Editing George Lansbury (section)

==National prominence==

===Campaigner for women's suffrage===
[[File:Cat and Mouse Act Poster - 1914.jpg|thumb|upright|WSPU poster from 1914, denouncing the Liberal government's controversial "[[Cat and Mouse Act]]"]]
In the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|general election of January 1906]] Lansbury stood as an independent socialist candidate in [[Middlesbrough (UK Parliament constituency)|Middlesbrough]], on a strong "votes for women" platform. This was his first campaign based on women's rights since the LCC election of 1889. He had been recommended to the constituency by Joseph Fels, who agreed to meet his expenses. The local ILP leadership was committed by an electoral pact to support the Liberal candidate, and could not endorse Lansbury, who secured less than 9 per cent of the vote.<ref name= S83>Shepherd 2002, pp. 83–88</ref> The campaign had been managed by [[Marion Coates Hansen]], a prominent local suffragist. Under Hansen's influence Lansbury took up the cause of "votes for women";<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 89</ref> he allied himself with the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] (WSPU), the more militant of the main suffragist organisations, and became a close associate of [[Emmeline Pankhurst]] and her family.<ref name="Schneer 1990, p. 95">Schneer 1990, p. 95</ref>

The Liberal government elected in 1906 with a large majority showed little interest in the issue of women's suffrage;<ref>Schneer 1990, p. 93</ref> when they lost their parliamentary majority in the [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|general election of January 1910]] they were dependent on the votes of the 40-odd Labour members.{{refn|In 1900 the [[British Labour Party#Labour Representation Committee (1900–1906)|Labour Representation Committee]] (LRC) had been formed to promote greater working class representation in parliament. In 1906 the LRC became a ''de facto'' political party, "the Labour Party", to which socialist bodies (SDF, ILP, trade unions) could affiliate; MPs elected under the LRC banner took the label "Labour".  The party did not acquire its modern mass-membership nature until reforms under a new constitution were implemented in 1918.<ref>{{cite journal|author-link= Henry Pelling|last= Pelling|first= Henry|title= The Emergence of the Labour Party|url= http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~semp/labour.htm|journal= New Perspective|volume= 1|issue= 2|date= December 1995}}</ref> |group= n}} To Lansbury's dismay, Labour did not use this leverage to promote votes for women, instead giving the government virtually unqualified support to keep the Conservatives out of power.<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 94</ref><ref>Schneer 1990, p. 96</ref> Lansbury had failed to win election as Labour's candidate at Bow and Bromley in January 1910; however, the continuing political crisis which developed from [[David Lloyd George]]'s controversial 1909 "[[People's Budget]]" led to another [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|general election in December 1910]]. Lansbury again fought Bow and Bromley, and this time was successful.<ref>Postgate, p. 103</ref>

Lansbury found little support in his fight for women's suffrage from his parliamentary Labour colleagues, whom he dismissed as "a weak, flabby lot".<ref name="Schneer 1990, p. 95"/> In parliament, he denounced the prime minister, [[H. H. Asquith]], for the cruelties being inflicted on imprisoned suffragists: "You are beneath contempt ... you ought to be driven from public life". He was temporarily suspended from the House for "disorderly conduct".<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 112–13</ref> In October 1912, aware of the unbridgeable gap between his own position and that of his Labour colleagues, Lansbury resigned his seat to fight a [[1912 Bow and Bromley by-election|by-election in Bow and Bromley]] on the specific issue of women's suffrage.<ref>Schneer 1990, p. 104</ref> The suffragettes sent [[Grace Roe]] to help with the campaign.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/Wroe.htm|title=Grace Roe|website=Spartacus Educational|access-date=4 August 2019}}</ref> He lost to his Conservative opponent, who campaigned on the slogan "No Petticoat Government".<ref>Schneer 1990, p. 107 and 112–17</ref> Commenting on the result, the Labour MP [[Will Thorne]] opined that no constituency could ever be won on the single question of votes for women.<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 128</ref>

