Labour Heritage AGM and centenary meeting

Labour Heritage held its AGM and meeting to commemorate Labour’s centenary at Conway Hall on Saturday 4^th March, attended by over 50 people. The four guest speakers addressed the theme of Labour’s centenary from different viewpoints.

Jim Mortimer, a former national secretary of the Labour Party and  author of books on the trades union movement, outlined the role of the trades unions in the formation of the Labour Party. In 1899 the Taff Vale Company had sued the railway workers’ union for damages incurred due to trade losses during an eleven day industrial dispute. The courts found in favour of the company and the union was fined £23,000 (£3-4 million in today’s money). In spite of the need for protection for the unions, a resolution passed by the TUC to set up the Labour Representation Committee was only narrowly carried.

The years 1901-1906 saw a concerted campaign to protect trades union funds and in 1906 the Liberal Government,  with the backing of 29  Labour MPs, passed the Trades Disputes Act. This legislation gave the unions immunity from prosecution for interfering with trade in the event of an industrial dispute and it also legalised picketing, including solidarity action. Even the Conservatives in Parliament could not oppose it. The trades unions were in a better position after the 1906 Trades Disputes Act than they are after seven years of a Labour Government today.

Norman Howard, who had spoken on the 1945 election result at the last Labour Heritage AGM, gave an account of how the campaign for labour representation had resulted from decades of struggle going back  to the days of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and Chartists. It was a response to the poverty and repression suffered by working people. He emphasised the role of socialists in the Independent Labour

Party, Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation. Socialists like Will Thorne and Ben Tillett had played a role in important industrial disputes such as the one for the “docker’s  tanner”, when the London dockers went on strike to get sixpence an hour. Trades union activists like Keir Hardie, a miner who had started work at the age of eight,  had moved from Liberalism to become the first independent Labour MP for West Ham in 1892. After 1900 jingoism accompanied the Boer War and election results were not good for Labour. However there was a strong progressive movement resulting in the election of a radical Liberal government with Labour support in 1906. This was an achievement as suffrage was still restricted for the working class in those days. This government set up legislation for the implementation of a welfare state with the provision of pensions and school meals.

Terry Ashton, a past general secretary of the London Labour Party, spoke about Labour full time staff since 1905. Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington North spoke about the legacy of 1906 for the Labour Party today. He cited disillusionment with Labour over the Iraq War and the current malaise within the Party. In the 1970s and 1980s the Party had plenty of activists and good campaigns although it lost elections. During the general election last year there was very little activity. However a note of unity was achieved to celebrate Labour’s centenary in February this year, when all the current members of the  Parliamentary Labour Party came together to sing “The Red Flag”. Apparently everyone knew the words still.

John Grigg, Labour Heritage Committee member, gave notice of a book “Men who made Labour”, which is edited by Diane Hayter and due to be published later in the year. This is to comprise the biographies of the first 29 Labour MPs. John had researched the life of Tom Richards, who was elected as Labour MP for Wolverhampton in 1906 by a 150 majority. Following reports in the local paper – the Express and Star, John had traced his life to Leicester where he had been a councillor. He was also general secretary of the Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives a post which he retained whilst in Parliament. There was no payment for MPs in those days and trade unions were able to provide some of the first Labour MPs with a living. Many of them had begun life impoverished and Tom Richards had spent time in the workhouse.

John also has been given a Star Album, containing postcards of the first 29 Labour MPs. The original is in the Labour History Archives in Manchester but copies have been made for sale.