The Clarion (British newspaper)

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This article is about a British socialist newspaper. For other uses, see Clarion.

The Clarion
Media of the United Kingdom
  • List of newspapers

    • The Clarion was a weekly

    Anglo-Boer Wars and the First World War
    .

    History

    Julia Dawson's Clarion Van number One was named for the Scottish socialist Caroline Martyn[1]

    Blatchford and

    Merrie England in the paper, and also published work by a variety of writers, including George Bernard Shaw, and artwork by Walter Crane. The women's column was written initially by Eleanor Keeling Edwards and, from October 1895, as the women's letters page by Julia Dawson, the unmarried name of Julia Myddleton-Worrall. It was Julia Dawson who pioneered the Clarion Vans, which toured small towns and villages throughout England and Scotland from 1896 until 1929, spreading socialist messages.[1]

    A large number of associated clubs and societies (cycling, rambling, handicrafts, field, drama and Cinderella clubs, as well as "vocal unions" or choral societies) connected with the paper were created, of which the

    rambling club,[3]
    and survived until 2015.

    On 27 June 1904, three weeks before the

    Queen Alexandra opened Liverpool Cathedral, Jim Larkin and Fred Bower, workmen on the site, composed a message "from the wage slaves employed on the erection of this cathedral" to a future socialist society, and, along with a copy of the Clarion and the Labour Leader
    , placed it in a biscuit tin deep inside the brickwork and covered it.

    2KY
    .

    20th Century

    The paper enjoyed sales of around 30,000 copies a week for many years, but some readers gave it up after it argued in favour of the Second Boer War and against even limited women's suffrage. Circulation rose again as it became associated with the Labour Party and by 1907 it had reached 74,000. In 1912, Rebecca West became a contributor to The Clarion.[4] The paper again lost readers when it supported the First World War. It closed in 1931.

    Despite, or because of, its popularity, the Clarion was viewed with suspicion by both parliamentary and Marxist socialists, and has been treated as little more than a footnote in histories of English socialism. Margaret Cole wrote: "There never was a paper like it. It was not in the least the preconceived idea of a socialist journal. It was not solemn; it was not highbrow … It was full of stories, jokes and verses, sometimes pretty bad verses and pretty bad jokes, as well as articles."[5]

    Robert Blatchford stated in his book My Eighty Years:

    I will go as far as to say that during the first ten years of the Clarion's life that by no means popular paper had more influence on the public opinion in this country than any other English journal, The Times included.

    The Clarion was also popular in some other countries in the

    Australia. A Clarion Colony was established in New Zealand in 1901 by William Ranstead. At least one Clarion Cycling Club was established in New Zealand, at Christchurch
    in the 1890s.

    Legacy

    The New Clarion, founded in 1932, carried similar socialist and recreational content. Many of the cycling, rambling, theatre and other social clubs associated with the original Clarion continued, leaving a diverse legacy.

    The title The Clarion was adopted by another left-wing publication in late 2016. It is produced monthly as a "socialist magazine by Labour and Momentum activists". The magazine's editorial board consists of activists from various socialist traditions.

    Notes

    1. ^ a b "TheGlasgowStory: Clarion Van". www.theglasgowstory.com. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
    2. ^ Bill Bevan, From Cairns to Craters: Conservation Heritage Assessment of Burbage, 2006
    3. ^ Smith, Roly (17 April 2002). "Scout's honour". The Guardian.
    4. ISBN 3319632787
      (p.95).
    5. ^ cited by Martin Wright, Robert Blatchford, the Clarion Movement and the Crucial Years of British Socialism, 1891-1900, in Tony Brown (ed.) Edward Carpenter and Late Victorian Radicalism, (London: Frank Cass, 1990), page 75

    References

    External links

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