Kmflett's Blog

204 years ago this week a General Strike was in progress in Glasgow

The passage below is from the book 1820 by the late socialist historian Malcolm  Chase covering the strike on 3^rd and 4^th April 1820

Malcolm Chase 1820

The Committee of Organization’s ‘earnest request of all to desist from their Labour’ was widely heeded. On Easter Monday (3^rd April 1820)what would have been a normal working day saw the economy of Glasgow halted. ‘In addition to the unemployed weavers, we now have Mason, joiners, Smiths, labourers &c, in consequence of a total stop of building. Wrote Dugald Bannatyne, the Glasgow postmaster,  adding the comment ‘many will have been drawn into it from want and despair- for the people are in great distress. ‘In the midst of confusion in which we are constantly kept it is impossible to give a very active account’, the Lord Provost told London on the Tuesday.

https://kmflett.wordpress.com/2020/04/02/200-years-ago-this-week-the-worlds-first-ever-general-strike-took-place-in-glasgow/

At no time since the beginning of radicalism has there been such a general apprehension of danger as within these last ten days in Glasgow and its neighbourhood The Times 7^th April 1820

Keir Starmer the Continuity Arsenal Labour leader

Show Racism the Red Card Q&A. The Community Hub. Emirates Stadium, 10/5/16. Credit : Arsenal Football Club / David Price.

The former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn is a well-known Arsenal supporter.

Keir Starmer is the Continuity Arsenal fan Labour leader as of 4^th April 2020

He told Stephen Moss in the Guardian in 2009:

Starmer’s hobby is football, and as well as watching Arsenal he turns out twice a week for Homerton Academicals, who play not far from his home in north London

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2009/sep/21/keir-starmer-director-public-prosecutions

The Observer (5^th April 2020 has an update)

He is a huge Arsenal fan,” says Patrick Stevens. “He goes with the same group of his mates to a pub off the Holloway Road before every match. Keir also organises five-a-side games every Sunday and Monday. He sends out the texts and collects the subs.” Asked about his playing abilities Stevens added: “He is a midfield general … with a silky left foot.”

Whether Starmer was fan of the thoughts of former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, famous for his cautious but philosophical approach to  the game is unclear.

The Ambridge Socialist

5^th April

Brexit loving Adam is still at it. He doesn’t want to employ extra labour on the farm, nor is he interested that Josh has found more lame lambs than would seem reasonable. In short he does his best to come across at all times as an obnoxious tosser leading to an outcome previously unthought of, namely to make Brian Aldridge appear to be the voice of reason

Justin & Brian roped in to Philip Moss’s gangmaster operations

Justin Elliott after listening to Gavin Moss (no doubt under orders from Philip- or higher up-to get it sorted) has agreed that slave labour operations at Berrow Farm can resume. Brian Aldridge has also backed the decision. There will be reputational damage later.

Rewilding capitalism

Justin is keen to move his project for rewilding capitalism in Ambridge along a bit. He has suggested that some farm buildings be acquired (primarily funded by himself) and these can be turned into things like offices and a visitor centre. It’s a start on his housing plans

Archers Anarchists Quiz

Some of the Editorial Board of the Ambridge Socialist and no doubt some readers joined the Archers Anarchists quiz on Friday at 7.02pm. It was good fun although not as political as we would have liked. There is another quiz this Friday. Details from: www.archersanarchists.com

In Other News

Kate has painted Lynda’s toenails. Robert wasn’t happy

Freddie & Jonny have been to the Bull but not for long

Beard Liberation Front

4^th April

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard wearers advised to be cautious if home-pruning facial hair

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that facial hair wearers locked down at home should take exercise great caution if attempting to prune their beards.

The campaigners say the advice applies particularly to those who have grown new lockdown beards or who are sharing accommodation with Pogonophobes who drone on about their beard.

BLF Award winner author Philip Ardagh has posted on his social media accounts a brief video showing that if a fully organic beard becomes lockdown problematic for any reason, it can with a few quick measures be safely tucked away.

A full guide to Spring pruning of beards during the lockdown period will be issued by the BLF in Easter week to coincide with those who may be deciding what to about their Lentern beard.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we always find that Philip Ardagh offers prudent and sensible facial hair advice and those seeking guidance should check his social media feeds

Beard Liberation Front

4^th April

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Campaigners call on Keir Starmer to follow his namesake Keir Hardie & grow a beard

by George Charles Beresford, sepia-toned platinotype print, 1905

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has called on the new Labour leader Keir Starmer to follow his namesake Keir Hardie, who was the first leader of the Labour Party, and grow a beard.

Keir Starmer succeeded the late Frank Dobson as MP for Holborn and St Pancras, and so will be fully familiar of the importance of beard power in political life.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we think that as a tribute to his namesake, the first Labour leader, the latest Labour leader should grow a lockdown beard.

