Newsletter of the National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 (North Lancs Union)
December 2012
The Worker Olympiads
The true Olympic Games
Know your history; learn your history; understand your history; but most important of all, never forget your history.
Olympic Games or Worker Olympiads?
This summer the world turned its attention to London and the Olympic Games where once again British cyclists dominated on the road and the track. Today, thanks to technology, millions are able to watch and admire the achievements of the world’s finest athletes. Of course not everyone can win gold and perhaps the Olympic ideal is best shown when the crowd stand to cheer home the competitor who finishes last but has still achieved a ‘personal best’. It was a truly great occasion marred only the few (including a British cyclist) who cheat by bending the rules and by politicians who are keen to be filmed praising the athletes whilst selling off our schools playing fields to property developers. The modern Olympic Games are run by an elite, private organisation, the International Olympic Committee, a body which represents the ultimate triumph of capitalist sport. The IOC owns the right to use the word ‘Olympic’ and uses the legal system to protect the name. It is a body whose ideals are far removed from those of the founder of the modern Olympics Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The modern games are based on what de Coubertin saw when visited the Much Wenlock Games in 1890. These now ‘not so famous’ games were started by Dr. William Penny Brookes in 1850 to promote the “moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbouring Wenlock” a small town in Shropshire. Professionals were allowed to compete in the Much Wenlock Games and events were handicapped. De Coubertin was so impressed that he moved forward with an idea to revive the ancient Greek Olympic Games, by organising the first Olympic Congress in 1894, which decided to hold an Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The modern Olympics were elitist, amateur, initially male only affairs organised by male aristocrats. Was there an alternative? There was in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Worker Olympiads and Red Spartakiada After the Great War, many European Socialists involved in sport were determined that never again would the workers of different countries be persuaded or compelled to slaughter their fellow workers in the name of nationalism. The slogan ‘Peace through Sport’ was born and would serve to protect nations from future wars by using “the sporting instincts of the workers as a means of breaking down international prejudices” The National Clarion Cycling Club with its vision of Socialism had as early as 1912 been developing sporting connections with comrades in Europe and was quick to support this new initiative. Tom Groom, the Club’s secretary, quickly set about organising a football match against a Labour Sports Federation team from France under the slogan “FOOTBALLS, NOT CANNON BALLS”. He was later to write in the Clarion it was “a new movement towards international peace by substituting sport for militarism” (Denis Pye). Olympic Games however were seen by those on the Left as being “a bourgeois, chauvinist, nationalistic Olympiad”. This led to the formation of two alternative Sports organisations: the Red Sports International formed in Moscow in 1921 and the Socialist Workers’ Sport International formed in Lucerne in 1924.
The Workers’ Sports Movements and the NCCC The Socialist Workers’ Sports International (SWSI) had its origins in 1913 when representative of five European workers sports federations came together in Ghent to establish the Socialist Physical Culture International. Tom Groom, secretary of the NCCC, represented Britain. When the Ghent International was re-formed in 1920 at Lucerne it was re-named the International Association for Sport and Physical Culture and amended five years later to the Socialist Workers’ Sports International. In 1921 a number of worker sports organisations, including the Clarion, supported British Workers Sports Federation, broke away from the SWSI and joined the Red Sport International (RSI), a branch of the Communist International or Comintern.
The Split Relations between the two worker sport internationals were hostile right from the start. The communist dominated RSI accused its socialist rival of diverting workers from the class struggle through its policy of political neutrality in sport. The SWSI was not trying to turn sport into a revolutionary force, rather it aimed to build a strong independent movement within capitalist society ready, come the revolution, to implement a fully developed system of physical culture. The RSI on the other hand wished to build a sports international that would be a political vehicle of the class struggle; it did not want to merely produce a better sports system for workers in a capitalist world. The SWSI countered by banning all RSI members from its activities.
