Bryan Pauline - Keir Hardie and the 21st Century Socialist Revival

PAULINE BRYAN has worked for both the ILP and the Fabian Society. She is a member of the Scottish Labour Campaign for Socialism, the Red Paper Collective and the Keir Hardie Society. She edited What Would Keir Hardie Say? in 2015 and co-edited Class, Nation and Socialism: The Red Paper on Scotland 2014. She has contributed socialist publications and newspapers. In 2018 she became a Labour Peer in the House of Lords.

RICHARD BURGON is the MP for Leeds East and has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor since June 2016. Before being elected to represent his home constituency in Parliament, he worked for more than a decade as a lawyer in Leeds, representing trade union members in courts and Tribunals. The first person from his family to go to university, he studied English Literature at Cambridge.

PETER COLE is professor of history at Western Illinois University (USA). He wrote Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area (University of Illinois Press, 2018) and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia (University of Illinois Press, 2007). He co-edited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW (Pluto Press, 2017). Cole also is a Research Associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand.

JEREMY CORBYN has been the Member of Parliament for Islington North since 1983. He was elected Leader of the Labour Party by a large majority in 2015 and again in 2016. He led the Labour Party in the 2017 General Election where Labours share of the vote increased more than under any leader since 1945. He contributed a Chapter in What Would Keir Hardie Say? (Luath Press, 2015). He has been a lifelong campaigner for peace and human rights.

JOE CULLINANE has represented Kilwinning on North Ayrshire Council since 2012. He became Leader of North Ayrshire Council in 2016. Born and raised in North Ayrshire, he studied politics and history at University. Along with Richard Leonard he researched the archives of The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald to record the articles written by Keir Hardie. He is a member of the Keir Hardie Society Executive.

SHARON GRAHAM is the Executive Officer of Unite the Union. She started out as a waitress in the service sector. From aged 19 she led many unofficial disputes, representing mainly women workers. Since becoming a senior trade union official, Sharon has been the outspoken architect of Unites Leverage strategy. She has led many successful industrial campaigns, including one against Blacklisting. She is currently in charge of the Unions proactive strategy to tackle automation.

ANN HENDERSON is currently a member of the Labour Partys National Executive Committee and the Scottish Executive Committee. A party member for nearly 40 years, she is active in the womens movement and the trade union movement, with a longstanding interest in their combined history. She has worked in a variety of industries, such as the rail industry. She has also served as Assistant Secretary STUC from 2007 to 2017. She worked for the Scottish Parliament between 1999 and 2007 and currently works in the office of Elaine Smith MSP. She was recently elected as Rector University of Edinburgh.

JONATHAN HYSLOP is Professor of Sociology and African Studies at Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, and Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, Johannesburg. He has published widely on the social and political history of southern Africa and on global maritime history. He has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and a fellow at the Re:work program, University of Berlin. He is currently researching southern Africa in the Cold War.

RICHARD LEONARD is the leader of the Scottish Labour Party and a Member of the Scottish Parliament. He worked for over 25 years in the Scottish trades union movement as an economist at the Scottish Trades Union Congress and as an Organiser and Political Officer at GMB Scotland. Richard is a founding member of the Keir Hardie Society and vice-chairperson of the Scottish Labour History Society, and a champion of labour history.

VINCE MILLS is convenor of the Red Paper Collective. He has contributed to every publication of the Red Paper collective since the 2005 book which he edited. He also writes widely for left journals, including the Scottish Left Review and the Morning Star. He is part of the regional team writing a history of TGWU/Unite from its inception in 1922 to 2022.

GORDON MUNRO was a founding member of the Scottish Labour Campaign for Socialism in 1995. He was elected to City of Edinburgh Council in 2003 and represents the place of his birth, Leith. A member of Unite and the Co-operative Party he was Labour Candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith in 2017 and has been re-selected to fight the seat which is the 29th most marginal seat in the UK.

CAROLINE SUMPTER is a Senior Lecturer at Queens University, Belfast. Her publications include the book The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale, which included a focus on socialist writings for children by Hardie and others and an article on William Morriss Commonweal. Her wider publications focus on Victorian literary, scientific and ethical debates. The mother of two sons, she takes more than an academic interest in the politics of childhood.

DAVE WATSON is the Secretary of the Keir Hardie Society. He contributed a Chapter in What Would Keir Hardie Say? (Luath Press, 2015). He recently retired as the Head of Policy at UNISON Scotland and has written two booklets on public service reform for the Jimmy Reid Foundation. He is a past Chair of the Scottish Labour Party, and he is currently supporting the development of the Scottish Labour manifesto for the 2021 elections.

Viewpoints is an occasional series exploring issues of current and future relevance. Luath Press is an independently owned and managed book publishing company based in Scotland, and is not aligned to any political party or grouping.

First published 2019

ISBN: 978-1-912387-68-7

The paper used in this book is recyclable. It is made from low chlorine pulps produced in a low energy, low emission manner from renewable forests.

Printed and bound by Martins the Printers Ltd., Berwick-upon-Tweed

Typeset in 11 point Sabon by Lapiz

The authors right to be identified as authors of this work under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

Keir Hardie Society and the contributors

Contents

CHAPTER 1 Keir Hardie and the Right to Childhood
CAROLINE SUMPTER

CHAPTER 2 Then and now: Precarious Employment and Mechanisation from Keir Hardie to Today
SHARON GRAHAM

CHAPTER 3 Trade Unions and the Labour Party
JOE CULLINANE

CHAPTER 4 Keir Hardie and Municipal Socialism
DAVE WATSON

CHAPTER 5 Black Diamonds by The Trapper
RICHARD LEONARD

CHAPTER 6 Serfdom to Socialism: Volition is the Key
GORDON MUNRO

CHAPTER 7 Keir Hardie, Womens Suffrage and Womens Inequality
ANN HENDERSON

CHAPTER 8 Hardie and Ireland
VINCE MILLS

CHAPTER 9 James Keir Hardie as Critic of Empire
JONATHAN HYSLOP

CHAPTER 10 Keir Hardie, Eugene Debs and the Transatlantic Connection
PETER COLE

Acknowledgements

THANKS TO THE friendly and helpful team at that the Working Class Movement Library, Salford for allowing access to its archive and to Vince Mills who helped me search through decades of