London Socialist Historians

Media Release

4th April

Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Historians say Jeremy Corbyn was most resilient of opposition Labour Party leaders

The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research in central London has said that Jeremy Corbyn, who steps down as Labour leader on 4^th April, has been the most resilient of opposition Labour leaders from Keir Hardie in 1906 onwards.

Labour has had 18 leaders of whom only six have been Prime Minister, Ramsay Macdonald, Clem Attlee, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of whom 4 were directly elected to Office.

The historians note that that the usual historical pattern has been for Tory Prime Ministers to remain in No.10 while Labour leaders come and go.

Corbyn faced three Tory leaders, David Cameron, Theresa May and finally Boris Johnson in his nearly 5 year stint at leader.

He was rivalled and some no doubt would argue surpassed by the Labour leader sometimes seen as his nemesis Tony Blair who as a Labour Prime Minister faced three Tory leaders himself, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard.

LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, of course you can sum up Labour leaders in various ways, including seats, votes and percentages of votes won at Elections and on the third of occasions when they have become Prime Minister their impact in Office. Tony Blair clearly has a place in the history books in these respects and perhaps for other reasons too, but Corbyn’s resilience in facing three Tory leaders in 5 years is also historically noteworthy.

Joe Grundy voted Borsetshire Businessman of the Year: Report

Ambridge Socialist Classic: Joe Grundy, Borsetshire Businessman of  the Year

February 25, 1999 – London, UK – File photo dated 25/2/1999 of The Archers star Edward Kelsey, who voiced Joe Grundy in the radio soap, has died at the age of 88, the BBC said. (Credit Image: © Michael Crabtree/PA Wire via ZUMA Press) (Newscom TagID: zumaamericastwentythree815724.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]

The Ambridge Socialist

Boxing Day edition

Joe Grundy Voted Borsetshire Businessman of the Year

While Brian Aldridge may have been named Borsetshire Businessman of the Year (Justin Elliott turned it down) the Ambridge Socialist prefers a more open and democratic way of doing things.

In the pre-Xmas period we ran a poll to find the real Borsetshire Businessman of the Year.

We ruled out Justin Elliott firstly on the basis that he clearly doesn’t want the title (for probably doubtful reasons) and secondly because he does most of his business elsewhere.

We did include Brian Aldridge, who after all is chair of Borsetshire Land.

We also included Toby Fairbrother as a representative of the aspiring but so far fairly useless young entrepreneurs of Ambridge. Josh Archer might have made it but we were looking for a successful businessman and we didn’t want to fill up the poll with losers.

Of course either or both Josh and Toby might go on to be very successful. Time will tell.

This left us with a third choice to make, someone who represented traditional business in Ambridge and its environs. We decided on Joe Grundy. Joe has set up and run (with Eddie) a successful cider business, on which like all the best businessmen he pays no tax. He also runs as a private-members club, a cider barn. At Xmas he markets turkeys which this year sold out helped by the offer of a free sample of Grundy’s latest craft cider, Tumble Tussocks.

Its true, as far as we can see, that Grundy does not turn a great profit, but he covers costs and has run sustainable businesses in Ambridge for many years.

We could of course have included Borsetshire businesswomen but unfortunately this year no example stood out. Shula’s Riding Stables have had issues and while Jolene has done an excellent job keeping The Bull going after the Great Flood it remains underwritten in part by finance from David Archer.

The poll results were as follows:

Joe Grundy 58%

Brian Aldridge 26%

Toby Fairbrother, not very many

Beard Liberation Front

3^rd April

Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front says Jeremy Corbyn brought beard power to politics

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has paid tribute to Jeremy Corbyn as he steps down as Labour leader after 3^rd April

Jeremy Corbyn, a former Beard of the Year, has won the Parliamentary Beard of the Year Award more times than any other MP:

Jeremy Corbyn wins Parliamentary Beard of the Year title for record 8th time

The campaigners says they hope that free of the responsibilities of being Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn will be able to find time to resume the role of informal Parliamentary advocate for the Beard Liberation Front and the hirsute in general, something he did from 1983 to 2015.

BLF Organiser Keith Flett, Jeremy Corbyn brought beard power to politics and underlined that there is more to political life than clean shaven men in suits. That will be an important part of his legacy.

As Jeremy Corbyn steps down as Labour a reminder of his role in the ‘Battle of Wood Green’ 23.4.77

On 23rd April 1977 the National Front decided to march from Ducketts Common by Turnpike Lane tube in North London down a busy London High Road packed with Saturday afternoon shoppers. There were several thousand fascists but they were outnumbered by opponents, including many people out shopping, appalled that fascists were marching on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday.

It would be bad enough today but this was a mere 3 decades after the end of the Second World War and numbers who had been actively involved in fighting Hitler were no doubt around on that Spring day.

