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James Maxton | |
|---|---|
 Maxton in 1918 | |
| Member of Parliament forGlasgow Bridgeton | |
| In office 15 November 1922 – 23 July 1946 | |
| Preceded by | Alexander MacCallum Scott |
| Succeeded by | James Carmichael |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1885-06-22)22 June 1885 Pollokshaws,Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 23 July 1946(1946-07-23) (aged 61) |
| Cause of death | Cancer |
| Party | Labour(until 1932) ILP(1932–1946) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | James |
Maxton giving a speech published byLansbury's Labour Weekly Recorded December 1, 1926 | |
James Maxton (22 June 1885 – 23 July 1946) was a Scottishleft-wing politician, who served as Member of Parliament forGlasgow Bridgeton from 1922 until his death in 1946. He was the chair of theIndependent Labour Party from 1926 to 1931 and from 1934 to 1939.
He was a pacifist who opposed both world wars. A prominent proponent ofHome Rule for Scotland,[2][3] he is remembered as one of the leading figures of theRed Clydeside era. He broke withRamsay MacDonald and thesecond minority Labour government, and became one of its most bitter critics following the disaffiliation of the ILP from theLabour Party in 1932.
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Born in the thenburgh ofPollokshaws (now part of the city ofGlasgow) in 1885, James Maxton was the son of two schoolteachers. He would himself later enter that profession after his education atHutchesons' Boys' Grammar School and theUniversity of Glasgow.[4]
Whilst studying at theUniversity of Glasgow, Maxton had described his political loyalties as lying with theConservatives. He soon came tosocialism, however, and in 1904 he joined theBarrhead branch of theIndependent Labour Party (ILP). Maxton's move to socialism was heavily influenced byJohn Maclean, a fellow student at Glasgow University. In addition to Maclean's influence, Maxton was moved towards socialism by a meeting which he attended inPaisley which was addressed by party leaderPhilip Snowden. He was also influenced by the written word, including books byRobert Blatchford andPeter Kropotkin.[5]
Later in 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 sisterAnnie 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.[6]
On 24 July 1919, Maxton married teacher Sarah McCallum. They had one child, James, in 1921. Sarah died in 1922.[1] On 14 March 1935, Maxton married Madeline Grace Glasier, who had worked for him as a volunteer researcher and secretary for 11 years.[1][7]
Maxton was known as an effective public speaker. HistorianKeith 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 nativeBarrhead where the ILP branch was his private preserve.[8]
Maxton was a vociferousopponent of World War I. He was aconscientious objector, refusingconscription into theBritish Armed Forces, and instead being given work on barges. During this time he was involved in organizing strikes in the shipyards as part of theClyde Workers' Committee. Maxton was arrested in 1916, and charged withsedition. He was subsequently found guilty and imprisoned for a year.[9]
In 1918, Maxton was elected to the National Council of theLabour Party.[10] He andRamsay MacDonald were responsible for moving the motion at theNational Executive Committee of the Labour Party which dictated that Labour members ofDavid Lloyd George'swartime coalition government resign from it in preparation for the1918 general election. He was also a keen supporter ofScottish Home Rule and was for a while the President of the Scottish Home Rule Association when Ramsay MacDonald was the Secretary of the London Branch.
