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George Lansbury
George Lansbury
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George
Lansbury, the son of a railway contractor, was born in Haleworth,
Suffolk, in 1859. When George was nine years old the family moved
to East London. George started work in an office at the age of eleven
but after a year he returned to school where he stayed until he was
fourteen. This was followed by a succession of jobs as a clerk, a
wholesale grocer and working in a coffee bar.
Lansbury then started up his own business as a contractor working
for the Great Eastern Railway. This was not a success and now married
with three children, Lansbury decided in 1884 to emigrate to Australia.
The Lansbury family found it difficult to settle in Australia and
the following year returned to England and he began work at his father-in-law's
timber merchants.
Lansbury was angry about his time in Australia and believed that he
had been a victim of untrue propaganda about the country. He came
to the conclusion that the emigration authorities were disseminating
false information in an effort to entice immigrants to Australia.
He joined the campaign against this policy and in doing so obtained
his first experience of politics.
In the 1886 General Election Lansbury joined
the local Liberal Party. Later that year
he was elected General Secretary of the Bow & Bromley Liberal
Association. However, Lansbury became disillusioned with the leadership's
views on industrial issues and eventually left the party over its
unwillingness to support legislation for a shorter working week.
Lansbury joined the Gasworkers & General Labourers
Union and in 1889 joined a local strike committee during the London
Dockers' Strike of that year. These activities brought him into
contact with H.M. Hyndman, the leader
of the Social Democratic Federation. Although
the two men disagreed with each other over many issues, Lansbury decided
to join the party and in 1892 established a branch of the Social
Democratic Federation in Bow. This marked the start of Lansbury's
long campaign against poverty and unemployment in London.
As a young man, Lansbury had been an atheist. However in the 1890s
he was influenced by the religious ideas of people like Stuart
Headlam and Philip Snowdon. Lansbury
became a Christian Socialist and was
later to play an important role in converting people such as James
Keir Hardie to Christianity.
In 1892 Lansbury was elected to the Board
of Guardians that ran the Poplar Workhouse. Lansbury and his colleagues
decided to use their power to change the system. Lansbury, unlike
most Guardians, did not believe that the generous treatment of paupers
would encourage more people to seek refuge in the workhouse. Over
the next few years the Guardians dramatically improved the conditions
in their workhouse. They also established a Laindon Farm Colony in
the Essex countryside where they provided work for the unemployed
and taught them the basics of market gardening.
Lansbury continued to be a member of the Social
Democratic Federation and in 1895 he became the party's candidate
in a parliamentary election in Walworth. He only obtained 204 votes
in that election but in 1900 he obtained 2,558 against the Conservative
Party candidate who won with 4,403 votes.
Lansbury found his relationship with H.M.
Hyndman, increasing difficult. Lansbury disliked Hyndman's dictatorial
method of running the party, he also disagreed with his Marxist
views. Lansbury's socialism had been inspired by the teachings of
Jesus Christ, whereas Hyndman was a
devout follower of Karl Marx, an atheist.
In 1903 Lansbury left the Social Democratic
Federation and joined the Independent Labour
Party, an organisation that contained a large number of Christian
Socialists. Three years later the Independent
Labour Party became the Labour Party,
an organisation led by James Keir Hardie,
a man who was converted to Christianity in 1897.
In 1906 the government ordered an inquiry into the running of the
Poplar Workhouse. The Board of Guardians
were accused of wasting the ratepayers' money by their generous treatment
of paupers and the funding of the Laindon Farm Colony. Lansbury, who
had been joined as a Guardian by John Burns,
another leading figure in the Christian
Socialist movement, argued the case for treating people in workhouses
with dignity. Although the government report was critical of the Guardians,
they refused to change their policy and eventually the authorities
decided not to take action against them.
Lansbury was now one of the leading figures in the Labour
Party and in the 1910 General Election
was elected as the MP for Bow & Bromley. Lansbury, along with
James Keir Hardie, led the campaign in
Parliament for votes for women. Lansbury was especially critical of
the Cat and Mouse Act and was ordered to leave
the House of Commons after shaking his
fist in the face of Herbert Asquith, the
Prime Minister, and told him that he was "beneath contempt"
because of his treatment of WSPU prisoners.
Hardie and Lansbury had trouble persuading all Labour MPs to support
votes for women. Many of them argued that the party should make sure
all working class men had the vote before it concerned itself with
the franchise for women. Others argued that a policy that advocated
votes for women was unpopular with the electorate and would result
in the Labour Party losing seats in the
next General Election.
