Newsletter of the National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 (North Lancs Union) December 2010
CLARION CYCLISTS They spread Socialism with every turn of the
pedal. In 1894 the Clarion Cycling Club was the muscular front fine of a political dream sweeping
the world, giving new hope to millions.
‘They haven’t gone away you know Gerry Adams M.P.
Know your history; learn your history; understand your history; but most important of all, never forget your history.
Caroline Martyn
This famous Clarion propaganda vehicle, named after one of the greatest Socialist women orators of the 19" century, was unveiled outside St.George’s Hall in Liverpool on 1* June 1897 before a crowd of over one thousand including many Clarion cyclists. The van was then taken by train to Bristol from where it embarked on a tour of South Wales leaving ILP branches, Clarion Cycling Clubs and Clarion Vocal: Unions in its wake in spite of opposition from landowners and hostile Councils.
Born in Lincoln in 1867 Caroline Martyn was to become a revered figure in British socialism before her early and untimely death in 1896. Keir Hardie wrote that ‘she was the leading socialist of her day, with a power of intellect and moral-force that was unmatched’. Primary sources report how she enthralled her audiences with her brand of Christian Socialism, one account of a meeting at Eagley states ‘I listened to an exposition of socialist principles, illustrated with the sayings and doings of the Carpenter of Nazareth. My wonder at what seemed the intrepidity of a young and defenceless woman turned to amazement at myself that I have never seen things in this light before. She had spoken as no woman had ever spoken before in my hearing. Scale fell from my eyes, and ere long I was
a socialist’.
Born the eldest of nine children to parents who were both high Anglicans and active Conservatives, her father was a police superintendent so no surprise there. She first worked as a governess and then as a school teacher in Reading. It was whilst lodging in Reading with her aunt whose views were to the left that Caroline became committed to the Socialist cause. In 1892 ill health forced her to resign her position and this enabled her to devote herself completely to the cause of spreading the cand news of Socialism.
The Hebden Bridge Times of 1896 reporting on the annual Whitsuntide gathering of Socialists at the nearby Hardcastle Crags give the following description of her: ‘Then’ from a dais-like, heathclad rock, round which the choristers had stood, arose our Carrie Martyn. Truly no Diana of old was ever more godlike than she....she spoke from her noble heart words of burning fervour and truth, which it were well that the whole world upon that day should hear and heed. She saw for the world at large a glad and glorious future in the fact that men and women were together taking up the socialist movement and freeing mankind from the wrongs that had so long weighed upon them.’
By this time Caroline was in demand to speak at meeting and rallies all over Britain in her diary she wrote: Edinburgh wants me for another week, Ayrshire ditto, Dundee the same, Paisley want a week during autumn. Where do I go after Colne Valley? Manchester wants a Sunday, Barrow in Furness a day or two, Workington, Whitehaven, Carlisle. I have had a fine time. Three days running I had six meeting each day. Rochdale; fine meetings. Bolton; very good prospects. Unfortunately the lifestyle of an itinerant speaker with its long third class rail journeys, cold waiting rooms, open air meeting in all weathers, irregular meals and poor accommodation took their toll on her health. In July 1896 she was taken ill whilst speaking at a rally organised to help recruit women jute workers into the Dundee Workers’ Union, she died four days later of pneumonia age 29 years and was buried in the town’s Balgay cemetery.
Recently our Trade Union comrades in Dundee have re-discovered her final resting place. Theinscription on the memorial reads:
‘4 devoted worker in the cause of humanity’.
Know your history; learn your history; understand your history; but most important of all, never forget your history.
