Fifty years after the Battle of Cable StreetArthur's still putting two Left feet down against extreme Right
By Tim Mansel Uxbridge Informer 23rd October 1986 When the word went round two weeks ago that British National Party activists were on their way to Uxbridge, a group of protesters gathered to greet them.
As they waited patiently outside Uxbridge - tube station, one of their number could have been forgiven for allowing his mind to take him back to the days of Sir Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts and in particular one Sunday in October 1936.
For East Ender Arthur Groves, now a Hillingdon Labour councillor, was among the masses who prevented Mosley and his men marching through the East End's Jewish quarter in the so-called Battle of Cable Street. The failure of that march is widely believed to mark the beginning of the decline of the Blackshirt movement.
Arthur, 74, lived at 438 Cable Street with his wife Ethel and remembers the occasion well.
"On that Sunday morning all the Blackshirts were massed up by the Tower of London," he recalled. "They were going to march through where all the Jewish people lived and meet up with another mass and assemble for a meeting in Victoria Park. "They thought they were going to take over at that stage and they started on the Jews, because they were the weakest people.
"But as soon as the word went round, masses of people started moving into the Aldgate area and around the Tower of London, and soon there were so many that they were pushing the trams back, which were hefty, great things in those days.
'NO MARCH'
"Eventually the chief of police came through and told Mosley ' no march', and that was it, they never started."
Arthur also has chilling memories of the rise of the Blackshirt movement in the East End at the beginning of the 30s.
The movement would recruit boys as young as 11and 12, who would often be out on the streets at night more senior members, aged 19 or 20.
"They weren't concerned with just Jews," said Arthur. "Anyone who was walking around would get attacked.
The Jews were justn excuse." He remembers one particular night when he was coming back from his brother's house at Bow.
"We used to go up there for a game of cards every now and then, and one night as we walked out to get a tram, there was this sudden shout of "Jew boys." "We could see these yobbos, nine or 10-year-olds,and with them were these two massive blokes.
"I can still picture one of them. He had his hands in the pockets of his sports jacket and when he pulled them out he was wearing knuckle dusters.
"But then one of them said 'It's okay, they're not Jews' and we got away." Now 50 years on, Arthur is still campaigning against the influences of the extreme right and he spent four or five hours two weeks ago preparing to protest against a threat which that day hardly materialised.
"It's a bit different nowadays," he said, "and Saturday was certainly quieter."
Councillor Arthur Groves Hillingdon Labour Councillor 1986-1990 died July 1994
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Anti Fascism - Uxbridge 1986
A BNP day of action planned for Uxbridge on 11th October 1986 was announced in the local newspapers, but with just three days notice anti fascists mobilised over 250 to meet the challenge, under the traditional ant-fascist slogan of "No pasaran - They Shall not Pass". The Anti Fascist group included a large number of Labour Party Councillors, Labour Party members, trade unionists, Brunel Students, Christians and West London Anti Fascist Action (AFA).
(photo above Mosley floored in Manchester)
With anti-fascists stationed at the Uxbridge underground ticket booths, few fascists chose to leave the platform. Millson himself stated they were met by "an enormous number of red trouble makers"
On the day Millson was soon caught and only because AFA members were not 100% sure if in infact it was Millson was he saved from, as one AFA member described it "a real good reeducation" that option was however advised against by local Quakers present, instead he was told in no uncertain terms to get out of town, which he did via the nearest routemaster bus, but without a bag of fascist literature.
Not for the first time there were those, especially amongst the Conservative party (with a few exception, Cllr Kester for one) who condemned the anti fascist mobilisation.
However, the local papers and people knew that by supplying an overwhelming force in "taking the streets" Hillingdon had once again defeated fascism.
The local paper headline proclaimed " BNP action flopped because of large turnout of anti fascist"If anyone had any doubts about Millsons fascist credentials, they only needed to read his later quotes in The Guardian stating "I would describe myself as a fascist. My main aim at university has been to drum up as much support as possible for racialism ." (Guardian, July 5, 1986 and repeated again on February 5, 1997). Unsurprisingly he subsequently rejoined the Conservative Party.
Born 1929 at Stockwell, South London his father was a Policeman (and Peter was born in the Police wing of Putney hospital)
Father posted to Southall in 1932 and the family consequently moved to Hayes, West Middlesex at this time time.