In October, 1912, Lansbury decided to draw attention to the plight
of WSPU prisoners by resigning his seat in
the House of Commons and fighting a by-election
in favour of votes for women. Lansbury discovered that a large number
of males were still opposed to equal rights for women and he was defeated
by 731 votes. The following year he was imprisoned for making speeches
in favour of suffragettes who were involved in illegal activities.
While in Pentonville he went on hunger strike and was eventually released
under the Cat and Mouse Act.
For the next ten years Lansbury was out of the House
of Commons and concentrated on journalism. In 1911 he helped start
the Daily Herald and two years later
became the editor of the newspaper, where he worked closely with the
cartoonist Will Dyson and the journalist,
Hillaire Belloc.
Lansbury and his newspaper, the Daily Herald,
was opposed to Britain involvement in the First World War. This made
him unpopular during the nationalist fervour that developed between
1914 and 1918. In the 1918 General Election,
Lansbury, like other anti-war Labour Party
candidates was defeated.
Lansbury was elected to the local council and in 1921 he became Mayor
of Poplar. The council took the decision to increase the amount of
money spent on poor relief. This brought the council in conflict with
the British government and in 1921 Lansbury and the majority of the
local council were imprisoned for over four months.
In the 1922 General Election Lansbury was
elected as the Labour MP for Bow & Bromley with a majority of
7,000. Lansbury was unhappy with the way the Daily
Herald became more conservative in its reporting after being
taken over by the Labour Party and the TUC
after 1923. In 1925 he started the Lansbury's
Labour Weekly. The newspaper rapidly reached a circulation
of 172,000 and provided an important source of news during the 1926
General Strike.
Although his left-wing ideas made him unpopular with some of the leaders
of the Labour Party, Lansbury was elected
Chairman party in 1928. The following year he became Commissioner
for Works in the Labour government led by Ramsay
MacDonald. Lansbury refused to support MacDonald's measures in
1931 to deal with the economic crisis and resigned from office. When
MacDonald formed a National Government, Lansbury became the leader
of the Labour opposition.
Lansbury hated fascism but as a pacifist he was opposed to using violence
against it. When Italy invaded Abyssinia he refused to support the
view that the League of Nations should
use military force against Mussolini's army. After being criticised
by several leading members of the Labour Party,
Lansbury resigned as leader of the party.
Lansbury spent the last few years of his life trying to prevent a
Second World War. He travelling throughout Europe
meeting the political leaders of the various countries. After having
talks with Adolf Hitler he believed it
was still possible to reach an agreement that would avoid a war. His
efforts ended in failure and George Lansbury died a disillusioned
man on 7th May, 1940.
(1)
George Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
There is one outstanding lesson I have learned is that wealth can
only be acquired at the expense of others. I say this with the absolute
assurance that it is an indisputable statement of fact. Also, that
all of us, no matter how skilled we are, or however much ability we
possess, do in fact depend on our daily bread, our comforts, and material
pleasures on the toil and labour of the masses who often live unrequited
lives of toil and hardship.
(2)
George Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
Campbell-Bannerman
was kindness itself. I often wonder what the developments in English
politics would have been had this genial, kindly Scotsman lived. There
might have been no war in 1914; the course of the Labour Movement
might have been different - for this man believed in peace and was
not afraid of the word Socialism, and did believe unemployment was
a national problem and the unemployed the care of the State.
(3)
George Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
The Jew, whether British or foreign, wherever he was born and whatever
his colour or creed, was for me even when I was a boy "one of
God's children". There are certain distinctions between all of
us, and there are distinctions between races too, though these latter
seem less marked when we investigate closely.
Jews do seem to have a facility for the quick acquisition of wealth
which the Gentiles would be only too glad to imitate. When times are
bad they never seem to suffer quite so badly as others; they stand
together and by one another. They care for their parents, and their
children are really loved. In the poorest parts mothers carry their
little ones to school wrapped up from the rain.
When trade unionism among the casual labourers and unskilled workers
was at a very low ebb - indeed, it was almost non-existent - it was
Jewish agitators who, by persistent propaganda, helped to bring them
into the British trade unions.
Some Jews are good Tories, others are Liberals, Communists and Socialists,
Trade Unionists and Co-operators. In the main, the best description
of them is that they are good citizens. I have known thousands of
them of all ages intimately and have received great kindness from
many of them. As I consider the change in East London's population
I am convinced that it is nonsense to pretend we have been injured
by the huge Jewish immigration. I think we have become better.
(4)
George Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
I was a great admirer of Henry George and believed firmly in the taxation
of land values. During the years 1886 to 1892 I came more and more
under the influence of William Morris and H. H. Hyndman, Will Thorne,
Tom Mann, Ben Tillet, and decided to join the Social Democrats.