Olympiad or Spartakiade but not both Whilst neither the SWSI or the RSI took issue with de Coubertin’s Olympic ideal, both were strongly opposed to the Games themselves for a number of reasons. Firstly the bourgeois Olympics encouraged competition along national lines, whereas the Worker Olympiad stressed internationalism, solidarity and peace. The IOC barred athletes from the losing nations in the Great War from competing in the 1920 and 1924 Games. By contrast the 1st Worker Olympiad was held in 1925 took place in Germany under the slogan ‘NO MORE WAR!’ Secondly the IOC ‘official’ Olympics restricted entry on grounds of sporting ability, the worker games invited all- comers, putting the accent on participation. Thirdly the IOC Games were criticised for being confined chiefly to the sons of the rich through the amateur rules and sexist. De Coubertin always opposed women’s participation. By contrast the Worker Olympiads were explicitly against all chauvinism, racism, sexism and social exclusivity. They were to demonstrate the fundamental unity of all working people irrespective of colour, creed, sex or national origin.
The Games and Clarion cyclists. The first ‘unofficial’ Worker Olympiad took place at the Prague Festival in 1921 with athletes from 12 countries. A team of Clarion cyclists won a massive bronze statue symbolising victory, now known as the Czechoslovakia Trophy. It is still awarded annually to the winning Pursuit team at the Clarion Track Championships. The first proper Worker Olympiad billed as a Festival of Peace was held in Frankfurt-em-Main in the summer of 1925 attracting competitors from 19 countries including
six Clarion cyclists who came away with 4 silver medals and 3 bronze. A further ‘unofficial’ Games took place in 1927 again in Prague where Britain’s sole representatives were a team of six Clarion cyclists (seen seated below) they took the first four places in the mass start road race. The 2nd Worker Olympiad took place in Vienna in 1931 this was to be the pinnacle of the worker sports movement. Some 80,000 athletes from 23 countries came to ‘Red Vienna’. Over a quarter of a million spectators watched 100,000 men and women parade through the streets for an opening ceremony. Though each delegation entered the stadium as a separate nation they all marched under the red banners of Socialism. The Vienna games and the preceding winter games at Mtirzzuschlag easily surpassed the 1932 IOC ‘official’ games held at Los Angeles and in Lake Placid both numbers of competitors and numbers of spectators. The Clarion cyclist Colin Copeland won the gold medal in the 20k track race and came 2nd in the 1km sprint. Organisations affiliated to the RSI were barred from participating in the 1921 and 1925 worker Olympiads. So the RSI promoted its rival ‘Spartakiads’ in Moscow 1928 and Berlin 1932. This split spelt trouble for the National Clarion Cycling Club when two of its members Harry May and Billy Hill (front row 2nd & 3rd from left) competed for the BWSF in Moscow against the wishes of the SWSI and were banned from competing. In 1936 a team of five Clarion cyclists was selected to represent Britain at the 3rd Worker Olympiad in Barcelona. The event was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Civil War. Many athletes remained in Spain to stand with their brothers in the fight against fascism. The 3rd Worker Olympiad took place a year later in Antwerp under the banner a ‘UNITED FRONT AGAINST FASCISM! Alas it was too late for the German, Austrian, Czech and Italian worker’s sports organisations they lay crushed beneath the jackboot.
Accrington Clarion Cycling Club in the 1960’s An article submitted by former member Bernard Bond North East Lancashire with its concentration of small cotton mill towns was, from the very start, a stronghold of the National Clarion Cycling Club with its support for the Principles of Socialism. Both Blackburn and Nelson had Clubs as early as 1895 and other mills towns were quick to follow. ‘The first record of Accrington Clarion Cycling Club is to be found in the Clarion Handbook of 1913 which records a membership of 26’ (Denis Pye). Neighbouring Oswaldtwistle and Church Clarion Cycling Clubs were both started around this period. One would suspect however that Accrington being a larger and more important town, not wishing to be out done by its noisy neighbours of Blackburn and Burnley, probably had a Club from around the beginning of the century. Sadly like so many Clarion Clubs the history of Accrington Clarion has been lost but thanks to the efforts of Comrade Bernard Bond at least a small part of its history has survived. What follows comes entirely from research carried out by this former member of Accrington Clarion and reflects on the activities and the resurgence of the Club in the 1960’s. Bernard was a member during a golden era when the Club won the prestigious Tom Groom Memorial Trophy and when one of its members raced successfully against the very best in Europe.