Later Peter lived at 35 Camden Avenue, Hayes, later Ashford Avenue,
Joined the Young Communist League in 1945 and the Communist Party in 1947.
Secretary of Hayes Communist Party, regularly contested election on behalf of Hayes Communist Party.
Peter highlighted the role of leading Hayes Communist, who he held in high esteem, people such as Frank Foster (AEU Fairey Aviation), Bob Good (EMI Covenor, blacklisted from Enfield) and Jack Maling (worked at EMI wrote a regular column for Hayes News, had worked on Forces newspapers in the War)
Peter stated that one of the most successful meetings the Communist party in Hayes organised was that of the Civil Rights leader Sean Morrisey (Chairman of the Turf Lodge Residents Association and education officer of the ATGWU) held in February 1972. Worked at EMI.
He was Chairman of Hayes branch of the C.A.W.U (Clerical Workers Union at EMI).
Peter's sister was a Labour councillor in Yeading Ward, Hayes
Peter Pink wrote the daily fund raising column in the Morning Star newspaper in the nineteen eighties and nineties.
Hayes Labour Party (Hayes Labour Association as it was originally known) was established in 1910 by Henry Palmer (Bricklayer) and Percy Langton (Clerk).
Henry Palmer was the first elected Labour Party Hayes Councillor in 1911. By 1914 the Labour Party had secured its first majority on Hayes Urban District Council. One of the first Labour controlled Council's in Britain.
Elected Labour Mayor of Uxbridge Tuesday 20th May 1958 (Photo L-R Cllr Ken Marlow, Cllr Sarah Dubberley and Middx County Councillor F.S, Tate - Labour Party Agent)
Sarah Ann Dubberley has the great distinction of being the first elected Labour Uxbridge Mayor in 1958 at the age of 71.
She was first elected to the Uxbridge Board of Guardian's in 1925 and later as a Labour Councilor for Hillingdon West to Uxbridge council in 1929, and in 1946 had been elected Chairman of the Housing Committe.Mrs Dubberley was very heavily involved in other community organisations within Uxbridge.
Mrs S.A. Dubberley worked for the National Savings movement for 40 years, served of Uxbridge United Charities for 36 years, was member of Uxbridge Welfare Council for 2 years and member of Uxbridge Joint Hospital Board for 18 years.
She had in 1956 been appointed to the Advisory Council of the National Assistance Board.
Mrs Dubberley husband Richard Thomas Dubberley was a retired railway worker and an local official of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR). They had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1956.
They have two daughters Florence who was married and lived in Slough and May who lived with her parents. May was employed in a tailors shop in Uxbridge in Uxbridge High Street.
Mrs Sarah Dubbley and her family lived at 9 Waterloo Road, Uxbridge from about 1918, Mrs Dubberley stated "its our home and I hope to live the rest of my life there"
On the day Councillor Sarah Dubberley was elected Mayor Tuesday 20th May 1958 , she stated " I feel a very proud women tonight to think that I am the first Labour Mayor of Uxbridge, I do sincerely thank you for the honour you have conferred upon me and I shall try to carry out my civic duties with pride as I always have done since I have been on the council".
Her election was greeted with great applause from the councillors and public present.
Cllr S.A.Dubberley appointed Welshman and Blind Union Organiser, Alderman Tom Parker as her Deputy Mayor of Uxbridge.
In the following year Mrs Dubberley was involved in the early Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) march from Uxbridge to Yiewsley in April 1958. CND was launched with a massive public meeting in London in February 1958. Shortly afterwards at Easter the first Aldermaston March was held, which went through Uxbridge and Hayes.
Dickie Bond labelled the Dubberley's as both great assets to the Labour Movement in Uxbridge, he also recalled that their daughter May was still living local in the nineteen eighties, and was a regular contributor to the Miners welfare during the 1984-85 strike.
Edward "Ted" Vance (Labour) 11 Raeburn Road, Hayes Married with three children and works as a dispatch supervisor locally. Chairman of the O.P.WC (Old Peoples Welfare ?) Secretary Hayes C.C (Cricket Club?) Labour Party Agent TGWU member 16 years.
