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3. THE REACTION OF THE UNEMPLOYED
In South Wales the unemployed were especially vociferous in their condemnation of
the Unemployment Act. Even before the new rates of benefit were announced, 1,000
marchers from all over Monmouthshire had converged on Newport to put their demands
to the County Council. They demanded that all relief scales should be increased to
the minimum paid to those in receipt of unemployment benefit, and that striking miners
should receive the full amount. They also demanded a non-
But it was after the new UAB rates became known that the struggle really developed its mass character. In January 1935 a rally at Merthyr, which had beforehand been dismissed by SO Davies MP as “communist activity”, attracted 40,000 people. In Pontypridd a few days later 20,000 people marched in protest, and other such marches and rallies occurred regularly as the previously contained anger of the unemployed flooded out onto the streets.
The official union movement also began to stir. The South Wales Miners' Federation
organised an all-
But the fears of the Labour Party and TUC were unfounded. The NUWM had been established to act on behalf of the jobless in much the same way as the formal unions acted on behalf of their members. It had little political ambition as an organization. As Clarence Lloyd, who was secretary of the Abertillery NUWM branch and was involved in the Blaina incident, said of the role of the movement in relation to the unemployed, "It was to take up their cases with the Assistance Board and represent them in their interests and get the best benefit they could for them. Politics was left out of it". [2]
The NUWM also stated its opposition to violence. They were militant but were not
looking to bring about a revolutionary change in society, they said. The often very
serious clashes which occurred between the NUWM and the police, especially during
1931-
Locally it was very much the case that the NUWM was led by members and supporters of the Communist Party. Since it was the local Labour Party, through its representatives on the Public Assistance Committees, who were actually implementing the Means Test, it would have seemed rather hypocritical of them to have involved themselves in action to counteract the effects of their own work. As George Brown, a communist and NUWM local leader in Nantyglo said of the Means Test, "We couldn't get a Labour controlled PAC to do anything about it". [3]
The Labour county council, he claimed, allowed the Relieving Officer to run things as he liked. Indeed Clarence Lloyd claims that the local Labour Party was generally antipathetic to the movement. "The Labour Party at that time used every excuse they could to discredit the work of the Unemployed Workers' Movement.'' said Lloyd, "Locally it was chaotic". [4]
Certainly in Abertillery the leaders of the movement were almost all either Communist Party members or supporters, such as Clarence and Harold Lloyd, the brothers of Cwmtillery, Harold Thomas, who was secretary of the Communist Party in Abertillery, Jack Jones, Les Bool and Wyndham Edmunds.
In Blaina and Nantyglo too communists were to the fore. Phil Abraham, a communist county councillor, was secretary of the Nantyglo branch of the NUWM, and along with George Brown was seen as the local leader. In Blaina William Madden and Frank Landon led the movement. In all the towns of the Western valley the NUWM was very strong both in terms of membership and support amongst the townspeople. The severe poverty which the Means Test forced upon them was obviously a major reason for its popularity. Abraham suggested that around 60 percent of the unemployed in Blaina were associated with the NUWM. [5]
The work that Communist Party members did within the Unemployed Workers' Movement certainly increased the support for the party itself in the locality. As mentioned earlier, Phil Abraham was elected to the county council in an area where the party had one of its strongest Welsh branches. The communists had their local headquarters in an old bus set on stone pillars, and from there conducted their campaign based around the 1934 Act which earned them a lot of support. The 'Daily Worker' of 4th February 1935 reported that at a rally “... in Nantyglo, a village of 7,000 people, 50 new members had been made for the Party, 50 women recruited for the Working Women's Guild and 60 for the Communist Social Club".
However, it would be wrong to suggest that no Labour Party members were involved in the campaigns undertaken on behalf of the unemployed. Several local members participated in the NUWM and 'United Front' demonstrations, and incurred the wrath of the Labour Party National Executive Committee and TUC for their actions. Ray Gunter, a railway worker from Aberbeeg who later went on to become an MP and the Minister of Labour in Harold Wilson's 1964 cabinet, was associated with the United Front at the time, although he subsequently broke ties.
