Manx Labour Party
The Manx Labour Party is a political party on the Isle of Man that was founded in 1918. The party emerged as a major political force on the island, on the cusp of winning a majority in the House of Keys until a wipeout in the 1946 election. The party was the first time partisan politics had been introduced on the island, as its legislature, the Tynwald had historically been an apolitical organ of independents with several anti-Socialist parties forming to challenge the MLP such as the National Party and the Manx People's Political Association.
Policies
The Manx Labour Party published a manifesto of its positions in 2021. Some key planks included: taking a loan for the creation of ‘fit-for-purpose social housing’, the ‘banning of off-island speculation in the Manx housing market’, ‘increasing education spending to a minimum of 4% of GDP’ and the ‘trialling of free public transport with an aim to expand across the whole service in future’. It also voiced opposition to privatisation of the healthcare sector, and supported increasing the statutory minimum wage.Background
The Labour Party proper was founded in 1900 by the Trades Union Congress as the Labour Representation Committee to support union endorsed candidates, with the aim of overturning Taff Vale Rly Co v Amalgamated Society of Rly Servants which essentially outlawed striking. Voters gave the Liberals a landslide with 397 seats out of 664 while the new LRC won 29 seats with the LRC renaming itself "The Labour Party" with the two parties agreeing to support each other by not running candidates against each other. The bolstered Labour held a party conference in 1907 in Belfast seeking to expand their presence across the whole of the U.K., becoming more involved in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland while also abandoning staunch Marxist Socialism in favor of a more pragmatic approach. However, in the following decade the party would retreat, viewing Irish politics as too divergent from the rest of the U.K. due to the Home Rule movement, as well as a significant intra-party split over support of World War I. On February 6, 1918, parliament would pass the Representation of the People Act which greatly expanded the electorate, enfranchising all men and most women and spelled the end of the Liberal Party, with Labour seeing a surge of support among the working class to become one of the two major parties in the U.K. This resulted in Labour taking a renewed interest in expanding outside of England namely to regions such as the Isle of Man.The Isle of Man had long been a hub of Chartists printing presses which started in the 1840s, as the island's censorship laws where far more lenient than the mainland, nor did the Island have a tax-stamp for printed goods making it far cheaper to print there. For example the noted Chartist writer James Bronterre O'Brien relocated to the Isle of Man full time writing for papers such as the National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review of Home and Foreign Affairs. The Independent Labour Party had opened a Manx chapter by 1908, running a single candidate in that year's election to the House of Keys, Walter Clucas Craine, who earned 282 votes, but lost the election. Craine would go on to win a seat in the 1924 election for the Manx Labour Party.
File:W.C. Craine.jpg|thumb|right|Walter C. Craine stood as the "first Labour candidate" on the Isle of Man, running in 1908 for the Independent Labour Party. He would go on to be elected a Labour MHK in 1924.
Prior to 1917 the only Labour union on the isle was a local branch of the Dockers Union in Douglas when a branch of the Workers' Union was opened on the Isle which operated a "bread strike" starting in 1918 in opposition to continued involvement in World War I. Bread production on the island at the time was dictated by the war effort, with bread being prioritized for solders on the front, instead of locals at home, resulting in supply shortages that left many going hungry with bread being priced out of the diet of many of the working class especially after the government cut bread subsidies. Shortly after that strike workers on the Isle of Man Railway also organized a union. The immediate catalyst for the creation of a Manx Labour Party would be when an Old Age Pension bill, despite unanimous support among the House of Keys, was vetoed by Governor Raglan who was vehemently opposed to unions operating on the island. Alfred Teare, founder of the local branch of the Workers' Union, would attempt to raise the issue of pension reform directly to the Home Secretary Winston Churchill who responded that the matter must be taken up with Raglan. Due to this perceived government hostility or inaction towards reforms the Unions on the island began to form their own branch of the Labour Party. The bread strike started on 4 July and forced Governor Raglan to cancel the 1918 Tynwald Day ceremony. Raglan eventually backed down over the bread subsidy, and subsequently left the Island on long term sick leave. Teare was described in 1918 as ‘the most powerful man on the Island.’
