James Maxton
Encyclopedia
James Maxton was a Scottish
socialist politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party
. A prominent proponent of Home Rule
for Scotland, he is remembered as one of the leading figures of the Red Clydeside
era.
of Pollokshaws
(now Pollok
, Glasgow
) in 1885, James Maxton was the son of two schoolteachers. He would himself later enter that profession after his education at Hutchesons' Grammar School
and the University of Glasgow
.
Maxton had whilst studying at the University of Glasgow
described his political loyalties as lying with the Conservatives
. He soon came to socialism
, however, and in 1904 he joined the Barrhead
branch of the Independent Labour Party
(ILP). Maxton's move to socialism was heavily influenced by John Maclean
, a fellow student at Glasgow University. In addition to Maclean's influence, Maxton was moved towards socialism by a meeting which he attended in Paisley
which was addressed by party leader Philip Snowden. He was also influenced by the written word, including books by Robert Blatchford
and Peter Kropotkin
.
Later in his life, Maxton claimed that the biggest influence in his decision to become a socialist was the grinding poverty experienced by many of the children he taught. He subsequently convinced all his siblings to join the ILP, with his sister Annie
becoming a prominent figure in the organisation.
From 1906 to 1910, Maxton was active in the Schoolmasters' Union, where he refined his talents as a propagandist and orator."
Maxton was a vociferous opponent of World War I
. He was a conscientious objector
, refusing conscription into the military, and instead being given work on barges. During this time he was involved in organizing strikes in the shipyards. Maxton was arrested in 1916, charged with sedition. He was subsequently found guilty and imprisoned for a year.
In 1918, Maxton was elected to the National Council of the Labour Party
. He and Ramsay MacDonald
were responsible for moving the motion at the Labour Party's National Executive Committee which dictated that Labour members of the wartime coalition government resign from it in preparation for the 1918 general election
.
Maxton stood for parliament in the 1918 general election as a Labour Party candidate but was defeated in this first effort.
In his next electoral attempt, Maxton was successful, winning a seat as Member of Parliament
(MP) for Glasgow Bridgeton
in the 1922 general election
. Once in parliament, Maxton's forthright views often caused controversy, however. In 1923 his parliamentary privileges were withdrawn temporarily when he called the Tory MP Sir Frederick Banbury a "murderer" following the government's decision to withdraw school milk. When Ramsay MacDonald, with whom Maxton had long since quarrelled, gave his last meandering, incoherent speech to Parliament, it was interrupted by Maxton calling out: "Sit down, man, you're a bloody tragedy."
Maxton was chairman of the ILP from 1926 to 1931, and from 1934 to 1939; he was generally seen as the symbol of the ILP after its break from Labour in 1932. A militant socialist, he was horrified by the class collaborationism of the Trades Union Congress
after the defeat of the 1926 General Strike, and was co-author with the left-wing Miners leader, Arthur Cook
, of the Cook-Maxton Manifesto of 1928.
In 1932, Maxton published a popular biography of Bolshevik
leader V.I. Lenin.
Maxton was considered one of the greatest orators of the time, both within and outside the House of Commons. Churchill, whilst holding political opinions wholly inconsistent with those of Maxton, described him as "the greatest parliamentarian of his day".
Maxton heavily influenced his family's political opinions, with his mother and all his siblings joining the ILP. His brother John was also a conscientious objector
in World War I
; his nephew John Maxton was a post-World War II conscientious objector who went on to become MP for the Cathcart division of Glasgow
from 1979 to 2001.
Former British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
has confessed to having been fascinated by Maxton as a young man and has written a biography of him, simply entitled Maxton. He also used Maxton for the basis of his PhD
thesis whilst at the University of Edinburgh
.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
socialist politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
. A prominent proponent of Home Rule
Home rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
for Scotland, he is remembered as one of the leading figures of the Red Clydeside
Red Clydeside
Red Clydeside is a term used to describe the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and urban areas around the city on the banks of the River Clyde such as Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley...
era.
Early years
Born in the then burghBurgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...
of Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws
Pollokshaws is a district on the southside of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The housing stock mostly consists of some sandstone tenement housing, tower blocks and modern brick tenement-style buildings...
(now Pollok
Pollok
Pollok is a large district on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It was built to house families from the overcrowded inner city...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
) in 1885, James Maxton was the son of two schoolteachers. He would himself later enter that profession after his education at Hutchesons' Grammar School
Hutchesons' Grammar School
Hutchesons' Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in the southside of Glasgow, Scotland. It was founded by the brothers George Hutcheson and Thomas Hutcheson in 1641 and was opened originally to teach orphans, starting with "twelve male children, indigent orphans".In 1876 a girls'...
and the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
.
Maxton had whilst studying at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
described his political loyalties as lying with the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. He soon came to socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, however, and in 1904 he joined the Barrhead
Barrhead
Barrhead is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. As of the 2001 census its population was 19,813....
branch of the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
(ILP). Maxton's move to socialism was heavily influenced by John Maclean
John Maclean MA
John Maclean MA was a Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary socialist. He is primarily known as a Marxist educator and notable for his outspoken opposition to the First World War....
, a fellow student at Glasgow University. In addition to Maclean's influence, Maxton was moved towards socialism by a meeting which he attended in Paisley
Paisley
Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...
which was addressed by party leader Philip Snowden. He was also influenced by the written word, including books by Robert Blatchford
Robert Blatchford
Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford was a socialist campaigner, journalist and author in the United Kingdom. He was a prominent atheist and opponent of eugenics. He was also an English patriot...
and Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin
Prince Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was a Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, economist, geographer, author and one of the world's foremost anarcho-communists. Kropotkin advocated a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between...
.
Later in his life, Maxton claimed that the biggest influence in his decision to become a socialist was the grinding poverty experienced by many of the children he taught. He subsequently convinced all his siblings to join the ILP, with his sister Annie
Annie Maxton
Annie Maxton was a Scottish socialist and trade unionist.Born in Glasgow, Maxton was convinced to join the Independent Labour Party by her elder brother, James Maxton. She trained as a teacher and became active in the Educational Institute of Scotland....
becoming a prominent figure in the organisation.
From 1906 to 1910, Maxton was active in the Schoolmasters' Union, where he refined his talents as a propagandist and orator."
Political career
Maxton was known as an effective public speaker. Historian Robert Keith Middlemas offers this vivid description:"He was well-known as a platform orator with a thin hatchet face and mane of long black hair which fell across his face giving it a saturnine and piratical appearance, but although he was an established speaker and propagandist for the ILP, his considerable intellect had been somewhat masked by the showman's facility. The genuine hero-worship which grew around him was restricted to his native BarrheadBarrheadBarrhead is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. As of the 2001 census its population was 19,813....
where the ILP branch was his private preserve."
Maxton was a vociferous opponent of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He was a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
, refusing conscription into the military, and instead being given work on barges. During this time he was involved in organizing strikes in the shipyards. Maxton was arrested in 1916, charged with sedition. He was subsequently found guilty and imprisoned for a year.
In 1918, Maxton was elected to the National Council of the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. He and Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
were responsible for moving the motion at the Labour Party's National Executive Committee which dictated that Labour members of the wartime coalition government resign from it in preparation for the 1918 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1918
The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...
.
Maxton stood for parliament in the 1918 general election as a Labour Party candidate but was defeated in this first effort.
In his next electoral attempt, Maxton was successful, winning a seat as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Glasgow Bridgeton
Glasgow Bridgeton (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow Bridgeton was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Glasgow. From 1885 to 1974, it returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system....
in the 1922 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...
. Once in parliament, Maxton's forthright views often caused controversy, however. In 1923 his parliamentary privileges were withdrawn temporarily when he called the Tory MP Sir Frederick Banbury a "murderer" following the government's decision to withdraw school milk. When Ramsay MacDonald, with whom Maxton had long since quarrelled, gave his last meandering, incoherent speech to Parliament, it was interrupted by Maxton calling out: "Sit down, man, you're a bloody tragedy."
Maxton was chairman of the ILP from 1926 to 1931, and from 1934 to 1939; he was generally seen as the symbol of the ILP after its break from Labour in 1932. A militant socialist, he was horrified by the class collaborationism of the Trades Union Congress
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...
after the defeat of the 1926 General Strike, and was co-author with the left-wing Miners leader, Arthur Cook
A. J. Cook (trade unionist)
Arthur James Cook , known as A. J. Cook, was a British coal miner and trade union leader. He is remembered as one of the United Kingdom's best known miners’ leaders and a key component of the National Minority Movement around the General Strike of 1926.-Early years:A.J...
, of the Cook-Maxton Manifesto of 1928.
In 1932, Maxton published a popular biography of Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
leader V.I. Lenin.
Death and legacy
Maxton died on 23 July 1946, still a sitting MP for Bridgeton. After his death the ILP stagnated until it ceased to be a viable independent political party.Maxton was considered one of the greatest orators of the time, both within and outside the House of Commons. Churchill, whilst holding political opinions wholly inconsistent with those of Maxton, described him as "the greatest parliamentarian of his day".
Maxton heavily influenced his family's political opinions, with his mother and all his siblings joining the ILP. His brother John was also a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
; his nephew John Maxton was a post-World War II conscientious objector who went on to become MP for the Cathcart division of Glasgow
Glasgow Cathcart (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow Cathcart was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 2005, when it was replaced by the larger Glasgow South constituency....
from 1979 to 2001.
Former British Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
has confessed to having been fascinated by Maxton as a young man and has written a biography of him, simply entitled Maxton. He also used Maxton for the basis of his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
thesis whilst at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
.
Publications by James Maxton
- A Living Wage for All: Dr. Salter's Speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday, March 7, 1923. London: Bermondsey Independent Labour Party, 1923.
- The Left Wing: Its Programme and Activities. London: National Left Wing Provisional Committee, n.d. [c. 1926].
- Twenty Points for Socialism. London: ILP Publication Department, n.d. [c. 1927].
- Our Case for a Socialist Revival. With A.J. Cook. London : Workers' Publications, n.d. [c. 1928].
- The Roads to Socialism: Chairman's Address at the ILP Conference. London: ILP Publication Department, 1929.
- The Case of Benn v. Maxton: Being a Correspondence on Capitalism and Socialism, to which is Appended the Report of a Broadcast Debate. With Ernest John Pickstone Benn. London: E. Benn, 1929.
- Speech on the Government's Unemployment Proposals in the House of Commons 4 November, 1929. London: ILP Publication Department, n.d. [1929].
- Where the ILP Stands: Presidential Address of J. Maxton to the ILP Conference, together with the Declaration on the Relation of the ILP to the Labour Party. London: ILP Publication Department, 1930.
- Lenin. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1932.
- Widespread Poverty: "The Existing Social Order Must Go." London: Independent Labour Party, 1933.
- A Clear Lead. With Fenner BrockwayFenner Brockway, Baron BrockwayFenner Brockway, Baron Brockway , was a British anti-war activist and politician.-Biography:Archibald Fenner Brockway was born in Calcutta, India, which was at that time under British Imperial rule...
. London: Independent Labour Party, 1933. - Keir Hardie: Prophet and Pioneer. London: F. Johnson, n.d. [c. 1933].
- Dictators and Dictatorship. London: Independent Labour Party, n.d. [c. 1934].
- If I Were Dictator. London: Methuen, 1935.
- The Unity Campaign. With Stafford CrippsStafford CrippsSir Richard Stafford Cripps was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production...
and Harry PollittHarry PollittHarry Pollitt was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.- Early life :...
. London : National Unity Campaign Committee, 1937. - Maxton's Great Anti-War Speech. Glasgow : Civic Press, n.d. [1939].
- Why We Oppose Conscription. London: Independent Labour Party, n.d. [1939].
- Break Truce with Tories and Build Labour Unity! A Statement for Consideration by Men and Women of the Labour Movement. With Fenner Brockway. n.c. [London]: Independent Labour Party, n.d. [1943].
Further reading
- Gordon Brown: Maxton: A Biography. n.c.: Mainstream Publishing Co., 1986.
- Robert E. Dowse: Left in the Centre: The Independent Labour Party 1893-1940. London: Longman's, 1966.
- Robert Keith Middlemas, The Clydesiders: A Left Wing Struggle for Parliamentary Power. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1965.