SHS meeting - Ada Salter and Ethical Socialism

Socialist History Society Public Meeting

Ada Salter and Ethical Socialism

Speaker: Graham Taylor

7pm, 26th April 2016
Venue: Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell Green (near Farringdon Underground)

Ada Salter was a pioneer of an ethical brand of socialism well known nationally and in her local Bermondsey in the early twentieth century. For a long time Salter has been unfairly been neglected. In this talk, which will be based on his new book on Ada Salter, Graham tells the story of this remarkable woman for the first time, documenting her significance for the history of both socialism and feminism. Salter was responsible for most of the ideas behind the Bermondsey Revolution, drawing on her experiences in the women’s movement and as President of the Women’s Labour League. Her ground-breaking ideas on urban development were to spread all over London through her work as an LCC councillor, and all over Britain through her role as Chair of the National Gardens Guild. Salter’s experiences as a ‘Sister of the People’ in the London slums eventually led her to the Independent Labour Party, and to the belief that achieving social justice required a grassroots alliance between the labour and women’s movements. Ada succeeded in winning huge majorities for her ideas.

 ATTENDANCE IS FREE – ALL WELCOME

 About the Speaker

 Graham Taylor was born and raised amid the back-to-backs of Birmingham, and has a first-hand interest in slum clearance. At 17 he won a scholarship to study Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford. After working in industry for seven years Graham chose to take a large pay cut in order to teach car mechanics, engineers and building workers in a further education college. He has written widely on industrial relations and economic history for various journals. Graham is a member of the SHS.

 http://www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/