Out of parliament, on 26 April 1913 Lansbury addressed a WSPU rally at the [[Albert Hall]], and openly defended violent methods: "Let them burn and destroy property and do anything they will, and for every leader that is taken away, let a dozen step forward in their place". For this, Lansbury was charged with incitement, convicted and, after the dismissal of an appeal, sentenced to three months' imprisonment.<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 131–32</ref> He immediately went on hunger strike, and was released after four days; although liable to rearrest under the so-called [[Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913|"Cat and Mouse Act"]],{{refn|The Cat and Mouse Act, officially the [[Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913]], allowed for the temporary release of hunger-striking prisoners when they were in danger of death from starvation, and their re-imprisonment when they had sufficiently recovered.<ref>Postgate, p. 130</ref>|group= n}} he was thereafter left at liberty.<ref>Postgate, p. 131</ref> In the autumn of 1913, at the invitation of Fels, Lansbury and his wife travelled to America and Canada for an extended holiday. On his return, he devoted his main efforts to the recently founded newspaper, the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]''.<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 135–37</ref>

===War, ''Daily Herald'' and Bolshevism===
{{Further|Daily Herald (UK newspaper)}}
[[File:George Lansbury.jpg|thumb|Lansbury in 1920]]
The ''Daily Herald'' began as a temporary bulletin during the London printers' strike of 1910–11. After the strike ended, Lansbury and others raised sufficient funds for the ''Herald'' to be relaunched in April 1912 as a socialist daily newspaper.<ref>Postgate, pp. 134–38</ref> The paper attracted contributions from distinguished writers such as [[H. G. Wells]], [[Hilaire Belloc]], [[G. K. Chesterton]] and [[George Bernard Shaw]], some of whom, Blythe notes, "weren't socialists at all but simply used [the paper] as a platform for their personal literary anarchy."<ref name= Blythe276>Blythe, pp. 276–77</ref> Lansbury contributed regularly in support of his various causes, in particular the militant suffrage campaign,<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 104</ref> and early in 1914 assumed the paper's editorship.<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 148</ref>

Before the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in August 1914, the ''Herald'' took a strong anti-war line.<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 158</ref> Addressing a large demonstration in [[Trafalgar Square]] on 2 August 1914, Lansbury blamed the coming conflict on capitalism: "The workers of all countries have no quarrel. They are ... exploited in times of peace and sent out to be massacred in times of war".<ref>Schneer 1990, p. 136</ref> Lansbury's position was at odds with that of most of the Labour movement, which allied itself with the wartime coalition governments of Asquith and, from 1916, Lloyd George.{{refn|[[Arthur Henderson]], who led the parliamentary Labour group between 1914 and 1917, occupied several cabinet posts under Asquith and Lloyd George, and was a member of the latter's small inner war cabinet. Other Labour members with government posts included [[William Brace]] and [[George Henry Roberts|George Roberts]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|last= Wrigley|first= Chris|title= Henderson, Arthur|url= http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33807?docPos=1|date= January 1911|doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/33807|access-date= 16 February 2013}} {{subscription required}}</ref>|group= n}} In the prevailing jingoistic mood, numerous readers looked to the ''Herald''—reduced by wartime economies to a weekly format—to present a balanced news perspective, untainted by war fever and chauvinism.<ref name= Blythe276/> During the winter of 1914–15, Lansbury visited the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] trenches. He sent eye-witness accounts to the paper, which supported calls for a negotiated peace with Germany in line with President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s later "peace note" of January 1917. The paper also gave sympathetic coverage to conscientious objectors, and to Irish and Indian nationalists.<ref>Holman. p. 81</ref>

[[File:George Lansbury - cartoon - Project Gutenberg eText 17653.png|thumb|upright|left|A ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' cartoon of 22 September 1920, mocking Lansbury's denials of Bolshevist funding for the ''Daily Herald''. The crowing cockerel satirises the Biblical [[Denial of Peter]].]]
Lansbury used the pages of the ''Daily Herald'' to welcome the [[Russian Revolution#February Revolution|February 1917 revolution in Russia]] as "a new star of hope&nbsp;... arisen over Europe".<ref>Boulton, p. 235</ref> At an Albert Hall rally on 18 March 1918 he hailed the spirit and enthusiasm of "this Russian movement", and urged his audience to "be ready to die, if necessary, for our faith".<ref>Schneer 1990, p. 168</ref> When the war ended in November 1918, Lloyd George called an [[1918 United Kingdom general election|immediate general election]], correctly calculating that victory euphoria would keep his coalition in power. In this triumphalist climate, candidates such as Lansbury who had opposed the war found themselves unpopular, and he failed to retake his Bow and Bromley seat.<ref name= P183>Postgate, p. 183</ref>

