James Keir Hardie (15 August 1856 - 26 September 1915) was a Scottish
socialist and labour leader, and one of the first two Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the UK
Parliament after the establishment of the Labour Party.
Early life
Keir Hardie was born in Newhouse, North Lanarkshire (near
Holytown a small village/town close to Motherwell) in 1856, the illegitimate son of Mary Keir, a
servant from Legbrannock. The cottage of his birth still exists on the old Edinburgh Road in
Newhouse.
Mary Keir later married David Hardie, a carpenter. The family moved then to the industrial city of Glasgow.
Hardie grew up in poverty. From the age of eight, Keir was a delivery boy for a baker. At the time he was the only wage-earner
in his family. He was fired from this job because he arrived late to work, after looking after his dying brother. With no family
income, the Hardies had to move back to Lanarkshire. From the age of 11, Hardie was working
down the pits of Lanarkshire. He never went to school but his mother taught him how to read using scraps of newspapers she found.
Eventually, at the age of 17, he taught himself to write using a pin and a stone blackened with the smoke of his pit lamp.
Hardie married Lillie Wilson on 3 August 1879.
Union leader
About this time, Hardie began to read newspapers and learn about trade unions. He set one
up at the colliery where he worked and in 1880 led the first
ever strike by Lanarkshire miners. As a result, Hardie was blacklisted by coal mine owners
and became unable to find work. He subsequently moved to Cumnock in Ayrshire to become a journalist.
Although raised an atheist, Hardie was converted to Christianity, and became a lay
preacher at the Evangelical Union Church. Christianity was to become an important influence on
his political career.
In 1886, he became the organising secretary of the Ayrshire Miners
Union and later the Scottish Miners Federation and he began to edit a paper called The
Miner.
The Scottish Labour Party, MP for West Ham and the ILP
Originally a supporter of the Liberal Party, Hardie became disillusioned by
William Gladstone's economic policies and began to feel that the Liberals neither
would nor could ever adequately represent the working classes. Hardie believed the Liberal
Party merely wanted the votes of the workers but that it would not in return offer radical reform for workers - he became a
socialist and decided to run for Parliament.
In April 1888, Hardie stood as an independent labour candidate in Mid Lanark. He finished last but he was not deterred and
believed he would enjoy more success in the future. At a public meeting in Glasgow on 25
August 1888 the Scottish Labour Party
(1888-1893) (not the same party as the modern Scottish Labour Party) was
formed, with Hardie becoming the party's first secretary. The party's president was Robert Cunninghame-Graham, the first socialist MP, and later founder of the National Party of Scotland, forerunner to the Scottish National Party.
Hardie was invited to stand in West Ham in 1892, a working class seat in Essex (now Greater
London). The Liberals decided not to field a candidate, but at the same time not to offer Hardie any assistance. Competing
against the Conservative Party candidate, Hardie won by 5,268 votes to 4,036. On
taking his seat on 3 August 1892 Hardie refused to wear the
'parliamentary uniform' of black frock coat, black silk top hat and starched wing collar that other working class MPs wore.
Instead, Hardie wore a plain tweed suit, a red tie and a deerstalker hat. In Parliament he advocated a graduated income tax, free
schooling, pensions, the abolition of the House of Lords and the women's right to
vote.
In 1893, Hardie and others formed the Independent
Labour Party, an action that worried the Liberals, who were afraid that the ILP might, at some point in the future, win
the working-class votes that they traditionally received. His portrait was painted that year by Scottish artist Henry John Dobson[1]
Hardie hit the headlines in 1894 when, after an explosion at a colliery in Pontypridd which killed 251 miners, he asked that a message of condolence to the relatives of the victims be
added to an address of congratulations on the birth of a royal heir (the future Edward VIII). The request was refused and Hardie made a speech attacking the
monarchy, which resulted in uproar in the House of
Commons. In 1895, he lost his seat.
Hardie spent the next five years of his life building up the Labour movement and speaking at various public meetings; he was
arrested at a woman's suffrage meeting in London, but the Home Secretary, concerned about arresting the leader of the ILP, ordered his release.
The Labour Party
In 1900, Hardie organised a meeting of various trade unions and socialist groups and they agreed
to form a Labour Representation Committee, and so the Labour Party was born.
In 1900, Hardie, representing Labour, was elected as the junior MP for the dual constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare in the South Wales Valleys, which he would represent for the remainder of his
life. Only one other Labour MP was elected that year, but from these small beginnings the party continued to grow, winning power
in 1924.
Meanwhile the Conservative Unionist government became deeply unpopular, and Liberal leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman was worried about possible vote-splitting across the Labour and
Liberal parties in the next election. A deal was struck in 1903, which became known as the Lib-Lab
pact. It was engineered by Ramsay MacDonald and Herbert Gladstone (son of
William Gladstone): the Liberals would not stand against Labour in 30 constituencies in the next election, in order to avoid splitting the anti-Conservative vote.
In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the "Labour Party". The conservative prime minister Arthur
Balfour, who stepped in for the former leader, Lord Salisbury, after ill health, called a General Election.
The election result was one of the biggest landslide victories in British history:
the Liberals swept the Conservatives (and their Liberal Unionist allies) out of previously safe
seats. Balfour himself lost his seat, Manchester
East, on a swing of over 20 percent. However, what would later turn out to be even more significant was the election of 29
Labour MPs.
Later career
In 1908, Hardie resigned as leader of the Labour Party and was replaced by Arthur Henderson. Hardie spent the rest of his life campaigning for votes for women and developing a
closer relationship with Sylvia Pankhurst. He also campaigned for self-rule for India and an end to segregation in South Africa. During a
visit to the United States in 1909, his criticism of sectarianism among American radicals
caused intensified debate regarding the American Socialist Party possibly
joining with the unions in a labor party.
A pacifist, Hardie was appalled by the First World War
and along with socialists in other countries he tried to organise an international general
strike to stop the war. His stance was not popular, even within the Labour Party, but he continued to address anti-war
demonstrations across the country and to support conscientious objectors. After a
series of strokes Hardie died in hospital in Glasgow on 26
September 1915.
Legacy
Keir Hardie steered the Labour movement away from what he regarded as the damaging influence of Marxism, and towards a moderate, low church and trade unionist version of socialism that was practical, flexible and helped create a socialist party that, with time, has been more
electorally and politically successful than most socialist parties outside Scandinavia.
Keir Hardie has de facto sainthood inside the Labour Party and is highly respected
outside it. He also has the unusual distinction for a significant political leader of having rarely been attacked in print after
his death.
On 2 December 2006 a memorial bust of Keir Hardie was
unveiled by Cynon Valley MP Ann
Clwyd outside council offices in Aberdare (in his former constituency). The ceremony marked a centenary since the party's
birth.
Also he is still held in high esteem in his old home town of Holytown, where his childhood
home is preserved for people to view, whilst the local sports centre was named in his own honour "The Keir Hardie Sports
Centre".
References
Further Reading
- Benn, Caroline (1992) Keir Hardie London: Hutchinson ISBN 0-09-175343-0
- Kevin Jefferys (ed), Leading Labour: From Keir Hardie to Tony Blair IB Taurus, 1999.
ISBN 1860644538
- Kenneth O. Morgan, Keir Hardie, Radical and Socialist Weidenfeld and Nicholson,
1975
- Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock OUP, 1987.
- Greg Rosen (ed), Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001.
ISBN 1902301188
- Greg Rosen, Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1842750453
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