The Swing Riots

By Troy Southgate
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DURING the course of English history, there have been many
occasions when ordinary people have risen up against tyranny and injustice.
ainstream historians tell, us that there are only two sides to the historical
debate! the "hig #ersion on the one hand, and the ar$ist interpretation on
the other. %ut the historical perspective which is so often attributed to the
ar$ists & that of 'oppressors vs. oppressed' & is hardly the personal
property of the dialectical materialists. National&(narchists, too, subscribe to
the concept of an ongoing struggle against oppression and injustice. Indeed,
concentrated wealth in the midst of widespread poverty is something that
has prevailed far longer than )arl ar$ and his worthless legacy.
*his problem, which has led to certain political, social and economic factors being hijac+ed
by the ,eft has not, however, eaten its way into all areas of history. -espite efforts to the
contrary, ar$ists are unable to claim credit for those events which have been totally
spontaneous and which have not been framed by either ideology or dogma. .ne such case
is the agricultural labourers' revolt of /012, also +nown as the 3wing Riots, which came
about simply because the lives of wor+ing class men and women were being threatened by
low wages and the new technological developments which undermined their traditional way
of life.
Ironically, by far the best source of information of the 3wing Riots & '4aptain 3wing' & was
published in /561 by E.7. 8obsbawn and George Rude, themselves ar$ist historians and
testimony to the continuing efforts of such people to associate wor+ing class struggle with
their own obno$ious creed. 8owever, to give 8obsbawn and Rude their due, they rate
among the few people to have actually bothered to recount the tumultuous events of /012
in any real detail. *his fact alone should illustrate why National&(narchists should use
learning as a springboard towards the education of our people and the replenishment of
history itself.
3lightly before the 3wing Riots began, "illiam 4obbett published 'Rural Rides', an account of
his journeys through the English countryside on horsebac+. *his wor+ was invaluable to
those see+ing to establish the motives behind the agricultural rebellion itself, and 4obbett
tells us a great deal about what life was really li+e for rural labourers. In /09:, 4obbett had
found that in north 8ampshire the average wage was just ;d a day</=. In addition, if a
labourer was not receiving as much as 6d a day & then considered to be an average rate of
pay & he was able to receive a relief supplement from the local parish. *his included 'a
gallon loaf a wee+ for the rest of his family.'<9=
In fact 4obbett was surprised to discover that agricultural families received less food than a
criminal inhabitant of the average nineteenth&century prison<1=. *wo modern historians & 4.
.rwin and E. "hetham & consider the lives of the rural poor of the south and south
midlands of England to have been 'probably the hardest of all at this period.'<>= *he same
source e$plains how wages were paid in wee+ly fashion, with nothing at all paid for those
days affected by wet weather<:=. 8obsbawn and Rude, meanwhile, assert that previously,
during the /652s, 'the labourer's income was by custom, convention and justice a living
wage, though a very modest one.'<;= 8owever, less than forty years later there was a vast
difference of opinion between what was generally considered by the ruling class to be a
'living wage' and what the agricultural labourers themselves considered to be a fair rate of
pay for the basic sustenance of both themselves and their families.
3uch discontent soon led to the subse?uent rebellion, which began in rural )ent with the
destruction of several ric+s at .rpington on 7une /st, /012<6=. .n (ugust 90th of that year,
a threshing machine & soon to become the symbolic object upon which labourers set their
anger and frustration & was destroyed at 4anterbury<0=. *hese events soon spread to
upwards of twenty counties, each found to be in the low wage brac+et of agricultural
England<5=. It soon became apparent that labourers were demanding, rather than
re?uesting, an increase in wages. %y .ctober, the tactic of direct action and sabotage had
also spead across parts of 3urrey and 3usse$, but the spirit of resistance too+ a more
defiant turn as mass demonstrations began to ta+e place in broad daylight</2=. .n
November /:th, in the 3usse$ village of Ringmer, labourers had demanded a wage of 9s ;d
for married men and 9s for those who were single. 3uch a strategy appears to have failed,
however, one particular e$ample being that of Goudhurst in )ent on the same day, when
labourers were dispersed by a company of twenty&five dragoons<//=.
