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AGM
2009
The AGM
of Labour Heritage was held at Conway Hall on Saturday
14th March and was attended by over 50
people.
The
meeting had two main themes:
-
the recession of the 1930s and the role of the 1929-31
Labour Government
-
the centenary of John Burns and the 1909 Town and
Country Planning Act.
(1)
1929-1931 Labour Government
The
first speaker was John McDonnell, MP for Hayes
and Harlington and chair of the Labour Representation
Committee.
He
spoke about the similarities between the 1930s and
today. The defeat of the General Strike in 1926, which
had parallels with the defeat of the 1984/85 miners’
strike, had led to a rightward drift within the labour
movement. This was particularly the case with the trades
union movement which under the leadership of Ernest
Bevin, had endorsed the Mond-Turner talks which meant
conciliation between trades unions and the employers.
The unions, which then had a lot of influence within
the council of the Labour Party, were happy to work with
the National Government which was formed in 1931.
Labour
was elected as a minority government, dependent on
Liberal support in 1929. Its election pledge was to
reduce unemployment, which had been rising steadily
under the Tories. But it had no idea on how to run the
economy. Ramsay MacDonald was a declared socialist, but
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden, was a
19th century Liberal at heart.. They were not
prepared for the economic crisis and were judged with
gross incompetence when they lost at the 1931 election.
John
emphasised that the 1930s slump did not automatically
radicalise the population. Many workers voted Tory
during these years and Labour was not to be returned to
government until 1945. However Labour did make gains in
local government such as winning the London County
Council.
Radicalisation came from issues of foreign policy – the
rise of fascism and threat of war in Europe. As a result
of these the Communist Party of Great Britain increased
its membership from 3,000 in 1929 to 29,000 in 1939.
Minority groups such as Jews were politically mobilised
against fascism and many joined in the battle against
the Mosleyites at Cable Street, preventing the fascists
from marching through the East End. John mentioned the
parallels today with the radicalisation of Muslims
against the war in Iraq. To be left wing became
respectable with sections of the intelligentsia who
joined the Left Book Club in large numbers. Many workers
joined the International Brigades which went to fight
against the fascists in Spain. But within the Labour
Party the left was marginalised after the departure of
the Independent Labour Party in 1932. In the 1930s the
Labour Party did not even support the Hunger Marches,
including the Jarrow march which was led by a Labour MP.
The
Socialist League, led by Stafford Cripps often faced
strong opposition within the Party and its members
expelled.
The
Labour Party did not embrace Keynesianism as an
alternative to orthodox free market economics.
John
deplored the continued actions of the current government
in going ahead with privatisations and welfare reform,
even in the face of a recession and banking crisis.
He said
that the government had allowed the Bank of England to
set interest rates as one of its first acts, thus
abandoning any hope of regulating the monetary system
which had got us into the present crisis. The 1983
election manifesto had advocated strict regulation of
the banking system but this had been written off by
Gerald Kaufman as “the longest suicide note in
history”. But the left in the Party was rebuilding with
the Labour Representation Committee and Left Economics
Advisory Council.
The
second speaker was John Grigg, who is on the
committee of Labour Heritage. He began with the 1929
election campaign which had been lost by the Tories.
Their slogan of “Safety First” did not appeal, neither
did their song “Stanley Boy” to be sung to the tune of
“Sonny Boy”. Stanley Baldwin the Tory leader also had a
“broccoli moment” – claiming that the exports of
broccoli from Cornwall to the continent were helping to
revive British trade.
Labour
attacked the Tories on their record of high
unemployment. It called for the raising of the school
leaving age to 15, taxation of the well-off and
autonomous assemblies for Scotland and Wales, support
for the League of Nations and trade with Russia. Hours
in the mining industry were to be reduced from 8 to 7.5.
But there was little talk of nationalisation. Labour won
with a minority of votes and did not have an overall
majority in Parliament. It needed Liberal support to
survive.
