Keir Hardie: First Labour MP 120th Anniversary Event

Last Wednesday 4th July was the 120th anniversary of the election of Keir Hardie as the first Labour MP.

He was elected as MP for West Ham South in the 1892 General Election.

The modern day West Ham Consistency Labour Party and Newham TULO organised a commemorative tour to mark the occasion. 25 people from Newham and East London turned up.

We started with a tour of the Old Town Hall in Stratford where the election count took place in 1892 and where Keir was announced the winner. We went onto the balcony overlooking the High Street where Keir made his acceptance speech in front of 15-20,000 people. Keir then led a march back through the borough to Canning Town.

We also went into the Bell Tower of the Town Hall and the basement Police cells. There use to be a Magistrate court next door. (Off message - but tradition states that these were the very cells that Mick Jagger and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones rock group were held in the 1960's for minor public order offences).

We underestimated how long it would take to complete the tour of the Town Hall so we didn't manage to visit the other sites which included historic locations of the radical and suffragette clubs from Hardie's time. 

We stopped off at the Martyrs Memorial in the Church yard of St John.  Which is not about Hardie but is a symbol remembering religious persecution and bigotry down the ages. We finished up outside the famous Theatre Royal built in 1882. Then in the bar for a quick drink followed by a curry in West Ham Lane.

Following the success of this event we are aiming to carry out further Labour movement tours in the future. Details to follow.

Picture outside the Old Town Hall by Dan McCurry. I'll post more pictures of Facebook. Finally, many, many thanks to the Old Town Hall staff for the tour and their enthusiasm: Update see tour photo's here

Why the 4th July is special to the Labour Movement

Trying to find a training room at the UNISON Centre recently I came across a historical display on the 3rd floor. In a cabinet there is this flyer celebrating the the election on Monday 4 July 1892 of Keir Hardie for South West Ham as the first Independent Labour MP. 

Click on picture to bring up details.

West Ham Labour Party is planning to mark the event (see post)

I didn't realise that a performance called "A Better Day" about this event had been performed in the local Stratford Theatre Royal to mark the NALGO (one of the unions that joined to form UNISON) Presidency of Rita Donaghy in 1989/90.

When it is finalised on how we will be marking the event I will post further.

Ken in Newham

This evening I joined Labour Candidate for London Mayor, Ken Livingstone and his team as they visited the historic Theatre Royal in

Stratford.

Ken had been in Newham all day and had already gone on a Housing enforcement visit with Council officers and Newham Mayor Robin Wales in the morning. He then had a briefing with local Councillors and a Q&A with students at Newham College, as well as a “walkabout” in Green Street.

With Ken was Assembly member Val Shawcross (who is standing for Deputy Mayor) local Assembly member John Biggs and Newham’s finest, GLA Candidate, Councillor Unmesh Desai (who is also East Ham Labour Party Agent).

At the Theatre Royal there was firstly an informal meeting with staff and local actors (whose first break had been in the Theatre) in the “Green Room” followed by a brief tour of the theatre and a visit to a Performing Arts class to observe a lesson on “improvisations”. Which was simply enormous fun to watch. Afterwards there was a very relaxed discussion between staff, the young people and Ken, Val and John about the future of performing arts, dance and further education generally. I think the photo above is great. 

Afterwards we went off to the Didsbury Centre in East Ham for the Newham “Tell Ken” event (sponsored by London UNISON Labour Link) which I will post upon soon.