Tuesday 14 January 2020

Historical memorialisation in 2020


This August is the 80th Anniversary of the start of the London Blitz. We will no doubt see a mass of stories about brave besieged Britain, standing alone against the might of Nazi Germany. For historians who believe that historical events and commemorations should be more nuanced and the hidden aspects of the mainstream story need to be highlighted, the year gives an opportunity to develop a more balanced view. 


History Press has commissioned Stephen Bourne to write Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-1945 which will combine his the two earlier books Mother Country (2010) & The Motherland Calls (2012) into one covering the Home Front & armed services with new additional stories and photos. The aim is to publish it in August for the 80th anniversary.
Inspired by the Gay Liberation Front in the United States and the Stonewall riots in the United States the UK GLF held its  first meeting at the London School of Economics on 13 October 1970. December 1970 saw the start of the Mangrove Nine trial, following clashes between the police and sections of  the black community in Notting Hill.


2020 provides many opportunities to look at past historical events and their significance today.

Leaving aside the Russian Revolution and Civil War in which Britain intervened, 1920 sees the start of the League of Nations, in which Labour’s Arthur Henderson played a key role. In America the clamp down and mass arrests  of socialists and communists began leading to the formation of the American Civil Liberties Union. In Germany Adolph Hitler published his programme and set up the Nazi Party. Britain troops occupied Constantinople. Jerusalem saw riots between Jews and Arabs. In October thousands of unemployed demonstrated in London. During the Irish Civil War British troops burnt down the centre of Cork. Partition in North and South  was approved by Parliament. In July  the London County Council banned foreigners from almost all council jobs. The Communist Party of Great Britain was  formed on 1 August. Among a number of women’s equality initiatives  in October  the first one hundred women were admitted to study for full degrees at Oxford, and a number of former students were retrospectively awarded degrees. October saw a strike by the miners with a state of emergency agreed by Parliament, the strike ending on 3 November. Culturally November  saw the first complete public performance of Holst’s The Planets and William Owen’s Poems were published.

Potential historic commemorations with particular relevance to debates in Britain today, include:  

·       the South Sea Bubble financial scandal in 1720 which reminds us that the Government of the day fined the Directors of the South Sea Company, rather than pumping last sums of money into the financial system as was done by George Brown;
·       the Scottish affirmation of independence in the Declaration of Arbroath in April 1320;
·       the  nationalisation of the private telegraph companies by the creation of the General Post Office on 28 January 1870.

Many labour and women’s historians in particular will want to focus on the Cato Street Conspiracy (resulting from the failure of the Government to take action against the perpetrators of the Peterloo Massacre and the passing of the six repressive Acts against popular action, and after the accession of George IV as King),  the Scottish Radical War and the Queen Caroline Affair in 1820, and from 1870 the passage of the Elementary Education Act creating the School Board system on which women were eligible to stand and vote,  and of the Married Women’s Property Act confirming that wives may own property of their own.

The Challenge of Reaching Out to Wider Audiences

The challenge is how to reach a much wider audience people to influence the way they think about British historical development and what that means for politics today. After all there is no such thing as historical objectivity; things are shaped by the aims and objects, the values and principles people hold and the strategies and tactics they use, and the conflicts between individuals and between and within collective groups, partially influenced by the way in which each individuals brain is wired.

Just as we make history through these processes so we also use history in the controversies  of the present day.

In the General Election the Conservatives survived the Windrush Generation scandal, got away with continuing to blame Labour for austerity, and with the help of the media and sections of the Labour Party discredited the Labour Leader for his past political stands on issues such as Northern Ireland and  Palestine. They got away with presenting itself as patriotically One Nation while stoking up the likelihood of the United Kingdom breaking up. Sections of the Labour Party are trying to give their view of recent history to hide their failure to understand what was happening in the Red Wall constituencies, and their role in undermining their Leader.

North East Labour History Society’s First Tuesday talks for the first four months of 2020 all have relevance to the politics of today. (https://seancreighton1947.wordpress.com/2020/01/15/north-east-labour-history-society-talks-february-april

Labour movement historians reach small audiences, and we have no idea whether increasing people’s knowledge and understanding changes the way people think. This is not to denigrate the efforts of groups like Labour Heritage, the Socialist History Society, the North East and North West Labour History Societies and other local groups and individuals.