But the most important local Labour figure willing to risk disciplinary action for
his involvement in the United Front and NUWM was the secretary of Abertillery Trades
and Labour Council, Len Hill. In a letter to the TUC, the Trades Council criticized
the former’s inactivity, suggesting that the only hope the TUC seemed to offer the
unemployed was the future election of a Labour government. Hill and the other members
of the council did not see this as enough. "We call upon the TUC to get on with the
fight and continually demand the entire repeal of this Act, even to the extent of
calling a one-
“I have your letter informing me that your Council consider that the actions of the
General Council over the regulations issued by the Unemployment Assistance Board
have been slack and without vigour and that your Council have consequently allied
themselves with the united front. It appears that your Council feels that the action
taken by a few Communists in South Wales is of more importance than the deputation
to the Minister of Labour and the debates in the House of Commons -
I also note with astonishment that you appear to blame the General Council in some mysterious way or other because the National Unemployed Workers' Movement took the local initiative in organizing agitation against the regulations issued by the Unemployment Assistance Board. It is surely not unreasonable to ask that our Trades Council themselves should be capable of taking initiative in a local situation and should not always depend upon instructions from Headquarters...
The fact that your Council are connected with the united front will be reported to the appropriate committee of the General Council at their next meeting".
The sort of activity which the TUC saw as the "action taken by a few Communists" included a rally of 30,000 people held at Abertillery Park on 1st February 1935 in protest at the UAB rates of benefit. The crowd were told by local MP, George Daggar, to "Take all necessary measures". [8] They hardly needed persuading.
On the same day the National Council of Labour representing the TUC, Labour Party and Cooperative Society, issued its 'Appeal To Public Conscience', which Wal Hannington described as "... the most empty and harmless document that had ever been issued in the working class movement". [9] It contained no calls for action, but in its strongest passage it urged the clergy to focus public attention on the effects of the UAB rates. The action taken by the unemployed against the act, which was outlined earlier in the chapter, indicates that they were not prepared to rely on the church to win the struggle for them.
They were proved right in their judgement when, on 5th February 1935, under massive pressure, the government rushed through a Standstill Order. Its effect was to ensure that claimants would receive either the new UAB rate of benefit or the previous PAC rate, whichever was the most beneficial. Herbert Morgan, who took part in the 1934 Hunger March to London and subsequently was involved in the Blaina incident, claimed that, "The working class forced the government to introduce the Standstill Order. That was one of the biggest victories, in my opinion, that the British working class had achieved up to that time. It was largely the NUWM”.[10]
Whilst this victory was seen by the TUC and Labour Party as the end of the campaign against the Act, the NUWM and United Front were only made more determined than ever to carry on the struggle to get the Act repealed completely and to obtain higher levels of benefit for the jobless. In a pamphlet issued in April 1935, the Communist Party in South Wales gave examples of PAC payments which were made in Nantyglo after the Standstill Order had been implemented: [11]
1. Widowed mother and invalid daughter aged 19. Mother receives pension of 10s. PAC granted 2s 6d. Total payment 12s 6d.
2. Man and wife and two children. Father was ill and made application for relief. The first week he received 7s 6d National Health Insurance and 7s 6d from the PAC... a total of 15s. The second week he received 15s from the NHI and 7s 6d from the PAC... a total of 22s 6d.
3. Man and wife and one child 13 years old. The man was ill, but for four weeks he received only 24s per week for the whole family, and was denied the rent allowance, which the County regulations permit.
As can be seen, the Relieving Officer was in many cases using the NHI benefit received by some claimants to prevent them obtaining the maximum payment. This was not obligatory under the regulations. There was also great dissatisfaction at the refusal of coal and rent allowances to claimants, even though the county regulations said that workers on ordinary or sick relief could be allowed 50 percent off their rent up to a maximum rental of 10s per week. Another common complaint was that there was no set time for interviews so that the unemployed often had to wait all day to see the Relieving Officer, sometimes even then being refused an interview.
Consequently the marches and rallies continued all over South Wales. A day-
The 'Daily Worker' of 26th February 1935 reported that, "They presented a resolution to the officers of the Board demanding a repeal of the Act and demanding that a new act be placed on the statute book guaranteeing £1 for each applicant, 10s for the wife, 5s for each dependent child".
