Lewis Mates

For the first two decades of the twentieth century, syndicalism (revolutionary trade unionism) was the most vigorous of the left's challenges to the capitalist order in many parts of the world. In Britain, syndicalism was reckoned to have had most impact in the South Wales coalfield but there have been no detailed studies of its influence in other British coalfields. This article explores the various ways in which syndicalism's influence can be gauged in the Durham coalfield, comparing it with the South Wales experience. While the two coalfields had a good deal in common, a number of considerations, most importantly relating to the agency of syndicalists on the one hand and Independent Labour Party (ILP) activists on the other, militated against syndicalism's relative influence in Durham.

It is well known the membership of British Conservative Party in the 1950s dwarfed that of other parties but there has been very little examination of the grassroots of the Conservative Party in this crucial period when membership peaked. What literature there is on local Conservatives comes predominantly from the top-down focus of national politics and revolves around four disputed images of the local party. First, high-levels of membership are associated with commendable engagement with formal politics. Second, local associations are presented as inconsequential but autonomous. Third local activists are presented as uninterested in ideology and solely focused on campaigning and social activity. Finally, associations are presented as dominated by women precisely because of their primarily social nature. This article examines the debates about these conventional images through an analysis of the rival Conservative factions in two Newcastle-upon-Tyne Associations, the location of probably the most divisive splits in Twentieth Century Conservatism. It suggests that debates about a ‘golden age’ of activism are unhelpful in understanding mass participation, that the conventional conception of autonomy obscures informal relationships, that attention to the ideological dimension is central to understanding and that the nature of female participation can only be understood by challenging the false dichotomy of social and political motivations. Taken together it argues that the study of grassroots Conservatism needs to grapple with the meanings, motivations and practices as seen from below as well as the consequences of such activity for those above. In this way the study of politics from the bottom-up can have significant consequences for our understanding of the Conservative Party.

This article compares and contrasts the roles of the South Wales Miners’ Federation and the Durham Miners’ Association regarding solidarity activities with the Spanish Republican government, 1936-1939. It firstly establishes that there were far fewer Durham miners in the International Brigade than their South Wales counterparts, despite comparable socio-economic conditions. This is explained by the different political cultures of the two coalfields (although at times, both coalfields reacted in similar ways to analogous social and political circumstances). The fundamental difference was the strength of the Communist Party in South Wales and its weakness in the Durham coalfield. The nature of Communist influence in the Durham coalfield in the period is then explored. The final section studies the considerable and hitherto unappreciated institutional contribution of the Durham Miners’ Association to the Spanish Republican cause. It also notes the paradoxical effects of the Communist-supported popular front policy.

This article examines the Popular Front campaigns in 1938 and 1939 at grassroots level. It does this by taking the North-East region as a case study. The north-east labour movement was traditionally moderate and loyal. Substantial support for the policy in regions like the North-East was vital if the labour movement as a whole could be won over to the Popular Front. The article concentrates on Stafford Cripps’s ‘Petition Campaign’ launched in February 1939 and compares it with the earlier United Peace Alliance campaign. It discusses the individuals and organisations that supported or opposed the Popular Front project and the problems with the nature of their reaction. The explanation of the failure of the Popular Front campaigns in the North-East necessitates the exploration of the attitudes of Labour, Liberal and Conservative Party supporters and grassroots activists, thereby throwing light on the political culture of the region.

Though historians have generally regarded the British popular front (1935-39) as a failure, it has been suggested that the project had untapped potential. Most significantly, the geographically widespread and socially and politically diverse campaigns in support of the Spanish Republic in its struggle against a military rebellion (1936-1939) have been characterised as a de facto popular front. This article examines this claim by concentrating on one campaign in one locality. The Tyneside foodship campaign involved many from a wide variety of social and political backgrounds including those who were ‘non-political’. Though appearing to constitute a de facto popular front, the campaign message was consistently worded in solely humanitarian terms by the main organisers. This had a wide range of implications for the politics of the campaign and therefore the extent to which it can be regarded as a de facto popular front. Other grass roots campaigns in the north east region that appeared to be popular fronts shared the same essential characteristics as the Tyneside foodship campaign. The evidence suggests that these campaigns only managed to achieve this semblance of a popular front precisely because the majority of those from conservative or non-political backgrounds perceived the campaigns as humanitarian. Thus they did not share (either from the outset or after becoming ‘politicised’) what could be deemed a ‘popular front outlook’; an abhorrence of fascism and a critique of Chamberlain’s supposed pro-fascist foreign policy.