Labour and Radicals in English Politics

1
Labour and Radicals in English Politics

• Party Formation, Suffrage, and Ireland, 1870-1914

2
Practical and Intellectual Context

• Trades Union Congress est. 1868
• No real radicalsgoal of workers was to become
  more successful in capitalismnot to transform
  capitalism
• Fabian Societyevolutionary change by
  ascertaining direction toward which society and
  economy is moving and making pro-active
  adjustments.
• Sidney Webb Beatrice Webb, History of the
  English Poor Law

3
Sidney (1859-1947) Beatrice (1858-1943)
4
So what?

• The Webbs and other Fabians had access to those
  who ran England and their research data could
  identify areas in need of reform.
• Their work helped transform the reforming
  impulse, that had been done initially to prevent
  revolution, then out of religiously-based
  morality, into a more data-driven,
  empirically-based enterprise.

5
Labour Party The Challenge

• 1871 Trade Unions Act exempted railroad union
  from corporate responsibility.
• Taff-Vale Case (1900)Labour recognized need to
  change law making their members responsible for
  business losses during a strikeneed to have
  political party.
• Osborne Case (1909)Union funds cant be used for
  political purposes.

6
Labour Party The Success

• Labour M. P.s and workers generally supported
  Liberals in 1909 Budget Crisis
• Liberals pass Trade Union Amendment Act in
  1911Union Funds can be used for political
  purposes
• Strikes in 1911-1912 embitter labor-management
  relations
• WWILabor is patriotic but demands post-war
  reforms and Labour constitutes itself a separate
  party in the wake of the demise of the Liberal
  Party.

7
Kier Hardie (1856-1915)
8
Womens Suffrage

• Emmeline PankhurstWomens Social and Political
  Union1903
• Disrupted political meetings, demanding votes for
  women
• 1908arrested for disrupting Commonshunger
  strikes while in prison
• March 1, 1912Oxford and Regent Street windows
  smashed
• June 4, 1913Emily Davison at Epson Derby

9
Emmiline Pankhurst
10
Force-feeding a Suffragette
11
The Ghost of Emily Davison
12
Ireland

• Home Rule forces had money and arms from Irish
  relatives in the U. S.
• Irish Protestants in Ulster armed themselves and
  were determined to resist Home Rule
• Edward Carson (1854-1935) led Irish Unionists
  railed against evils of Catholicism
• Soldiers said that they would not contribute to
  Home Rule if forced, theyd quit the army and
  join the Irish Unionists
• Violence in Ireland Increases.

13
Edward Carson