A Difficult Period for the Club
In the summer of 1983, a General Meeting of members voted (by a majority of one!) to ask the newly elected committee to seek ways of paying off the debts and re-opening the club in the image of what it had been in those early pioneering days, a centre for socialism and feminism.
Socialism re-floated.
Socialist Halls Relaunched
Bolton Socialist Hall Ltd was relaunched in November 1983 with the sale of ‘One Pound’ shares. Under the original rules investors could expect no return on their investment, no annual dividend, and had only one vote no matter how many shares they held.
But there was no shortage of takers.
Other fund-raising events were organised and by the spring of 1984, the committee felt confident enough to announce that the club was about to re-open.
The Brewery Try to Pull A Fast One
However, a little while after the club re-opened in 19897, the brewery started hounding the new committee for what it said were debts owed by the club – all incurred before the secretary and the other committee members had even joined the club.
Eventually, in the autumn of 1987, the brewery issued the club secretary with a High Court Summons for debts totalling over £18,000.
Thankfully the action failed. All the costs were paid by the brewery and the club was completely relieved of its heavy burden of debt.
Club Re-Opens 1984
On the May Day holiday in 1984, striking miners and nursery nurses, anxious to repay the support given to them by club members, led a procession around the town. The march ended in Wood Street where an outdoor street party and festival lasted long into the night. Bolton Socialist Club had been re-born.
Hive of Activity
Very soon after re-opening the club became a hive of activity. A revived Clarion Cycling Club began to meet here as well as the Trades Council and several trade union branches. The Unemployed Workers Centre moved into the top floor.
Other user groups included Housing and Wholefood Coops, CND, Animal Rights, the Irish in Britain Representation Group, and a variety of political and educational groups.
The club played host to punk bands, folk singers, theatre groups, talks, discussions, film nights, and provided a resource for campaigns, strikes and industrial disputes throughout the town.
Wonderful Days – Wood Street in the Eighties
A brief memoir of the Eighties from Andy Hall.
After the political desert of the Seventies, the Eighties brought an oasis of hope. The club had been shut down. And the Labour Party who dominated the committee at the time were determined to sell it to raise money for their coffers. Back then I was selling anarchist newspapers and books with a few others on the precinct (The Black Flag, Direct Action, Peace News and so on), the SWP had their stand just around the corner where the Nationwide Building Society used to be. We would swap papers at the end of the afternoon.
Dennis Pye encouraged us to support the club and I remember rescue meetings in the Falcon pub (now long gone). Then the club reopened, heralding a renaissance of true socialism in the town. And I joined the CPGB, becoming secretary of the Bolton Branch.
Molly Weaver and Louise Davis were prominent members, as well as being comrades in the Communist Party. Louise was expelled from the CP by the national committee because of her association with Stalinism – Paul Harris and myself re-carded her! Louise made a fantastic toast on the club steps at one Wood Street May Day Rally – “To our comrades, and our class”. Simply put.
We based the local housing co-operative in the club (Sensible – still going strong and giving me a roof over my head nearly 30 years on). I can also remember the club selling a range of beers from the USSR and Cuba, bought from a workers’ co-operative in Leeds. Of course there were the gigs, huge crowd pullers promoting radical musicians. Chumbawumba and the Poison Girls to mention just two. We would close the street off to traffic and build a stage by the end wall. Over a thousand people turned up – I had to spend most of my time dissuading the police from disrupting the events. The British premiership of the Situationist International film “Call It Sleep” was also staged at the club (https://archive.org/details/call_it_sleep_situ). And then there were the debts, reputedly owed to the brewery, which was pursuing us for a large amount of debt.
It was Alan Hattersley who took me to the side one evening. He had a drinking mate who happened to be a lawyer, he’d told Alan that the brewery was out of time on pursuing the loan and we subsequently fought this matter in Blackburn High Court (with support from Henry Fallows Solicitors) winning hands down, getting the club off a massive financial hook and securing our future.
And here we are! Peace, love and justice.
Andy Hall
Women Against Pit Closures
The 1984-1985 miners’ strike had seen the development of women’s activism in coal mining communities across the country. These groups formed Women against Pit Closures (WAPC) which developed a national support network.
After the end of the strike in 1985, the WAPC continued to function to offer mutual support and to continue to fight further pit closures.
The decision to keep the WAPCs going was vindicated when the Tory Government announced the proposed closure of a further 31 pits in October 1992 in what The Guardian called ‘the most savage redundancy programme to be inflicted on British industry’.
At that time Parkside Colliery in Newton-le Willows directly employed nearly 800 people with more local jobs dependent on the pit. It was one of the most modern, efficient and profitable collieries in Britain and had an estimated working life of over 25 years and 23 million tonnes of proven reserves. It was also the only remaining pit in Lancashire.
Pit Camps, influenced by the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Campaign, were set up to inform the public that pit closures were not just about jobs, but the community as a whole.
The camp at Parkside Colliery attracted significant local and regional support as well as a significant national media profile. The club showed solidarity with the peace camp by hosting meetings to raise awareness locally as well as running fund raising events to help the women in the camp.
However, despite the very significant levels of support from across the North West, the women had to endure much intimidation and hardship.
The occupation ended in August 1994 when the process of dismantling the pit had gone beyond recovery.
Bernadette McAllskey Speaks at the Club
In November 1995, Bernadette McAllskey was due to speak at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester. However, the meeting was called off after threats to disrupt the meeting by the National Front. The only venue in the greater Manchester to host the meeting was Bolton Socialist Club.
Centenary of the Winter Hill Trespass
The club had already celebrated the Winter Hill trespass in 1982 as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the Kinder Scout Trespass. Although Kinder came much later it was far more succesful than the Bolton one.
In 1982, Paul Salveson, had commissioned a play about the Winter Hill trespass which toured the town with the final performance in Belmont following a walk from Halliwell which traced the footsteps oftrespass2-1996 the original trespassers. So in 1996 it was again decided to organise a celebration for the centenary of the Winter Hill trespass by holding another hike from Halliwell to Belmont.
The walk was a huge success with over a thousand people taking part led by a brass band. Alas, the play, written by Les Smith was not revived though the Octagon youth theatre did sing ‘Will you come o’ Sunday morning’ in the car park of the Black Dog.
Aid to the refugees in Kosovo
Following the death of Tito in 1980 the Balkan region erupted into a series of wars and in 1999 there was a huge problem with Ethnic refugees in Kosovo.
The fate of the refugees touched the hearts of many in the UK and particularly in the North West.
The members of the club rallied to the cause and in a very short time raised enough food and aid to fill a full lorry which joined a historic convoy of aid from Manchester and elsewhere.
Maintaining and Improving the Building
In the early 1990s it became obvious that the building needed significant work to keep it in good order.
Since the mid 1990’s tens of thousands of pounds has been raised for refurbishment work. The building has benefited from a restored frontage, new doors, and window and electrical work. New downstairs toilets, a new dining room, disabled access and a host of other improvements.