Lester Hutchinson was born on 13th December 1904. His mother, Mary
Knight, was a Labour Concillor in Manchester.
He was educated at Bootham School and the University
of Edinburgh. After leaving university Hutchinson worked as a
journalist.
Hutchinson
was a member of the League Against Imperialism and worked for the
Indian Daily Mail. In India
throughout 1928 and 1929 there was a strong wave of strikes, on the
railroads, in ironworks and in the textile industry. Trade union numbers
and organisation grew rapidly during this period.
The
British Government initiated a Committee headed by Sir Charles Fawcett.
The arrests of prominent trade unionists and socialists were part
of the preparation for the issue of the report. This included Hutchinson,
Philip Spratt, Ben Bradley, and 30 other trade unionists, were imprisoned
by the Indian after the Meerut Conspiracy Trial in 1929.
A
member of the Labour Party he was elected
to represent Rusholme division of Manchester
in the 1945 General Election. In the House
of Commons Hutchinson associated with a group of left-wing members
that included John Platts-Mills, Konni
Zilliacus,
Leslie
Solley, Ian
Mikardo, Barbara
Castle, Sydney
Silverman, Geoffrey Bing, Emrys
Hughes, D. N. Pritt, William
Warbey, William Gallacher
and
Phil Piratin.
In April
1948 John
Platts-Mills organized
a petition in support of Pietro Nenni and
the Italian Socialist Party in its general election campaign. He gained
support from 27 other MPs including Solley. This went against government
policy and Platts-Mills was expelled from the party and Hutchinson
was warned about his future conduct.
Ernest
Bevin signed
the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington
on 4th April 1949. Solley completely opposed the treaty arguing that
it went against the charter of the United Nations,
would accelerate the arms race and make it more difficult to achieve
a united Europe. On 12th May, 1949, Solley was only one of only six
Labour MPs to vote against the signing of the NATO treaty. Four days
later Hutchinson, along with Leslie
Solley and Konni
Zilliacus,
were expelled from the Labour Party.
Hutchinson unsuccessfully
contested Walthamstow East in the 1950 General
Election as an Independent Labour candidate.
(1)
Romain Rolland, Meerut Trial (1932)
The Trade Union Congress is at this moment making a great stir
about the coming celebration of the centenary of the martyred labourers
of Dorchester who, in 1834, were transported for hsving cornmitted
the crime of forming a Trade Union, and who are commemorated today
as the founders of British Trade Unionism. Three generous Englishmen,
Philip Spratt, B. F. Bradley, and Lester Hutchinson have associated
themselves with the Indian workers in the spirit of brotherhood, and
have been tried with them at Meerut. After four years imprisonment,
during which one of the accused died, the Trade Unionists of Meerut
have been sentenced to transportation under murderous conditions,
one for life, t.he others for twelve years, ten years, seven years
and five years. Their only crime is that of laying the foundations
of an independent Trade Union organisation in India. The aim of British
Imperialism is to nip in the bud every effort, every chance of the
millions of Indian workers, who are struggling in an inferno, to band
themselves together in their own defence. Will the world of labour
allow this to be accomplished?
(2)
Konni
Zilliacus, speech in the House
of Commons (4th March, 1946)
One third of Britain's budget is on defence. I suggest that the price
is too high ... I think that we can render better service to peace
by scaling down our armaments to the point where we are solvent and
can get on with our Socialist reconstruction, rather than by lowering
the standard of living of our people and staggering into national
bankruptcy under the burden of huge armaments.
Since
the general election there has been no sign of any realistic insight
into what is happening in the world, no sober appraisal of our own
position or the limitations of our power... We have sunk into ancient
ruts, running back to the nineteenth century, and punctuated by two
world wars. We are trying to make the ghost of Palmerston walk again.
(3)
Konni
Zilliacus, speech in the House
of Commons (12th May, 1949)
The more we arm the more we increase fear and suspicion. The more
we increase armaments, the less strong we feel ourselves and the more
we feel the other fellow strength. In order to sustain the burden
and sacrifice of the arms race one has to foment and sustain a psychological
condition in the people who are bearing he strain, that unfits them
for peacemaking ... So much for the Atlantic Pact: it scraps the Charter
and returns to the balance of power. It commits us to a new arms race
I beg the Government to find some way before it is too late to come
back to the Charter of the United Nations ... to be conciliatory and
moderate in their attitude, not to be rushed or stampeded into recrimination,
not to put their faith in armaments, but in a wise and conciliatory
policy.
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