Saturday Journal of 29 April 1893 reports the meeting: “It was not until Miss Katherine St John Conway (right) began to speak that her audience realised that there was before them a most remarkable woman.”

The Road to 1906 - The ILP and Fabians

Susan Morton

The Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was founded in Bradford in January 1893. In March 1893 a Fabian Society was formed in Dunfermline. In April 1893 Miss Katherine St. John Conway, a member of the London Fabian Society and of the Executive of the ILP came to Dunfermline to address the second meeting of the Dunfermline Fabian Society. She spoke on “The Ideals of the Labour Movement.”

The Dunfermline Saturday Journal of 29th April 1893 reports the meeting. “It was not until she began to speak that her audience realised that there was before them a most remarkable woman. She had not uttered many words before she had arrested the attention of her hearers, and although she spoke for an hour. Not for an instant was the interest in the subject allowed to flag. Miss Conway went on to speak of recognising wealth as consisting of the physical and mental development of men and women.

The natural conclusion to be drawn from the argument was that the country should be ruled by the Labour Party, whose proposals the lecturer afterwards sketched. The chief source of revenue was to be the taxation of unearned incomes, and the money thus derived was to be applied to education, free libraries, municipal lecture halls, parks, theatres and other things given out to the people collectively in such a form that they could not be taken away from them individually, as had been done in the past.”

The Dunfermline Press was not so kind to her. “… instead of stumping the country and preaching the gospel of the Independent Labour Party, she should devote her time and talents to the thorough organisation of the working classes. Trades Unionism may not be able to do everything for the working man; but, backed by the assistance of the Liberals, it is certain to do more for him than ever the Independent Labour Party can reasonably accomplish.”

By February 1895 Miss Katherine St. John Conway (later Mrs Bruce Glasier) had delivered a series of lectures promoting the Independent Labour Party in Dunfermline, Townhill, Crossgates and Kelty under the auspices of the Fabian Society. John Bruce Glasier (1859- 1920) and Katharine St John Conway (1867-1950,) were pioneers of the British socialist movement. They were both involved in the formation of the Independent Labour Party in 1893 as a union of Labour and Socialist organisations with the aim of promoting Labour candidates for Parliament; and it was through this involvement that they met, and married, in 1893.)

Labour Candidates Elected

In March 1895 seven Labour candidates were elected to Dunfermline Parish Council. The Dunfermline Saturday Press records “While the result of the election is, to many, disappointing, it is not by any means surprising when all the circumstances are taken into account. In the first place, the greatest apathy has been displayed by the community at large. Nearly two-thirds of the total electorate regarded the election with supreme indifference, and did not think it worthwhile to record their votes. …. A further explanation of the triumph of the Labour candidates is, that they and their supporters left no stone unturned to secure success; whereas, for example, none of the other candidates in either the second, third, or fourth wards convened a single meeting of the electors. One gratifying feature of the election is, that of the six candidates originally brought forward by the Fabians and Trades Councillors the best four have been selected. It is also satisfactory that some of the Labour candidates are sensible, cautious men, who are not likely to make hasty and ill-considered proposals”.

Bringing The Socialist Message to the Towns and Villages

Towards the end of May 1895 Mr and Mrs Bruce Glasier made a tour of the Western Division of Fife. On Sunday Mrs Glasier was the principal speaker in the Public Park, Dunfermline where her audience, numbering some 2,500 people, heard her speak on “The Dearth of Joy”. Socialist Societies had recently been formed in Crossgates, Cowdenbeath and Kelty and the Dunfermline Fabian Society was expected to “make a raid upon Kirkcaldy about the middle of July” Addresses were handed out at convenient street corners mid-July of that year in Kirkcaldy. In September the Dunfermline Fabian Society held its first annual meeting and soiree.

In January 1896 Mr Primmer persuaded the School Board of Townhill not to let the Fabians have the use of their school hall for their meetings. In February 1896 a meeting was held of representatives of various Socialist bodies in Fife in Cowdenbeath with the purpose of federating the I.L.P. and Fabian branches. Mr Cannavan of Cowdenbeath presided. Representatives from Dunfermline, Townhill, Lochgelly, Cowdenbeath and East Fife attended. The formation of the Fife Socialist Federation was agreed to and the “delegates were asked to report the finding of the meeting to the respective Societies, and to urge upon members thereof the desirability of changing the name of the branches in accordance with the resolution.

In March 1896 Mr J.R. Macdonald, the adopted I.L.P. candidate for Southampton, spoke to the Dunfermline Fabian Society. (Macdonald (1836 – 1937) did not win this seat, but met his future wife during this campaign. In February 1900 Macdonald became Secretary of the newly formed Labour Representation Committee (LRC) and 15 candidates were fielded in the 1900 General Election. 2 were elected - Keir Hardie and Richard Bell. In the 1906 general election the LRC won 29 seats. Macdonald became the MP for Leicester. He became leader of the LRC in 1911. He went on to become the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924.

Keir Hardie in Fife

In February 1897 Mr Keir Hardie visited Dunfermline and addressed a meeting for an hour and twenty minutes. This was under the auspices of the Co-operative Society. “The Independent Labour Party, he declared, was a means of propaganda unequalled in any country for carrying Socialist principles among the people”. The Fifeshire Socialist Federation arranged a series of meetings and in May 1897 meetings were held in Kelty on the Saturday; Dunfermline on the Sunday; Lochgelly on the Monday; Tuesday in Cowdenbeath; Wednesday in Townhill and Friday in Lochore.

