Leisure: an introduction
Hard-working people have always wanted to make the most of their time off. The genius of the Clarion Movement was its combination of socialist campaigning and education with the pleasureable pursuits of cycling, choral singing and other sociable activities. Also part of this push for working class education was the Ancoats Brotherhood, which provided a range of educational and leisure activities.
Workers May Day events, which started in 1890, have often been a mixture of agitation for change and a celebration of the strengths of the labour movement.
In the 1890s an alternative to church based Sunday Schools were launched. The Socialist Sunday School movement quickly spread across the country.
In Manchester area rambling on the peaks and moors has long been a favourite past time. In the early 1930s the privately owned moors were, often aggressively, guarded from the incursions of the upstart city folk. The challenge to this lack of access was carried out by means of organised trespasses the most famous of which, the 1932 Kinder Scout mass trespass, was led by a young communist and his friends. Benny Rothman remained a rights of way, enviromental and trade union activist all his life. His archives are held by the library.
Before arts cinemas like Manchester's Cornerhouse the main venues for independent and foreign (non Hollywood) films were film societies. In 1930 socialists in the area started Manchester and Salford Workers' Film Society. It still exists, though it dropped the 'Workers' from its name in 1937.