PAGE TWO unday, June 23,101 Greatand Glorious Newsfor Old England REFORM BILL PASSED, 00000000800030000000 Revolution in Brita

THE RECOGNITION of the important social gradations emerging in the ranks of the working class during the period of capitalist expansion after 1850the subject of our last study-was true not only of the most astute employers, but of a number of liberal writers and intellectuals like Matthew Arnold and John Stuart Mill.

Matthew Arnold, appointed HM Inspector of Schools in 1851—a post which he held until 1886— was acutely aware of the dangers which continued to face the middle class in this period. • His great fear was anarchy which could at any time erupt from that.

'Vast portion of the working class which, raw and haif developed, has long lain halfhidden amidst its poverty and squalor, and is now issuing from its hiding place to assert an Englishman's heaven-born privilege of doing as he likes, and is beginning to perplex us by marching where it likes, meeting where it likes, bawling what it likes, breaking what it likes.' It was this unknown 'great residium' which Arnold and his fellow members of the midVictorian "intellectual movement' so feared, atter having seen them pulled in behind middle-class reformers in the great Hyde Park demonstrations for the Reform Act, passed in 1867, which gave the town worker the vote.

But if he was frightened at the prospect of violence and anarchy from this section of the population, Arnold also saw other elements in the working class.

His 'Culture and Anarchy', written in 1867, largely concerns the relationship between the three great classes in society: the Barbarians (the aristocracy), the Philistines (the middle class) and the Populace (the working class).

TOP LAYERS Speaking of the top layers of the working class, Arnold writes:

workhe industrial mille class.

notorious that class Liberals long carry great their and, in about their millenium. "That part of it again, which he Pare the attenitself, through trades unions •.. this lively and interesting part must also, according to our definition, go with the Philistines.' As the same writer explains, he and others like him• had 'a passion for diffusing, for making prevail, for carrying from one end of society the other, the best knowledge, the best ideas of our time'.

Such an aim was to be realized through state education.

It is significant that many groups of employers, such as A. J. Mundella, Samuel Morley and Thomas Brassey, whom we shall deal with later, were also staunch of compulsory education for the working class and many of I would like information about THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE : Fill in the form below and SECRETARY, SOCIALIST 186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, Name Address EMERGENCE BUREAUCRACY them fought to pass cation Act of 1870.

But if the populace should get out of hand, Arnold was quite prepared to use the most brutual methods to repress it. Warning the Liberals of the dangers of summoning up the power of the working class as a means of defeating the Whigs and Tories he declared, quoting his father, Dr Thomas Arnold:

'As for rioting, the old Roman way of dealing that is always the right ode;

flog the rank and file, and fling the leaders from Tarpeian Rock!!

"This opinion', went on this great 'liberal' and 'progressive', 'we can never forsake, however our Liberal friends may think a little rioting, and what they call popular demonstrations useful sometimes to their own interests and to the interests of the valuable practical operations they have in hand.' John Stuart Mill, the father of English liberalism, also saw in education the key to the 'social problem'.

Indeed he spent a considerable portion of his time impressing upon his more short-sighted middle-class friends that the 'stupid and ignorant mass' would remain dangerous if they were denied access to education.

Likewise Mill's advocacy of an extention of the suffrage. He wanted to give the vote to workers in the towns in order to draw them into the machinery of public life and render them safe.

send to NATIONAL LABOUR LEAGUE, LONDON, SW4. LABOUR He was always clear that a limited extension of parliamentary democracy held very few dangers for private property. As he pointed out to a large gathering of workers at the height of the struggle for the Reform Aot in 1867: 'countries where the people are allowed to show their strength are those in which they are not obliged to use it' and in the House of Commons reassured his Liberal colleagues of the limited nature of his proposals:

"They may be able to decide whether a Whig or Tory shall be elected ... they may be masters of so small a situation as that.' FABIANISM But if Mill, Arnold and other literary figures were important as a reflection of these tendencies; it was only at a later stage, with the emergence of Fabianism, that a group of intellectuals sought deliberately and consciously to spread the ideas of reformism amongst the working class with the collaboration and assistance of the trade union and labour bureaucracy.

More impontant at this stage were the activities of sections of the employers and members of the Liberal Party.

Thomas Brassey, Lord Elcho, Samuel Morley and A. J. Mundella were typical examples of this group of employers who went out of their way, as an act of policy, to encourage trade unionism and win the support of its leaders.

They were invariably large employers who were in a dominant market position, relatively sheltered from competition from their rivals.

Even at the time of the 1869 Royal Commission on Trade Union Report, leading elements in the capitalist class saw the virtues of accepting trade unionism amongst the more conservative layers of workers, at least.

"True statesmanship', declared 'The Times' soon after the publication of the Report, 'will seek neither to augment nor to reduce their influence, but, accepting it as a fact, will give it free scope for legitimate development.' A Broadsheet acclaiming the passing of the 1867 Reform Bill -which gave workers in towns the vote.

By 1875 the unions had been given legal protection, a protection which was not to be seriously challenged until the end of the century.

Typical of this group was Mundella, the powerful Nottinghamshire hosiery manufacturer, later Liberal MP for Sheffield and President of the Board of Trade.

