Oxford University Labour Club

Oxford University Labour Club
Oxford University Labour Club
OULC Logo - White on red.jpg
Founded 1919
Home Page http://www.oulc.org/

The executive, Michaelmas Term 2011
Co-Chair Nicola Sugden, Balliol
Co-Chair Colin S. Jackson, LMH
Treasurer Chris Gray, Merton
Secretary Sarah Coombes, Jesus
Women's Officer Claire Smith, St. Hugh's
Social Secretary Tom Rutland, Jesus
Campaigns & External Links Officer Kevin Feeney, Trinity
Membership Officer & Treasurer Elect Hannah Wilkinson, LMH
Look Left Editor Anthony Breach, St. Hugh's
Co-Chair Elect David Butler, Jesus
Co-Chair Elect Tom 'AV' Adams, Jesus
Women's Officer Elect Grace Pollard, St. Hugh's

Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) was founded in 1919[1] to provide a voice for Labour Party values and for socialism and social democracy at Oxford University, England. It is the largest university Labour club in the country.

The club caters for any students who are interested in the ideals of the labour movement whether a lifelong member of the Labour Party or entirely new to politics. In a recent lecture Stewart Wood, special adviser to Gordon Brown and politics tutor at Magdalen College, said that 'OULC is held up as an exemplar of what needs to be done.' During his visit to Oxford in July 2009 the Prime Minister Gordon Brown was reported as having praised OULC’s 'brilliant contribution to progressive politics in the University, the city and the country.'[2] The club was instrumental in returning Andrew Smith to Parliament for Oxford East at the 2010 General Election with a 4.1% swing to Labour, the largest in England outside London.

OULC holds regular speaker events, social events, policy discussion and takes part in year-round campaigning activity, in the student movement for the Labour Party and on issues decided by the membership. In recent years, the club has hosted a number of high-profile figures from the Labour movement including Tony Benn, David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Andrew Adonis, Neil Kinnock, Lord Falconer, Alastair Campbell, Harriet Harman, Jeremy Corbyn, John Denham, Stephen Twigg, David Blunkett, Brendan Barber, Derek Simpson, Nick Cohen, Tessa Jowell and Jack Straw.

It also produces a termly magazine called Look Left and hosts an annual John Smith Memorial Dinner in the fifth week of the university's Hilary term.

Contents

OULC events

Speaker events

OULC has hosted a range of speakers from the Labour movement, including a number of high profile politicians. OULC’s good name within the Labour Party and the club’s outstanding contribution to progressive politics attracts prominent Labour politicians to the club every term. In Trinity term 2009 OULC hosted the then current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband. He commented 'I recently met with the OULC members and was impressed. [They] can help Labour be at the cutting edge.'

Policy fora

OULC holds regular informal meetings to discuss policy. This provides its members with an opportunity to engage in serious political debate. An October 2008 review of party political events by Cherwell (newspaper) commented that OULC is 'an active political party as opposed to a social gathering. Their meetings are informal, and last year they were visited by a number of prominent left wing politicians.' [3]

Campaigning

A significant aspect of the club is its involvement in year-round campaigning for Labour in Oxford. OULC is at the heart of efforts to keep Oxford East Labour, and contributed significantly to the election effort in July 2009 where Labour gained four seats on the county council, the most successful Labour result in the county. In its report on the election victory, Cherwell (newspaper) cited the club's then co-chair, Jacob Turner, as saying that he felt the result was a consequence of 'a very great effort from the local party including Labour Club members. We've been going out, meeting people, and asking them not to vote for us, but just how our councillors can help them. We've built up a relationship with residents which is ultimately expressed in voting.' [4] OULC turns out 20 campaigners every Sunday and in the final two weeks leading up to the county elections OULC members were out every day, including nearly 50 on election day. This made a huge contribution to Oxford East's position of having the highest voter contact rate of anywhere in the country (more than Wales, Scotland and the North-East put together). OULC on its own contacted almost 7,000 people in the run up the county election while 2,500 was the target contact rate for marginal CLPs. During the Easter holidays of 2011 OULC sent some campaigners to Edinburgh to campaign for the 2011 Scottish parliamentary elections and sent people to Reading, Slough, Southampton, Abingdon and Thame on local election day 2011.