Tommy Simpson and Alan Ramsbottom (ACCC) “I joined Accrington Clarion in 1961 when both Alan Ramsbottom and his brother John were riding with the Club, this was before Alan joined his French Club and rode in the Tour de France. At that time the Club had its H.Q in rooms above the Spiritualist Church which was located on Blackburn Road close to Jack Spencer’s Cycle shop and Harry Gregson’s Cycle shop” (still in business). In 1959 the Accrington Observer reported that the Club ‘faced a grim future, membership had fallen (to 8), enthusiasm was flagging, and it seemed they would give up the ghost altogether’. How wrong they were.
Records now lodged by Bernard in Accrington Library show that in September 1960 there were 14 members; 12 boys and 2 girls. This was a time when the term boy/girl covered an age range spanning about 85 years. In the next twelve months 6 left the Club: 2 got married and gave up cycling, 2 bought motor bikes, one gave up cycling for his girlfriend and one hoped to re-join in the Spring when he got his new bike. In the same period however 20 new members join and the Club simply went from strength to strength. ACCC ‘slow race’ held at Nelson Clarion House “The Club had two Sunday runs going. An ‘A’ run which covered an average of 100 miles and a ‘B’ run which travelled at the speed of the slowest rider and averaged 80 miles. In summer, evening runs were also held for the ‘B’ group riders. Both groups would frequently meet up for tea at the Hollin Tree café in Ingleton. This arrangement gave young riders like myself the chance to ride back home to Accrington with Alan Ramsbottom and his speedy companions in the ‘A’ team”. Mrs Robertson’s Hollin Tree Café and bunkhouse was an official ‘Clarion Caterers’ establishment and was known by many cyclists and ramblers as Ingleton Clarion House. The building still exists but is now a private dwelling.
“The Club ran three camping weekends two at Malham and one at Stainforth, there were also two Ladies only camping weekends held close to Accrington so that the lady social members could join their comrades and enjoy the outdoor life of the Club. A total of five bed and breakfast weekends took place all in the Yorkshire Dales where the riders on the Club run would join them for Sunday tea. The Club’s summer tour was a week’s youth hostelling visiting Shrewsbury, Strafford and Bath”. 1960’s cycling gear and that healthy pipe of baccy “The Clubroom was open three nights per week. One night for dancing, one for games and one for discussion and route planning. One member recalled The Club room was good. We had rollers for the bikes. It was spookly as it was over the top of a Spiritualist Church” “In 1964 members cycled over to Skegness for the National Clarion’s Annual Easter Meet and their efforts were well rewarded when the Club came away with two of the national trophies. The Tom Groom Memorial Trophy, a silver globe bearing the legend Socialism the Hope of the World, which they shared with Bury Clarion for their meritorious service to the Clarion”. Maureen McNamara, later to become Club Secretary, also won the Club Girl of the Year Trophy. She enthused “What is better than going out in the country on your bike? It gets into your blood and once you start you never want to give it up”. Maureen can still remember the Club song “Ride along Clarion Rider ride along, to the whirring of our wheels we sing our song, cars and coaches may be fine but give me that bike of mine, Roll along Clarion Riders roll along”
Clarion Quiz: Name the Clarion cyclist who has a road named after him in recognition of his contribution to cycling. Answer: Why none other than Accrington Clarion’s Alan Ramsbottom. The road in question being the Alan Ramsbottom Way in Great Harwood, Lancashire. “In 1963 the ‘Cycling and Moped magazine wrote of Alan’s efforts in the Tour de France ‘Ramsbottom is not a showman but stands out on sheer ability amongst the best riders in Europe. His are achievements which do not require publicity gimmicks. They stand alone on consistent merit’ Praise indeed for a local lad who was more than holding his own against the likes of Simpson and Anquetil”. Thanks to Bernard for his contribution. For a detailed list of his Alan’s achievements as a professional rider see: www.cyclingarchive.com
BITS IN THE SADDLE BAG Forthcoming events: Jan. 20th ~ Manchester Velodrome Cycle Jumble March 29th ~ 4 day Easter Tour of the pubs on the Cheshire Canal Ring departs from Manchester. October 13th ~ London to Barcelona Anti-fascista ride departs from London. Arriving in Barcelona in time to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the withdrawal of the International Brigades. For further details of the above email: clarioncc@yahoo.co.uk. Quote of the week: by Ann Strong USA. “The bicycle is just as good a company as most husbands and, when old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community”. Call to arms: Mass unemployment, particularly among young people, is a choice by politicians to elevate the interests of big business above all else. This is a political situation, and it’s only political struggle that will change it, Clarion cyclists must be part of that struggle.
