What year did Keir Hardie make a speech in Aberavon

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Q.� What was his background

A.� James Keir Hardie, was the illegitimate son of Mary Keir, a servant from Legbrannock, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Mary later married David Hardie, a ship's carpenter, and the family moved to the Partick district of Glasgow. At the age of eight, Hardie became a baker's delivery boy, earning 3s 6d a week for 12.5 hours a day. In January, 1866, Hardie's younger brother was dying and after spending most of the night looking after him, he arrived late for work. His employer sacked him and also fined him a week's wages. The family moved back to Lanarkshire, and at the age of 11, Hardie became a coal miner.

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Q.� So, that was the start of his socialism

A.� Keir Hardie never attended school and was illiterate until his mother taught him to read. He began to read newspapers and discovered how some workers were attempting to improve wages and working conditions by forming trade unions. Hardie helped establish a union at his colliery and in 1880 led the first strike of Lanarkshire miners. He was sacked and later became a journalist for a local newspaper. He became a union leader and published a workers' paper.

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Q.� But when did the dream of a new party emerge

A.� Hardie had been a Liberal, but soon became convinced that the workers needed their own party. With the support of miners' leader Robert Smillie, Hardie began advocating socialism and in 1888 stood as the Independent Labour candidate for Mid-Lanark. He finished at the bottom of the poll.

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Q.� So success eluded him

A.� No. In the 1892 General Election, Hardie stood as the Independent Labour candidate for the West Ham South constituency, east London, and won. He was the country's first socialist MP. Hardie created a sensation by entering Parliament wearing a cloth cap and tweed suit. The tradition was for MPs to wear top hats and long black coats. The next year he helped form the Independent Labour Party and was elected chairman.

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Q.� And then he went from strength to strength

A.� Not exactly. He lost his seat in 1895. The next year he was arrested while giving a speech in a park.

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Q.� And where did the unions come in

A.� Hardie believed that trade unions and the different socialist groups should join forces and form one large political party. After negotiations, the Labour Representation Committee was formed in 1900. It eventually became the Labour Party.

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Q.� Then

A.� In 1900, Hardie was elected MP for Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales,� it was then that I believe he made his speech in Aberavon, and soon Labour made a pact with the Liberals that they would not stand against each other in 30 constituencies in the next election. Labour won 29 seats in the 1906 election and the Liberals formed the new government. Hardie was elected party leader, but resigned in 1908, disillusioned by rivalries within the party. He died in 1915.

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Q.� Tributes

A.� The Workers' Republic said in its obituary: 'By the death of Comrade James Keir Hardie, labour has lost one of its most fearless and incorruptible champions, and the world one of its highest minded and purest souls,� living proof�that labour needed no heaven-sent saviour from the ranks of other classes.�May the earth rest lightly over his bosom.'

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By Steve Cunningham

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