Sarah Reddish’s grave
Every May Clarion cyclists along with comrades from Bolton Wood Street Socialist Club visit the town’s Heaton cemetery to honour the memory of the Clarion Vanner Sarah Reddish. We would urge members to seek out the all too often forgotten graves of those who dedicated their lives to the struggle for a better world. Perhaps our Clarion comrades in West Lothian will one day have a Club run to Caroline Martyn’s final resting place:
The Battle of Cable Street On Sunday October 4" 1936 Clarion Cycling Clubs in London cancelled their normal Sunday runs in order to confront Oswald Mostey’s British Union of Fascists. Mosley had planned to march 3,000 fascists thugs in four uniformed columns through the east London streets where 60,000 impoverished and beleaguered Jews lived. The local community collected 100,000 signatures and petitioned the Home Office to prevent this provocative march. They were ignored and 7,000 police were deployed to clear a path for the fascists instead. The call then went out to all those who loved life and their fellowman to block the route into the East End at Gardiner’s Corner thousands took to the streets. The police fearing serious disorder then re-routed the march along Cable Street, stewards quickly redirected the anti fascists to Cable Street were barricades were hastily erected, the walls and pavements were whitewashed with the Spanish Republican slogan ‘No Pasaran’ ‘They shall not pass’. Note: by this time Ray Cox, Secretary of the Southem Counties Union of National Clarion Cycling Club, was already in the trenches defending Madrid from Franco’s hordes. The police attacked the defenders of East End but the line held firm Irish dockers, Jewish tailors stood shoulder to shoulder with native Londoners. The fascists and the police suffered a humiliatingly defeat and
Clarion cyclists played their part.
Socialist revolution on wheels.
Or to give this production by the Mikron Theatre Company its correct title: Pedal Power: the continuing journey of the National Clarion Cycling Club. The play first commissioned by the Club in 2004 has just completed a highly successful tour of England. Whilst the basic story remained the same; the history of our Socialist Cycling Club interwoven with the demise of a local cycle shop. The author Richard Povell had updated the play to distinguish between those who remain loyal to the aims of founders and those who chose to ‘twitter’. ‘With humour and original songs and music, the shows tells the entertaining and inspiring story of the National Clarion Cycling Club from its foundation by Tom Groom in Birmingham. It is a moving evocation of a Movement which was a way of life for thousands of men and women for much of the 20" century and which, though reduced in numbers still survives today, its members embracing the same aims of mutual aid, good fellowship and support for the Principles of Socialism’. Next year will be the Mikron’s 40" years as a unigue and highly professional touring company. It is sad to note that for the very first time they will receive no grants whatsoever. Their very survival is dependent on donations from friends. Please see their website: www.mikron.org for details as to how you can become a Friend of the Mikron or make a donation. Remember no donation is ever too small, every single penny will help our friends to survive. Thanks to three generous donations from the relatives of former members of the National Clarion Cycling Club we were able to hire the People’s History. Museum in Manchester at a cost of £650 to put on a production of Pedal Power which played to a full house excellent propaganda for our Club and excellent news for the Mikron who were able to keep all the box office takings.
Cycling Socialists
a new series
Allien Clarke
Allen Clarke a Forgotten Socialist Pioneer and Cyclist by Paul Salveson
“I daresay Teddy Ashton’s droll sketches have done more to help reforms than far more pretentious and direct articles. For ‘Teddy’ even in his comic (dialect) sketches, pokes sly fun and undermining sarcasm at the iniquities and social injustices of the day”
(Allen Clarke), Teddy Ashton’s Northern Weekly, August 26" 1905)
Allen Clarke was one of the most important figures in the growth of socialism in Lancashire. Like his more well-known contemporary Robert Blatchford, he was a great propagandist, but he used dialect as his chosen medium to put across a socialist message. He became the doyen of late nineteenth century Lancashire dialect writers but is virtually forgotten today. He was perhaps the most popular socialist dialect writer of his time, and died 75 years ago, in December 1935.
He was also a great cyclist, and cycling features time after time in his novels, journalism and poetry. His book on the Lancashire countryside, Moorlands and Memories, is a series of articles describing his cycle rides around the Ribble Valley, Rivington, and the Pennines.
