Richard Bell (politician)

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Richard Bell (born November 27, 1859 in Merthyr Tydfil , † May 1, 1930 in London ) was a British trade unionist and politician. Together with Keir Hardie , he was one of the first two MPs for the Labor Representation Committee , the forerunner of the British Labor Party .

Trade unionists

Bell was born in Wales to a quarry worker and housewife . At the age of 13 he had to leave school to help support the family as an office boy. In 1876 he started working for the Great Western Railway Company . Bell became a member of the Railway Servants Union , soon worked full-time as an organizer and finally became its general secretary in 1897. A year later he moved to London to continue working for the railway workers' union. After his election to the House of Commons, he was from 1903 to 1904 chairman of the Trades Union Congress , the umbrella organization of the British trade unions.

Politician

In the so-called Khaki Election , the general election of 1900, Bell stood as a candidate for the Labor Representation Committee in the Derby constituency . Bell moved in with a Liberal as a member of the constituency in the lower house . Together with Keir Hardie , he became one of the first two members of the lower house of the labor movement to no longer enter parliament as liberals, but through the LRC. Bell's election campaign was shaped by the thematization of the social question . Although the election campaign was strongly influenced by patriotic and nationalist moods - at that time the catchphrase jingoism was used - due to the simultaneous boer war , Bell was able to maintain the proletarian constituency by concentrating on union and social reform issues and explicitly rejecting the war in South Africa win.

Richard Bell was a staunch trade unionist. Together with the socialist Keir Hardie, he represented the typical ideological poles in the newly founded electoral alliance of workers' representatives. On many issues he was closer to the liberals than to the socialists in the LRC. In 1904 he joined the Liberals accordingly, after disputes with the LRC faction, which had grown to five members after a few by-elections. He was re-elected in the 1906 general election. The Derby Trades Council, the umbrella organization of the trade unions in Derby, increasingly distanced itself from Bell and nominated another candidate for the 1910 elections. Bell ended his union involvement in 1920, but continued his political activity in local bodies. He died in London in 1930 at the age of 70.

Footnotes

1. ↑ s. Labor Leader October 27, 1900