military and later railway policeman.
John moved with his family to Hayes in 1932 aged 12 and attended the Townfield school, Hayes.
After leaving School he became a toolmaker at the local aircraft builders factory, Fairey Aviation, Hayes. He soon became active in the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU the engineering union).
The Communist Party played a key role in improving production at Fairey aviation through the Works Committee during the Second World War. He recalled how the Communist party and the unions at Fairey had “turned over” management to improve “productivity” during a critical period in the War and how important this was for the war effort.
Many years later John recalled with great pride his involvement in a major Communist Party workers pageant in central London (possibly as part of the second front campaign "An Agreement with the Peoples" Pageant held on 20 June 1942, Empress Stadium ?) in his“clean” overalls and representing aviation workers.
John became Branch Chairman of the Communist Party in Hayes with Frank Foster as District Secretary, the other key figure was Robert Good of the Brass and Mechanics union, the Convenor at EMI.
The Communist Party in Hayes initially met during the War at Len’s cafe (Len Frampton was a Communist Party member) but later at the Communist Party offices at East Walk, Hayes and also at the Communist Parties, Thames Bookshop at 83 Station Road, Hayes. Later the Communist Party office would be consolidated at Southall and remained open well into the 1980’s.
The West Middlesex District of the Communist Party (which covered mainly engineering factories from Slough to Acton) was established in 1950 covering Hayes, Southall,
Greenford, Uxbridge, Yiewsley, Ruislip, Northwood, Sudbury, Acton,Chiswick, Ealing, Isleworth, Twickenham, Feltham, Heston, Staines, Slough with fifteen borough branches and sixty branches with a combined membership of 1,744.
Other Communist Party factory groups were at EMI, Firestones, Gillette, Tecale
mit, McLeans, AEC , Napier (Napier's at Acton had 150 CP members at one point), Hoover, Park Royal vehicles, Electronics, Old Oak Common rail depot, Chiswick & Fulwell London Transport depot.
Initially, Abe Lazarus was the West Middlesex District secretary, a "slave driver" according to Joyce Mansfield.
John was a regular contributor to the Hayes News. This weekly publication, while owned by a prominent local Hayes Labour Party activist, Ernest Harding, was seen by the local Labour Party as pro Communist Party. Not least because local Communist party activists Jack Maling, who worked at EMI had a regular column which he used to great local effect under his initials JJM.
John, stood as Communist party councillor and parliamentary candidate on a number of occasions in Hayes, but was for the most part content with being a thorn in the Hayes Labour Members of Parliament side, particularly right wing Labour MP’s, such as Arthur Skeffington and Neville Sandleson (who later defected to the SDP).
John, as a council tenant was also very active in Hayes and then later Hillingdon Tenants Movement, he sat on the Hillingdon Borough Tenants committee well into the 1990’s. He was also an officer of Hillingdon Trades Union Council for many years.
John lived with his devoted wife Joyce at 80 Attlee Road, Hayes (Barnhill council estate) for over 40 years.Joyce Mansfield was born in 1919 at Cambridge, then her family moved to Oxford. Until the age of 13.Joyce Mansfield joined the Communist Party in 1943. She worked at local Hayes co-op store, Uxbridge Road store for 11 years and was a member of USDAW, the shop workers union.
John was softly but forceful spoken, very approachable man, who did not suffer fools gladly, he was one of the most determined, committed and important members of the West Middlesex Communist Party.
John Mansfield remained a committed communist to the end, he and Joyce were huge supporters of Peter Fagan and John McDonnell Hayes Labour parliamentary candidates for the constituency and at every parliamentary elections, the Mansfield's house was used as a Labour Barnhill ward committee room.
In later years John's opinions were sought after by many and he was held in high esteem,which ensured him being labelled on more than one occasion as “Mr Hayes”.
John Mansfield died 2004 ? (or 2003) and it was fitting that
local Hayes Member of Parliament John McDonnell gave the oration at his funeral. Joyce never recovered from the death of John and died soon after.
Fifty years after the
Anti Fascism - Uxbridge 1986
Hayes Labour Party (Hayes Labour Association as it was originally known) was established in 1910 by Henry Palmer (Bricklayer) and Percy Langton (Clerk).
George Moses was one of the foremost politically "progressives" in Hayes, Middlesex, at the early part of the twentieth century.
Irish Freedom MarchersMembers of the Irish Freedom Marchers paraded through Uxbridge High Street on the Morning of Saturday 14th April 1968, to protest about the division of their country.
