ROBERT TURNBULL says groups such as the Plebs League played a
valuable role on the left. It's time we picked up where they left off
Since the 2010 general election and the Tory and Liberal assault on what
remains of the post-1945 settlement, many on the left have concluded that we
must get our act together before it is too late.
There is a growing recognition of the need to re-establish a movement for
independent working-class education (IWCE) which existed throughout much of the
20th century.
The impetus for such a movement actually came before the last election in the
wake of the enthusiastic reception for Colin Waugh's pamphlet 100 Years On From
the Ruskin Strike: Plebs, the Lost Legacy of Independent Working Class
Education.
That 1909 strike occurred when a group of students, disillusioned with both
the standard of teaching and ethics at Ruskin College, seceded, going on to set
up their own Central Labour College in London.
Just a few months earlier the Plebs League itself had been formed, reflecting
the widespread feeling among Ruskin students that the college was not doing the
job for which it was intended.
The League took its inspiration from Daniel de Leon's book Two Pages From
Roman History, which described the earliest recorded general strike - the
secessio plebis of 494 BC, when the plebeians, the poor people of ancient Rome,
walked out of the city in disgust at their treatment by the wealthy patrician
governing class.
The Plebs League and after 1921 the National Council of Labour Colleges
(NCLC), which acted as a co-ordinating body, set up a network of adult education
classes for working people which sought to act as an alternative to the liberal
mainstream education being offered by the Workers Educational Association at
that time.
It has been said that the idea of IWCE was "education for revolution," and
this is probably an accurate reflection of the early aims of the Plebs League
and the NCLC.
Many of the early leading figures in that movement came from the south Wales
coalfield. They included Noah Ablett, Ted Gill and Charlie Gibbons, who were
responsible for the famous pamphlet The Miners' Next Step.
In Scotland John MacLean was prominent as a teacher of Marxist theory and in
north-east England IWCE supporters included miners Will Lawther, George Harvey
and Ebby Edwards.
In London there was a women's college at Bethel House, established in 1915 by
Mary Bridges Adams. A generation of labour movement activists gained their
political education through NCLC courses.
A major vehicle for promoting IWCE was the Plebs journal, founded by the
League but continued by the NCLC after it absorbed the Plebs following the 1926
general strike.
It continued till the mid-1960s when the NCLC was handed over to the TUC
education department, although by then the direction had somewhat altered due to
changes in the labour movement.
So what can the IWCE movement offer the labour movement and the left in 2013?
Is it still relevant as we face the most sustained assault on our way of life
that many of us can remember?
I would argue that education has to be at the heart of the resistance to
neoliberalism.
It has to begin in schools, in colleges and universities, but it also has to
take place in the workplace, in the home - in short, wherever people feel
marginalised and dispossessed.
There is more than enough anger out there - we just need to channel it. The
Morning Star plays an outstanding role as a daily vehicle for information,
education and discussion, but there are too few activists in the labour movement
who read it, in part because the overall level of political consciousness is too
low.
We have to change that and IWCE can help create that change.
While the conditions which gave rise to the birth of the Plebs League have
gone, we still need places where people can meet, discuss and debate free from
the impact of the mainstream media.
Perhaps the time is right for the formation of a new Labour College, but one
which would take account of modern ways of organising. If there is one thing the
Tories fear most it is an educated, motivated working class which is able to ask
questions and draw its own conclusions. As the Plebs League put it: "Do your own
thinking."
The Independent Working Class Education Network (www.iwceducation.co.uk/) has
been established to take forward this vision.
It is in the process of drafting a manifesto and has been holding popular
day-schools and similar events throughout the country at places such as the
South Wales Miners' Library in Swansea and at the Working Class Movement Library
in Salford.
A number of events are planned for 2014 including in Edinburgh, Salford,
Brighton and Tolpuddle.
This coming Saturday there will be a day school at the Wallsend Memorial Hall
in North Tyneside, and readers are welcome to attend.
The day school Independent Working Class Education: Can we rebuild the
tradition? runs from 10am to 4.30pm on Saturday November 30 at the Wallsend
Memorial Hall, Frank Street NE28 6RN. Attendance costs £6 including lunch. For
further information please contact Robert Turnbull at
rcturnbull1968@yahoo.co.uk.
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