Cambridge Universities Labour Club
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| Founded | 1905 / 1934 | ||
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| Home Page | www.cambridgeuniversitylabour.co.uk | ||
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Honorary offices |
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| President | The Rt. Hon. Andy Burnham MP, Fitzwilliam | ||
| Vice-President | Alastair Campbell, Gonville and Caius | ||
| Vice-President | The Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, Anglia Ruskin University | ||
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Current executive offices |
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| Chair | Richard Johnson, Jesus | ||
| Vice-Chair | Nicola Bartlett, Homerton | ||
| Secretary | Martha Morey, Fitzwilliam | ||
| Treasurer | Tom Conway, Trinity | ||
| Campaigns and CLP Liaison Officer | Tom Moule, Girton | ||
| Women's Officer | Clare Walker-Gore, Selwyn | ||
| Publicity Officer | Akilah Jeffers, Girton | ||
| Socials Officer | Sean Keeley, Homerton | ||
| Membership Development Officer | Sam Ahmed, Girton | ||
| IT Officer | Will Day, Downing | ||
The Cambridge Universities Labour Club (CULC) is a political society whose predecessor was first set up in 1905, which now seeks to unite socialist and social democratic students at Cambridge University with the Labour Party by propagating "the values of Clause 4 of the Labour Party’s constitution, to the effect that we are a "democratic socialist party" that "believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone…".[1] Today its membership also includes students from Anglia Ruskin University. Its varied past has seen it go through several disaffiliations, including periods in the 1960s and 1970s when it was under the influence of the Militant Tendency and disaffiliated with the national Labour Party. It is currently a part of the Labour Party again, and Labour Students.
The club runs speaker meetings, campaign sessions with the local Labour Party, and other social events each term. It also runs its own campaigns on issues such as a Living Wage for employees of Cambridge University and in support of ethical investment by Cambridge Colleges. The club also offers its members trips to the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street.
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[edit] History
According to Cyril Bibby's biography (p.170), the Cambridge University Labour Club was founded in Easter Term 1934 "by a group of us who were disconcerted with the manner in which the communists had come to dominate the C.U. Socialist Society." Bibby says that he was the inaugural Junior Treasurer, while Lionel Elvin was the university-required 'Senior Treasurer'.
CULC has gone through several name changes. The society it began as an offshoot of was founded as the Cambridge University Fabian Society in 1905, and then changed its name in June 1915 to Cambridge University Socialist Society (which retained a separate Fabian Society within it), dedicated to "complete political and industrial democracy... [and] supersession of the capitalist system". It then changed its name to Cambridge University Labour Club in 1920, before reverting to being the C.U. Socialist Society at the end of the decade.
CULC has at various times since gone under the names Cambridge University Socialist Club, Cambridge Organisation of Labour Students, and then simply Cambridge Labour. It readopted the name Cambridge University Labour Club at the end of the 1990s and changed to its current name in 2007. The acronym CULC had historically belonged to the Cambridge University Liberal Club, before they became the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats in 1988, and the acronym is still shared to this day with the Cambridge University Lacrosse Club.
The Club was most influential from the 1930s to the 1970s, when left-leaning schools of thought in British academia were centred at Cambridge, in areas such as Keynesian economics and Marxist historiography, resulting in numerous influential Cambridge Fellows and their students being members.
Also active until at least the 1960s was 'SocSoc' or the Cambridge University Socialist Society.
[edit] Recent News
On 4 November 2010, former CULC Chair and member of Jesus College, George Owers, was elected to become the Labour councillor for Coleridge ward on Cambridge City Council following the resignation of the single remaining Conservative councillor in Cambridge. Owers' victory means that all of the councillors in Coleridge are now members of the City Council Labour group. Owers won with 44% of the vote, a considerable improvement on Labour's previous performances in the ward.[2]
[edit] Alumni
As a society, CULC has produced such notable alumni as:
- Diane Abbott, MP
- Clifford Allen, CU Fabian Society Chairman 1910, Labour peer
- Brian Barder, former Diplomat
- Clive Betts, MP
- Cyril Bibby
- Rupert Brooke, CU Fabian Society President 1909, poet
- Andy Burnham, MP, Secretary of State for Health
- Anne Campbell, MP
- Charles Clarke, former MP and Home Secretary; elected President of the Cambridge Students' Union on a Labour party slate.
