On the web is the site of an American organisation, a ‘not-for- profit’ called Unity of the Arts. Their Gala this year was themed around ‘Renaissance Royalty and Celebrity Style’ and offered $100 VIP tickets including a goody bag not available to those paying only $35 for the empowerment brunch without even the guarantee of a seat.
I am sure that they do good work, but the group I was looking for, and did not find, was the one behind ‘Voices’ a magazine for ‘working class poetry and prose with a socialist appeal’, a group based mainly in Manchester.
At the CND Peace and Craft fair on Saturday I bought five copies of the magazine from 1976 and 1977 from the Morning Star book stall. With two other books and a copy of the Morning Star (£1.50) they wanted £3, but I beat them up, unwillingly on their part, to take £4.
The Manchester Unity of Arts Society was set up in response to Resolution 42 passed at the Trades Union Council (TUC) Congress in 1960. A group set up in Bristol at the same time – Centre 42 – in response to the same resolution has Arnold Wesker as Director from 1961-1970, and Wesker is listed as one of the sponsors of the Manchester Society. Other included the folk singers Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger, poet Adrian Mitchell, geographer Peter Worsley and a host of MP’s and Trade Union officials including Frank Allaun and Hugh Scanlon. John Cooper Clarke was on the editorial committee of the magazine – his poem in Voices 6 is clearly for voice and performance..
Resolution 42 wanted to:
Use all the arts in the service of the people, in the service of progressive causes, in the service of the working-class
It wanted councils to provide cultural services (government cuts have destroyed much of this); to develop cultural activities in the unions; to nurture talent; and to build a cultural centre to provide the facilities for this. Voices is part of the response to this, the editorials chronicle discussions about direction, content etc.
The magazine had two editors, Ben Ainley and Rick Gwilt.
The Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies tells us that following retirement Ainley became involved in ‘Unity Arts’ and a plan to establish adult learning classes in various arts but by 1972 only the literature group was functioning. Five foolscap copies of Voices were produced and then regular production started in 1975, with new series numbers. Ainley died shortly after publication of the final issue following a long illness – in issue 15 Rick Gwilt wishes him a speedy recovery, but I do not know if this happened.
Rick Gwilt comes up on the web, still in Manchester as an adviser to community groups.
The various editions of ‘Voices’ are online at:
http://www.mancvoices.co.uk/index.htm
A site that I found at the very end of my searches on the contributors to Voices 8 (NS) the issue for Summer 1977. It records the last issue as no.31 in Autumn 1984, by which time ‘ownership’ had moved to another organisation, and series of guest editors succeeded to Rick Gwilt.
I decided to look at Voices 8 and its contributors because I liked the cover by the Kyrgyz artist L Ilyina, and for practical reasons started at the back.
Sol Garson also gets an entry in the Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies. Born in 1923 he worked particularly as a sculptor, establishing a co-operative workshop on the fourth floor of a warehouse on Back George Street. His piece here is about setting up a one man show, and having to cart pieces down all those floors. He was involved from 1969 in establishing Unity of Arts, and was a regular contributor to Voices in words and images.
There is a blog by Greg Wilkinson that mentions ‘Commonword’, and the short piece here is about ‘Commonword’ a writers workshop in Manchester. Living at the time the blog was written in Wales and clearly still strong on progressive causes.
There is a poem about Blackburn by Juan Antonia Lopez but I have picked up no digital trace.
The poem before is by Keith Armstrong, and I am offered a couple of choices by the web for ‘keith armstrong poet’. One in the north east, born in 1946 and involved in community projects, including community arts projects; the other in London, born 1950, died 2017 – a disability and peace campaigner, with an online obituary from Peace News.
Jean Sutton contributes a poem, as she does to other issues, but a search only brings up an American writer of Science fiction who last published in 1975.
Marjorie Searle poet, brings up Chris Searle – he has the right age and politics, but there are no marriage details, and other Marjorie poets do not fit the bill.
There is a Fran Hazelton on the web, a poet and Mesopotamian storyteller. The Zipang site includes a photo that suggests that a young Fran could have been publishing in 1977 (I hope she does not mind)
Of A Davenport and Bert Ward who also contribute poems I have found no trace on the web.
Jean Turner, contributes a poem, and has written on the socialist site ‘Culture Matters’ about Russian architecture and the principles of Marxist-Leninism. The photo would suggest again that this could be the poet.
Allan C Brown is listed as the author of a poem ‘Ode to Jane Fonda’ through which ‘They Shoot Horses Don’t they’ runs as refrain. The Tyneside Poets page has a tribute to Alan C Brown 1922-2014 by Dave Alton that mentions at a parade in the 1970’s
“a poet in his fifties who was as enthusiastic as ever he’d been. Alan C Brown read with customary enthusiasm his poem inspired by a popular film of the day, “They Shoot Horses Don’t They””
That is one pinned down
Jim Arnison has a longish fictionalised piece on a strike meeting. In 1971 Jim Arnison and Hugh Scanlon published ‘The Million Pound Strike’ and in 1974 Arnison published ‘The Shrewsbury Three’ – again about a strike
The Illustrations section has a photo by Glyn Ford. This name did mean something to me. He was a Labour MEP in Manchester in the 1990’s when I was a Labour councillor in Leeds and Chair of UK Nuclear Free Local Authorities which met frequently in Manchester. He was working there at the time Voices 8 was published. I presume they are the same.
The other illustrations, like the front cover are by the Kyrgyz artist L Ilyina – themed around Peace, but clearly state approved. I have not found her on the web. There is a Tatiana Ilyina at the Max Planck Institute working on climate change and the link to cycles in the ocean who studied first in St Petersburg, but that is purely tangential.
There is a short, one page, prose piece by Michael Balchin, but that part of the web is dominated by Nigel Balchin of course. There are social media links for various Michaels, but I am not going to follow these.
Before these a long drama piece by Rick Gwilt.
In a sense we strike gold on page 7, here is a poem by ‘Paul St Vincent’ one of the pseudonyms used by the very well known poet E A Markham. One of the poems ascribed to this version of Markham is ‘Philpot in the city’ and Philpot is named in this poem – ‘Hero’.
Jone O’Broonlea who wrote in Lancashire dialect, and published dialect collections is mentioned in a piece by Ken Clay (a contributor to other issue of Voices) as the introduction to Mancvoices, a piece that celebrates the ‘Voices’ magazine
http://www.mancvoices.co.uk/introduction.htm
For Isabel Baker I have not found a lead
The very first poem is by Les Barker. Born in Manchester, if it is the same person, he has had a successful career as poet, writer and folk performer, and has a Wikipedia entry. His poem ‘I’m a Loony’ here is written to the tune of the Manchester Rambler. Now lives in north Wales.
Journal of a disappointed man 