William C. Mongor (Labour) 27 York Avenue Has served on the Hayes UDC since 1940 Chairman of Hayes UDC 1947 - 1948. Married Wood Machinist "Father" of the Council (Longest serving)
Mr H. Matthews (Labour) 23 Coronation Road, Hayes Member of Hayes UDC for three years Chairman of Civic catering Committee Special interest in welfare and youth issues Member of A.E.U for 32 years
E.C. Perkins (Labour) 116 Shakespeare Avenue, Hayes UDC member for nine years Specialist in Staffing issues and local government organisation Past Labour Party election agent
Other Labour candidates standing in Hayes UDC 1960 Mrs R.E. Beard, Mr Robert Came, H.R. Hann and Simon Geldberg
COMMUNIST CANDIDATES 1960
Peter Pink (Communist) 35 Camden Avenue, Hayes is 31 and has lived in Hayes since 1932 a member of the Party since 1947. YCL 1945 He is at present Secretary of Hayes Communist Party. He is Chairman of Hayes branch of the C.A.W.U (Clerical union at EMI) Worked at EMI.
Joyce Miller (Communist) Moray Avenue, Hayes Born in Portsmouth 1920 Joined Portsmouth Labour League of Youth and YCL Took Civil Service exams Personal Assistant to Lord Wooton (Food Minsiter) during war Former member of Highgate (Waterloo Park) Communist Party lived in the house of the famous Communist conductor Geoffrey Corbett Arrived in Hayes 1958 with son and daughter Communist party member twenty years (1939) February 1950 delegation of women for peace to American Embassy Active in CND and Aldermaston marches
1959 LABOUR ELECTION CANDIDATES HAYES 1958 election turnout 22.8%
W.R.G. Denyer (Labour) 5 Pendell Avenue Aged 50 Lived in Hayes for 22 years Staff Clerk at North Thames Gas Special interest Housing
Ossie Garvin (Labour) 44 Church Road, Hayes Lived in Hayes for 30 years Married aged 46 Interested in Athletics
M. Wheeler (Labour) 9 St Dunstan's Close, Hayes aged 40 born and bred in Hayes Married with four Children Building and maintenance surveyor interested in Youth club activities
Ernest Kirby Harding (Labour 21 Clayton Road, Hayes Lived in Hayes for 40 years (since 1919) Married Editor local newspaper Hayes News Interested in local government
other Labour candidates A. Smith, J. Johnson and S.G.Chilton
TORY CANDIDATE - TRADE UNIONIST 1959
R.E. Salt (Conservative) 373 Cranford Lane, Hayes Lived in Hayes 20 years Bachelor aged 44 Estimator with a large company Vice chairman of the Conservative Trade Unionist and Chairman of Hayes & Harlington Trades Union Council
Dr Higginson Hayes - West Middlesex Medical Report 1908
Population mid 1908 3,500
103 births were reported during 1908, (birth rate of 29.4) which compared to other districts remains a high birth rate. 36 deaths (10.2 per 1,000). 8 Children died (78.7 per 1,000) one of these were due to premature birth, another suffocation caused by overlying, one death from Tuberculous November 1908 outbreak of measles at Botwell School.
Sewage and Drainage over 500 premises have now been connected There remains a few groups of cottages in outlying portions of the district yet unsewayed, Here the system of disposal of the excrement is by cesspools, privies, pail and earth closets.
Water Supply Ninety five percent of the houses in the district are now supplied by the mains from Rickmandsworth Water Company. The remainder get their supply from public and private wells.
Slaughter Houses At present there are four registered in the district, one new one being registered in in Clayton road since my last report common lodging houses there are still non in the district
Dairies and cowsheds there are now four in the district; Mr Grabham at home farm since my last report having started a dairy, the bulk of the milk from the largest of the dairies is sold outside the district
Bake Houses There are still only four of these in the district, but a new one is now in the course of competition in Clayton Road
Factories At present there are eight factories in the district and an other large one is nearing competition. All of these with the exception of the Beck Flame Lamp Company are situated in Botwell in close proximity to the canal and railway. (J.A. King & Co "Mack" Fireproof partitions; British Electric Transformer Co 1901; Arthur Lee & Bros Marble 1902, Goss printing works 1904;Valentine Ord Glucose; British Turpentine Co Ltd 1906; John B Erwall Metal fittings 1906; Gramophone & Typewriter Company 1907 first record printed June 1908; Orchestrelle (Aeolian) Company-Silverdale road 1909 )
Workshops The Hayes Steam Laundry Company continues to be the only one in the district.