The ''Herald'' re-emerged as a daily paper in March 1919.<ref>Postgate, pp. 184–85</ref> Under Lansbury's direction it maintained a strong and ultimately successful campaign against British intervention in the [[Russian Civil War]].<ref name= Blythe276/> In February 1920 Lansbury travelled to Russia where he met [[Lenin]] and other [[Bolshevik]] leaders.<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 183–84</ref> He published an account: ''What I Saw in Russia'',<ref name= ODNB/> but the impact of the visit was overshadowed by accusations that the ''Herald'' was being financed from Bolshevist sources, a charge vehemently denied by Lansbury: "We have received no Bolshevist money, no Bolshevist paper, no Bolshevist bonds". Unknown to Lansbury, the allegations had some truth which, when exposed, caused him and the paper considerable embarrassment.<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 187–88</ref> By 1922 the ''Herald''{{-'}}s financial problems had become such that it could no longer continue as a private venture financed by donations. Lansbury resigned the editorship and made the paper over to the Labour Party and the [[Trades Union Congress]] (TUC), although he continued to write for it and remained its titular general manager until 3 January 1925.<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 223–24</ref><ref>Postgate, pp. 221–22</ref>

==="Poplarism": the 1921 rates revolt===
{{Main|Poplar Rates Rebellion}}
[[File:Mural Poplar Rates.jpg|thumb|The [[Poplar Rates Rebellion Mural]] in Poplar commemorates the 1921 rates revolt.]]
Throughout his national campaigns, Lansbury remained a Poplar borough councillor and Poor Law guardian, and between 1910 and 1913 served a three-year term as a London County Councillor.<ref name= ODNB/><ref>Postgate, p. 102</ref> In 1919 he became the first Labour mayor of [[Metropolitan Borough of Poplar|Poplar]].<ref>Shepherd 2002, p. 191</ref> Under the then-existing financial system for local government, boroughs were individually responsible for poor relief within their boundaries. This discriminated heavily against poorer councils such as Poplar, where [[Rates (tax)|rates]] revenues were low and poverty and unemployment, always severe, were exacerbated in times of economic recession.{{refn|In 1921 the borough of Poplar, with a population of 161,000, has a rateable value of less than £1 million; the product of a penny rate was £3643. By contrast, the rateable value of the wealthy borough of Westminster, with a population of 141,000, was £8 million, and the product of a penny rate was £31,719.<ref name= P216/>|group= n}} Under this system, Postgate argues, "The wealthy West End boroughs were evading responsibility, as though the desolate and silent docks were the results of a failure by the Poplar Borough Council".<ref name= P216>Postgate, pp. 216–220</ref> In addition to meeting the costs of its own obligations, the council was required to levy [[Precept#Secular law|precepts]] to pay for services provided by bodies such as the London County Council and the [[Metropolitan Police]].<ref name= S194>Shepherd 2002, p. 194</ref> Lansbury had long argued that a degree of rates equalisation across London was necessary, to share costs more fairly.<ref name= S54/>

At its meeting on 22 March 1921 the Poplar Council resolved not to make its precepts and to apply these revenues to the costs of local poor relief.<ref name= S194/> This illegal action created a sensation, and led to legal proceedings against the council. On 29 July the thirty councillors involved marched in procession from Bow to the [[High Court of Justice|High Court]], headed by a brass band. Informed by the judge that they must apply the precepts, the councillors would not budge; early in September, Lansbury and 29 fellow-councillors were imprisoned for contempt of court. Among those sentenced were his son [[Edgar Lansbury (politician)|Edgar]] and Edgar's wife, [[Minnie Lansbury|Minnie]].<ref name= P216/>

The defiance of the Poplar councillors generated widespread interest and sympathy, and the publicity embarrassed the government. Several other Labour-controlled councils (including Stepney whose mayor was the future Labour leader [[Clement Attlee]]) threatened similar policies.<ref name= S201>Shepherd 2002, pp. 200–01</ref> After six weeks' incarceration the councillors were released, and a government conference was convened to resolve the matter. This conference brought a significant personal victory for Lansbury: the passage of the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act, which equalised the poor relief burden across all the London boroughs. As a result, the rates in Poplar fell by a third, and additional revenues of £400,000 was gained by the borough.<ref name= P216/><ref name= S201/> Lansbury was hailed as a hero; in the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 general election]] he won the parliamentary seat of Bow and Bromley with a majority of nearly 7,000, and would hold it for the rest of his life. The term "Poplarism", always identified closely with Lansbury, became part of the political lexicon, applied generally to campaigns where local government stood against central government on behalf of the poor and least privileged of society.<ref name= ODNB/>