The TUC and Education Reform, 1926-1970

Dr Clive Griggs, Clive Griggs

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134724017
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

This book covers a crucial period for the development of state education in Britain; the advent of the comprehensive debate before and during the Second World War; the War years themselves and the 1944 Education Act; the post-War Labour Government; and Churchill's last government in a time of education expansion. From the 1960s, the focus shifted to questions of social deprivation and educational opportunities, secondary school selection, the debate on standards, Robbins and higher education, and the continuing theme of the dominance of public schools.The book is divided into four sections, which are then divided into chapters. Each chapter takes as its main reference point a key issue within the chronological framework of the book, e.g. resistance to secondary education for all, politics and textbooks, multilateral and technical schools, pressure groups and the 1944 Education Act, Churchill and the Conservatives. Much new light is thrown on the topics by the author's use of new material and he has made a valuable contribution to the politics of education.

Part 1 – The Inter-War Years 1926–1939

Chapter 1

Putting Secondary Education on the Agenda

Citrine Becomes TUC General Secretary

Both at home and abroad the period 1926–39 was one of great turbulence by any standards: the General Strike of 1926, the Wall Street Crash of 1931, the rise of Fascism in Europe with the Nazis taking power in Germany in 1934, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and the war between Britain and Germany in 1939. Throughout the years Conservative governments were in power whether under that name or that of a National government, with the exception of the ill-fated second minority Labour government of 1929, which in spite of economic difficulties contained members who did try to make progress in education matters. Throughout the period there were never less than 1 million people registered as unemployed with the numbers peaking at over 3 million in 1931; affiliated TUC membership reflected these figures although there was a time lag.

Table 1. TUC Figures for the Unemployed in 1931

	Insured Workers Unemployed	TUC Affiliated Membership^1
1926	1.505.000	4.365,619
1932	2,829,000	3,613.273
1934	2,171,000	3,294.581
1939	1.408,000	4,669.186

Partly as a result of the General Strike, and owing to their ideology, many industrialists and Conservatives were hostile to organised labour at least until the second half of the 1930s and this needs to be borne in mind when making judgements about TUC policy and action. However, it also needs to be said that throughout the period there was hardly a significant official enquiry which did not include a TUC representative and there was an average of five TUC deputations per annum to government departments with only one year, 1931, when there is no record of such a meeting.

The TUC, with its long history going back to 1868, has often been depicted as an unwieldy organisation, criticised by various people for not being what they believed it ought to be; not radical enough is probably a common criticism. In fact, whilst such criticism can certainly be made, it is also possible to argue that they should at least be given considerable credit for surviving for a comparatively long time when some of the most powerful forces within the economy have been antagonistic to TUC activities. Whilst the leadership would have baulked in public at any association with the ideas of Karl Marx, nevertheless the German philosopher’s writings may well provide an explanation for the tactics they learned to adopt: ‘Men make their own history but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.’²

As the opening paragraph of this section has illustrated the circumstances the TUC faced between 1926 and 1939 were extremely difficult. Pragmatism is probably the simplest description to apply to the TUC and those seeking signs of a clear ideology are likely to be frustrated. For example, to take at random two items from the Minutes of the General Council. In 1927, ‘Letter sent to President Coolidge protesting over the condemnation to death of Sacco and Vanzetti’ (the two Italian Anarchist immigrants) and the following year, ‘Letter of sympathy sent on the news of the illness of King George V’.³ It is not necessary to see support for anarchism or monarchy in these actions but rather a reflection of the wide range of views within the TUC and the lack of dogma as well as genuine concern for the lives of people in completely different circumstances.

The TUC regarded the General Strike as a tactical disaster and turned to gaining improvements in the lives of their members by working carefully to strengthen their organisation and by adapting methods which would gradually increase their influence as a pressure group through as many sections of society as possible, including that of the government. This approach was reinforced with the appointment of Walter Citrine as General Secretary in 1926. Citrine was born in Wallasey in 1886, attended elementary school leaving at the age of twelve and a half, having reached Standard VII.⁴ He became an apprentice electrician, learned Gregg shorthand at evening classes and became full-time Assistant General Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) in Manchester in 1920. He applied to become Assistant General Secretary of the TUC, a post which attracted over 200 applications from which five candidates were chosen for interview in January 1924. Citrine, aged only 37, was successful and joined Fred Bramley, the TUC Secretary at the time. Bramley was in poor health and asked Citrine to overhaul the filing system as he had done earlier at the ETU. Citrine was a brilliant organiser setting up the Committee and support structure as well as a new filing system. Every incoming letter was given a reference, date stamped and put on a file using the Library of Congress reference system. His attention to detail was well known, and Aneurin Bevan, who was at odds with Citrine in terms of both ideology and personality, referring to the card-index mind of Citrine said, ‘poor fellow, he suffers from files’.⁵ On Bramley’s death Citrine took over as Secretary in 1926.