Social events

OULC holds a number of social events including a fresher's dinner in Michaelmas Term and a barbecue in Trinity term. OULC’s most popular event, the annual John Smith Memorial Dinner, is hosted in the fifth week of Hilary term. The dinner commemorates the contribution and life of John Smith, the former Labour party leader, who died suddenly in 1994. Recent speakers at this event have included Neil Kinnock and Margaret Beckett

Constitution and organisation

OULC is run by an elected executive committee. The current Co-Chairs are Nicola Sugden and Colin S. Jackson.

OULC also holds General Meetings and Termly General Meetings at which its members can pass policy in the form of motions (such as submissions to the Labour Party's Policy Review), hear reports from the executive and elect (At the Termly General Meeting) the new executive.

Notable former members of the executive committee

Involvement in Labour politics

Labour Students

OULC was affiliated to, and had strong relations with, Labour Students, and former OULC chairs have held a number of prominent positions. Labour Students was nationally chaired in 2002/3 by Ellie Reeves, in 2003/4 by Karim Palant and in 2011/12 by Olivia Bailey. In 2004/5 Oliver Kempton was elected as Campaigns & Membership Officer, as was Steve Longden in 2006/7 and Emily Richards in 2007/8. However, on 16 February 2011 OULC voted, by 19 votes to 6, to disaffiliate from Labour Students at a general meeting, with speakers primarily citing a lack of genuine democracy within the organisation, lack of accountability and a lack of useful benefit to membership.

Other

OULC also has links with other socialist organisations, trade unions, and Labour Party groups, including the Oxford District, Reading and Slough Labour Parties.

Broader political involvement

Oxford University Student Union

Since the establishment of the Oxford University Student Union in the early 1970s, OULC has maintained a strong presence. There have been many Labour presidents, starting with John Grogan in the early 1980s, and OULC candidates have in recent years been successful in the 1997 (Katherine Rainwood; who then resigned after being caught cheating in her final exams), 1998 (Anneliese Dodds), 1999 (Kirsty McNeill), 2004 (Emma Norris), 2005 (Alan Strickland) and 2006 (Martin McCluskey) elections. OUSU's executive committee and delegate body has also had a consistently strong Labour presence.

National Union of Students

Stephen Twigg was National President of the National Union of Students and an OULC member in the early 1990s.

Local government

Six current or former members of OULC currently sit on Oxford City Council, and one is a County Councillor in Oxfordshire.

Parliament

At the 2005 General Election, five recent former OULC members stood for election as Labour candidates.

In parliament former OULC members include John Grogan, Ed Balls (although also a member of the Oxford University Conservative Association whilst at Oxford) , Ed and David Milliband, and in the European Parliament, Richard Corbett and Mary Honeyball.

History

David Lewis and the early 1930s

When David Lewis came to Oxford, the Labour Club was a tame organization adhering to Christian activism, or the not-quite-so-scrappy-socialist theories of people such as R. H. Tawney and his book The Acquisitive Society. David's modified Jewish Labour Bundist interpretation of Marxism, that Cameron Smith labels "Parliamentary Marxism," ignited the renewed interest in the club after the disappointment with Ramsay MacDonald's second Labour government.[5]

The Oxford newspaper The Isis noted Lewis' leadership ability at this early stage in his career in their February 7, 1934 issue: "The energy of these University Socialists is almost unbelievable. If the Socialist movement as a whole is anything like as active as they are, then a socialist victory at the next election is inevitable."[6]

In February 1934, British fascist William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw), visited Oxford. Lewis and future Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation leader Ted Jolliffe, organised a noisy protest against the fascist, by simply planting Labour Club members in the dance hall that Joyce was speaking in, and causing a commotion, as groups of two and three left making much noise on the creaking wooden floors. The speech was foiled. Afterwards, the Blackshirts contingent had a street battle in Oxford with members of the Labour Club and the townsfolk.[7]