Accommodation I believe there would be a demand for cottages at a rental of from 5 shillings to 6 shillings per week if such could be built.
Uxbridge Workhouse 267 inmates children 28, Children's Home 14, in the Workhouse 30.
George Moses was one of the foremost politically "progressives" in Hayes, Middlesex, at the early part of the twentieth century.
He lived at 1, Blythe Road , Botwell, Hayes and was a grocer by trade.
Moses was politically close to the Liberal Party and infact nominated the Liberal candidate Sidney Pocock in the 1906 General election, but would later back Labour candidates such as Henry Palmer Hope Cottage, High Road, Hayes , Hayes first Labour Councillor and in 1911 stand as a Labour candidate.
Moses had been elected to the old Hayes Parish Council as early as 1903 and stood for re election in 1905 held on 3rd April, the polling station being at Dr Triplett's School.
Other Hayes Council candidates in 1905 included John Brown, Railway Arms, Licenced Victuallar John Hetherington, Cumbria, Station Road, Engineer Albert John Humphrey, Paignton House, Railway Station Master Ernest William Shackle, Redleaf, Hayes, Farmer
The full list of Hayes councillors elected in 1905 included Mr E.H. Beckett Chairman, Mr J. Richards Vice Chairman, Thomas Bradberry, Egerton Henry Tucker, JohnHetherington, George Fulford, George Moses and Dr E.J. Parrott with Mr C. Dudley Lewis Clerk and Mr C. Curtis Gray Surveyor.
The failure of Shackle to be elected was surprising given that at this period in time many "Working men still "doffed" their hats to the local Squire Shackle.
George Moses early ally on the council was George Lowe, a Florist of Angel Lane, Hayes who was also politically close to the Liberals.
Local "progressives" who backed Sidney Pocock at the general election of June 1906, include:-
Egerton Henry Tucker, Issac Ellis, Albert Edward Viveash, Walter Ayres, John James Richards, James Smith, Thomas Smith, Henry Palmer (later founder of Hayes Labour Party in 1910), George Spink.
Sidney Pocock came within 145 votes of unseating the Tory grandee and founder of the Primrose League Sir Freerick Dixon-Hartland for the Uxbridge Division
Mr Moses "I have protested against the employment of outside Labour at 4.5p per hour I strongly advocate local labour and trade union wages to all bona fide workingmen resident in the Parish".
George Lowe "Would like a fair wage clause in contracts and employment of local labour" and Councillor Isreal Ellis (Jewish Industrial School) also supported fair wages.
At the March 1908 UDC election, Georges Moses was nominated by George Lowe and seconded by Daniel Bunce.
Moses spoke at a Liberal meeting at the Council School Botwell in 1908 when J.W.Kennedy of Ealing presided and the main speaker was Alderman West ex Mayor of Battersea, other speakers included Councillor Moses and Lowe.
George Lowe who was finally elected in April 1908, seconded George Moses resolution on trade union rates of pay.
August 1908 George Moses moved that the council introduce trade union rates of pay, this was again not supported.
At the 1911 Hayes UDC election George Moses stood as a Labour candidate along with William Rawlins 1, Sydney Villas, Blythe Road and Henry Palmer, Hope Cottage, High Road, Hayes.
The Labour Election platform for Hayes UDC in 1911 included Municipal Housing Town Planning Public access to Open Spaces Fair Wages (Trade Union rates of Pay) Allotments Extra Polling Station
The election was held at Dr Tripletts School Monday 27th March 1911 between the hours of 8am to 8pm .
* Click on photos to enlarge - Moses shop from Middx.net
Members 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.
John Ryan MP for Uxbridge (1966-1970) was very active in the Civil Rights Movement,
The very popular leader of the Labour Group in the 1980's and Hayes Parliamentary Labour Candidate was Peter Fagan, born in Dublin In the mid 1980's a delegation of Sinn Fein Councillors . including Barbara de Brun (then Barbara Brown). were invited to various meetings in Hayes and to meet the Labour group Councillors. In fact Councillor de Brun was meet at the Airport by a well known Barnhill Labour Councillor and the NUPE Branch Secretary who had served in Northern Ireland.
John McDonnell MP for Hayes has used his position on the GLC and in the House of Commons to continue this tradition, including the GLC funding of the Hillingdon Irish Centre.