In fact Bevan’s summary quip was less than just. Citrine was far more than a good organiser, important though that aspect of his abilities was to the TUC. He had joined the ILP in 1904 and was to write many years later in his autobiography that he ‘never weakened in his socialist faith’. He stood up against the encroachment of Fascism in Europe during the 1930s, argued endlessly with the National government of Baldwin to supply armaments to the legitimate elected government of Spain. His pragmatism was born out of political experience and his doubts about the ability or preparation of the TUC and affiliated unions to sustain the ‘General Strike’ for a lengthy period of time. He was also uneasy about the tactics necessarily involved but not about the justice of the miners’ cause nor the mean-spiritedness of those who were determined to make the working people bear the brunt of the country’s economic problems, as he made clear in his diaries, when recording the meeting of the TUCGC at Downing Street on 12 May 1926:

I looked at them with mixed feelings – bitterness – when I reflected one of them at least would have butchered our people without compunction on any pretext which offered. I thought to myself what an anomaly it is that there should be such a thing as a governing class. I comforted myself with the reflection that some day that would be altered.⁶

He was instrumental in encouraging opposition to the cuts proposed by the National government and in having MacDonald expelled from the Labour party. All of these facts underline his commitment to strong support of the labour movement but his tactics were those of a negotiator carefully appraising each situation to determine what was possible in given circumstances.

In 1928, Citrine was made President of the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), a post he was to hold until 1945. Within a year of his appointment the Sunday Express ran a story on its front page entitled ‘Mussolini Whips Mr Citrine – TUC Chief fails to ‘save’ Italy. “Audacity”.’⁷ It claimed that Citrine and Mr J. Sassenbach, Secretary of the ITFU

were severely whipped by Mussolini after they had bearded the lion in his den in Rome. These two Socialists secretly planned what they thought would be a dramatic coup – the persuading of Mussolini to allow Italy to join the IFTU… they were to go to Rome… and return in triumph hailed as saviours of the world trade union movement for apart from Russia, Italy is the only nation outside the Federation.

Not even closest friends were told. Mr Citrine told his closest friend, Mr Ben Tillett that he was going away on holiday for three weeks.

The report related their meeting with Mussolini, the furnishings of the room in the palace and the clothing worn by ‘The Duce’. Apparently Sassenach spoke for 40 minutes explaining how Italian workers would benefit from membership whilst Citrine spoke even more elequently for 45 minutes during which time the Duce remained strangely silent. He then gave his reply which took an hour and 40 minutes. He told them of his powerful role as prime minister and head of five government departments finally pointing to their ‘audacity to come here and ask me to delegate the rule of my workpeople to a handful of political fanatics in Amsterdam. Your visit here today only emphasises the incompetence and lack of vision of the Socialist Party. I AM MUSSOLINI.’ A bell then rang to signal the end of the audience ‘and the two great Socialist leaders made a rather undignified exit”. It was further claimed that upon Citrine’s return from holiday he ‘was indiscreet and the affair leaked out, and now prominent labour leaders are making frantic efforts to place a cloak over the whole affair’.

The report implied that Citrine had been secretive and duplicitous, was alongside Sassenach browbeaten and made to look ridiculous by Mussolini and tried to hide a failed attempt to persuade the dictator for Italy to join the IFTU. The mocking tone towards Socialists came as no surprise given the political sympathies of the Express newspapers and the growing strength of Labour in the months prior to the spring General Election of 1929 may have been a factor in the prominent position the newspaper gave to the story. However in spite of the considerable power of the Express newspapers, Citrine sued for libel and in April of that same year the court was informed by Sir Henry Slesser acting for Citrine that he was ‘a person of considerable public importance in the industrial world’ referring to his prominent role ‘in the Turner Nelchet proposals for conciliation and peace in industry’.⁸

The editor, James Douglas, and Express Newspapers Limited admitted that ‘the whole story was a complete fabrication from beginning to end’. Citrine had never met Mussolini and the Italian Foreign Office confirmed that no such interview had ever taken place. The newspaper accepted ‘the whole of the circumstances of the alleged interview are entirely without foundation’. They expressed ‘their sincere regret that the article in question should have been published’. They agreed to pay substantial damages; £500 for ‘very serious libel’ – a sum approximately equivalent to twice the average annual wage in 1929. Citrine was satisfied and did not wish to take the matter any further. It was to be but one example of the hostility of so many newspapers to the labour movement during the inter-war period.

Under Citrine’s new organisation, Education was one of eight departments serving the elected members of the TUCGC. At the time these mirrored government departments, making it convenient for direct communication with the appropriate source of government policy and administration. The Education Committee of about seven members met eight times during the year, commencing with the Annual Congress during the first week of September and thus coinciding with the academic year. Arthur Pugh, of the Iron and Steel Trades Federation, was in the Chair for most of this period. They dealt with masses of correspondence from individuals and organisations, provided briefing papers for the TUCGC on matters of government education policy and for TUC deputations to the President of the Board of Education (BOE) as well as providing written evidence on TUC education policy when requested to do so for committees such as Hadow and Spens. As a glance at TUC Education Committee (TUCEC) fi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1: The Inter-War Years 1926–1939
• Part 2: The War Years 1939–1945
• Part 3: The Immediate Post-War Years 1945–1959
• Part 4: A Time of Hope 1960–1970
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Index