‘Durham miners, the “Forward
Movement” and political change before
the Great War’

Lewis H. Mates
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Ninth International
Congress of Mining
History,
Johannesburg,
South Africa, 17-20
April 2012
1. Introduction: the “rise of Labour” debate
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Two schools of thought (See Laybourn, 1995; Roberts, 2009; Johnes, 2010);
1. ‘Inevitabilist’ or ‘evolutionist’; emerging (working-)class politics marginalises
Liberals; class-based nature of Labour’s appeal, deep and solidarisitic classconsciousness; integral role of trade unions; organisational strength of Labour’s
centralising machine; distinctive ideological appeal (c.f. McKibbin, 1974)
2. ‘Revisionist’ or ‘accidentalist’; terminal split in Liberal Party during the Great
War; continued ability of both old and ‘new liberalism’ to attract working-class;
Labour’s electoral weakness before August 1914 (c.f. Clarke, 1971; Douglas,
1971)
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‘New political history’ (NPH); ‘textual’ approaches; reject deterministic classbased sociological interpretations; emphasise role of political language, ideology
and (often) agency (Black, 2003; Readman, 2009); boosts ‘accidentalist’
school
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Duncan Tanner’s Political Change and the Labour Party (1990); regional
developments; by 1914 Labour not developed ideological/political strength for
expansionist strategy; no solid “class” vote; no uniform trade unionist support
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Criticism of Tanner’s case studies (Laybourn, 1995; Berger, 1993; Lancaster,
1992) but subsequent work tends to endorse basic case (Packer, 2011; Cole,
2011; Tanner and Hopkin, 2000) with few exceptions (McHugh, 2002; Hall,
2001)
2. The Durham miners and the debate
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DMA; wealthiest, second largest in MFGB; Liberalism dominant; i.
economically (wages tied to coal prices) and ii. Politically (Durham mining
constituencies return Liberals after 1885)
Embodied in John Wilson DMA general secretary (1896) and Liberal MP
(1885); miners and owners shared interest in maintaining profitability
ILP challenge; 2 Labour seats won 1903-6; late 1907 DMA voted 3:1 join MFGB
1908 MFGB affiliates to Labour; Liberal official House converts; ILP victorious?
BUT Wilson engineers doubt over DMA’s exclusive support for Labour;
continues a ‘Lib.-Lab.’ MP; attempt to clarify this defeated in December 1911
1910 general elections: Labour net loss of two MPs to Liberals
Context; backlash over Eight Hour Day settlement; mass unofficial strikes
against three-shift system; damages DMA leadership and ILP (eight hour day)
Post-1910 industrial unrest; potential challenge to Labour from syndicalism
Argument; i. need to place DFM at centre of discussion; foundation for
developing comprehensive account of how Durham became Labour stronghold;
major narratives (Gregory, Tanner) highlight further Labour electoral failures
after 1910; none attach importance to ILP-led rank-and-file movements
ii. Importance of agency (NPH); dynamic relations socio-economic context
DFM shows Labour-supporting activists very successfully deployed rhetoric that
resonated within considerable constituency
DMA members in residence at Ruskin, 1908 (Harvey top
right and Lawson sitting in middle)
3. DFM described and concrete successes
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Origins; in reinvigorated Minimum Wage Movement (MWM) from July 1911;
increasing cost of living; growing trade union belligerency; ILP national
minimum wage campaign and South Wales miners intervention
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DFM’s Birth; rank-and-file conference 4 May 1912; after national miners’
minimum wage strike ended (six weeks) in April 1912; won individual minimum
wage, but no ‘5 and 2’
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DFM important advance; 1. More concrete organisation 2. Activity more
intense and longer 3. Support; built on hardcore MWM lodges (including most of
the largest); well attended meetings 4. Broadens remit; material concerns
(minimum wage) also onto ‘political’ plane; democratic reform of DMA
Successes? Wins 2/5 agreed proposals at DMA AGM December 1913
1. New rule all fulltime officials to be elected by individual ballot
2. DMA new object ‘To promote and financially support Parliamentary candidates’
run solely under auspices of Labour Party
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This the single most important concrete achievement (material/industrial side
negligible gains); DMA’s prestige/resources harnessed exclusively for Labour
DFM (and MWM before it) chief means ILP to mobilise lodge opinion
4. (Positive) significances…
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Two-pronged industrial/political strategy; MFGB/ Labour Party; DFM’s
inability/reluctance to pursue industrial action; onus more onto Labour; April
1914, DFM political strategy over amending Minimum Wage Act; general public
praise (not criticism) of Labour in Parliament
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Ideological challenge; Minimum wage undermining ‘economic liberalism’;
(wages invariably tied to coal prices); spring 1912 votes 2/3 miners favourable
‘Our interests and those of the owners are not identical; they never were and
never will be’ (May 1912 DFM circular)
DFM grows after minimum wage strike; more miners won to minimum wage?