Lewis prevented the communists from really making inroads at Oxford during his time there. He increased the Labour Club's membership by three quarters, from 484 members in December 1932 to over 850 members by the time he left, while the October club never rose above 300 members.[8] Ted Jolliffe stated "there was a difference between his speeches at the [Oxford] Union and his speeches at the Labour Club. His speeches at th Union had more humour in them; the atmosphere was entirely different. But his speeches at the Labour Club were deadly serious.... His influence at the Labour Club, more than anyone else's, I think, explains the failure of the Communists to make headway there."[9] In 1935, the Soviet controlled Comintern's Seventh Congress, called for a united left response to fascism, called the popular front. The communist October Club used this call, for a popular front, as a pretext to have a union between themselves and the Labour Club.[8] Under Lewis' leadership, the club was able to easily defeat a motion by the October Club, as only 20 OULC members voted for the union.[10]

When Lewis returned to Canada in the summer of 1935, there really wasn't anyone to replace him, to keep the communists at bay[11] as The Isis noted: "The Labour may have rejected fusion [with the October Club] but the matter is not yet settled. An interesting thing is the dearth of what are technically known as 'promising people' in the ranks of the Labour Club. For years the Labour Club has been turning out a Geoffrey Wilson, a Frank Hardie, a John Cripps, a David Lewis, each year: but this [coming] year there seems to be no figures as outstanding as these."[12]

Communist takeover

Since there wasn't a strong Labour leader to take over from Lewis after he graduated and left in the summer of 1935, the Labour Club amended its constitution to remove impediments to fusion with the communist October Club in December 1935.[11] Shortly thereafter the two clubs joined together forming a "popular front".[13] The club's membership peaked before the war at between 1000 and 1200 members depending on whose numbers were used, which was approximately a fifth of all of Oxford's 5023 students.[14] Of the club's total membership, the Communists made up approximately less than 200 members.[14]

World War II splits

The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 caused a major club split, with the communists now being strongly against British involvement in a European war that would have seen Britain fighting the Soviet Union. Following a vote to reaffirm OULC's affiliation to the popular front movement in early 1940 which resulted in the Labour Party disaffiliating the OULC, Executive members including Tony Crosland and Roy Jenkins decided to leave OULC and form Oxford University Democratic Socialist Club (OUDSC)[citation needed].

The schism was extremely damaging to the OULC, which was quickly reduced to an increasingly extreme communist rump; within 12 months the OULC had fewer than 100 members. Its standing was further damaged when the national Labour Party chose to allow the OUDSC to affiliate to it — making the OUDSC the effective student Labour Party body in Oxford, ignoring the presence of OULC. The club's financial future was also in jeopardy, as new OUDSC Treasurer Roy Jenkins and OULC Treasurer Iris Murdoch engaged in an ongoing battle about which new organization should carry the debts and assets present prior to the split[citation needed].

As the war progressed, membership of both clubs changed, and the reasons for the split became more the stuff of history, OULC and OUDSC merged following a referendum of the members of both clubs in 1943. It is interesting to note that many of the key protagonists of both clubs went on to be colleagues in future Labour governments. It is also of interest that Roy Jenkins in particular demonstrated a willingness to depart from established party organizations when his position would be better represented by a new, more moderate organisation. This foreshadowed the establishment of the Social Democratic Party over forty years later[citation needed].

References and notes

  1. ^ Smith, p. 195
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ Smith, p.187
  6. ^ The Isis, Feb. 7, 1934, p. 9
  7. ^ Smith, pp. 194–195
  8. ^ a b Smith, p.196
  9. ^ Smith, p.196. Ted Jolliffe in an interview with the author.
  10. ^ The Isis, May 29, 1935, p. 4
  11. ^ a b Smith, p. 197
  12. ^ The Isis, June 5, 1935, p. 13
  13. ^ Smith, p.197
  14. ^ a b Smith, p.554
  • Smith, Cameron (1989). Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family. Toronto: Summerhill Press. ISBN 0-929091-04-3. 
  • The Isis Newspaper. Oxford University

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