We need to find ways of reaching out to more people. Sometimes a lot can be achieved as when John Charlton spoke to thousands across the North East on slavery and abolition between 2007 and 2010. But what we do not know is what lasting influence this had on his audiences.

Even if one looks at social groups like students we have to understand that at any University they mostly come from elsewhere. They have no knowledge or understanding of the town or city they are based in. This hit me when I was doing the walk, archive session and talk during last year’s Durham’s Black History Month. How does one build student/community joint action except on  occasional national issues. I am reminded of my own student days (Sheffield 1966-69) when I considered it more important to be politically active on student affairs and did not engage in political activity in the City. While I did have a general overview of the historical development and nature of the City this was only because I had read the British Association for the Advancement of Science volume on Sheffield published for its Conference there in 1956.

Perhaps Universities put compulsory modules for new students on the history of the town/city and region where they are based.  

The Right to Strike - the challenge of history in the coming months



The new Conservative Government’s intention to limit the right to strike will see them on the ideological offensive to discredit Labour and the trade union movement, and to confuse large swathes of the electorate who are not or have not been trade union members in the past.

Strikes have a very negative image with the public, like the  current one between RMT and South Western Trains in London, causing immense disruption to people's daily lives, getting to and from work, and making journeys on alternative routes even more difficult and stressful. Older people still have memories of the Winter of Discontent and the Tories will re-run all that. They will no doubt run the theme that the General Strike was an unpatriotic challenge to Government. They may even point to the violence that often takes place in French strikes as another good reason for BREXIT.

The coming attack on the trade union movement is a reminder that that is what the Conservative Government did from its election victory 50 years ago in June 1970. It is ironic of course that that victory gave Prime Minister Edward Heath the mandate to start negotiations to join the Common Market (now EU) which took effect in 1973. That July saw the Dock Strike with the Government declaring a state of emergency. C47,000 dockers struck for a pay rise of £11 per week. After a court of inquiry a settlement was reached with  an average 7% increase in pay. Heath’s Government went on to reduce trade union rights and the trial of the Shrewsbury 24. It is worth re-reading Paul Mason’s 2015 article on the trial: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/07/shrewsbury-trials-1970s-trade-unionists-ricky-tomlinson-edward-heath

In 1970 trade union membership stood at 50% of the workforce. According to the National Statistics by 2018 it had more than halved to 23.4% (52.5% public sector; 13.2%  private sector).

The Labour Party and the trade union movement are ill equipped to counter the Conservative propaganda. This is partly because the Party abandoned years ago any serious political education about its history and its historic link with the trade unions, and because of the small number of its members who are trade unionists.

Younger members work experience is not in TU organised employment. A growing section of the population does not understand what trade unions are and what their purpose is. They seem like dinosaurs.

Simply arguing the case for the Right to Strike is not enough. Any campaign has to be founded on the positive case for trade unions, what they have achieved, and a recognition that the right to strike is a last resort, and that the negative aspects of striking, includes the adverse effects on strikers, their families and communities. It is thought that the striking  dockers in 1970 lost £4m in wages. This approach needs to be supported by public information about the positive outcomes of many strikes. e.g. the Match Women's Strike and New Unionism, Grunwick and Dagenham.

Preparing for the arguments inside and outside of Parliament should link to the policy position of the International Labour Office, as discussed in the book: ILO Principles Concerning the Right to Strike by Bernard Gernigon, Alberto Odero and Horacio Guido (ILO. 2000) which can be seen on Google Books, and also the discussion on the ILO’s website: www.ilo.org/actrav/WCMS_245669/lang--en/index.htm

Leslie John Macfarlane made a strong case in his book The Right to Strike (Penguin 1981) which should perhaps be re-printed or updated. The TUC needs to update its 2015 document www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/Activist's%20Guide%20to%20the%20Bill.pdf
Local trade union movements are incapable of reaching large numbers of people. The key challenge is how do they reach into the general population to influence their thinking and counter the propoganda that the Tories will put out? Perhaps a key problem is that most trade unionism is workplace based. Perhaps a shift to community based trade unionism needs to be seriously examined, and supported by work based unions.

In the coming fight between Conservative and Labour and within Labour the myths that Britain was in decline in the 1970s because of Labour and the left will be high on the agenda. The Conservatives role under Edward Heath between 1970 and 1974 will be airbrushed away. John Medhurst’s 2014 article The Myth of the 1970s is an essential read.

The trade union version of events can be read at http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1960_2000_3.php and the pages that follow.