‘Red Ellen' Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World PDF
Preview ‘Red Ellen' Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World
‘Red Ellen’ Wilkinson This study delves beyond the familiar image of Ellen Wilkinson as the leader of the Jarrow Crusade. It has unearthed new evidence to provide a richer understanding of her remarkable achievements, her acquaintances and her witnessing of history’s ‘ great turning points. From a humble background, she ascended to the rank of W R Minister in the 1945 Labour government.Y et she was much more than a conventional Labour politician. She wrote journalism, political theory and novels. She was both ie a socialist and a feminist; at times, she described herself as a revolutionary. She l d met Lenin, Trotsky and Gandhi. She experienced first-hand Soviet Russia, the GM k sit-down strikes, the Indian civil disobedience campaign, the Spanish Civil War and the Third Reich. While viewed in the collective imagination as ‘Red Ellen’, iE whose politics were as red as her hair, her ideas were not static and present a n series of puzzles. This study deploys transnational and social movement theory l perspectives to grapple with the complexity of her ideas and her relationship with sl the movements for social transformation. Interest in Wilkinson remains strong oe among academic and non-academic audiences alike. This is in part because her principal concerns – working-class representation, the status of women, capitalist n n crisis, war, anti-fascism – remain central to contentious politics today. ’ Matt Perry is Reader in Labour History at Newcastle University P e r r y Cover image from The Daily Herald, 1 April 1936. ISBN 978-0-7190-8720-2 By permission of the British Cartoon Archive Cover design: www.riverdesign.co.uk 9 780719 087202 www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk ‘Red Ellen’ Wilkinson ‘Red Ellen’ Wilkinson Her ideas, movements and world Matt Perry Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan Copyright © Matt Perry 2014 The right of Matt Perry to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed in Canada exclusively by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 0 7190 8720 2 hardback First published 2014 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Frances Hackeson Freelance Publishing Services, Brinscall, Lancs Contents Preface page vi Acknowledgements vii List of abbreviations viii Introduction 1 1 Socialist ideas and movements 18 2 Feminism and the women’s movement 69 3 The trade union movement 115 4 Against imperialism and war 155 5 The Commons and the Parliamentary Labour Party 201 6 A journey through the crisis years: the slump, travel and 251 anti-fascism 7 ‘The hope of the world’: Spain in revolution and war, 299 1933–39 8 In government, 1940–47 350 Select bibliography 403 Index 409 Preface This book has germinated over many years beginning with my research into the Jarrow Crusade. If that event attained a mythical status, Ellen Wilkinson appeared to be equally elusive and enigmatic. She remains a potent symbol in the local Labour movement and of female achievement. Yet despite her celebrity, the destruction of her personal papers and the need to piece together fragments from a multiplicity of sources has discouraged biogra- phers. The present renewal of scholarly interest in Ellen Wilkinson is both overdue and timely. Her principal concerns – working-class representation, the status of women, capitalist crisis, war, anti-fascism – remain central to contentious politics in this decade and will most likely in the one to come as well. Moreover, a new conceptual repertoire allows biographers to ask questions about her ideas, her relation to social movements and her trans- national orientation with a new precision. This book cannot be the last word in the study of Ellen Wilkinson. Her thought and political practice was too wide-ranging, too complex and the evidence too partial to allow that. This project has concentrated on unearthing new evidence in relation to Wilkinson, particularly her political activism beyond Britain in the belief that this would allow greater insights into her political itinerary and moti- vation. Hopefully, it will help to stimulate more interest and discussion into this fascinating and contradictory character. vi Acknowledgements It is impossible to thank all those who have helped me with this project and I apologise to all those who I fail to mention here. Transnational his- tory requires reliance on the generosity of strangers and I have encountered considerable amounts of this in my travels and enquiries in foreign archives and libraries. I feel a particular privilege working in the intellectually stimulating and friendly atmosphere of the history department at Newcastle University. I could not put a price on the support and encouragement of Joan Allen, Claudia Baldoli, Lara Cook, Martin Farr, Tim Kirk, Alejandro Quiroga, David Saunders, Felix Schulz and Samiksha Sehrawat. Members of the Labour and Society Research Group – Máire Cross, Daniel Laqua and Nicole Robertson – have provided a vibrant and supportive environment for labour history. I must thank also Hester Barron for her kindness. Old friends Steve Cannon and Tony Dabb have also lent a hand with reading and criticism of my manuscript. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Paul Preston with help in tracking down more elusive Spain-related sources. The editorial board at the International Review of Social History and anonymous readers provided insightful criticism. I owe the greatest debt to two people. David Reid accumulated materials in the expectation of publishing a biography that never materialised. He allowed me access to these materials when he was very ill. They are now deposited in Newcastle University Special Collections. His spade work and generosity was of considerable help. And finally, thanks to Christine. vii List of abbreviations AEC Association of Education Committees AUCE Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain CWS Co-operative Wholesale Society ILP Independent Labour Party IWSA International Woman Suffrage Alliance LRD Labour Research Department LSI Labour and Socialist International NEC National Executive Committee (Labour Party) NJC National Joint Council (of the TUC General Council and the Labour Party NEC) NSDAP National Socialist (Nazi) German Worker’s Party NUDAW National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers NUSEC National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship NUW(C)M National Unemployed Workers’ (Committee) Movement NUWSS National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies PLP Parliamentary Labour Party PPS Parliamentary Private Secretary USDAW Union of Shop, Distribution and Allied Workers WCWF World Committee against War and Fascism WFL Women’s Freedom League WILPF Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom WPSU Women’s Political and Social Union viii Introduction Ellen Wilkinson left a profound impression upon the collective imag- ination. She has reappeared in all manner of representations: plays, paintings, union banners and various acts of commemoration. Housing estates, blocks of flats, beers, a metro train, miners’ lodge banners, offices in Labour Party Headquarters all bear her name. Subsequent campaigns, protests and movements against the closures of the steel- works, mines and shipyards of the north-east (sometimes carrying the very banner under which she walked) invoke Wilkinson’s memory. Several Labour women or north-east MPs summon her name as inspi- ration.1 At the same time, pressures have moulded the social memory of Wilkinson into a more conventional simplified shape. Biographer David Reid complained after a BBC documentary in 1983 about the programme’s misrepresentation of her as ‘a Labour Party worthy’, which, he argued, was wide of the mark. The programme omitted her early commitment to the Independent Labour Party’s (ILP) brand of socialism, her work in the suffrage campaign, her Wesleyan Methodism, her revolutionary commitment, her campaigns for India, Spain and anti-fascism and her love affairs.2 Perhaps, the most remarkable effort to appropriate Wilkinson for mainstream Labourism is Graham Dale’s God’s Politicians (2000). Concerned with the influence of religion on her politics, he assimilated her into a teleology of Christian socialist values that has culminated with Tony Blair and his ‘modernising’ New Labour agenda.3 A more plausible recent Labourist assessment iden- tified the specificity of her ‘socialism with a northern accent’ (the ILP, Victor Grayson, the Clarion Clubs and so on), which was marshalled to make the case for regional assemblies and greater devolved powers to the north.4 For a woman born in Victorian Ardwick (Manchester), Wilkinson’s career is remarkable. From a humble background, she became one of the first female MPs. Indeed, of her nineteen years at the House of Commons, four were as Labour’s solitary female MP.5 Kenneth O.
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