James
Keir Hardie, the illegitimate
son of Mary Keir, a servant from Legbrannock, Lanarkshire, Scotland,
was born on 15th August, 1856. Mary later married David Hardie, a
ship's carpenter, and the family moved to the Partick district of
Glasgow.
The Hardie family was extremely poor and James was expected to find
work at the earliest opportunity. At the age of eight Hardie became
a baker's delivery boy. Hardie had to work for twelve and a half hours
a day and for his labours received 3s. 6d. a week. With his step-father
unemployed, and his mother pregnant, Hardie was the only wage-earner
in the family.
In January, 1866, Hardie's younger brother was dying and after spending
most of the night looking after him, he arrived late for work. His
employer sacked him and also fined him a week's wages as a punishment
for his unpunctuality. Unable to find work in Glasgow,
the family moved back to Lanarkshire, and at the age of eleven, Hardie
became a coal miner.
Hardie, who never attended school, was completely illiterate until
his mother began to teach him to read after they moved to Lanarkshire.
Although Hardie worked 12 hours a day down the mine, he still found
time for his studies and by the age of seventeen had learnt to write.
Hardie began to read newspapers and discovered how some workers were
attempting to improve their wages and working conditions by forming
trade unions. Hardie helped establish a union at his colliery and
in 1880 led the first ever strike of Lanarkshire miners. This led
to his dismissal, and after moving to Old Cumnock in 1881 worked as
a journalist for a local newspaper.
In 1886 Hardie was appointed secretary for the recently formed Ayrshire
Miners' Union. Soon afterwards he became secretary of the Scottish
Miners' Federation. The following year, Hardie began publishing a
newspaper called The Miner (it
was later renamed the Labour Leader).
Hardie attempted to use the newspaper to give the miners a political
education.
Although raised as an atheist, Hardie was converted to Christianity
in 1897. A lay preacher for the Evangelical
Union Church, Hardie was also active in the Temperance
Society. Hardie remained friends with atheists such as Eleanor
Marx and Frederich Engels, the dominant
influence on his political ideas were his religious beliefs.
When he first became editor of The Miner,
Hardie supported the Liberal Party but
he became disillusioned after the government of William
Gladstone. Hardie came to the conclusion that the working-class
needed its own political party. With the support of Robert
Smillie, the leader of the Lanarkshire miners, Hardie began advocating
socialism and in 1888 stood as the Independent Labour candidate for
the constituency of Mid-Lanark. Hardie first attempt to enter the
House of Commons ended in failure as he
finished at the bottom of the poll.
Over the next few years Hardie travelled to meet other socialist trade
unionists in Europe. In 1889 Hardie attended the Second Workers' International
in Paris and two years later took part in the Miners' International
in Belgium. Hardie also visited the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.
In the 1892 General Election Hardie stood
as the Independent Labour candidate for the West Ham South constituency
in London's industrial East End. Hardie won the election and became
the country's first socialist M.P. The tradition at that time was
for MPs to wear top hats and long black coats. Hardie created a sensation
by entering Parliament wearing a cloth cap and tweed suit.
In the House of Commons Hardie began advocating
policies that had first been put forward by Tom
Paine in his book Rights of Man
in 1791. Hardie argued that people earning more than a £1,000
a year should pay a higher rate of income-tax. Hardie believed this
extra revenue should be used to provide old age pensions and free
schooling for the working class. Hardie also campaigned for the reform
of Parliament. He was a supporter of the women's
suffrage movement, the payment of MPs and the abolition of the
House of Lords.
In the early 1890s socialist groups such as the Social
Democratic Federation and the Fabian Society
became more influential. In 1893 Hardie helped form a new socialist
group, the Independent Labour Party (ILP).
At the opening conference, Hardie was elected chairman and leader
of the ILP.
In June 1894, Hardie suggested to the House
of Commons that a message of condolence to the relatives of the
251 coal miners killed by an explosion in a colliery near Pontypridd,
Wales, should be added to an address of congratulations on the birth
of a royal heir (the future Edward VIII).