Only a small part of the NF march made it to a concluding rally as it was broken by protesters.

40 years on the day was marked with a festival to celebrate diversity and oppose racism on the very same Ducketts Common. The fascists never returned in any numbers to the Borough, but the fight against racism needs to be maintained in each generation.

One of the keynote speakers on that day in 2017 was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. It is of course the kind of event that one might expect he would attend, but it is little bit more specific than that.

In 1977, before he defected to a neighbouring North London Borough and became the long serving MP for Islington North, Corbyn was a trade union official and Labour Councillor in Haringey for the area adjacent to Ducketts Common. He is still remembered for the hard work he did then.

Part of that was to act as the co-ordinator for all of the local Haringey Councillors, including Tories on 23rd April.

The Councillors had called for the National Front march to be banned, recognising the provocation it was designed to be. The police had declined. On the day all of the Councillors assembled on Ducketts Common, before the fascists marched, holding a giant banner making clear they stood firm against racism.

But there was another group of people, anti-fascists, trade-unionists, socialists, who were determined that the National Front would not march. The main aim was simply to stop them by force of numbers but some physical engagement with the fascists was envisaged.

Using his influence Jeremy Corbyn was able to act as the spokesperson for both groups of people, presenting in effect a unified protest against the NF. Indeed the following week he was quoted in the local Hornsey Journal paper in just this role.

The day was notable for several things. It was the last time the police appeared on such an occasion without riot shields. The largely successful effort to stop the National Front set a template that was repeated when the fascists tried to do the same thing in Lewisham on 13thAugust 1977. Here however there was no Jeremy Corbyn to bring completely together those who wanted to protest peacefully and those who planned to stop the NF.

That day led to the formation of the Anti-Nazi League and the first huge Carnival in conjunction with Rock Against Racism at Victoria Park in May 1978.

Corbyn’s role in some of the events that led to the birth of the anti-racist and anti-fascist movement that did much to stop the National Front from becoming, as it threated to in the late 1970s, a major political force, should not be forgotten.

Given that it is not unknown for labour movement leaders to develop hazy memories of how they came to be leaders in the first place, it’s also good that he has never forgotten those days either.

The Bermondsey Beer Mile, Henry Mayhew and the epidemic of 1849

Henry Mayhew is perhaps best known for his investigative work in London in the 1850s published as London Labour and the London Poor.

The investigations developed from a piece he wrote in the Morning Chronicle in 1849 about that year’s cholera epidemic in London. It killed over 10,000 in the Capital people in three months.

He visited one centre of the epidemic Jacob’s Island on the South Bank of the Thames in Bermondsey. An extract from his report is below.

Jacob’s Island still exists (rather different now to how it was in 1849). The Wiki entry is below. It is in fact located very much in same area as what (present events allowing) is currently known as the Bermondsey Beer Mile.

I believe Des de Moor’s beer tours of the area feature Jacob’s Island so when they resume there is an ideal reason to visit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_Island

Henry Mayhew Morning Chronicle 1849

The history of the late epidemic, which now seems to have almost spent its fatal fury upon us, has taught us that the masses of filth and corruption round the metropolis are, as it were, the nauseous nests of plague and pestilence. Indeed, so well known are the localities of fever and disease, that London would almost admit of being mapped out pathologically, and divided into its morbid districts and deadly cantons. We might lay our fingers on the Ordnance map, and say here is the typhoid parish, and there the ward of cholera; for as truly as the West-end rejoices in the title of Belgravia, might the southern shores of the Thames be christened Pestilentia. As season follows season, so does disease follow disease in the quarters that may be more literally than metaphorically styled the plague-spots of London. If the seasons are favourable, and typhus does not bring death to almost every door, then influenza and scarlatina fill the workhouses with the families of the sick. So certain and regular are the diseases in their returns, that each epidemic, as it comes back summer after summer, breaks out in the self-same streets as it appeared on its former visit, with but this slight difference, that if at its last visitation it began at the top of the street, and killed its way down, this time it begins at the bottom, and kills its way as surely up the lines of houses.

Out of the 12,800 deaths which, within the last three months, have arisen from cholera, 6,500 have occurred on the southern shores of the Thames; and to this awful number no localities have contributed so largely as Lambeth, Southwark, and Bermondsey, each, at the height of the disease, adding its hundred victims a week to the fearful catalogue of mortality. Any one who has ventured a visit to the last-named of these places in particular, will not wonder at the ravages of the pestilence in this malarious quarter, for it is bounded on the north and east by filth and fever, and on the south and west by want, squalor, rags, and pestilence. Here stands, as it were, the very capital of cholera, the Jessore of London—Jacob’s Island, a patch of ground insulated by the common sewer. Spared by the fire of London, the houses and comforts of the people in this loathsome place have scarcely known any improvement since that time. The place is a century behind even the low and squalid districts that surround it.