- F. M. Cornford, CU Fabian Society committee member 1910, classical scholar
- Hugh Dalton, CU Fabian Society President 1908, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Professor Lord Eatwell, former special advisor to Neil Kinnock and President of Queen College Cambridge
- Charles Falconer, Lord Chancellor and QC
- Andrew Gilligan, journalist
- David Hardman, first Labour President of the Cambridge Union in 1925, MP
- Patricia Hewitt, MP, former Secretary of State for Health
- Geoff Hoon, MP, Secretary of State for Defence
- Tristram Hunt, MP, historian
- Derry Irvine, Lord Chancellor
- Greville Janner, CULC President 1950, MP and President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
- Andrew Marr, journalist
- Damian McBride, former Special Advisor to Gordon Brown - famous for "smeargate".
- Vernon Henry Mottram, CU Fabian Society founding President 1905, physiologist and nutritionist
- Francis Noel-Baker, MP
- Amber Reeves, CU Fabian Society committee member 1907, feminist writer
- Peter Shore, CULC Chairman, MP and cabinet minister
- Chris Smith MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
- J.C. Squire, CU Fabian Society founding committee member 1905, poet, writer, historian
It has been reported that when the young Prince Charles was a student at Trinity College, Cambridge in the 1960s, he attempted to join the Labour Club, but was warned against doing so by the Master of Trinity, former Conservative politician R.A. Butler.[3]
[edit] Former Presidents and Chairs
[edit] Presidents of Cambridge University Fabian Society
| Name | College | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Vernon Henry Mottram | King's | 1905-6 |
| Edith Moddgridge | Girton | President-Elect in 1906 - barred by her college from taking office. |
| Frederick Hillersdon Keeling | Trinity | 1906-7 |
| Hugh Dalton | King's | 1907-8 |
| Rupert Brooke | King's | 1908-9 |
| Clifford Allen | Peterhouse | 1909-10 |
[edit] Chairs of Cambridge University Labour Club
| Name | College | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Peter Shore | King's | c.1948 |
| Break in records | ||
| Greville Janner | Trinity Hall | Michaelmas 1950 |
| Break in records | ||
| Christopher Norwood | Gonville and Caius | c.1952 |
| Break in records | ||
| Hugh Garside | c. late 1950s | |
| Tony Hopgood | Pembroke | Lent 1958 |
| Barbara Bowden | Girton | Easter 1958 |
| Brian Lapping | Pembroke | Michaelmas 1958 |
| Break in records | ||
| David Saunders | c.1960 | |
| Break in records | ||
| Hugh Anderson | Trinity | Easter 1970 |
| Break in records | ||
| Toby Harris | Trinity | Michaelmas 1973 |
| Break in records | ||
| Tim Stanley | Trinity | 2003-4 |
| Jane Jacks | Lucy Cavendish | 2004-5 |
| Martin Arrowsmith | Jesus | 2005-6 |
| Luke Pearce | King's | 2006-7 |
| Clare Harrisson | Trinity | 2007-8 |
| William Redfern | Gonville and Caius | 2008-9 |
| George Owers | Jesus | 2009-10 |
| Ashley Walsh | Downing | 2010-1 |
| Richard Johnson | Jesus | 2011-2 |
[edit] Criticisms
The Cambridge Universities Labour Club is a broad church, independent from, but affiliated to the National Labour Party. It has caused controversy at times by making criticisms of the Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA)and Cambridge University for being excessively elitist and dedicated to preserving the image of antiquated class distinctions.[4][citation needed] CUCA has responded denying these claims, arguing that CULC has misconceived CUCA[5]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.srcf.ucam.org/labourclub/culccon.doc
- ^ http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/democracy/mgElectionAreaResults.aspx?XXR=0&ID=47&RPID=4636711
- ^ Bates, Stephen (27 September 2002). "Leaks of prince's letters to ministers spiral". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/sep/27/Whitehall.politics1. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
- ^ http://cambridgeunilabour.blogspot.com/2010/02/class-matters.html
- ^ http://www.cuca.org.uk/2009/10/09/hugh-burling-on-bbfg/
[edit] External links
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