Clarion Cycling Club
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126 years after its founding what is now the National Clarion Club has voted to remove a reference to socialism from its constitution, after a majority of members decided it was “divisive and non-inclusive” and could alienate new members. Two-thirds of Clarion members voted at the annual general meeting to replace “support for the principles of socialism” with support for “fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jun/14/keir-hardies-cycling-club-jettisons-socialism
Alex Southern, secretary of the London Clarion, said the constitution change “rips the heart out of the club”. Removing support for socialism “lessens its purpose and its uniqueness and makes it just like any other cycling club”, he said. “The Clarion movement has never been about shoving socialism down people’s throats but the idea that if people see the socialist principles of comradeship they will soon see the advantages.”
Of course the Clarion Cycling Club never meant by socialism what we did — and we were rivals before the WW1 as our members also went cycling on propaganda missions — but only the sort of thing the old ILP meant (nationalisation, municipalisation).
Even so it’s rather sad that their organisation should be taken over by trendies who object not only to the word socialism but to the whole concept. And who have pushed through an amendment to commit the club to “fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity” which as they themselves say “can hardly be argued against”. Indeed. Not even a Tory would argue against those.
They deserve a split. I secretly hope they do.
Just found this article on them from the July 2011 Socialist Standard
https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/07/pedalling-in-ever-decreasing-circles.html
I see Biden’s G-7 gift to Johnson was a bike.
Perhaps Johnson will now also become a member of the socialist-less Clarion Cycle Club?
In return, Biden got a photo of a mural of Frederick Douglass, painted on a wall that happens to be around the corner from an old school of mine in Edinburgh, which may now become as famous as a Banksy.
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