James Maxton

James Maxton (1885 – 23 July 1946) was a Scottish socialist politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party.

Born in the then burgh of Pollokshaws (now Pollok, Glasgow) in 1885, he was the son of two schoolteachers, the profession he would later enter himself after his education at Hutchesons' Grammar School and the University of Glasgow. He is viewed as one of the leading figures of the Red Clydeside era.

Maxton had whilst studying at the University of Glasgow described his political loyalties as lying with the Conservatives. He later embraced the ideology of socialism 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, who would also become a schoolteacher. Maclean was not alone in influencing Maxton; it was directly following a meeting in Paisley addressed by the socialist Philip Snowden that he decided to join the ILP.

Maxton in his later life 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, his sister Annie becoming a prominent figure.

Maxton, along with Maclean, was a vociferous opponent of World War I and spent a year in prison for campaigning against the war. As a conscientious objector he was given work on barges. 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 became the ILP MP for Glasgow Bridgeton at the 1922 general election and 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 TUC 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.

Maxton died (still a sitting MP for Bridgeton) in 1946. 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".

However, his forthright views often caused controversy; indeed, his parliamentary privileges were withdrawn temporarily in 1923 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 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-WW2 conscientious objector who went on to become MP for the Cathcart division of Glasgow from 1979 to 2001.

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.

References

* Gordon Brown: "Maxton – A Biography." Mainstream Publishing, 1986. ISBN 1-85158-042-5
* R. Dowse: "Left in the Centre" (1966)
* Keith Middlemas: "The Clydesiders" (1965)

External links

* [http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redclypeo004.htm Strathclyde University Digital Library entry on James Maxton]
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUmaxton.htm Biography of Maxton] from Schoolnet