Cycling Socialists
Bernard ‘Benny’ Rothman Communist, campaigner, Clarion cyclist
Born on June 1st 1911, Benny Rothman was the middle son of five children of Romanian Jewish parents who had come to Britain at the turned of the century. He grew up in the crowded, squalid environment of Cheetham, a densely populated area of north Manchester. An academically bright pupil he was forced to leave school at the age of 12 in order to help support his recently widowed mother and family. Whilst working as an errand boy for a local motor company he acquired his first bicycle which he built himself from spare parts. This was the start of his lifelong passion for the outdoors. In 1929 Benny was invited to meeting of the Young Communist League where he found ‘they were talking his language’, he subsequently joined The Party. He regularly attended the Sunday night forums at the Clarion Café in Manchester’s Market St. and soon became an enthusiastic seller of the Daily Worker, so enthusiastic that he got himself arrested and fined 7/6d for chalking on the pavement in Manchester city centre: “Look out for the Daily Worker – Out January 1st 1930”. A keen cyclist as well as rambler, he joined the Clarion Cycling Club, a committed Socialist organisation, and was soon organising rides and weekend camps under the ‘respectable’ name of the British Workers Sports Federation.
The Kinder Scout Mass Trespass Today we take the right to roam for granted. There is so much land to access that it sometimes feels as if we can walk almost anywhere. But this hasn’t always been the case. For years large landowners blocked access to walkers even where old footpaths and ancient rights of way existed. Why should the landed aristocracy share the natural landscape with their working class country men and women? In 1932 this entrenched elitism would be challenged by an action that would reverberate around the country and pave the way for the freedom to roam we enjoy to day. It also indirectly led to the creation of the National Parks with access for all. The events of Sunday, April 24th 1932 which have entered the realms of rambling mythology, started earlier in the year when a group of young hikers from Manchester wanted to ‘free me lungs o cotton dust an gulp the fresh air down’ by climbing to the summit of Bleaklow in Derbyshire. The group’s enjoyment was ruined when a gang of gamekeepers turned them back insisting they were trespassing on ‘his lordship’s land’. Frustrated by the attitude of the ‘official’ ramblers federation and by Parliament’s continual stalling on a Right to Roam bill, the Lancashire branch of the British Workers’ Sports Federation decided that they would publicise a mass trespass on Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District, on land owned by the Duke of Devonshire.
The Mass Trespass and arrests
So it was that on Sunday April 24th 1932 some 400 ramblers (and over 200 policemen) assembled in village of Hayfield close to Glossop. When the ramblers gathered in Bowden Bridge quarry the intended main speaker took fright at the sight of the police so Benny Rothman stepped forward to lead the march. They hadn’t gone far before they saw game-keepers waiting on the slope known as William Clough, the trespassers scrambled up towards the Kinder plateau and came face to face with the keepers in the ensuing scuffle one keeper was slightly injured and one rambler arrested. The group pushed on up to summit by Ashop Head, where they greeted by another group of Sheffieldbased trespassers who had set off in the morning crossing Kinder from Edale. The leaders of the groups congratulated all those who had claimed “the rights for ordinary people to walk on lands stolen from them in earlier times”. The two groups then retraced their footsteps back to Edale and to Hayfield. When the Manchester contingent arrived back at the village a further five of them were arrested and taken to the Hayfield lock-up. The following day six ramblers, including Benny Rothman, were charged with unlawful assembly and breach of the peace. On pleading not guilty they were remanded on bail to be tried at Derby Assizes. Their trial, some three months later, was to prove a hypocritical farce when six young workers faced a jury made up of brigadier generals, colonels, majors, captains, aldermen and country gentlemen, so much for being tried by one’s peers! Predictably they were all found guilty, five of them receiving terms of imprisonment. Rothman received 4 months for inciting to riot and assault. The Court’s intention had been to make an example of them and discourage others, but it didn’t quite work that way. Instead it made heroes of them and support for the Right to Roam became much larger leading to further mass trespasses and demonstrations. Hikers weren’t about to be cowed by bullying landowners.