(5)
George Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
I have
heard some remarkable women orators. Some of them stand head and shoulders
above all others. There was Catherine Booth, mother of the Salvation
Army, who was one of the simplest exponents of the gospel of love
I have ever heard. I think her speeches, sermons and appeals on behalf
of the weak and the fallen were among the finest pieces of simple
arresting oratory I have ever heard.
Her theology was rather hard and narrow, and very dogmatic. Later
on she threw her energy into work on behalf of young girls and illegitimate
babies. Her whole soul and spirit was poured out in an unceasing effort
to make men realize their responsibility. In politics, she demanded
legislation to raise the age of consent and provision for the maintenance
of these unfortunate victims of our lack of individual and social
responsibility.
(6)
George Lansbury, Looking Backwards and Forwards (1935)
Another
very gentle and lovable woman was Mrs. Josephine Butler. Once, in
the big St. Mary's schoolroom in Whitechapel, I listened to her with
tears running down my cheeks as she told of the cruel and barbarous
workings of the Contagious Diseases Acts. Mrs. Butler left a comfortable
rectory to fight this fight on behalf of womanhood. She had to face
tremendous opposition, gross distortion and misrepresentation. There
was at the beginning no organisation, either of women or men, to stand
with her. Nor did her own sex support her. But the unremitting toil
of this fine Christian woman, not overblessed with physical strength,
and not an orator in the accepted sense, at last won her victory,
and the "C.D." Acts were repealed.
(7)
Margaret Cole worked closely with George Lansbury
during the First World War.
George Lansbury was not yet the Mayor of Poplar and leader of
the movement to make the rich districts of London contribute to the
upkeep of the poor ones, not yet chief of the Labour Party or even
in Parliament, was nevertheless set to become father-confessor and
Santa Claus to all the most "ornery" spirits of the Left;
he was a strong pacifist on Christian grounds, and was occasionally
worried by the eagerness with which his Socialist contributors greeted
mild outbreaks of violence in industrial disputes. (His daughter Daisy
married my brother Ray.)
(8)
Henry Hamilton Fyfe became editor of the Daily
Herald in 1922.
The Daily Herald had never emerged entirely from the first
stage of its existence as a daily strike sheet a year or two before
the war. While the war was on, it became a weekly with a bite to it.
In 1919 it resumed appearance as a daily with so much of the old bite
left that it gained ground slowly. Most supporters of Labour have
Tory tastes. They dislike actual changes, however loudly they may
demand future reforms. They were used to a certain type of daily newspaper;
the Herald did not conform to type. Also it attacked most of
the leaders whom Labour people had been taught to revere. Those leaders
hated Lansbury, the founder of the paper, who had, with immense energy,
collected funds for its rebirth. They did more to hinder than to help
it on.
(9)
Clement Attlee, As It Happened
(1954)
Lansbury was by nature an evangelist rather than a Parliamentary tactician.
Yet during those years in which he led the small Party in the House
he showed great skill and powers of everyday leadership. A leading
Conservative once replied to a Labour Member who said that he thought
George Lansbury was one of the best men he had ever known - The best!
Is that all? He's the ablest Opposition Leader that I have ever known."
It was, of course, a great source of strength to him that he commanded
the personal affection of his followers. He had also a wise tolerance
- an attribute which is not so common in the enthusiast.
(10)
William
Patterson,
The Man Who Cried Genocide (1971)
In my quest for a room, I had become acquainted with
the London Daily Herald, organ of the British Labour Party. I was
attracted by its editorial policy and its approach to events, including
comments on the war just concluded and the Civil
War in Russia. I decided I would like to talk to Robert Lansbury,
whose byline was prominent in the paper. He was its editor and publisher,
as well as being one of the leading figures of the British Labour
Party. I went boldly to the paper,
asked for Mr. Lansbury and had no trouble getting into his offices.
The dingy offices on Fleet Street were in what Americans would call
a loft building. I found Mr. Lansbury in a sort of cubbyhole, behind
a desk piled high with papers and surrounded by newsmen. He quickly
dismissed everybody and we started to talk.
He was anxious to find
out about conditions in the United States, especially those faced
by the Negro. Finally he invited me to do an article on the Negro's
problems for the Herald. When I told him of the limitations of my
experience, he still insisted. So I wrote an article, which was published
while I was still in London, describing the development of the struggles
of the Negro in the United States as I saw them. I drew heavily on
my reading of the Messenger and the Crisis.
In our talks, Lansbury
probed into my reasons for wanting to go to Africa. When I explained,
he said, "Well, you're running away from struggle. You tell me
that you want to fight for human rights and dignity, yet you are trying
to get away from the main fight. Why don't you return to the States?
Your country is going to be a great center of struggle for human rights
and liberty. What will the position of the Negro be as the struggle
develops?" I had no answer to his questions.
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