On the 60th anniversary of the death of JR Clynes, Phil Woolas salutes an unsung hero of the labour movement
This Saturday in Oldham we will be sharing a toast. It is 60 years this week since the death at age 80 of my political hero, Oldham-born John Robert Clynes. Clynes was the youngest of the 29 Labour MPs elected in 1906 and the last to die. In his remarkable life, he rose further and higher up the social scale than anyone else in our recorded history. And he did so without losing his socialism or his dignity.
He was 10 years old when he started work in the cotton mills of Oldham; self taught by candlelight and second-hand books. He could recite Shakespeare to mill owners and was one of, if not the, greatest orator in the labour movement’s illustrious history.
Clynes is as relevant today as he was in 1923, when, as the leader of our the Labour Party, he moved the successful motion of no confidence against Stanley Baldwin’s Conservative administration which led to the appointment of the first Labour Government.
At 19, he became a full time organiser for the union which is now the GMB and
served as its President for more than 20 years. He was a Member of Parliament for 35 years, one of a handful of Labour Members who served in the coalition Government in the First World War. As Minister for Food, he used rationing to save the country from starvation and according to some, Bolshevism. He became Leader of the House of Commons and Deputy Prime Minister under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1924 Government. In 1929, he served as Home Secretary.
His achievements are awe-inspiring. Clynes is a true legend of the labour movement and a statesman of our country. So why have we never heard of him?
The answer is, simply, because he was loyal. Loyalty to the Labour Party and his constituents prevented him from achieving notoriety and fame. Losing the Labour leadership election to Ramsay MacDonald by five votes, (the greatest mistake in our party’s history), he served loyally as the deputy leader. When MacDonald’s great betrayal came, Clynes held the party together so that Labour could fight and win another day. His combination of clear political analysis, language that voters understood, steadfast loyalty and a clear programme are what all of us need today.
If Labour supporters are prone to blaming the press – and who can blame them? – we should remember that, whatever outrage of distortion is poured out today, it is a pinprick to what Clynes and his colleagues had to endure. Broadcast media had not been invented and the newspapers not only vilified Labour, but even refused to take seriously the idea that the party could govern at all. It was a combination of Clynes’ proven success as Food Minister, along with other pioneering Labour leaders and the self-supporting Clarion newspaper that convinced people of our cause.
We should never return to the past, but we need – especially now – to remember it.
Phil Woolas is a Home Office minister and Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth