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 asMember of Parliament (MP) forGlasgow Bridgeton in the1922 general election. Once in parliament, however, Maxton's forthright views often caused controversy. In 1923, his parliamentary privileges were temporarily removed when he called the Conservative MP SirFrederick Banbury a "murderer", following the government's decision to withdraw school milk.[11] In 1933, when then-Prime Minister MacDonald made a particularly meandering and incoherent speech to Parliament, it was interrupted by Maxton calling out: "Sit down, man, you're a bloody tragedy."[12]
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 perceived class collaborationism of theTrades Union Congress after the defeat of the1926 General Strike, and was co-author with the left-wing Miners leader,Arthur Cook, of the "Cook-Maxton Manifesto" of 1928 calling for class warfare in the overthrow of capitalism. As chairman of the ILP, he endorsed a "Living Wages" policy demanding highminimum wages for workers andnationalization of all private businesses unable to pay them.[13]
In 1927, Maxton was elected International Chairman of theLeague against Imperialism at its General Council meeting inBrussels; he was re-elected to the same post at the League's 1929 Conference inFrankfurt.[14]
In 1932, Maxton published a popular biography ofBolshevik leaderVladimir Lenin. Maxton wrote of him: "We are still too near to [Lenin] in time, too close to the happenings incidental to his work, too much under the influence of partisan antipathies or sympathies to venture final assessments. It is not yet possible to say that Russia has in practice realised the Utopian state of plenty, of liberty and of happiness, nor is it possible to say that other countries may not reach a better state in speedier and less harsh ways. It is possible to say that this man, quiet, unassuming, unimposing, set himself a task of immense size when still a boy, and stuck to it tenaciously to the end of his life."[15]
In 1936, following theabdication of Edward VIII, Maxton proposed a "republican amendment" to the Abdication Bill, which would have turned the UK from amonarchy into arepublic. Maxton argued that while the Monarchy had benefited Britain in the past, it had now "outlived its usefulness". The amendment was defeated by 403 votes to five.[16]
WithHenk Sneevliet of the Dutch revolutionary communist party theRSP, Maxton headed deputations tocivil war Spain on behalf of the international campaign for socialists there persecuted after theMay Days of Barcelona. "They harassed Republican Ministers with their questions and protests and proceeded to knock on the doors of the Communist Party's secret prisons."Victor Serge described "Maxton the imperturbable, with his angular face and steady grey eyes, pipe in mouth, heard the Spanish ministers Irujo and Zugazagoita — honest Republicans who had done their utmost to save the victims—reply to him: 'These abominable acts are done against our will. Do you think we are safe ourselves?'" Despite expecting to hear that thePOUM Executive had been summarily executed, the campaign, according to Victor Serge in the 1940s, saved their lives (with the exception ofAndreu Nin) and was "a real moral triumph".[17]
In his diary for 3 September 1939, SirRalph Glyn reported that "James Maxton, the pacifist, rose, gaunt, aHorseman from theApocalypse, doom written across his face," and declared, "Don't let's talk of national honour: what do such phrases mean? The plain fact is that war means the slaughter of millions. If the Prime Minister can still maintain the peace, he will have saved those lives, he mustn't be rushed."[18]
During the Second World War, Maxton visitedHM Prison Brixton to seeOswald Mosley, the leader of theBritish Union of Fascists, who was then being detained under theDefence Regulations.
On 29 January 1942, Maxton was the only one out of 465 members of the House of Commons to vote against aMotion of Confidence inWinston Churchill'swartime government.[19]
Maxton died of cancer inLargs,Ayrshire, in 1946, whilst sitting as MP for Bridgeton. He was cremated atGlasgow Crematorium.[1] 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 theHouse of Commons. Churchill, whilst holding political opinions wholly inconsistent with those of Maxton, described him as "the greatest parliamentarian of his day".[citation needed] His biographer Graham Walker concludes:
Maxton heavily influenced his family's political opinions, and his mother and all his siblings also joined the ILP. His brother John was also a conscientious objector in the First World War. His son James and his nephewJohn Maxton were conscientious objectors to National Service after the Second World War. John went on to become Labour MP for theCathcart division of Glasgow from 1979 to 2001 and was made alife peer in 2004.
FormerBritish Prime Minister,Gordon Brown, published a biography,Maxton, based on hisPhD thesis at theUniversity of Edinburgh.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forGlasgow Bridgeton 1922–1946 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by James A. Allan | Scottish Division representative on theIndependent Labour Party National Administrative Council 1914–1916 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Independent Labour Party 1926–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Independent Labour Party 1934–1939 | Succeeded by |