Allen Clarke was the son of cotton workers, born in Bolton in 1863. It was a highly political family. Both his father and grandfather were men of strong
union. Clarke was strongly influenced by the 1887 Bolton Engineers’ Strike, which formed the backdrop to his novel, ‘The Knobstick’. The strike, lasting six months, was over wage cuts and reductions in overtime, and brought thousands of Bolton’s most skilled workers out onto the streets. During the strike‘troops: were drafted into the town and though the engineering employers claimed a victory, several ‘labour’ candidates were subsequently elected to Bolton Council.
Clarke’s early political writings, in papers such as his own Labour Light can hardly be said to be original. It was when he used the Lancashire vernacular to put over a socialist message that he really came to life as a great writer, as we see in the novels, the early poetry and also many of the ‘Tum Fowt’ sketches written under his pseudonym of ‘Teddy Ashton’.
Clarke became a strong supporter of the ‘Labour Church’ movement which had a strong base in Bolton from the early 1890s. The movement was led by John Trevor who wanted to create a secular
‘religion based around the Labour movement. It was
founded at a meeting in Chorlton Town Hall on October 4" 1891. Bolton’s Labour Church was a congenial home to socialists and radical Liberals. It was led by James Sims “a sturdy old veteran in the cause of labour” who became a good friend of Clarke’s, Its breadth and non-sectarian character appealed strongly to Clarke, who hated the rivalries and jealousies of the left. Clarke was a regular attender at Labour Church meetings he was advertised as speaking on ‘The Riddle of: the Universe’ on Sunday April 19” 1903.
Clarke and Blatchford were good friends for many years, until Blatchford’s support for war and empire became too much for Clarke to stomach. They had a major falling-out over the Boer war which resurfaced in 1903 with an acrimonious exchange of letters. The friendship did not survive.
Clarke supported the broad socialist cause and in 1900 was selected as the joint ILP and SDF candidate to fight the Rochdale seat in the General Election. This was shortly after The Boer War, which Clarke, and most socialists, had strongly opposed. His election manifesto ‘My Say to the People of Rochdale’ emphasises his moral beliefs and his understanding of working class life. He opposes colonialism, child labour and unemployment, with a wish to “make the world brighter for everybody.” His election manifesto was written in Lancashire dialect and appeared in Rochdale Labour News.
Allen Clarke (continued)
Clarke’s politics evolved in a quite radical direction after 1900, with a growing interest in Tolstoyan anarchism. Anarchism in Britain, and indeed most European countries, was as diverse as ‘socialism’, with violent and non-violent wings. Tolstoy was a leading proponent of non-violent anarchism, advocating rural communes to alleviate unemployment in the industrial cities, which would ultimately become the way of life for everyone.
Clarke’s socialism was akin to the libertarian “larger socialism’ of Edward Carpenter, the fellow Whitmanite who shared many friends with Clarke, notably J W Wallace, John Johnston and Fred Wild, the main figures in the Bolton. Whitman circle Clarke admired Carpenter’s writings and spoke glowingly of Love's Coming of Age in a Northern Weekly editorial on January 20" 1906.
Bolton Whitmanites recite poems aud share wine from loving cup on their annual Whitmay Walk
Clarke’s peak of popularity was between the years 1896 and 1908, when he was producing his weekly newspaper. Alongside The Clarion, Cotton Factory Times and Yorkshire Factory Times (all of which he wrote for) he was able to influence tens of thousands of Lancashire and Yorkshire readers. Perhaps not quite as influential as Blatchford, he nonetheless had a huge impact, converting people to socialism through laughter and love of the open air.
Not a bad combination. He moved to Blackpool in the early twentieth century and wrote perhaps his most popular book, Windmill Land, an exotic mix of local history and folk lore, cycling trips and rambling expeditions, and the occasional injection of radical politics. He remained true to his early beliefs, writing a series of autobiographical articles in The Liverpool Weekly Post in 1934 which celebrated great figures in the socialist movement, including James Connolly. He died in December 1935.
