History Is Political Education
As a
historian who has been involved in local affairs in Croydon, Lambeth, Merton
and Wandsworth and in a variety of national issues over the years, I see
community, trade union, co-operative, women’s , Black & Asian histories,
history from below, hidden histories, people’s history, as ‘political’ because
they all seek to redress the balance of the political way in which the teaching
of Britain’s history has downplayed the roles of ordinary people and their
organisations and the struggles to influence the political decision making that
shapes our daily lives. For me ‘political education’ should be integral within,
for example, community organisations.
In the
1990s I organised the workshops at the annual conferences of Community Matters,
the national association of community associations, which examined not just
issues involved in running them, but also ‘the use of history’ and the relationship
with Government policy. In the early 2000s I was a guest tutor on the community
work course at Goldsmith College. An important theme was developing an understanding
of the local community context and how, why and by who it is shaped. Both sets
of activities involved a mix of training and education as discussed by Colin
Waugh.
While
working at BASSAC 2000-2 my involvement in the discussions on the role of
community organisations in neighbourhood renewal and reviewing civic engagement
led me to argue that there was a lack of appreciation of the role of community
and voluntary organisations of the long tradition of ordinary working people
creating organisations to meet particular needs, and engaging in collective
activity to influence their lives and lobby for economic, political and social
inclusion and justice.
‘Community history is not some
abstract concept outside our own lives. Activists in political and community
campaigns help make it. The personal is not just the political but the
historical. All history is ‘political’ in its broadest non-party sense.
Community history activity can
contribute to writing back into history the stories of ordinary people, their
struggles, redressing the imbalance of more official and establishment
histories. All historical specialisms and approaches are useful routes into the
historical picture. Large numbers of people want to protect and celebrate the
historic local environment.
The
friendly, loan, building and co-operative societies, and the trade unions:
* provided a glue that linked people together at work, and because
work and home were often close, between work and community
* built an amazing infrastructure of social welfare and income
support in the absence of a Welfare State
* were seedbeds for building experience in running
organisations and in participative and representative democracy
* forced a response that made Britain more inclusive in
electoral politics, and moderated the worst effect of economic forces through
social and employment reform
The
militant trade unionism of the period 1888 to 1892 set in motion a new social
and economic agenda based on the eight hour day, fair wages, direct labour and
the public service role of local government, an agenda which continued through
to 1976.
The
trade unions created the Labour Party in 1900 as a political vehicle to
represent the interests of working people in Parliament. Together they became a
major electoral force, and in the 1945-51 period brought in the building blocks
of the modern Welfare State, including the National Health Service and the
expansion of public services. It is no coincidence that in 1945 community
associations received a boost with the formation of the organisation now known
as Community Matters, and black organisations came together at the Manchester
Pan-African Conference.
The
pursuit of social and economic justice has never been easy because of the
effects of economic cycles and the resultant changes in types and location of
jobs. Once the movement began to win control of local and Central Government it
had to face the problems involved in policy implementation and management. In
the process all kinds of mistakes were made.
In my
view the biggest mistake in the post-war period was the 1976 International
Monetary Fund deal under which the Labour Government began to roll back public
services, paving the way for the Tory monetarist destruction from 1979.
From
1979 there was a great increase in poverty and deprivation and the abandonment
and betrayal by private and public services of the needs of the people living
in the large number of what are now called deprived neighbourhoods. In the
process individuals, families and whole communities experienced hopelessness
and brutalisation. One of these is Glasgow's Easterhouse Estate.
Easterhouse
is symbolic. It has its own Community Champion in Bob Holman, the Christian
Socialist academic who went to live there and work with local people. But no
amount of collective self-help community organisation has been able as yet to
tackle the mountain of neglect, the need for good quality job creation and investment,
and to fundamentally address the underlying problem of low incomes and
means-testing dependency.
Tackling
the legacy of this deprivation was at the heart of the Government's
Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy for England. The Strategy fitted uneasily within
a set of tensions within Government policy:
·
central
control versus decentralisation and democratisation
·
acceptance
that it will take 15-20 years to achieve fundamental change, versus the need to
be seen to deliver results in the short timetables dictated by the electoral
cycle
·
impatience
with the time it takes to deliver noticeable change, versus a recognition that
it takes time to achieve the massive cultural change needed by local
government, health authorities, private business and the community and
voluntary sector to work together
·
co-option
of the community and voluntary sector to the Government's agenda versus a
recognition of its independence.
However neighbourhood renewal will not be achieved just by beavering away in one's own silo activity. Part of the social glue function of community organisations should be to build a common sense of justice, understanding, and positive interaction between all the different sub-groups and interests within the neighbourhood community. There needs to be activity that brings people together, especially in those areas where adversely affected by racism and ethnic segregation.’ (1)
That remains a challenge particularly now that the COVID pandemic has highlighted the extent of inequalities and the Black Lives Matters movement the extent of racism.(1) My discussions on mutuality, regeneration and radical politics for Independent Labour Publications in 2001 and 2002 can be seen at
www.independentlabour.org.uk/2009/01/22/collective-action-and-the-sustainable-renewal-of-britain
www.independentlabour.org.uk/2009/01/22/mutuality-and-radical-politics
Part 3 follows on the next posting.
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