When the request was refused, Hardie made a speech attacking the privileges
of the monarchy. This created an uproar in the House
of Commons and Hardie was savagely attacked in the national newspapers.
Hardie was defeated in the 1895 General Election
and over the next five years devoted most of his energy to improving
the organisation of the Independent Labour Party.
He used the Labour Leader to develop policy, to give advice
on how to conduct meetings, and how to organize groups such as Socialist
church groups and Sunday School classes.
In 1896 Emmeline Pankhurst, a member
of the Independent Labour Party in Manchester,
began organizing Sunday open-air meetings in the local park. The local
authority declared that these meetings were illegal and speakers began
to be arrested and imprisoned. Pankhurst invited Hardie to speak at
one of these meetings. On 12th July, 1896, over 50,000 turned up to
hear Hardie, but soon after he started speaking, he was arrested.
The Home Secretary, worried by the publicity Hardie was getting, intervened,
and used his power to have the leader of the ILP released.
Hardie had for a long time believed that the various trade unions
and the different socialist groups should join forces and form one
large political party. Negotiations began in 1899 and the following
year a meeting took place in London that
resulted in the formation of the Labour Representation
Committee. An organisation that eventually developed into the
Labour Party.
In the 1900 General Election, Hardie was
elected as MP for Merthyr Tydfil, an industrial
town in South Wales. With only one other MP, the Labour
Party was weak in the House of Commons
and Hardie negotiated a deal with the leaders of the Liberal
Party, that the two parties would not stand against each other
in thirty constituencies in the next election.
This pact benefited both parties and whereas the Labour
Party won 29 seats in the 1906 General Election,
the Liberals formed the new government.
Hardie was elected leader of the party in the House
of Commons, but was not very good with dealing with internal rivalries
within the party, and in 1908 resigned from the post.
Hardie spent the next few years trying to build up the Labour
Party. He was also committed to international socialism and toured
the world arguing for equality. Speeches he made in favour of self-rule
in India and equal rights for non-whites in South Africa resulted
in riots and he was attacked in newspapers as a troublemaker.
The 1910 General Election saw 40 Labour
MPs elected to the House of Commons. Hardie
agreed to become leader again. Hardie's views were not always shared
by other Labour MPs. Many disagreed with Hardie's support of women's
suffrage. Although opposed to the use of violence, Hardie understood
the reasons why some had adopted militant tactics and worked very
closely with Sylvia Pankhurst and other
socialists in the WSPU. In 1910 George
Barnes replaced Hardie as leader of the Labour
Party in the House of Commons.
Hardie also disagreed with many members of the Labour
Party over the outbreak of the First World War
in 1914. Hardie was a pacifist
and
tried to organize a national strike against Britain's participation
in the war. Despite being seriously ill, Hardie took part in several
anti-war demonstrations and as a result some of his former supporters
denounced him as a traitor. James Keir Hardie died on 25th September,
1915.
(1)
James Keir Hardie, From Serfdom to Socialism (1907)
This generation has grown up ignorant of the fact that
socialism is as old as the human race. When civilization dawned upon
the world, primitive man was living his rude Communistic life, sharing
all things in common with every member of the tribe. Later when the
race lived in villages, man, the communist, moved about among the
communal flocks and herds on communal land. The peoples who have carved
their names most deeply on the tables of human story all set out on
their conquering career as communists, and their downward path begins
with the day when they finally turned away from it and began to gather
personal possessions. When the old civilizations were putrefying,
the still small voice of Jesus the Communist stole over the earth
like a soft refreshing breeze carrying healing wherever it went.
(2)
In 1910 James Keir Hardie explained the influence that Christianity
had on his political beliefs.
I have said, both in writing and from the platform many times,
that the impetus which drove me first into the Labour movement, and
the inspiration which has carried me on in it, has been derived more
from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all other sources
combined.
(3)
Robert Cunninghame Graham,
West bromwich Labour Tribune (May 1887)
A working man in Parliament should go to the House of Commons in his
workaday clothes. He should address the Speaker on labour questions
and give utterance to the same sentiments in the same language and
in the same manner that he is accustomed to utter his sentiments to
the local Radical Club. Above all, he should remember that all the
Conservatives and the greater portion of Liberals are joined together
in the interest of Capital versus Labour.