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Key activists ‘Labour rather than socialist’? (Tanner, p.92); miners ‘would
only get from the coal owners what they were compelled to give at the point of
a sword’ (Jack Lawson); Lawson self defines as ‘socialist’; pro-nationalisation
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Syndicalist elements to rhetoric? DFM monopolises discontent; outflanking
revolutionaries; negligible ILP defections to syndicalism (Tanner, p.226)
Militant language can also resonate; moderation not only way to success
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Crucial ideological cleavage in Labour challenge (Tanner misses); part
between DMA leaders/ led; partly generational
DFM (and MWM) catapults younger ILP militants to fore; begin winning key
DMA posts from 1912 (EC etc.,); April 1914 new DMA PPC vote
5. The DFM’s failures…
Inside the DMA;
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1. Failure to remove Wilson; ‘old’ Liberal and dominant force; Wilson’s
relative strength (long established, institutionally empowered, well respected,
canny operator);
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DFM institutionally weak; many of its lodges underrepresented (DMA council)
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2. Failure to tackle representation issue; Why?
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Debate over lodge level democracy (Gregory); Marsden lodge example;
moderate leaders more militant membership?; wider process of lodge
democratisation
Outside the DMA; failure to translate DFM support to votes for Labour
(Houghton-le-Spring, 1913, North-west Durham 1914)
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Lawson disinterested and naïve about ‘political’ organising?
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DFM lodges not pro-LRCs; Marsden complex process; BUT general long-term
reluctance move outside pit politics (trades councils too); no automatic
relationship and lack of mechanisms to make a link; until April 1914?
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Other reasons for Labour’s electoral failure; House’s ideology…; Irish vote,
etc.,
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Franchise factor?; DFM activists younger; radical pits more transient
populations; less likely to qualify to vote…
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DMA only organised 2/3 Durham miners…
6. Conclusion
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1910 8 hour day/ three-shift system ILP and DMA leaders in trouble
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1911; Minimum wage movement reinvigorated; offers ILP a lifeline
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In MWM and DFM ILP build influence in lodges and new aggressive form of
politics; industrial militancy and pro-Labour (incongruous?)
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Marginalises syndicalist challenge, builds support for Labour; evident in
December 1913 vote
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With notoriety of new younger activists; DFM wins proper institutional
support for Labour and its activists populating its positions;
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While socio-economic circumstances not entirely favourable to ILP project
(syndicalism better placed?); Agency thus vital to understanding process
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In spite of all the work in this debate; there is still a lot that could be done..
Acronyms
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DFM: Durham Forward Movement
DMA: Durham Miners’ Association
MFGB: Miners’ Federation of Great Britain
MWM: Minimum Wage Movement
NPH: ‘New political history’
Bibliography
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S. Berger, ‘The Decline of Liberalism and the Rise of Labour: The Regional Approach’,
Parliamentary History, 12:1 (1993)
L. Black, ‘What kind of People are you?’ in J. Callaghan, S. Fielding and S. Ludlam (eds.),
Interpreting the Labour Party (2003), pp.23–38
P.F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971)
M. Cole, ‘The Political Starfish: West Yorkshire Liberalism in the Twentieth Century’,
Contemporary British History, 25:1 (2011), pp.175–188
R. Douglas, The History of the Liberal Party, 1855–1970 (1971)
R. Gregory, The Miners and British Politics, 1906–1914 (Oxford, 1968).
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M. Johnes, ‘For Class and Nation: Dominant Trends in the Historiography of Twentieth-century
Wales’, History Compass (2010); covers the Welsh literature on the rise of Labour debate
K. Laybourn, ‘The Rise of Labour and Decline of Liberalism: The State of the Debate’, History
80:259 (1995), pp.207–226; good overview of rise of Labour debate to 1994
B. Lancaster, ‘The Rise of Labour’, Labour History Review, 57:3 (1992)
D. McHugh, ‘Labour, Liberals and the Progressive Alliance in Manchester, 1900–1914’, Northern
History, 39:1 (2002), pp.93–108
R. McKibbin, The Evolution of the Labour Party 1910–1924 (Oxford, 1974)
I. Packer, ‘Contested Ground: Trends in British By-elections, 1911–1914’, Contemporary British
History (2011)
P. Readman, ‘The State of Twentieth-Century British Political History’, Journal of Policy History,
21:3 (2009)
M. Roberts, Political Movements in Urban England, 1832–1914 (Basingstoke, 2009), especially
pp.128–160
D. Tanner, Political Change and the Labour Party 1900–1918 (Cambridge, 1990)
D. Tanner and D. Hopkin, The Labour Party in Wales 1900–2000 (Cardiff, 2000)