History
On 7 September, 1918, the Manx Labour Party held its first annual conference, where it was decided the existing local chapter of the Independent Labour party would merge with the growing unions on the island into a concerted political force. The party's founders were John Coole, William Clucas, J. R. Corrin, William Dickinson, Harry M. Emery, James D. Fell, Annie Watterson, Christopher Shimmin, Alfred James Teare, Richard Kneen, James H, Cowley, J. J. Hodson, J. W. Cannell, Arthur Hadley and Nellie Taylor. Its formation was prompted by the high level of indirect taxation as a proportion of the Isle of Man Government's income, the relatively low wages, and the lack of social legislation. The founders of the party saw that as being unfair to the poorest in society and wanted to increase the reliance on income taxation instead, and to introduce social legislation such as old age pensions. Christopher R. Shimmin, a founder of the MLP, had written in 1915; "In Manxland there is no state insurance, no worker's compensation, no factory laws, and for the aged worker, when poor and feebly tottering to the grave, no old age pension. Rightly has the Isle of Man been called "A paradise for the rich but a purgatory for the poor". Besides the Chartists and unions, various reforming organisations such as the Manx Reform League, and a culture of debating societies and self-education societies focused around the Island's various churches also joined the party. Like similar parties in neighbouring countries, the MLP's influences were more Methodist than Marxist.Initial success (1919-1946)
1919 election
The immediate focus of the newly formed Labour Party was to enshrine the concessions given to the 1918 bread strike into law, as well as passing long-awaited pension reforms. However, cracks quickly began to emerge among Labour's coalition, especially as more militant Marxists refused to join the new Labour Party, instead opting to continue to support the Independent Labour Party, with that party opening various chapters across the island in the build-up to the election. Regardless the party campaign hard, spreading the 'gospel' of socialism out of Douglas' Temperance Hall and seeing significant break-through in Rushen due to the prominence of the tourism industry there, and the participation of the Rushen Progressive Association within the Labour Party. The party would stand in two by-elections to the House of Keys following the deaths of George Moore and Robert Moughtin, two MHKs from Douglas, standing Teare and J. R. Corrin with both losing their respective races. Regardless, the party pressed ahead to the general election in November, standing 11 candidates across the island on a platform of pension reform, opening of more asylums and hospitals, a national housing scheme, the abolition of the island's Poor law, the creation of an industrial council and the abolition of local school boards in favor a single body across the island. Four Labour candidates would win election, including Teare in Douglas South, Gerald Bridson in Middle, Christopher Shimmin an incumbent MHK which joined the Labour party was re-elected in Peel, and J. R. Corrin won a particularly 'lively' campaign in Rushen that saw seven candidates stand. The party's nomination and support of Bridson in middle, a rural constituency without an industrial base nor union presence, divided the party, however, his opposition was so sure of winning that they barely even campaigned while Labour held numerous rallies bussing in speakers from Douglas and other urban centers while also being greatly helped by the constituency adopting universal suffrage just before the election. The party also initiated a tradition where the candidates would be carried on supporters shoulders from their pre-election rally to the local polling place at the front of a procession of banners.File:Gerald Bridson.jpg|thumb|right|Gerald Bridson was elected MHK of the rural Middle sheading in 1919 despite the lack of an urban center and significant trade union presence.
As this was the first time that MHKs were elected to the Tynwald with a party affiliation, there was a significant effort by the anti-Labour opposition to have them removed from their seats for various legal reasons, however, each of these efforts failed with the opposition instead focusing on defeating Labour in the following elections in 1924. Despite this, in 1920 the new Tynwald started a programme of social reform. In 1920 Old Age pensions were introduced, a National Health Insurance Act was passed, a new Education Act was passed, and a school medical service established. In 1921 a Shop Hours Act was passed, and a winter works scheme was set up, to do works such as building promenades. Unemployment was higher in winter as most of the tourist industry, agriculture and fishing work was in the summer season. From 1922 to 1924 a housing programme was extended across the Island. One key area of unemployment was in returning World War I veterans, with a Labour initiative being spearheaded with the island forming a "29th Division" as a pseudo-military formation to work as labourers on government projects. The party also played a major role in governmental "direct action" in purchasing of surplus and blocking the export of potatoes when the 1920 crop failed to prevent a famine. Due to the efforts of the Labour Party in the House of Keys, the Isle of Man was largely 'immune' from the waves of strikes in England through the late 1910s through the 1920s and into the early 1930s, with only three major strikes during that time in 1920, 1928, and 1935. During the 1920 strike The White Palace, a major ballroom in Douglas, would burn to the ground resulting in significant debate on its owners behalf to ship in scab workers from England to circumvent the strike to rebuild the palace, it was around this time that the Manx Labour Party started to take a pro-Manx and anti-English attitude. In April 1920 the party held a massive rally to "show the flag" urging its supporters to more visibly display the Manx flag publicly as opposed to the Union Jack.