Where socialism first took root
http://www.labourcolnevalley.co.uk/
URGENT: Please support my election campaign! I’m standing in Golcar ward against a well-entrenched Liberal Democrat councillor. Election date is Thursday May 3rd.
Paul and Hilary mount a united front for Golcar Labour
We won last year and with a fair wind – and lots of effort – we can repeat our sucecss this time round. But we need help canvassing and leafletting. Ring me on 07795 008691
NEW! Listen to ‘How Red was Our Valley’ – a radio drama of our history. Click on to link below:
http://www.twovalleysradio.co.uk/listenagain/how-red-was-our-valley/
The Colne Valley Constituency, most of which is in Huddersfield, has a long and proud history. The area was a hotbed of socialist activity from the early 1880s. We even had our own socialist brass band at Milnsbridge! (pictured below) In 1907 Colne Valley elected the radical socialist Victor Grayson. He is pictured here outside Slaithwaite Town Hall – or nearby, tell us if you know where! – immediately after the count.
Today, the Labour Party in the Colne Valley is alive and well and campaigning hard to resist Coalition cuts and to present a viable progressive alternative.
Our website is being developed and already has lots in it: www.labourcolnevalley.co.uk
We celebrated our 120th anniversary in July 2011 – a packed meeting at the Wateshed saw a production of the play ‘How Red was Our Valley’ with a talk 
by Lord Clark. The East Lancashire Clarion Choir sang superbly.
Here’s a group of us (left) outside 23 Nabbs Lane, where the first meeting of Colne Valley Labour Union was held, on July 21st 1891.
Our Garden Party on July 24th was a great success, with about 50 members and friends attending and lovely sunshine.
Tabatha Ellam was our local election candidate for Colne Valley Ward and came close to getting elected. She pushed the Liberal Democrats into 3rd place and lost to the Tory by 102 votes. If some of the people on the left who voted Green had supported Labour, we’d have had a lively socialist feminist young woman on the council. Golcar ward elected Labour’s Hilary Richards – a great win, and a success we hope to repeat next year. I will be the candidate!
Posts
If some of those people who voted Labour in Kirkburton voted Green we’d have 2 less Tories on the Council (one of whom the BNP thought was a bit more right wing than them!) and we’d have some committed community minded Green councillors as well. I find local politics is never as convenient as we’d all like sometimes and possibly rightly so. We all have our roles to play in the mix. We did not stand a candidate in Heckmondwike for several years to help play our part in removing the BNP cllrs. I’ve not noticed any reciprocal action from Labour but then I’m not really expecting it.
August 29, 2011 @ 4:51 pm
Equally, if those who voted Green in Colne Valley last May had switched to Labour we’d have an extra, socialist and feminist, Labour councillor……sounds like the sensible thing to do would be to talk about it with Mehboob and Labour Group
August 29, 2011 @ 9:10 pm
[...] – Now we have a double bill of radio plays starting with the Colne Valley Labour Society who bring us a radio adaptation of the history of their group. Expect a rousing [...]
December 8, 2011 @ 4:36 pm
[...] Colne Valley Labour Party – Our evening of radio plays starts with Colne Valley Labour Party, who bring us a radio adaptation of the history of their group. Expect a rousing ‘Internacionale’… [...]
December 12, 2011 @ 11:22 pm
But the Labour Party isnt Socialist
December 27, 2011 @ 9:58 am
How do you define ‘socialism’ in the 21st century? There are plenty of people in the Labour Party who are dedicated socialists by any definition – though it’s arguable if the Labour Party has ever been ‘socialist’ in a way that some comrades on the far left would recognise. But, the Labour Party has achieved, in the hard real world out there, a heck of a lot more than all of the groups to the left of Labour have managed to do over the last 100 years. Boring stuff like the NHS, comprehensive schools, freedom to roam, devolution for Scotland and Wales, programmes like SureStart… I could go on…..not ‘revolutionary’ stuff but incredibly important to the lives of millions of people.
December 27, 2011 @ 8:36 pm
Revolutionary Socialists believe in reforms and are among the best people giving a lead and building the struggle for them outside of parliament. Many of the achievements you name have in fact been won as much by pressure from outside of parliament as they have from within it and this is increasingly the case.
January 29, 2012 @ 5:33 pm
It needs both – it’s daft to say that achievements like the NHS were achieved without parliamentary action. You need a combination of parliamentary action backed up by organising at community level and in the workplace.
April 4, 2012 @ 7:57 pm
[...] each of the parties, from different wards in the valleys. Our guests this afternoon will be Paul Salveson for Labour in Golcar; David Ridgway for Liberal Democrats in the Colne Valley; Donald Firth for [...]
April 29, 2012 @ 11:14 am
[...] each of the parties, from different wards in the valleys. Our guests this afternoon will be Paul Salveson for Labour in Golcar; David Ridgway for Liberal Democrats in the Colne Valley; Donald Firth for [...]
April 29, 2012 @ 9:05 pm
Enjoyed it! You are doing a great job.
May 7, 2012 @ 8:55 pm