BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012

Subject: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Soldier boy
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 10:17 PM

Next year marks the 200th anniversary of the Luddite movement and revolt against the advent of the shearing frames in 1812.

This was when skilled croppers who had served a 7 year apprenticeship to learn their trade were suddenly challenged by the new industrial revolution and the invention of the Shearing Frame that could do the job of 10 skilled croppers.

Many croppers feared they would never work again and unemployment at that time meant certain poverty and starvation!
So they turned to war to smash up the new machines.

Much of the Luddite uprising occured in the Colne Valley near Huddersfield where I live and the main protagonists came from this area and were involved in the murder of William Horsfall, a wealthy mill owner from Marsden. For which they would be hanged (and dissected!)at york.

I have recently done lots of research about this and have written a short play about the Luddites who were the key players in all the action in my Colne Valley and was wondering:

* What else is planned in 2012 to mark/celebrate the Luddite revolution so things can be co-ordinated and so we can work together to mark this important landmark.

* What further information and reference can you point me to about the Luddite revolution and these times that could perhaps lead me to write a much longer play to celebrate the Luddites next year?

Any further information and collaboration would be very welcome indeed!

Many thanks.

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 12:14 AM

How interesting, Chris! I never knew about that. I look forward to reading more.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 04:01 AM

"What else is planned in 2012 to mark/celebrate the Luddite revolution so things can be co-ordinated and so we can work together to mark this important landmark."

Sounds like incitement to riot????????

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 07:07 AM

Good luck with your project, Chris, and I'd be interested in seeing your play if you have any plans for producing it.

I haven't read Kevin Binfield's book Writings of the Luddites, but it sounds as if it contains a lot of the information you're looking for (if you haven't already seen it). There is an online article by Kevin Binfield about Luddite Songs which is very useful.

Roy Palmer's recent book Working Songs has quite a lot of information about the Luddites in Chapter 4 Hunger breaks fences.

Matthew

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 09:57 AM

Fascinating! Just last week I was accusing my siblings of being Luddites because they refuse to accept the new Google+ program application as a way to keep in touch with me. Times do change!

I hope you'll post any news of a celebration or any songs you discover related to this topic.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Greg F.
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 10:58 AM

Very timely, too, considering the vast numbers of people currently being put out of work by technology & automation and/or having their jobs exported to 2nd & 3rd world countries.

The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again.

                  -George Santayana

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 04:15 PM

Much of the Luddite uprising occured in the Colne Valley near Huddersfield where I live and the main protagonists came from this area and were involved in the murder of William Horsfall, a wealthy mill owner from Marsden. For which they would be hanged (and dissected!)at york.


Sounds like they should be remembered as murdering thugs.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 04:23 PM

You would see it that way. See how fast you can demoralize this discussion, eh, Bozo?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Greg F.
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 04:36 PM

Murdering thugs - like the mill owners ya mean? I suspect Horsfall himself was responsible for any number of deaths.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Soldier boy
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 06:16 PM

Thanks for many positive and encouraging comments and information here folks.

Looking back on those times I agree that it is difficult to take sides and say whether you would support the Luddites or the masters/mill owners and who was to blame.

My mind says progress is progress and the fledgling industrial revolution could not be stopped but my heart feels for the croppers who became Luddites to save not only their livelyhoods but their ability to work or die from starvation. There was no over-indulgent 'benefits' state then!

These were very hard and troubled times and it is very difficult to imagine what we would have done if we had been around in 1812!

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: saulgoldie
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 08:55 PM

Some interesting related links. The last one is about 50 minutes, a slow "human-paced" discussion of the phenomenon of the relationship between tech and human experiences. I think that the challenge for humans is to keep tech in its place as a tool for humans, and not to let it replace many valuable and important aspects of human interaction that make us human. (But then, whadoIknow?)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8UDKW9l2dw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7IOCA9sQL4&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNE-5YCiJEw&feature=related


http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2011/ccp-turkle/


Saul

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 09:12 AM

I suspect this is a thread that should have started above the line. Interesting material and it already has a number of songs associated with it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 03:16 PM

One aspect of Luddism which I am curious about is the extent to which the conspiracy arose out of a pre-existing network of fraternal lodges. Luddites swore oaths of loyalty and secrecy which might have been inspired by similar oaths in craft associations and/or masonic lodges. Was there a well-developed system of journeymen's mutual aid societies which could have fostered covert political action? Such societies, if they existed, would have been secretive, as there was a law forbidding workers to "combine".