A few days later the Communist Party were rewarded for their part in the campaign
by having Jack Jones elected to the Abertillery Urban District Council. He obtained
a majority of 144 over the Labour candidate in a by-
A foretaste of things to come occurred on 15th March. A United Front demonstration marched to the UAB offices at Rutland House, Oak Street, Abertillery apparently with the intention of occupying the building since they took with them packs of sandwiches. However, they were met by a unit of police who came from within the building and dispersed the crowd, though without the force that was later to be used on a similar group of demonstrators at Blaina. As we shall see later, twelve of the leaders of this protest were to be charged with unlawful assembly and breach of the peace.
But just before this incident, an event occurred which can be seen as the catalyst
in bringing about the ill-
According to the South Wales District of the Communist Party, when they failed to do so they tried to undermine his position within his constituency by allowing the Relieving Officer Mr. Baxter to apply the full effects of the County Council's 'economy drive' to the unemployed of Blaina and Nantyglo.12 It would appear from descriptions given by his contemporaries that Baxter needed little urging.
On 7th March a deputation of twelve people which included Phil Abraham went to the Blaina PAC offices to put the following demands to the Guardians' Committee: [13]
1. Total disregard of an applicant's first 7s 6d of NHI, as provided by law.
2. Payment of rent and coal allowances where applicable.
3. Maximum scales to be paid, as allowed by the County regulations.
4. Civility to be extended to persons attending the Relieving Officer.
5. Definite hours at which applicants can attend the Relieving Office.
6. Local Guardians' Committee to meet weekly instead of fortnightly. (This is necessary because only the Committee can grant the rent allowance and exempt NHI benefits. With only fortnightly meetings, workers are often robbed therefore of one week's benefit in two).
7. Right of representation for all organizations before the Relieving Officer and the local Guardians' Committee.
The deputation was refused an interview with the committee, but Abraham, in his role as County Councillor, demanded to be allowed to present cases of hardship which were occurring in his ward. Again the Committee refused. An angry Abraham suggested to the deputation that, "If twelve people won't move them, 12.000 may!" [14]
Later that evening the events that had occurred at the committee rooms were reported to mass meetings in Blaina and Nantyglo. The meetings decided that a protest march to the offices should be organized for Thursday, 21st March 1935.
REFERENCES
CHAPTER THREE
1. Wal Hannington, ‘Unemployed Struggles 1919-
2. Interview with Clarence Lloyd of Cwmtillery, 19th February 1986
3. Transcript of an interview with Phil Abraham and George Brown of Nantyglo conducted by Dai Smith, M.Jones and A.Morgan, p.16
4. Interview with Clarence Lloyd of Cwmtillery, 19th February 1986
5. Transcript of an interview with Phil Abraham conducted by H.Francis on 14th January 1974
6. Wal Hannington, ‘Unemployed Struggles 1919-
7. Ibid
8. ‘Rebecca’, 30th July 1982
9. Wal Hannington, ‘Unemployed Struggles 1919-
10. Interview with Herbert Morgan of Abertillery, 14th February 1986
11. South Wales District Of The Communist Party, ‘The True Story Of The Police Attack Upon The Blaina Demonstration On 21st March 1935’, 2nd April 1935
12. Ibid
13. Ibid
14. Transcript of an interview with Phil Abraham and George Brown of Nantyglo conducted by Dai Smith. M. Jones and A. Morgan, p.34
TYLERI TALES: THE BLAINA RIOTS: Part 3 -
The Labour Party and Trades Union Congress (TUC) had been slow to take up the government's challenge to the unemployed, and had in some cases actively discouraged their local organizations from taking part in protests. Who was it then who was conducting this campaign on behalf of the jobless? It was primarily the unemployed themselves through their own National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM).
Its roots went back to the 1920-
At first the Labour Party and TUC were reasonably sympathetic to the new movement, but they very soon lost their initial enthusiasm. It was unnecessary, they said, as the official trade unions already catered for the needs of the unemployed. Much nearer to the truth, however, would be that they were unhappy with the high level of Communist Party membership amongst the ranks of the NUWM, and especially in the leadership. This high level of participation by communists was quite understandable bearing in mind the fact that the roots of the organization were amongst the militant shop stewards' movement.
