Weavers’ Institute, Nelson
© Hilary Chuter
Nelson had a proud history of campaigning for peace. During the First World War the Women’s Peace Crusade held a demonstration of 2000 women in the town. In August 1934 women in Nelson helped to organise a No More War Conference at the Weavers’ Institute. Selina Cooper was one of the speakers. She stated that ‘war was the greatest cause of poverty and the ills of the world today. Womenfolk … should make this vital question a constant subject of their gossip.’ The Rev Humble, representing the local branch of the League of Nations Union, said that he could not ‘imagine any reasonable man outside an asylum wishing for war.’
A more controversial position was taken by Mr Dan Carradice, a former conscientious objector, who said he could not place his trust in the League of Nations because it was in the control of ‘Hitler and Mussolini, of those who controlled the Japanese Imperialist outlook, of all the dominant groups which were today destroying every form of progressive social organisation … including Great Britain’. The conference passed a resolution to ‘set up an Anti-War Committee today which will organise a continuous struggle against the war plans of the government, and to organise a great Anti-War Demonstration in Nelson in the near future..
References/Further Reading:
The Nelson Leader, 10 Aug 1934. Archive Ref: DDX 1137/4/6, Lancashire Archives.