I did some superficial research (Wikipedia and so forth) about Luddism for several pieces I produced for Kootenay Co-op Radio. (Episode 3 deals with the origins of Luddism in Notts and Lancs and episode 4 with the Yorkshire croppers.) But there's lots of treatments of things Luddic by serious academic writers which I haven't looked into. Maybe this issue is thoroughly explicated by one of them. I understand that American trade unions evolved from fraternal lodges.

On the murdering thugs issue: the authorities drew the first blood when troops defending Rawfolds Mill killed several Luddites. And they drew the last blood, when a dozen or so men were hanged for the crime of machine-breaking. Many Luddites believed that insurrection was justified by the lawlessness of manufacturers and authorities who ignored royal charters granting craftsmen jurisdiction over their own trades.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 03:44 PM

A side note: the Luddites were not the first group of people to rebel over technology and the fact it was taking away their means of livelihood.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Soldier boy
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 09:18 PM

Good stuff folks. Please keep it coming.

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 06 Sep 11 - 05:30 PM

Another very good source would be the online British Library Collection of 19th Century Newspapers, which you should be able to access through your local library [in UK only], where you can find contemporary reports of Luddite and similar activity in 1812. The reports aren't sympathetic to the frame breakers and mill burners, but you can get a very good idea of just how unsettled many parts of the country were from some local and national newpaper accounts. If you can find the reports of trials you may see some limited accounts of what people said in their defence.

For example the Leeds Mercury of May 2 1812 not only reports the "Atrocious Murder" of William Horsfall, but also several other attacks on factories, mills and on manufacturers themselves, and mentions an earlier riot in Sheffield.

Worth checking out - but it is very easy to get lost following other fascinating stories!

Matthew

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Soldier boy
Date: 06 Sep 11 - 07:10 PM

Thank you very much Matthew.

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: open mike
Date: 07 Sep 11 - 09:53 AM

No mention of Ned Ludd? any info about this person, is he fictitious/ or mythical ? Often the term luddite is used to describe people
who do not appreciate new inventions, such as ball point pens and
typewriters, so your play, to be true to the source, should be hand
written in pencil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Ludd
http://www.lycos.com/info/luddites--ned-ludd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 07 Sep 11 - 11:18 AM

Still relevant today, but now it is about globalisation.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 11 - 09:27 AM

Jobs shifting following the lowest bid. The workers have less and less say about the workplace.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: GUEST,Cuilionn (no biscuit?)
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 03:18 PM

Soldier Boy--

In the thoughtfully low-tech ambience of a mid-January snowstorm, we are thinking of pulling together an anniversary program of our own. We're in Maine, where there used to be plenty of textile mills and shoe factories... We're thinking of interspersing songs like "Work of the Weavers" and "Peg and Awl" with dramatic readings of mill-workers' history, Luddite writings and other historic accounts.

Anyone else have ideas for American or British songs related to the Luddites and the tension between proud handwork and industrial technology?

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 04:52 PM

Cuilion, you could check out my radio pieces available at the link I posted above — 05 Sep 11 03:16 PM. Lots of songs and stories there.

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: mayomick
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 04:39 PM

Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley is worth reading - there is a film based on it . Her father the Rev Patrick was minister at Hartshead Moor Church at the time of the Luddite rebellion.

"Misery generates hate. These sufferers hated the machines which they believed took their bread from them; they hated the buildings which contained those machines; they hated the manufacturers who owned those buildings." ...........Charlotte Bronte

http://www.yas.org.uk/content/treasures/luddites.html

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: mayomick
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 04:46 PM

Before industrialization moved work into the towns women were able to support themselves independently without getting married . They were called spinsters .The negative connotation to the word arose after the industrial revolution left such women without work .

Subject: RE: BS: 200th Anniversary of 'Luddites' in 2012
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 14 Jan 12 - 04:52 AM

About 25 years ago I started working for a company which manufactures consumer goods. At that time the factory floor contained many conveyor belts and women employees would stand by the belts and perform repetitive tasks such as packing products into shipping cases. I don't doubt that this was boring work but those women probably earned a handy amount of money to support their families with.

I left the company 5 or 6 years ago and in that time it has re-located to new premises nearby. Recently I was given a tour of the new factory. There are now very few employees on the factory floor and shipping cases are packed by robots. I don't know, exactly, how these changes have affected the local economy and community (but local women have certainly lost an opportunity to supplement their familys' incomes) - but I bet the company doesn't know either, doesn't care and is only interested in the 'bottom line'.