In the 1860s Mundella was prominent in the establishment of Conciliation and Arbitration Boards for the hosiery industry which were designed to avoid strikes and conflict, Boards which were to be highly praised in the 1869' Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions.

POSITIVISTS Frederic Harrison, one of the circle of Positivists (so-called because they followed the Positivism of Auguste Comte) who sympathized with the trade union movement, writing to his friend Professor E. Beesly, spoke highly of Mundella's evidence before the Royal Commission, on which Harrison sat as a nominee of the Junta.

'Mundella's evidence is firstrate: He is a thorough trump —a regular unionist by nature, who, like Pisistratus or someone, "has taken the demos into partnership" and made a joint union of masters and men which at any rate keeps quite within the field and bullies outside employers savagely.

He will turn Roebuck garth's doing. That is Apple. out for Sheffield, who is now This was a reference to the work of Applegarth- -perhaps the most venal and subservient of trade union leaders in securing the support of the Sheffield workers for Mundella's nomination and elecHe was duly rewarded by his appointment to the Royal Commission on Contagious (venereal) Diseases in 1871, the first unionist ever to be elected on to such a body.

His nomination was largely the work of Mundella who promised to assist him in securing a government post after he was forced to resign as secretary of the WoodMundella, Morley and others were regular visitors and patform speakers at the TUC Congresses in the 1870s.

'The Trade Union Congress falls very heavily upon sarote Mundelaito a she mid newspaper owner at the beginning of 1872, 'but I am doing my duty and marvellously good is the apparent result. Much more forebearance and moderation characterized all | their proceedings. ..I wish you could have been at the breakfast this morning, given by Marley, myself and the borough members. The kindly tone which prevailed at the gathering was excellent. It is very pleasant to have such evidence of the usefulness of one's labours.' It is "better nis explained Morley to fellow employers, "that large employers of labour should be willing to hear all that can be said by the advocates of the working class, rather than from over-sensitiveness as to their reputation, or indifference as to the condition of the people. even fear of "unconscious irony", shut themselves within their own circle.' This same apprehension— that the trade union movement, if left alone and isolated, even under its collaborationist leaders, might be dangerous - was a common theme in the speeches and statements of the 'progressive' employers such as Morley 'I think it highly desirable' declared Mundella on the eve of the 1874 TUC Congress, 'that the members of the Conference should not be left in state of isolation. Liberal and sensible employers should Rejoicings for the Passing of the Reform Hill. A Broadsheet manifest their sympathy with this labour parliament in all efforts of a reasonable and • laudable character tending to improve their class. I am afraid the Sheffield middle class are very antagonistic towards them and will resent my apperance amongst them.' Upon taking office as President of the Board of Trade in the Gladstone Administration of 1886, ( Mundella appointed John Burnett, Secretary of the ASE, to the post of Labour correspondent in the Bureau of Statistics.

Such developments, declared the 1886 TUC President, 'are significant signs of the times, and refleat great credit upon ministers who brought them about. But we must not stop here. They should not regarded as concessions, but as a recognition of the just right of workers to a share in the government of the country. Personally I shall not be satisfield until we have representatives of unionism within the charmed circle of the Cabinet'.

So by the 1880s, a definite pattern of close collaboration had developed between a leading group of trade unionists, centred on the Parliamentary Committee of the TUC and an influential body of employers and spokesmen in the Liberal Little wonder that James Fitzpatrick, in his Presidential Address to the 1875 TUC, could declare that this body 'was now one'of the institutions of the country. and the great power it possessed and the immense constituency it represented, caused its deliberations to be watched keenly by all classes in this country, from the highest officials in the land to the most humble toilers of the soil'.

As one of the historians of the TUC (Professor B. C. Roberts) has remarked:

'By bringig the trade unions "within the pale of the constitution", the danger of their adopting revolutionary ideas was practically eliminated. The role of the Parliamentary Committee was of considerable significance, for through it the attention of the organreform through parliament On ized workers was focused The important point is that, in Britain, the emergence of a full-time labour bureaucracy with policies of class compromise and having close relations both with the employers and parliamentary life was considerably advanced before the imperialist epoch.

In this lay one of the 'unique' features of the British labour movement.

But the limits of this development must also be appreciated.

While it may be that all workers, in some degree, enjoyed some benefits from Britain's dominant world economic position after 1850, these benefits were very unevenly distributed.

During the period we have discussed, we must stress, the great mass of workers remained outside the 'labour movement'.

MONOPOLY

It was the sharp crisis which the development of imperialism brought with the challenge to this monopoly position, which was to end this situation, and end it in a comparatively short period at the end of the ,880s and early 1890s., It was this period which was to se not only the beginning of the processes—technical changes, shifts in the pattern of world trade, etc.— which were to undermine the position of some séctions of the labour aristocracy.

It was also to see the entry of the unskilled and hitherto unorganized sections into the labour movement, a section which was to be at the backbone of the fight for an independent political expression for the working class in the shape of the Labour Party, established in 1900. JOHN STUART MILL, the father of English Liberalism.

KISSE AND REFORM dixirarchiare the passing of

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