"banner, East Barking (Cambell) Socialist Sunday School" [NBS I/D 374]

Catalogue Number
NBS I/D 374

Object Name
banner

Title
EAST BARKING CAMBELL SSS SOCIALIST SUNDAY SCHOOL

Place
Barking & London & England & UK

Date
circa 1920

Creator(s)
NBS National Museum of Labour HistoryNBS National Museum of Labour History

Description
The Socialist Sunday School (SSS) movement started in 1892. It aimed to provide a moral and ethical alternative to Christian Sunday Schools for adults and children. Socialist Sunday Schools were closely linked to the Independent Labour Party, which was very involved in promoting the SSS in Scotland. By 1912 more than 12,000 people were attending Socialist Sunday School meetings.

Socialist Sunday Schools were started by Mary Gray, a member of the Socialist Democratic Foundation, who ran a soup kitchen for the children of striking dockers. Her aim was to influence and educate the children, and to make thm aware of their socialist responsibilities. The schools taught ten socialist commandments:

1. Love your schoolfellows, who will be your fellow workmen in life.
2. Love learning, which is the food of the mind; be as grateful to your teacher as to your parents.
3. Make every day holy by good and useful deeds and kindly actions.
4. Honour good men, be courteous to all men, bow down to none.
5. Do not hate or speak evil of anyone. Do not be revengeful but stand up for your right and resist oppression.
6. Do not be cowardly. Be a friend to the weak and love justice.
7. Remember that all good things of the earth are produced by labour. Whoever enjoys them without working for them is stealing the bread of the workers.
8. Observe and think in order to discover the truth. Do not believe what is contrary to reason and never deceive yourself or others.
9. Do not think that he who loves his own country must hate and despise other nations, or wish for war, which is a remnant of barbarism.
10. Look forward to the day when all men and women will be free citizens of one fatherland and live together as brothers and sisters in peace and righteousness.

This banner was probably made by a Barking sewing-machinist.(Extensive information in museum object history files.)

Materials: Rayon rep woven fabric with hand painted oil-based image. 'Rep' is a ribbed or corded fabric. Rayon was the first man-made textile fibre, first produced in 1884.

Multimedia