BACKGOUND
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.”
In October 1919 I was going through one of my spells of unemployment when I received a message from Bob Lovell, a fellow tradesman who knew of my activities in the union and workshop, and who had recently started work at the famous Slough Transport Depot, a government establishment.
His message asked me to meet him next meeting night at the Cricklewood (West London) branch of the Toolmakers’ Society. I kept the appointment and he then told me that he wanted me to apply for a job at the Slough Depot, where over 5,000 were employed, and where he was already carrying on a fight against a reactionary shop stewards’ committee.
He stated that there were many grievances amongst the workers, but many of the shop stewards were passive and under the domination of the chairman of the works committee, who appeared to be acting more as a representative of the management than of the men.
He said they were wanting more men at the depot and he wanted me to get a job there in order to strengthen the fight for a militant shop stewards’ organisation. He had also written to Tom Dingley of Coventry, who was on the National Committee of the Shop Stewards’ and Workers’ Committee Movement, urging him also to come down for a job.
I was keen to take on the job and the activity, and next morning I got started in the engine-fitting shop.
Dingley followed next day in the tool-room. So we were both in, and soon got down to business. We arranged for talks with groups of militant trade unionists in the dinner-hours. We planned our propaganda and lines of agitation. Both Dingley and I were platform speakers and we began a series of dinner-hour lectures at the works, on various subjects relating to trade-union activity and the working-class movement.
The attendances at the meetings grew day by day until they reached the size of mass meetings. We quickly gathered a tremendous support around us and launched our campaign against the weakness of the shop stewards’ committee, particularly the reactionary role of the chairman. In less than a month we had caused important changes in the works committee and both Dingley and I were elected as shop stewards in our respective departments.
We succeeded in getting regular weekly meetings of the works committee (shop stewards from every department throughout the works) and we led a fight for a militant policy in respect to numerous grievances which prevailed in a number of departments. So keen did the struggle on policy become that it ultimately took the form of open mass meetings amongst the men, with both sides, the right-wing and the left-wing representatives, stating their case and fighting for support. For over a week this battle of mass meetings raged throughout the various departments. The left wing, which Dingley and I were leading, were fighting not only for action against the management for im-proved conditions, but also for our works committee to become part of the National Shop Stewards’ and Workers’ Committee Movement.
As the campaign developed it was clear that the left wing were gaining ground rapidly. Then came the final round of meetings at which the men were to vote for the policy which they supported. The results were a crushing defeat for the right wing. New elections of shop stewards resulted in the militants sweeping the board.
Tom Dingley became convener of the works committee, I became chairman, and Bob Lovell secretary. The management had, of course, been following the course of the battle, and there is no doubt they were seriously alarmed when “the reds,” as we were called, won the day.
They had good cause for their alarm, for we were not long in letting them know what a militant works committee meant. Deputations met the management in several departments to demand the remedying of various grievances about conditions of employment. Negotiations failed to bring results, but when the works committee called for strike action from over 5,000 men and every shop struck solid the management soon came down to satisfactory terms.
The first big battle had resulted in victory for the militant policy, and many who had wavered between the left and the right line now became firm supporters of the left. From then onward, whenever grievances arose, if the shop stewards could not settle the trouble by negotiation they had no difficulty in getting strike action in the department affected, with the threat of a works stoppage if the management did not come to terms within a fixed time. The departmental actions invariably won, and it only became necessary on one occasion in the next six months to resort to a complete stoppage.
This arose over the question of rates of pay on certain classes of work. The works were a government concern and the management at Slough said they had no power to negotiate a settlement because they were acting under orders from Whitehall.
The works were situated about twenty miles from London, several miles from any big town, and stood on a mile and a quarter square of ground in the open country on the outskirts of the town of Slough which at that time was not much more than a large village. Most of the workers lived long distances from the works and travelled daily by special trains which ran into a railway siding in the works. They came chiefly from London, Reading, Staines, Guildford and Windsor. From London three special trains ran from Paddington every morning, and returned with the same workers at night.
Accordingly, when strikes took place in the Slough Depot, they were all stay-in strikes. If they were not settled before leaving-off time in the evening the strikers caught their trains as usual back to their homes and returned next morning to the works, entered it in the usual way, but did no work. The men would have “sing-songs,” play cards, read books and chat together while waiting for the shop stewards to report the results of their negotiations.