(nother slightly less confrontational tactic was the series of threatening letters which were
sent to, amongst others, parsons and justices of the peace, each signed by the mysterious
'4aptain 3wing'. *he letters hinted at further disturbances if the recipients were unwilling to
ac+nowledge their demands. ost labourers, however, were unable to read, let alone
compose a written demand for fair wages. *he standard of literacy contained in the letters
suggests that they were written by one or more fairly intelligent men, smething virtually
un+nown among agricultural labourers during this period of elitist education. 3ome of the
letters 'affected an illiterate style'</9=, whilst others had 'a gay, lyrical ?uality'</1=. Even the
great "illiam 4obbett, himself a fierce defender of the rights of wor+ing class people, found
himself in the doc+ as the suspected leader of the disturbances, although he was later
released without charge. It was certainly a fact, on the other hand, that whenever 4obbett
had actually spo+en at various functions, riots bro+e out in the same district</>=.
(t this time Europe was in a state of revolutionary crisis, although the failure of those
responsible for the /605 @rench Revolution to successfully e$port its ideological tenets a
mere twenty&si$ miles across the English 4hannel, meant that the 3wing Riots could not
have been orchestrated by conspirators from abroad. *his fact is something that even
8obsbawn and Rude had to contend with during the course of their research</:=. 8owever,
throughout this period the imagination of the public ran wild and there was much tal+ of
@rench and Irish spies, foreign revolutionaries, government agents, bigoted Arotestants,
itinerant Radicals and even .'4onnell&supporting papists</;=. *he ruling class also tried to
heighten the atmosphere of tension and, after '*he *imes' had reported that 'in several
instances, we hear that the labourers have hoisted the <@rench= tricoloured flag'</6=,
foreigners were rounded&up amid a confused outbrea+ of $enophobia designed to safeguard
against potential conspiracy. %ut despite all the rumours and paranoia, the 3wing Riots were
an entirely organic and home&grown English phenomenon.
*here is even less evidence to suggest that the riots were in any way co&ordinated or part of
a national strategy of any +ind. Indeed, in the words of one senior magistrate in "iltshire!
'the insurrectionary movement seems to be directed by no plan or system, but merely
actuated by the spontaneous feeling of the peasants, and ?uite at random.'</0= *his view is
validated by the fact that the demands of the labourers differed from county to county, with
different areas formulating their own distinct and innovative methods of action. (lthough
there was obviously some co&operation on a local level, with labourers marching from village
to village and from farm to farm, this was inevitable and not enough to warrant the charge
that some form of organised resistance was ta+ing place on a national scale. @inancial
geography was one determining factor relating to the way in which the riots spread, with
the lowest paid labourers being the first to revolt. If we combine the evidence surrounding
the agricultural uprising of /012, it soon becomes clear that the 3wing Riots were caused by
the failure of the ruling class to recognise the basic needs of those it systematically
condemned to utter misery, s?ualour and degradation.
@inally, the rebellion itself illustrates how people can only stand so much before they are
moved towards determined resistance and counter&action. *he 3wing Riots are an important
e$ample in that its participants, according to E.,. "oodward, 'were only as+ing for a living
wageB there was no organised plot and no co&ordination between the various
outbrea+s.'</5= *hat such collective action can be initiated by individuals motivated by
nothing more than a profound sense of social justice and a simple desire for economic
freedom, can only serve to frustrate the devious machinations of bourgeois ar$ian posers,
who are traditionally renowned for their manipulation of ordinary wor+ing class people.
Notes:
/. "illiam 4obbett, 'Rural Rides' C8arrap D 4o. ,td., /5>0E, p./50. <%ac+=
9. Ibid. <%ac+=
1. Ibid., pp./50&5. <%ac+=
>. 4. .rwin D E. "hetham, '( 8istory of %ritish (griculture /0>;&/5/>' C/5;>E, pp.02&/. <%ac+=
:. Ibid. <%ac+=
;. E.7. 8obsbawn D George Rude, '4aptain 3wing' CAenguin University Aress, /561E, p.96. <%ac+=
6. Ibid., p.6/. <%ac+=
0. Ibid. <%ac+=
5. 7.8. 4lapham, 'Economic 8istory of odern %ritain I CundatedE, p./>6. <%ac+=
/2. 8obsbawn D Rude, op.cit., p.6;. <%ac+=
//. Ibid., p.0/. <%ac+=
/9. Ibid., p./61. <%ac+=
/1. Ibid. <%ac+=
/>. Ibid., p./0>. <%ac+=
/:. Ibid., p./06. <%ac+=
/;. Ibid., p./09. <%ac+=
/6. '*he *imes', .ctober 12th, /012. <%ac+=
/0. 8... :9F// C,etters of November 92th D 90th, /012E. <%ac+=
/5. E.,. "oodward, '*he (ge of Reform! /0/:&62' C.$ford University Aress, /5;9E. <%ac+=