Anniversary celebrations Comrade Benny Rothman, a life long activist and working class hero, passed away on 23rd January 2002 age 90. On the 50th anniversary of the Mass Trespass, he unveiled the plaque below close to the spot where he had addressed the trespassers on that historic day in 1932. He then led a walk up to the Kinder plateau ~ not a keeper or cop in sight. On the 75th anniversary of the Trespass, Environment Secretary David Milliband named the engine of a Northern Trains locomotive ‘Benny Rothman–Manchester Rambler’. A fine gesture, though one suspects that Benny would have probably preferred him to have announced the renationalised our railways without compensation. In April on the 80th anniversary of the Mass Trespasses a group of Club members joined the Manchester Morning Star Supporter’s Group on a re-enactment of the Mass Trespass. Over £1500 was raised for the paper and the only fighting was to the bar after what was a wet, wet, walk.
At the Front Supporting the Principles of Socialism A number of members of the National Clarion Cycling Club fought in the Spanish Civil War and at least three made the ultimate sacrifice on the foreign soil of Spain. National Clarion 1895 are proud to honour these heroes of Socialism by supporting the efforts made by the International Brigade Memorial Trust in keeping alive the memory of those who fell fighting fascism. On March 2nd the IBMT is holding its Annual Len Crome Lecture in Manchester. The subject of the lecture is ‘George Orwell ~ Homage to Catalonia 75 years On’. This will be a full day conference with 4 key note speakers. For further details contact: hilary.m.jones@btinternet.com. The Club has a limited number of booklets about George Orwell who fought along side the POUM militia during the Spanish Civil War and was wounded in action. The booklet is a critical analysis of Orwell’s role by Bill Alexander, a former commander of the British Battalion of the International Brigade (1984) These are priced £3 including postage and can be obtain from C.Jepson, Aysgaard, Beardwood Brow, Blackburn BB2 7AT . (cheques payable to IBMT).
The Soviet War Memorial in London
On Remembrance Sunday members of the London Section of the National Clarion along with members of National Clarion 1895 attended the Soviet War Memorial. There in an act of internationalism they laid a wreath to the victims of fascist aggression in the former Soviet Republics. The Soviet Union lost an estimated 26.6 million citizens fighting fascism and took the brunt of the German War machine while the Americans remained neutral. We must never forget that it was the Red Army under Stalin’s leadership that started to push back the greatest evil this world has ever seen – fascism.
New Marching Banner
The Club’s new double-sided marching banner. The reverse side honours Ray Cox, Secretary of the London and Southern Counties Union of National Clarion Cycling Clubs. Ray (known as Tommy to his Club mates) fell whilst fighting in the ranks of the Ernst Thalmann Battalion at the defence of Madrid in December 1936 just 22 years of age.
Their final ride
It is always sad when one hears of the death of former members of the National Clarion Cycling Club. This year we note the loss of Comrades Nye, Entwhistle, Worthington and Newlove. Roland Entwhistle’s relative wrote ‘my grandfather passed away last month and although its over forty years since he cycled with the Clarion it was always ‘his Club’, in his memory please accept the enclosed donation’. A friend of Harry Nye’s forwarded a cheque and wrote ‘It’s wonderful that you are still involved in the struggle for Socialism, for the cooperative commonwealth’. It is thanks to these former members and to those who support the Club with donations that we are able to announce that the annual subscription (now due) will remain at £2. Club funds have also enabled us to pay for a new marching banner; send a generous donation sent to the Durham Miners Association to help with the running costs of their annual Miner’s Gala and pay for the Morning Star to have a stall at the Len Crome Lecture. We are currently negotiating to buy a new (second-hand) mini bus, our new Clarion Van. This will be used as a support vehicle on our ride from London to Barcelona in October for the 75th anniversary of the withdrawal of the International Brigades from Spain. No contribution is ever too small, none to large. Every penny the Club receives will be used to further the Clarion’s objective of ‘combining the pleasures of cycling with support for the Principles of Socialism’