Today our parliamentary democracy looks like it has failed.
We feel that the elite leaderships do not represent people like “us” this is
sadly not a new phenomenon and was abroad a hundred and twenty years ago when
delegates came together in Bradford to form a new
party to seek parliamentary representation for workers.
Amongst their number where some of the giants of the early
labour movement, Ben Tillet, Robert Blatchford, Bernard Shaw, Pete Curran and
Keir Hardie then MP for West Ham who was elected chair. Once born the Independent
Labour Party with its strong ethical concerns set about in William Morris’s
famous phrase to ‘make socialists’.
It saw creating a new political culture as the first stage
in building a new society. To do this it had to open up some political space in
which to operate. Like other young movements for emancipation this space was
not to be found in the narrow way ‘politics’ was usually defined.
To create a socialist political culture they had to create spaces in which
people could be “socialists”. As well as
publishing newspapers and taking to the streets, they established premises
where they could meet, hear speakers, debate, share literature and learn. There
was a great deal of self education but it was not just worthy activity they
also set out to have a good time. Good fellowship was the foundation of their politics. Many ILP branches set up their own venues and developed vibrant communities around them.
Often these activities where complimented by the Clarion movement. Founded by Robert Blachford in 1891, the Clarion reached a circulation of between 30 and 40,000 a month with its popular journalism. With all sorts of Clarion activities, including cycling and rambling, choirs and drama groups, whilst Blatchfords personal politics was an odd mixture his editorship of the Clarion bought a lot of joy into working class lives, introducing a sense of fun and freedom whilst in the process creating ten of thousands of socialists.
One example of this type of venue was formed by the Nelson
Branch of the ILP. Founded in 1893for many years the focal point of their activities
was the Labour Party Institute and Socialist Sunday School in Vernon Street,
Nelson. There where attempts to make
fresh air and the countryside accessible to their members and a practice of
acquiring Clarion houses in rural areas as retreats from the mills and
factories developed.
Like Ewan MacColl’s Manchester Rambler, the workers of
Nelson “may have been wage slaves on Monday but they where free men on Sunday”.
They first established a Clarion House in 1899 and when this become too small
they obtained another in 1903.
The current, yes current, Clarion House was inaugurated in
1912. It is located in Jinney Lane,
Newchurch-in-Pendle, deep in Pendle Witch country, the historic towns of Colne,
Clitheroe and Whalley are all within walking distance.
Nelson Clarion House celebrated its centenary last year
safely in the ownership of the Nelson Independent Labour Party Land Society. Broadly
committed to the principles of their ILP predecessors they describe their
politics as “somewhat to the left of Old Labour”.
Their objective is to preserve for public benefit the
Clarion House with one and half acres of land, tea rooms, wildlife corridor,
pond and adventure playground. It is
maintained as a co-operative with any surplus to be used for the spreading of
socialism.
It is great that Nelson Clarion House is still carrying out
the function that it was first opened over a century ago. It is also a lesson
to us that socialism is about much more than shorter hours or higher pay. Tackling
the alienation that is intrinsic to capitalism is a vital part of any socialist
future.
One of the inspirations of the early socialists was the
American poet Walt Whitman who greatly influenced people like Edward Carpenter
and Robert Blachford as well as Irish co-operator Horace Plunkett.
In his essay Democratic Vistas written in 1871, he said, “Did you, too, O friend, suppose democracy
was only for elections, for politics, and for a party name? I say democracy is
only of use there that it may pass on and come to its flower and fruit in
manners, in the highest forms of interaction between [people], and their
beliefs -- in religion, literature, colleges and schools -- democracy in all
public and private life....”
Today democracy has only scratched the surface of our lives
and as a consequence has been easily subverted by capital. We need a deeper
democracy based on equality and mutual respect. Those early ILPers and Clarion
Socialists are still pointing the way to the future setting us the task of making
our relationships one with another and our relationship with the environment truly
democratic unmediated by the market. Showing us a land in which we can live,
work and even play together in peace.
You too can still visit Nelson Clarion House see:
www.clarionhouse.org.uk
