Two hundred years ago, and a short walk from Birmingham’s New Street
Station, inside Birmingham Hippodrome, is a plaque commemorating the birthplace
of one of the most important co-operators of all time. This was the location of
no. 1 Inge Street and George Jacob Holyoake is one of the most influential citizens
in the illustrious pantheon of Brummies. A radical democrat, freethinker, campaigner
for education, founder of secularism, historian and champion of co-operatives
and co-operation Holyoake had a long and eventful life.
From the age of 8 he went to work with his father at the
Eagle Foundry as a whitesmith. He studied and became a teacher at the Mechanics
Institute and his political education continued through his membership of the
Birmingham Reform League which he joined in 1831. During his lifetime he formed
or was on the executive of twenty two different organisations. He was friendly
with other leading thinkers including John Stuart Mill. He lobbied Gladstone against tax on
knowledge (such as books & newspapers) and for the secret ballot.
He is probably most famous today for defending himself in
the last trial for blasphemy in a public lecture. His nine hour oration cost
him six months in prison!
He coined the term self-help, later taken up by Samuel
Smiles. His legendary book published in 1857 ‘Self-Help by the People: The
History of the Rochdale Pioneers’ went into ten editions and was translated
into dozens of languages and, it is claimed, led to the formation of 250
co-operative societies within two years of its publication.
He went on to chronicle the history of many individual
co-operative societies and to produce the seminal history of the movement as a
whole.
His death was marked with a permanent memorial when 794
co-operative societies contributed to the building of Holyoake House in Manchester in his
name. James Ramsey McDonald wrote the
entry on Holyoake in the Dictionary of National biography. And for the 150th
anniversary the BBC commissioned a play for today about Holyoake’s trial and imprisonment.
The playwright was no less than John Osborne and the actor who played Holyoake was
the most famous actor of the time Richard Burton. Mrs Holyoake was played by an
equally famous Rachel Roberts.
So how should we remember Holyoake today?
I think the most important lesson we can take from him is
his radical commitment to democracy. He spent a lot of time thinking about how
co-operators and others could work together. He stated that associationism (one
of the many terms he brought into popular use) was an art to be learned. “The
moral art of association” was, he said, the art of making co-operative
behaviour more likely. That development of a co-operative culture is reflected
in his anecdotal style of writing, “folly is a contagious disease”, he said,
“but there is difficulty in catching wisdom”.
Lastly he championed collective action and individual
freedom. In his autobiographical work, Scenes from an Agitator’s Life published
in 1892, he wrote,
“The ambition of distinction is wholesome as long as it
permits equal opportunity. In democracy there is no chieftainship in which
others must submit their judgement against their reason. There is no legitimate
leadership, save the leadership of ideas, no allegiance save that of
conviction, no loyalty save loyalty to principle.”
Spreading the message of co-operation is as important today
as it was two hundred years ago. Holyoake said “I have cared for co-operation
more than for any other cause” today he inspires us to continue to make the
case for co-operation as a vehicle for economic, social and political
emancipation.
Happy birthday GJH!