Does Clarke have any relevance for us today? I would say yes, he does. His open and inclusive
politics, strongly influenced by Tolstoy and Edward Carpenter but rooted in the soil of Lancashire urban as well as rural suggests a political practice which is broad and popular. He used humour to attack his political opponents and to win over the doubters. How seldom do we see humour used in modern politics! And of course his love and promotion of cycling is highly relevant for ustoday, in a world still dominated by the polluting, privatised world of the motor car.
Lancashire's Romantic Radical
Lancashire’s Romantic Radical: The Life and Writings af Allen Clarke/Teddy Ashton, by Paul Salveson, was published by Little Northern Books in 2009 and is available price £15 (or £25 hardback). Supporters of The Clarion can get the books at £10 and £20 respectively.
Two other recommended reads for Socialists
This excellent book tells
FELLOWSHIP the story of a Cycling
IS LIFE
Club unlike any other, The Story of the Clarion Cycting Club
told by a writer who believes that ‘Socialism will only come riding on a bicycle’. Copies can be obtained from Denis Pye, 34 Temple Road, Bolton, BL1 3LT. Cost including postage £4.95
DENIS PYE
A Lion of a Man tells the story of Tommy James and his fight for the poor and unemployed in Rotherham. The second half of the book Pounded Earth tells
of his fight against fascism ae as an International Brigade volunteer in Spain. Copies: £8.99 plus postage can be
obtained from: TOMMY JAMES UON OF A MAN Joan Brown, 17 Clifton jeguoeotume
Cres. Rotherham S652A 9
Clarion Easter Tour 2011
Our four day Easter Tour in 2011 will be based at Alvescot Lodge near Bampton in Oxfordshire. The Lodge is the Education Training Centre for our comrades in the Communication Workers Unio
The Lodge has a splendid new accommodation wing equipped with single en-suite rooms. The cost of 3 nights bed and full English breakfast will be £80, A single night B&B will cost just £26.66. Camping is also available on site, but ne fires. Clarion member Colin Carritt, who lives quite close to Alvescot and cycles regularly in the area has planned four excellent routes for us. All of the routes can be easily adjusted to suit the capacity of all drinkers, has Tom Groom said ‘what this Club wants is not a speedometer but a boozometer’, Our tour will be Clarion ‘bounderising’ at its very best Day 1: Good Friday 22™ April. The ride to Kelmscott Manor, home of William Morris where hopefully we will be able to have a guided tour. We will depart from Alvescot Lodge at lpm. Subject to demand an alternative longer ride will visit the famous White Horse Hill.
Day 2: Easter Saturday 23d April. Full day ride of about 55 miles starting after breakfast to Hook Norton Brewery. During the course of this ride we will visit several sites of interest, particularly the memorial plaque to the Ascott Martyrs, 16 women imprisoned in 1873 for their role in founding a branch of the National Union of Agricultural Workers. I suspect we may also have a drink or two
at the brewery and at numerous picturesque pubs. Day 3: Easter Sunday 24" April. The Heart of the Cotswolds, a full day ride of 50 miles. Our first stop will be at Burford Churchyard where there is a memorial to the martyred Levellers. We will then pedal our way along unbelievably quiet country lanes through some of the finest villages in this unspoilt part of England, villages which ali seem to have pubs of.real character. Lunch will be taken at the Black Horse at Naunton.
Day 4: Bank Holiday Monday 25" April: a half day ride of 25 miles to Woodstock and Blenheim Palace and Park. Depart for home after pub lunch.
P.S. Samm Topp plans a pre-tour pub check to give
Booking arrangements
We have reserved ten single rooms for the 3 nights as this is really the minimum number needed to make the tour practical, so please do your best to support us. It is possible that a few twin rooms in the old Lodge may also be available.