The complete stoppage over wage rates continued into the third day, when the management called in the leaders of the works committee and informed us that the “people in Whitehall” wanted to meet us that afternoon at the Admiralty building to discuss the dispute.
A meeting of the works committee, consisting of about seventy shop stewards, was immediately convened, and a deputation of seven, including the officers of the committee, was elected. To the sound of cheers from the workers we departed to Whitehall to do battle with the “brass hats”.
We were received in a well-furnished room by a group of very efficient men. But not all the efficiency was on their side of the table. Before the interview finished they realised that they were dealing with a group of workers’ representatives who knew how to state a case and knew how to fight on the finest points. At the end of an hour and a half we came to terms. We had to concede one or two small points, but in the main it was a complete victory.
We hastened from the conference room and rushed back to the Slough Depot, arriving there about an hour before the time of departure. A tremendous mass meeting was called in the chassis shop and from a lorry used as a platform we reported our negotiations in Whitehall. The terms of settlement were unanimously endorsed by the men, and that night as an expression of their solidarity they formed up in marching formation and marched in a body to the railway siding and the depot exits. Next morning work was resumed.
News of the events at Slough had spread far and wide. It was a topic of conversation in many trade-union branches and workers’ clubs. In the House of Commons a Conservative member one day rose to ask: “What does the Government intend to do about the existence of the Soviets which have been created in the Slough Government Motor Transport Depot?” The answer was: “We are carefully watching the situation.”
The depot was handling all the old army lorries that were being returned from the battle-fields, and it was known of course that sooner or later the depot would either be closed or radically changed. It was commonly spoken of as a “white elephant.” Politicians argued that it was not a paying concern and agitation in the government circles was directed towards closing it down or selling it to a private concern.
The blow came in April, 1920. Notices were posted up informing the employees that on April 30th the works would close down and that all employees were under a week’s notice. We learnt that the works were to be sold to private enterprise and the managers put the story into circulation that certain men would be asked to continue their service with the new company, if their conduct had proved satisfactory.
There were not many men caught by this trick. The bulk of them saw through the move and were not inclined to stick at their job during the week that they were under notice. It was a week of intense activity for the shop stewards, who took advantage of every opportunity to hold meetings of the men and to spread working-class propaganda. The organ of the National Shop Stewards’ and Workers’ Committee Movement, Solidarity,had a big sale in the works, as well as thousands of pamphlets dealing with the working-class movement.
One afternoon the shop stewards were surprised to learn that at the two main exits small huts were being rapidly erected and that a force of police had been brought into the works. We gathered that that evening as the men left a personal search was to be carried out by the police and works officials to ascertain whether the men were taking out property which did not belong to them. The shop stewards and the men indignantly resented this move and its inference, and it was decided to resist any search.
Wide roads ran through the works, and all the employees assembled in marching formation, twelve abreast, to march out. When we reached the main exit a cordon of police stood across our path, but the workers marched on, and as the dense column of marchers came almost breast to breast with the police the cordon sagged and gave way, and with mighty cheers the workers marched out of the gates. A little scuffling took place when the police tried to recover their lost position, but they were hopelessly out-numbered and the temper of the men was such that they ultimately gave it up as a bad job. The organised march out from the works was carried out each evening up to the last day.
As the depot had received the name of “white elephant,” the works committee decided to make a fitting end to the “elephant” by organising a mock funeral for the day on which the employment terminated (30th April 1930). The carpenters, body-builders and upholsterers agreed to make a huge white elephant. There were to be a clergyman and choir boys in their surplices, the workers were to be the mourners, and pall-bearers were appointed to carry the body of the elephant. The funeral was to start at 9 o’clock in the morning on the last day of employment. Before leaving the works the night previous we saw the elephant completed. It was a splendid piece of work—real craftsmanship had been put into it. It almost seemed a pity to have to bury such a fine specimen. It was carefully covered with a tarpaulin in the body-building department to await the return of the workers next morning. But next day, when we arrived in the works, to our horror and dismay we found that the elephant had disappeared!
The police who had been brought into the works, in conjunction with the management, had evidently decided to put a stop to the mock funeral by a premature cremation! We were not sure that that was the end of the elephant, for no traces of its end were left; it had simply disappeared.