Also in May it was agreed to appoint a Socialist Organiser for the County. In July the Socialist Choir enjoyed a drive to Dollar, then Alloa for a “substantial tea” and an address by Mr James Wilson on “The Coming Struggle”. In September of that year Miss Ada Nield, an English Socialist from Crewe, addressed meetings in West Fife. The Lochgelly meeting was chaired by a Mr Michael Lee- Jennie Lee’s grandfather. Michael Lee was deeply involved in local politics and helped form the Fifeshire Federation of the ILP.

The third Dunfermline Socialists Annual Soiree was held in the Cooperative Hall in Randolph Street. It was attended by between 300 and 400 people with delegates from Edinburgh, Leith, Alloa, Cowdenbeath and Townhill accompanying “Comrade” D. Hunter and Miss Ada Nield on the platform. Miss Nield spoke of the problems facing the advancement of Socialism. “Their movement was a very much misunderstood and misrepresented movement. They had almost the whole press in opposition to them, and they had the whole of the rich classes against them. Still they had an earnest little band of workers, and a few who were fighting the fight in a noble way, and making very great sacrifice.” In November a series of Sunday Evening Socialist lectures was announced. The first lecturer was Dr. Glasse of Old Greyfriars, Edinburgh, on “The Early church and its relations to social Problems”. The Socialist Choir, numbering 50 voices, performed and the collection in aid of the locked-out engineers, amounted to £2 5s.

By 1898 Joe Grady of Manchester under the auspices of the Fifeshire Socialist Society opened a campaign in May for the propagation of Socialism. He spoke in Torryburn, Culross, Oakley, Rumblingwell Toll and Wellwood. By June Joe Grady is described as the Socialist Organiser for Fife. He organised large meetings in Dunfermline Public Park and talked at meetings in Lassodie, Kingseat, Halbeath, Townhill and Crossgates. In September at the annual Conference of the Fifeshire Socialist Federation hopes were expressed of contesting one or other of the parliamentary divisions embracing the area of the Federation. This possible candidature was announced at the Dunfermline Socialists fifth Annual Soiree in October 1898.

In July 1899 Mr J.R. Macdonald, ILP candidate for South Leicester, addressed 2 meetings in the Public Park. The first meeting, at 1.15, was not very large and broke up owing to rain. The 6.15 meeting attracted an audience of two or three hundred. In August 1899 the Fifeshire Socialist Federation held a conference in Kirkcaldy which Keir Hardie addressed. Over 1000 people attended to hear Hardie talk on Socialism and the position of the ILP. Over 2000 people listened to him in the Public Park in Dunfermline the next day.

In October 1899 elections to the Council Board were held. “The Dunfermline Socialist Society which “threatened” to “capture” many seats at the Council Board has scarcely been heard of” In December of that year Mr Birrell the Liberal MP in West Fife accepted an invitation to contest East Manchester and this encouraged the miners to think of putting up their own man. John Weir, the General Secretary of the Fife and Kinross miners’ miners’ Association, was the preferred Labour candidate but the issue of how to maintain him as an MP was to prove to be the stumbling block in the 1900 General Election campaign.

The estimated cost of having an MP was £ 400 per annum - £350 for a salary and £50 for expenses. This worked out at between 9 pennies and 1/- per miner in Fife and Kinross. By August 1900 it was agreed that there was not the will to support the cost of an MP amongst the miners and Mr Weir withdrew his candidacy. This is the beginning of the development of a strong Labour movement in Fife. James Clunie, MP for Dunfermline Burghs, wrote in his 1954 autobiography “The City and Royal Burgh of Dunfermline had a great history and tradition and, being a manufacturing town, was radical in its politics. I arrived in great fear about the year 1903, but by 1906 had joined the Dunfermline Socialist Society. A small band of brave people who saw the same faith before my time and pursued its course.”

The early years

Fife was a relatively slow starter in terms of Parliamentary success. One of the reasons for this the ambiguous position of the miners union until the “Osborne Judgment” of 1908 led the union to commit to Labour Party affiliation but this did not mean that Fife had been inactive in Labour politics. In 1907 Kirkcaldy elected its first Labour councillor David Mackinnon. Dunfermline had elected Willie Adamson a councillor in 1905. From the earliest days Labour drew great strength in Fife from its links with Local Government and Trade Unions.

Labour was closely identified with the campaign for women's rights to the vote. An active women’s suffrage society was formed in Kirkcaldy in 1904.Women were also to the fore industrially, in 1911 women weavers went on strike.

It was a bitter struggle 15 of the strikers were arrested and fined for disorderly conduct. However the was a great deal of public support for the women and they received a tumultuous reception when they returned from their trial. The strike was won and it was probably the catalyst in reconstituting Kirkcaldy and District Trade Union Council which although formed in 1873 had become inactive.

The Fabian Society

The Fabian Society was founded nationally, in the 1880’s, by George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Sidney and Beatrice Webb and others. The Dunfermline Society was founded in 1893 and the first secretary was David Hunter of Loch Street, Townhill Dunfermline was the third Society formed in Scotland; the first two in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. This indicates a considerable degree of political sophistication in Fife at this time. It is clear that the Fabians along with the ILP were very important in the development of the Labour Party in Fife.

Although there is no Fabian Society currently operating in Fife at different times they have made a valuable contribution. The Kirkcaldy Society in the 1950’s and 60’s started by teachers Donald Robertson and Ron Page brought very influential speakers like Tony Crosland to Kirkcaldy. In Dunfermline Del Farquharson and Jean Lockhart helped run a lively Society in the1970’s and 1980’s securing speakers like Tony Benn, John Smith and Donald Dewar. The death of Del Farquharson was a serious blow to the Society. It struggled on as Dunfermline and West Fife, they did stage important speakers and two weekend schools but without Del’s driving force the Society went into suspension in 1992.