Politics has been on the minds of many of us a lot lately. A general election earlier this month saw to that and of course returned a swing for now, back to the Labour Party.
‘Change’ was the campaign slogan, (which for most elections and parties, it usually is). However, having recently been researching local events in 1894, it got me thinking how even exactly 130 years later, the themes are still the same. As the nineteenth century came to a close, working-class representation in political office became a great concern for many Britons and with it came the formation of the Independent Labour Party.
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established a year earlier in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals’ apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates. A sitting independent MP and prominent union organiser, Keir Hardie, became its first chairman. In 1900 it was renamed the Labour Party, and the rest as they say is history.
Here in Scotland, it was mining men who were interested in this party in those late Victorian time. At a time before votes for women, working class men also demanded ‘change’.
By mid May 1894, a Blantyre branch of the Independent Labour Party had been formed and they hoped to attract attention by holding outdoor summer meetings.
The party’s programme at that time, called for a range of progressive social reforms, including free “unsectarian” education “right up to the universities”, the provision of medical treatment and school feeding programmes for children, housing reform, the establishment of public measures to reduce unemployment and provide aid to the unemployed, a minimum-wage law, welfare programmes for orphans, widows, the elderly, the disabled, and the sick, the abolition of child labour, the abolition of overtime and piecework, and an eight-hour workday. All worthwhile causes, and in some cases not too similar to some modern manifestos.
To get these points across, open air meetings took place in the large open area at Stonefield, Blantyre and at the cross at High Blantyre. Speakers were Andrew McAnuly, William Small and Thomas McGowan, their speeches being well received. A large stock of literature was freely given out, publications such as ‘Labour Leader’ and ‘Clarion’ circulated. At High Blantyre, at a time before mechanised traffic, the road surface provided standing room for crowds intending on hearing the speakers from the gates of the old Cemetery Kirkyard.
I wonder what those early members in 1894 would have thought if they knew how the fortunes of the Labour Party would pan out in the 20th and 21st centuries and usher in Prime Ministers in their cause.