There is the facility for free camping on the lawn, anyone wishing to camp would be able to purchase their breakfast in the Lodge and use the facilities in the Lodge subject to them let us know their intentions. Members are welcome to attend for just part of the weekend or simply join us on one of the rides. Lunches will be taken at pubs along the route, for our evening meals we would use the village pub which is just 200 metres from the Lodge. If you wish to attend please forward a deposit of £20 to Charles at Aysgaard, Beardwood Brow, Blackbum, Lancs. BB2 7AT. Make your cheque payable to
NCCC 1895.
Once again we are able to offer our Club shirts, as modelled by an international comrade at last summer York Cycle Show (sic), at a discounted price of just £32 including postage and packing. There is no need to place an order in advance, just tell us the size you require and only when you have received and are fully satisfied with your shirt would we ask you to forward a cheque. The shirts are currently available in 3 sizes: Medium 42”, Large 44” and Extra Large 46”. We can also supply Small 40” and Extra, Extra Large 48” but these would not arrive until after Christmas.
At the Front
‘Everyone has his or her own particular part to play. No part is too great or too small, no one is too old or too young to do something’ The past year has been a good year on the campaigning front and it has been particularly pleasing to meet up with so many of our members whose presence at a wide range of events help to illustrate that the Clarion Cycling Club of old is alive, well and kicking. Belfast May Day Rally For the first time ever we had a presence in Belfast for the city’s May Day parade. This event far out strips any May Day parade in England. Decorating their cycles for this important Socialist event was once a great tradition in the Clarion Cycling Club. Kiarion Kids At our Club HQ of Oakhill College in Whalley we organised a Klarion Kids cycle skills course for children under 11. Thanks te some generous handicapping every child managed to win a medal. York Cycle Show In June we had a stall at the CTC York Rally, an event which unfortunately seems to have lost its way. Nevertheless it is a good opportunity to promote those values that make the Clarion Cycling Club different from every other cycling club in Britain.
South Yorkshire Festival at Wortley Hall Unlike the York Show this rally is going from strength to strength and our trade union brothers and sisters always make us most welcome. Nottingham Protest Rally
We took the Club’s banner to Nottingham to protest about the Tory Council decision to remove an information board about the region’s International Brigade volunteers from outside the Council Chambers. Clarion cyclists fought and died in Spain and our Club will play an active role in getting them and the International Brigade the recognition they deserve. The city’s Labour leader pledged to restore the board when they return to power and we will be there to make sure he does
supporting the Principles of Socialism
Tolpuddle Martyr’s Rally Twenty-one members of the Club attended this important anniversary of when working men fought the bosses. As Tom Groom said on the occasion of the Club’s 50” anniversary in 1945 ‘a Clarion Cycling Club that exists merely for cycling is a very poor thing indeed’
O.R.E. Retro Rally in Etdegem, Belgium Six members of the Club travelled over to Belgium for this annual gathering of retro cyclists. Eric, the organiser is a brewer by profession and is the beer tasting champion of Belgium! This event took the Clarion concept of ‘bounderising’ into a different galaxy. The rides were fantastic, the comradeship even better and after just ten or twelve bottles of Belgium beer everyone was speaking fluent Flemish. So buy yourself an old bike and join us in July, you’ll live to regret it. Below a Belgium Cycle Band
ree
annual CWU Cyclo Sportive This now annual event organised by our comrades in the CWU really does deserve Clarion support. Every penny raised goes to support our trade union brothers and sister in countries like Columbia where men and women whe fight for worker’s rights are murdered on a daily basis by right wing death squads. A number of our members rode in September’s event which started at Alvescot Lodge from where we were given a moving send off by Alirio Garcia of the Columbian Agricultural Workers Union. Alirio had recently been released from prison accused of ‘rebellion’. His wife Rosabela, a trade union and community activist remains in prison without charge for the past severi months. The Club has written to the Columbian Charge d’Affaires requesting her immediate and unconditional release.