The choir boys were all dressed up in their surplices, the clergyman was ready with his bible, the pall-bearers were bracing themselves for their strenuous task, and the jazz band with its instruments were ready to play the Dead March in Saul—but the body had vanished!
We were determined not to be beaten and we decided that another elephant should be quickly constructed. The start of the funeral was postponed until 11.30. The new elephant appeared on time, and the funeral with its 5,000 mourners moved slowly down the roads of the works towards the big space in front of the main offices. The clergyman mounted a dais, the choir boys with their candlesticks gathered at his feet, and the congregation formed a huge semi-circle. The grave-diggers were ordered to dig the grave; it measured twelve feet long by twelve feet wide. The clergy-man read the funeral oration—it was an oration over the body of capitalism, ending with a call for the workers of the world to unite to end the system which had created the “white elephant.”
The assembled mass of workers were then solemnly called upon to uncover. They had caught the spirit of the thing and they all obeyed. Then just as the elephant was being lowered into the grave the clergyman noticed that the managers and foremen and other members of the staff who were assembled on the big flat roof of the offices were looking down on the scene and had not removed their hats.
He stopped the ceremony and pointed to the roof of the building. A shout went up from the mourners demanding that “respect” be shown by the managers and foremen as well as by the men. The crowd began to move towards the offices; quickly the group on top of the building removed their headgear, and the ceremonies were continued. The grave-diggers shovelled the earth into the grave and the great mock funeral ended by all sing-ing the “Red Flag”—the workers’ battle-hymn. The rest of the day was spent in improvised concerts and general merry-making.
The numerous red flags which had been used in the funeral were jealously guarded and carried home as souvenirs.
Many small flags hung from the windows of the trains as they steamed for the last time out of the Slough Depot. On the door of the carriage in which I was sitting with other shop stewards, one of the wags just before the train departed, had chalked in big letters: “Slough Soviet makes its last journey.”
Next day was May Day. The banners which were carried in the Slough funeral were brought to the Thames Embankment and the Slough workers gathered behind their banner and marched with the rest of the workers to Hyde Park.
They declared themselves a Soviet made a big wooden elephant, wrote ‘Capitalism’ on it and buried it. Then they went to London to demonstrate.
House of Commons 08 June 1920Mr. DOYLE M.P.asked the Home Secretary whether he is in a position to give the number of Soviet committees established in South Wales, in Glasgow and Scotland generally, and the industrial centres of England; if there are very strong bodies of the same at Slough motor depôt PROFILE
Wal (Walter) Hannington
Wal Hannington was an infamous leader of unemployed struggles in Britain between the wars. He was born on 17th June 1896 in Randall Street, Camden Town, London into a large family, his father being a bricklayer. Relatives of one Herbert Hannington, suspect that Wal was his uncle, in which case Wal’s father would have been Louis Hannington, born in Chalk Farm.
He was apprenticed to a toolmaker at 14 and joined the Toolmakers' Society during the 1914-18 War, and married his wife, Winnie, in 1917. He joined the British Socialist Party during this period and became a member of the Toolmakers’ London committee. He went over to the Amalgamated Engineering Union in the 1920 merger and was a founder member and life long Communist Party member.
On November 11, 1918, the War ended but Wal was just beginning. He celebrated Armistice Day by hoisting a red flag atop his factory. Later, in the huge Government motor transport depot at Slough.
When the closure of the factory was announced, Wal gainned fame by dressing them all up as clergymen in surplices and paraded them through the grounds before a huge white cloth elephant, (representing capitalism) which they mourned as dead.
Made unemployed during the 1921 slump, he helped found the National Unemployed Workers' Committee Movement (NUWM), which organised hunger marches and other activities to draw attention to the consequences of unemployment. Hannington was National Organiser of the NUWM from its formation at the International Socialist Club, City Road, Hoxton, on the 15th April 1921.
In 1922, as the leading figure in the national hunger march on London, he was arrested in Leicester and jailed for a month. While in gaol he stood for Parliament as the Communist candidate for Bermondsey West. With 11 other Communists, he was sentenced in 1925 to three years imprisonment. In the general election of 1929 he stood as Communist candidate at Wallsend.
Hannington successfully prosecuted Lord Trenchard, then Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and two policemen for wrongfully breaking into the offices of the NUWM in Great Russell St, London, and was awarded damages.