The
Wall Street crash occurred on 23rd October
1929, months after the election of the minority Labour
Government. It was as a result of speculation in shares
which had taken place in the US in the 1920s. A familiar
story. Banks in the US had been loaning to fund this
share buying frenzy. Within a short space of time 3,000
banks had failed. There was a run on the banks and
consumer demand had dropped. The crisis hit Europe as US
bank loans to Germany dried up and it became clear that
loans from UK banks to Germany would not be repaid.
By 1931
unemployment in the UK had risen to 2.7 million – an
embarrassment for a government which had been elected on
a programme of combating unemployment.
Labour
in spite of its protestations that the alternative to
capitalist crisis was socialism, had no practical
measures to propose - it steered clear of protectionism
as its policy had been to support free trade and Snowdon
the Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed any proposals
for abandoning the gold standard, devaluing sterling or
implementing a programme of public works to increase
demand in the economy. Increasingly with the cupboard
bare and looking increasingly incompetent the government
was becoming more and more in the hands of the banks.
Bankers’ proposals dominated the report of the May
Committee (led by Sir May of the Prudential Insurance
Company) in the Spring of 1931. What they wanted was a
balanced budget – they accepted some increased taxation
but in the main they wanted cuts – in wages for some
public sector workers and a 20% cut in unemployment
benefit. These cuts were opposed by 50% of the Labour
cabinet and it looked as if the government was going to
have to resign and go into opposition. In fact that was
the plan of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald. However the
leaders of the opposition parties – Baldwin and Samuels
had other ideas. They wanted MacDonald to lead a
national government in this “time of emergency.” Finally
loans from US banks dried up and the government was
faced with a crunch decision. Within the Labour
Government there was an 11-9 majority against the cuts.
Critically the TUC were not prepared to cut unemployment
benefit. MacDonald offered his resignation to the King
and was turned down.
On the
basis of the plan of the opposition leaders he stayed on
and led a National Government with Tory and Liberal
support. Arthur Henderson was elected as leader of the
Labour Party and those MPs who joined the National
Government including MacDonald were expelled from the
Party. The cuts were carried though but were not enough
to stop the run on the pound. Finally sterling was taken
off the gold standard and devalued by 25% - a measure
which the City of London had previously said was
impossible.
In 1931
a General Election was called and the National
Government won by a landslide. MacDonald who had been in
the Labour Party since its foundation drifted away from
political life and died. In 1935 Baldwin led the Tories
to win a general election in spite of some recovery by
Labour.
(2)
John Burns
The
final speaker was Alan Spence, member of the
Labour Heritage Committee. Alan had been an activist in
the AEU and when retired completed a degree in
architecture at London University. He spoke on John
Burns and his role in the Housing and Town Country
Planning Act of 1909. This Act which initiated the New
Towns programme has its centenary this year. John Burns
had been an MP since the 1890s, with Labour and Liberal
Support. The concept of new towns had its roots in the
ideas of Robert Owen and his ideals of community and
co-operation. Burns was involved in the setting up of
Letchworth Garden City, along with William Morris and a
couple of architects. Letchworth Garden City owned its
own land and the proceeds could be ploughed back into
the infrastructure. He was also involved with the
establishment of Hampstead Garden City. In 1910 he
attended an international conference, including 1500
delegates from all other the world.
Alan
also spoke of the role of John Burns in the trades union
movement as one of the leaders of the dock strike of
1899 and in campaigning for trades union funds to be
free from employers suing for damages.
Members
of the audience from Battersea pointed out that John
Burns had also been involved with the building of the
Latchmere Estate in Battersea back in 1903. The estate
still exists with good housing.
The AGM
had reports on Labour Heritage activities throughout the
year, including events in Essex and West London. Two
bulletins had been produced with material from different
parts of the country such as Cornwall. The following
officers were elected:
Chair –
Stan Newens, Secretary – Linda Shampan, Treasurer – John
Grigg, Bulletin Editor – Barbara Humphreys; Alan
Spence, Bill Bolland, Kit Snape, Khatchik Pilikian,
Jason Williams, Stephen Bird and Irene Wagner were
elected to the committee. |