(4)
James Keir Hardie, election address (10th January 1906)
Religion should be voluntary. Let every denomination have whatever
facilities can be given outside of school hours for imparting religious
instruction, place all denominations on an equality and lift our whole
system of education beyond the reach of sectarian disputes.
(5)
J. R. Clynes, Memoirs (1937)
One day in June, 1894, in the Commons, an address of congratulations
was moved on the birth of a son to the then Duchess of York. This
child later became King Edward VIII. Hardie moved an amendment to
this address, crying out that over two hundred and fifty men and boys
had been killed on the same day in a mining disaster, and claiming
that this great tragedy needed the attention of the House of Commons
far more than the birth of any baby. He had been a miner himself;
he knew. The House rose at him like a pack of wild dogs. His voice
was drowned in a din of insults and the drumming of feet on the floor.
But he stood there, white-faced, blazing-eyed, his lips moving, though
the words were swept away. Later he wrote: "The life of one Welsh
miners of greater commercial and moral value to the British nation
than the whole Royal crowd put together."
(6)
Beatrice Webb, diary entry (23rd January,
1895)
Last night
we had an informal conference with the ILP leaders. Ramsay MacDonald
and Frank Smith (who are members both of the Fabians and the ILP)
have been for some time harping on the desirability of an understanding
between the two societies. To satisfy them Sidney (Webb) arranged
a little dinner of Keir Hardie, Tom Mann, Edward Pease and George
Bernard Shaw and the two intermediaries. I think the principals on
either side felt it would come to nothing. Nevertheless, it was interesting.
Tom Mann said the Progressives on the LCC were not convinced Socialists.
No one should get the votes of the ILP who did not pledge himself
to the 'Nationalisation of the Means of Production'. Keir Hardie,
who impressed me very unfavourably, deliberately chooses this policy
as the only one which he can boss. His only chance of leadership lies
in the creation of an organisation "against the government";
he knows little and cares less for any constructive thought or action.
But with Tom Mann it is different. he is possessed with the idea of
a 'church' - of a body of men all professing exactly the same creed
and all working in exact uniformity to exactly the same end. No idea
which is not 'absolute', which admits of any compromise or qualification,
no adhesion which is tempered with doubt, has the slightest attraction
to him. And, as Shaw remarked, he is deteriorating. This stumping
the country, talking abstractions and raving emotions, is not good
for a man's judgment, and the perpetual excitement leads, among other
things, to too much whisky.
I do not think the conference ended in any understanding. We made
clear our position. We were a purely educational body, we did not
seek to become a 'party'. We should continue our policy of inoculation,
of giving to each class, to each person, that came under our influence
the exact dose of collectivism that they were prepared to assimilate.
(7) Hiliare
Belloc, letter to Wilfred Blunt (18th April, 1911)
What I told you of Keir
Hardie is reliable. The man has a larger dose
of sincerity than most politicians: he suffers from a very touchy
vanity which follows that kind of success, proceeding from such social
origins: finally, he is not to be depended upon for active criticism
of the Administration, because, in having produced the Labour Party
his life's work is done and he is content, and on the side of the
contented people in most things. But, as I have said, his love of
justice is quite genuine and you will find that he is respected by
men who are attached
to that attribute.
(8)
Keir Hardie issued a statement on the outbreak of the First
World War.
The long-threatened European war is now upon us. You have never been
consulted about this war. The workers of all countries must strain
every nerve to prevent their Governments from committing them to war.
Hold vast demonstrations against war, in London and in every industrial
centre. There is no time to lose. Down with the rule of brute force!
Down with war! Up with the peaceful rule of the people!
(9)
Sylvia Pankhurst, The Suffragette
Movement (1931)
I knew that Keir Hardie had been failing in health since the early
days of the war. The great slaughter, the rending of the bonds of
international fraternity, on which he had built his hopes, had broken
him. Quite early he had a stroke in the House of Commons after some
conflict with the jingoes. When he left London for the last time he
had told me quietly that his active life was ended, and that this
was forever farewell, for he would never return. In his careful way
he arranged for the disposal of his books and furniture and gave up
his rooms, foreseeing his end, and fronting it without flinching or
regret.