NAVCC 54th National Rally Members of the Club attended this prestigious event hosted by the Northern Counties Veteran and Classic CC. at Croston, nr Southport. An excellent weekend of cycling with a great campsite, two well planned Toutes, entertainment by the Mikron Theatre, fine weather and good food. See: www.ncvece.co.uk
‘Lanterne Rouge’
Over the weekend of 6” to. 8 May 2011 we will host the first National Classic Lightweight Cycle Rally at our Club HQ of Oakhill College. Do you own. a Baines or a Bates, a Carlton or a Duckett, an Ephgrave or a Hetchins? You dof Then Oakhill is the place to be seen with your bicycle. There will be organised rides on Saturday and on Sunday through quiet lanes to cafes where: cyclists are always welcome. There is to be a large cycle: jumble on the Saturday morning, a dinner on the Saturday evening and a buffet luncheon on Sunday afternoon: Camping, willl be on-site, B&B accommodation is available in the village. The beautiful Ribble Valley, nestling below. the slopes of Pendle Hill, also has Jots to offer noncyclists ranging fiom, castles to quality shops, stately homes to the Witches’ Trail! Interested? then contact Paul Reid: Tel 016973 43089. or email: info@nclcr.co.uk. Cycle Insurance
Members interested im cycle insurance should check www. totalcycleassist.couk This company offers for just £15: Like-for-like replacement cover if your bike is damaged beyond repair. Full repair cost if your bike can be fixed. £100,000 legal expenses insurance. Cover for all your bikes at no extra cost. 24/7 help line for immediate assistance throughout the UK and some generous discounts on cycles and gear. For more information why not give Robert Deakin a call on 0845 392 2767 or email him on
RD @totalcycleassist.co.uk NORTH LANCS UNION CYCLE JUMBLE
Saturday, 19 February 2011 From 9am fo Ipm. To be held at: OAKHILL COLLEGE, WISWELL LANE, WHALLEY. (BB7 9AF)
Indoor stalls £4 Outdoor pitches £2 Charles Jepson 01254 51302 (evenings)
Runs List All rides depart from our HQ of Oakhill College, Whalley at am prompt. The distance is usually 50 to 60 miles. December 5” and [9th 2010 January 9” and 23" 2011 February 6" and 20" March 6” and 20 April 3" and 7th. Apri 22" to 25" Easter Meet All abilities welcome.
Aberdeen to London Anti-lascista
ISCIPLINA PROLETARIA
WCERA AL FASCISTA
The next AGM of the International Brigade Memorial Trust is to be held in London on the 8” October 2011 which will coincide with the 75 anniversary of the battle of Cable Street. Several members of the Club are planning to cycle to the AGM. from the International Brigade Memorial in Aberdeen. The aim of this ride will be to promote the work on the International Brigade Memorial Trust and to highlight the relevance of the anti-fascist struggle today. The proposed route will enable the group to visit at least twenty IB memorials between Aberdeen and London holding a brief ceremony at each memorial. The provisional date for leaving Aberdeen is Friday September. We would aim to cover about 70 miles each day. Accommodation would be in either Youth Hostels (the Club holds a Group Membership). budget hotels or bed and breakfast establishments. Clarion members and anti-fascists from the Trade Union and Labour Movement will be invited to join the ride with the options of doing the full route, part of the route or simply joining us just for a day when the ride passes close to their home base. If you are interested in joining what promises to be a great adventure please contact Charles as scon as possible in order that you can be kept informed of developments.
Annual Subscription
The annual subscription of £2 is due on the Ist January 2011. If you wish to continue to receive copies of The Clarion newsletter please forward cheque for the said amount made payable to NCCC1895. Naturally the Club always welcome donations, particularly from former Clarion members, If you know any former members of the National Clarion CC please tell them that ‘their’ Club