Noah Ablett Biography

Published on Saturday, 31 December 2016 11:08

Robert Turnbull's Climbing Mount Sinai: Noah Ablett 1883-1935 is the first full-length biographical study of one of the most controversial personalities to emerge from the South Wales coalfield in the era preceding WW1, an era of unparalleled industrial militancy in which Ablett played a leading role.

The book tells the story of Noah Ablett from his early days as a boy preacher in the Rhondda coalfield to his rise to prominence within the tight-knit coalfield communities of South Wales, and his emergence as an uncompromising agitator, not only against the coal owners but also his own union. His uncompromising brand of revolutionary class warfare brought him into sharp conflict  with the moderate consensus politics of William Abraham known as Mabon, a liberal who had led the South Wales miners since 1875. 

The conflict with Mabon and what he represented would lead to one of the most famous pamphlets in labour history, namely the Miners' Next Step of 1912, which called for workers' control of industry. Although very much a collaborative effort, the Miners' Next Step is perhaps the most famous statement of Ablett's rejection of  the parliamentary road to socialism as "No better than an ant heap on the way to becoming a dunghill".

Biography of Noah Ablett is out in February 2017. Book launch at the WCML on April 12 at 2pm. Details on the WCML website.

http://www.wcml.org.uk/whats-on/events/book-launch--biography-of-noah-ablett/