The Irish Freedom Marchers later held a rally in Hyde Park to demand "human rights for the people who live in Ireland's six northern counties".
Source: Uxbridge Gazette 19 April 1962
The fact that the Irish Freedom Marchers came through Uxbridge, Hayes was probably no accident given the large Irish population in West London.
The first waves of Irish migrant workers into "industrial" West London are recorded in the thirties, but undoubtedly increased during the War and throughout the fifties and sixties, including many young Irish women employed as nurses in the newly established NHS.
At this time in Britain, marches were a popular form of political activity, such as the Aldermaston marches, and the march to Holy Loch, the site of the polaris missile. In 1961.
The Irish Freedom Marchers were organised by the Connolly Association, The Connolly Club later Association had been established on 4th September 1938 at a meeting in the AEU Hall, Doughty Street, Manchester to support the Irish in England, promote the goal of a united Ireland and socialism )
Connolly Association in Manchester 1938-1962
Manchester Radical History
By Michael Herbert
The Connolly Associationhad organised two marches, the first from London to Birmingham, and later from Manchester to Huddersfield. The four reporters, on their return from the north of Ireland, were met at Liverpool by other members of the Association, and thus began the two week long Irish Freedom March, from Liverpool to London.
The information obtained had been quickly printed in the Irish Democrat, and it was distributed on the march. Meetings were held in every town the march passed through, especially with trade unions and Labour Party branches. Overnight accommodation was provided, by the Irish community and the local Labour movement. Although the 'wall of silence' was still largely maintained by national newspapers, local newspapers reported extensively on the march and its purpose.
These marches also reinforced the position of the Connolly Association, as the leading Irish political organisation in Britain.
In the summer of 1961 the Connolly Association organised a national march from London to Birmingham as a way of bringing to public attention their campaign on the Six Counties. They called for the repeal of the Special Powers Act, an enquiry into the Government of Ireland Act, an amnesty for Republican prisoners and recognition by the Stormont government of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
There were fourteen marchers (including a number from Manchester) who set off from London on 25th June carrying a banner which read “Ireland One Country”. They included Tom Redmond, Aine Redmond, Sean Redmond, Desmond Greaves and Chris Sullivan. Walking in temperatures in the mid 80s they spoke at meetings along the way and arrived in Birmingham on 2nd July when, to their great relief, it finally rained.
Planning for a second march began immediately, this time organised by the Manchester branch of the Association, which departed from Liverpool on 25th August after an address by Eric Heffer, vice-president of the Trades Council. The marchers this time were Joe Deighan, Desmond Greaves, Danny Kilcommins, Sean and Aine Redmond.
On the way into Manchester the marchers were given a police motor-cycle escort until they reached Platt Fields. After an outdoor meeting in Hulme the marchers headed north to Oldham, making a slight diversion to Moston cemetery where they intended to place a wreath on the grave of Seamus Barrett.
On arrival at the gates of the cemetery they found them guarded by a large posse of police who directed them to the far side of the road. A cemetery official informed them that the grave was the property of the Gaelic League, who had not given permission for a wreath to be placed. The marchers made it clear that they would not leave without laying the wreath. The stand-off was resolved when a Brother John was summoned who said that it had already been agreed that they could lay the wreath. And so they did and departed on their way, arriving at their final destination of Nottingham on 3rd September.
The third and most ambitious of the Connolly Association marches took place in the spring of 1962. This time the route was Liverpool to London, a distance of some 250 miles. The march left Liverpool on 30th March arriving in Manchester the following day where there was a public meeting at Chorlton Town Hall at which Tony Coughlan, Desmond Greaves, Sean Redmond and Joe Deighan spoke. Attempts to hold a factory-gate meeting the next day were defeated by the weather so two marchers went the offices of the Guardian on Cross Street to hand in some information about Northern Ireland, none of which was published. When they arrived in Macclesfield they found the town in uproar over rents and the town hall being barricaded for the second night running. The march arrived in London in mid April.
Looking back nearly 30 years later Tony Coughlan reflected that the marches
“were modest enough affairs, a couple of dozen Irish men and women giving up part of their annual holidays to try to show what the British government were permitting Brookeborough and co to get up to in the Six Counties. Even though they were met with indifference and ridicule rather than brickbats, these can truthfully be said to have been the first Irish civil rights marches.”
