Socialism came to rural towns and villages by numerous routes, the famous Clarion vans, The non-conformists, the trade unions, and in the case of Sudbury in Suffolk, via the silk weavers, who's factory owners had moved their premises out of London to Suffolk to escape the unionisation and militancy of London weavers demanding fair pay.
Despite the factory owners best efforts, by 1890 Sudbury, Hadleigh silk weavers and those in surrounding towns in Suffolk were demanding improved pay and on strike or threatening strikes to achieve those objectives.
Britain's first avowed socialist party the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) keen to offer support sent one of its most famous speakers John E Williams fresh from free speech fights in London to speak in Sudbury in August 1890 and as a direct result this meeting a branch of the Social Democratic Federation was formed in Sudbury.The first delicate buds of socialism had appeared in Sudbury, buds that would bloom and even deliver a Labour MP for the the town in 1945, a furrow that its hard working exponents still plough to this day in the hope of achieving a better world for working people.
"Socialism is the hope of the World"
