The Welsh Awakening - Essay Example

Running Header: THE WELSH AWAKENING The Welsh Awakening: Rumbles at the End of the Empire Your Your Some might find it ironic that a Scotsman would play a dramatic role in the Welsh awakening around the turn of the twentieth century. However, Keir Hardie, who would end up serving as an MP from Wales, and who would also end up embroiled in one of the longest labor disputes in the history of Great Britain, started his involvement in labour movements long before he came to Wales. In 1880, he led the first strike ever by miners in Lanarkshire. This led to his being blacklisted, and so he became a journalist, and later a lay preacher for the Evangelical Union Church. He would later become the organising secretary for the Ayrshire Miners Union and the Scottish Miners’ Federation (Wrigley 2002, p. 205). Perhaps Keir Hardie’s greatest contribution, however, was in the genesis of the Labour Party in Britain. Hardie had been an ardent member of the Liberal Party, but he felt that the policies put in place by William Gladstone fell far short of representing the interests of the working classes. While the Liberal Party would make big promises in exchange for the votes of workers, it would never carry out meaningful policy changes that would help the workers’ condition, and so in April 1888, Hardie ran as an independent labour candidate in West Lanark. While he came in last, he was encouraged about the future. In August of that year, the Scottish Labour Party was formed. Hardie won a seat in Parliament in 1892. Interestingly, for his first session, he did not wear the same outfit that other working-class MP’s wore; instead, he wore only a plain tweed suit, red tie, and deerstalker hat. He was in favor of such progressive policies as free education, pensions, the abolition of the House of Lords, suffrage for women, and a progressive income tax (Wrigley 2002, p. 203). In 1893, Hardie was one of the founding members of the Independent Labour Party. However, two years later, Hardie found himself out of Parliament. An explosion at a Pontypridd colliery had killed 251 miners, and Hardie asked that a message of condolence be added to a Parliamentary address giving congratulations for the birth of a royal heir (the future King Edward VIII). After this was refused, Hardie made a speech attacking the monarchy and lost his seat in 1895 (Wrigley 2002, p. 205). However, Hardie was not out of politics for long. He spent the next five years making speeches and, in 1900, put together a meeting of trade unions and socialist groups, which agreed to form the Labour Representation Committee, which was the precursor of the Labour Party. In that same year, Hardie was elected as the junior MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare in the South Wales Valleys, and he would represent this region until his death in 1915 (Wrigley 2002, p. 207). The election in which Hardie returned to Parliament became notorious in history for another reason as well. The British military was involved in the Second Boer War, and this war became the primary issue in the 1900 British general election. The Conservative government of Lord Salisbury was reelected, with an enlarged majority over the Liberal Party. There were a couple of reasons for this enlarged majority: not only did the British public want to rally behind its government and support the war effort, but the emergence of the Labour Party created the possibility of vote-splitting among the opposition, as some might vote Liberal and others Labour, which would assist the Conservative cause. Because of this, and because of some funding shortages encountered by the Liberal Party, over 100 races did not have a Liberal Party opposition candidate. The election became known as the “khaki election,” because of the new khaki uniforms that the British Army was wearing at war. This became a popular term in British politics for an election that is decisively influenced by wartime or postwar emotion. Other elections in British history that were also termed “khaki elections” were the 1918 election, at the end of World War I, and the 1945 election, at the end of World War II (Fremont-Barnes 2003, p. 82). In Wales, though, the “khaki election” was not the only significant event of 1900. The slate industry in Wales had undergone considerable turmoil since 1879, when a severe recession hit the Welsh economy. With the recession came tighter rules from management, and the problem was compounded by the fact that management was mostly English-speaking, while the quarrymen spoke Welsh. If one adds the fact that management was mostly Anglican in faith and Conservative in politics, while the quarrymen were Nonconformist in faith and Liberal (Labour would not appear as an option until 1900) in politics, a storm was brewing. The first lockout lasted from October 1885 until February 1886, and had begun after a workers’ protest over the curtailment of holidays (Jones 1981, p. 114). At the Penrhyn Quarry, this resulted in a change of management personnel. George S.G. Douglas-Pennant took over management from his father and appointed E.A. Young as his chief manager. Stricter regulations were instituted, resulting in deteriorating relations and the suspension of 74 quarrymen in September 1896, leading to an eleven-month strike. The quarrymen eventually had to go back to work in 1897, basically putting up with management’s demands (Jones 1981, p. 115). This strike became known as the “Penrhyn Lockout.” It, however, paled in comparison with the three-year lockout that began in 1900. This dispute was more complex, but basically revolved around management’s use of contractors to run the quarries. So the quarrymen found themselves no longer working for management, but the men that management had contracted to manage the site. On November 22, 1900, the strike began, and the 2,800 workers walked off the job. House windows in the Bethesda area sported signs saying “Nid oes bradwr yn y ty hwn,” or “There is no traitor in this house” (Richards 1995, p. 140). In June 1901, Lord Penrhyn reopened the quarry, and 500 men went back to work, showing that there were some who had been forced to be traitors by economic conditions. Many others returned in November 1903, but on Lord Penrhyn’s terms. Those who had been prominent union leaders were not hired back, and many who had left the area for other work never returned. This was a divisive period in Welsh history (Richards 1995, p. 141). Works Cited Fremont-Barnes, G., (2003), The Boer War 1899-1902. Botley, Oxford: Osprey Press. Jones, R. M., (1981). The North Wales quarrymen, 1874-1922 Studies in Welsh history Volume 4. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. Richards, A., (1995). Slate Quarrying at Corris. Capel Garmon: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. Wrigley, D., (2002). Winston Churchill: A Biographical Companion. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. Read More