(10)
The Women's Dreadnought (2nd
October, 1915)
Keir Hardie has been the greatest human being of our time. When
the dust raised by opposition to the pioneer has settled down, this
will be known by all.
The first Labour Member of Parliament, he was for years absolutely
alone. He held to his independence, untouched by the temptations that
assault lesser men. One of the outstanding features of his years of
absolute isolation as the sole Labour Member was his fight for the
unemployed. For his contention that workless men and women have a
claim upon society to be provided with work, he was ridiculed and
most angrily abused. But by the poor and those who understood him
he was greatly loved.
He toiled to awaken the members of the Parliamentary Labour Party,
and the Labour movement as a whole, to the great need for the enfranchisement
of women, and for the comradeship of working women and working men.
He scarcely made a speech without dwelling upon this, and when enthusiasts
asked him to write a motto, he would choose "Votes for Women
and Socialism for All".
(11)
Philip Snowden, An Autobiography
(1934)
Keir Hardie had no schooling as a boy. He told me once what drove
him to learn to write. When a youth, he went to join the Good Templers.
He was unable to sign his name on the membership pledge, and he was
so ashamed that he set to work to learn to write.
The moving impulse of Keir Hardie's work was a profound belief in
the common people. He believed in their capacity, and he burned with
indignation at their unmerited sufferings. He never argued on the
platform the economic theories of socialism. His socialism was a great
human conception of the equal right of all men and women to the wealth
of the world and to the enjoyment of the fullness of life.
He had a touching sympathy for the helpless. I have seen his eyes
fill with tears at the news of the death of a devoted dog. He carried
to his end an old silver watch he had worn in the mine, which bore
the marks of the teeth of a favourite pit pony, made by the futile
attempt on its part to eat it.
(12)
James Mavor, My Windows on the Street of the World (1923)
The young Hardie had reddish hair, ruddy complexion, honest but ecstatic
eyes, average stature, very fastidious about his dress. Hardie looked
like an artist, and indeed in general his point of view was that of
an artist. Although his early education had been somewhat neglected.
He was the only really cultivated man in the ranks of any of the Labour
parties.
(13)
Bruce Glasier, diary entry on the funeral
of James Keir Hardie (September, 1915)
A considerable crowd of people - mostly ILP friends (workmen chiefly,
snatching a few moments from their dinner hour). The Chapel was packed.
The Rev. Forson read the service. Jowett says a few words, not very
impressive. Then Forson gave his eulogy. A ghastly malapropos one.
All about Hardie's early connection with the Evangelical Union church
- no reference to his political work, internationalism or peace. Hardie
might have been a grocer. It made me wild. Then when Forson ended
and there was silence, and I saw our old hero was about to be lowered
out of sight, I stood forward and laying my hands on the bier said
a few confused words about his being the greatest agitator of his
day and asking comrades to pledge themselves to work for his beloved
ILP, for internationalism and peace, the coffin disappearing as I
spoke.
(14)
J. R. Clynes, Memoirs (1937)
Hardie died of a broken heart. He had always been a pacifist, and
had fiercely opposed the South African War, being nearly killed in
Glasgow during a riot caused by one of his speeches there against
it. Between the end of the South African War and 1914 he burned himself
out working to try and prepare a tremendous international general
strike, to be declared when the European War, which he could see was
coming, broke out. This strike he hoped would paralyze hostilities
and bring immediate peace.
When August, 1914, showed him that his hopes were vain, that the workers'
leaders he had painfully taught were marching to war and singing their
respective patriotic songs, and when British Labour refused to inaugurate
a great strike on behalf of peace, Hardie became a broken man. For
the next twelve months the old dominant figure we had known was seen
no more in the corridors of the House of Commons; he shrank into a
travesty of his former self, never spoke in debates and said little
to anyone. The great leader of Labour was dying on his feet. We all
loved and respected him; it was a great grief to us that our attitude
to war was driving the sword into his heart; but between our conscience
and our friend there was only one choice.
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