In his autobiography, he vividly describes the endless demands of local authorities, the deputations to the TUC, fights with the police, local and national Hunger Marches. He recounts dramatic episodes involving fake coffins and occupations of salubrious restaurants of the rich. He organised a series of activities, including a lie-down in Oxford Street, to illustrate the effects of unemployment. He was sent to prison for several months, after an unemployed march on Parliament in 1932, as "a disturber of the peace ". Hannington led the very last Hunger march, which took place in October/November 1936, and led the NUWM until its effective end in 1939.
A life-long member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, he became its National Organiser in 1942. In this, he was particularly associated with the wartime relaunch of the shop stewards’ movement in the engineering industry. He was beaten during the cold war in a re-election for his position as National Organiser in 1950 but later became the Assistant Divisional Organiser for the No. 25 Division. He formally retired from trade union work in 1961 but was still attending demonstrations in 1964 against the then Government imposed "Pay Pause".
Wal Hannington died in November 1966. He died aged 71, just after leaving Hammersmith hospital, where he had been having a medical examination.
The then General Secretary of the Communist Party, John Gollan was reported to have commented that: " Wal Hannington was one of the great, cheerful, and optimistic figures of our movement - a founder of the Communist Party and a great leader of the engineers and of the unemployed. His life was a model of service to his class."
Our planes are roaring, roaring for the battle,
High in the air above the clouds we speed,
Our bombs are ready, our machine-guns rattle,
Against the world’s imperialist greed,
Chorus
Flying higher, higher and higher,Our emblem the Soviet Star,
And ever propeller is roaring,
Defending the USSR,
(shout) Red Front ! or (Shout) Y-C-L
But to the workers and the toiling masses,
A gleam of hope all our propellers whirl,We drop them leaflets while we bomb their bosses,
The first Red Air Force of the world,
Chorus
Our proud machines obey our every orderThere is no flight our pilots do not dare,
We form an iron ring above our border
The workers first squadrons of the air,
Chorus
And should dictators with snouts come rooting
Around the soil of our free Soviet land,
Our guns can sting the jaws that gape for looting,
Our bombs will smash the greedy hand
END
NOTES
other versions of Chorus
Flying higher, higher and higher,
Our emblem the Soviet Star,
And ever propeller is turning,
In defence of the USSR
or below the University Labour Federtation version
And ever propeller is roaring
Red Front ! Defending the USSR
Alternative...........................
Chorus
Flying higher, higher and higher,
Our emblem the Soviet Star
And ever propeller is turning,
In defence of the USSR,
(Shout) Y-C-L
or
And ever blade is turning
in defence of the USSR
This song was very popular amongst Communist Party and Young Communist League (YCL) members during and after the war, the Chorus often being sung on its own with great passion. (also with hand movements to replicate propellers turning).
The first version I can trace has words adapted by Randall Swingler of the Workers Music Association in 1939 costing 2d
Kevin Halpin states this chorus is correct
Flying higher, higher and higher,
Our emblem the Soviet Star,
And ever propeller is roaring,
Defending the USSR,
(shout) Red Front ! or (Shout) Y-C-L
Ken Keable states, my parents, Bill & Gladys Keable, taught me to sing the Song of the Soviet Air Force (in Esperanto as well as in English) I used to sing it in the 1970's and 1980's when I was in the political song group "The Partisans". Here are the words I was taught,
We sail the sky as steamers sail the ocean.
We boldly fly where none has flown before.
Our arms are wings of metal swift in motion,
Our beating heart - the mighty engine's roar.
Fly higher, and higher, and higher -
Our emblem, the Soviet star
And every propeller is roaring
Defending the USSR.
Our watchful gaze explores the wide horizon.
Our iron nerves the elements defy.
To every foe, to any fighting challenge
Our mighty air fleet swiftly will reply.
(
Chorus)
Our proud machines obey our every order.
There is no flight our pilots do not dare.
We form an iron ring above our border -
The workers' first great squadrons of the air.
(Chorus).
The Randall Swingler version starts with
Our engines roar the frozen air is cleaving
Red Square is darkened
Our guardian shade
And over lands and polar oceans
Weaving our cable lines of peace are laid
CHORUS
Higher and Higher and higher
Our emblem the Soviet star
And every propeller is roaring
Defending the USSR
Fifty years after the
Anti Fascism - Uxbridge 1986
