Speakers Corner historical background
Last Updated on Thursday, 16 April 2009 08:25 Written by Administrator Thursday, 16 April 2009 00:00
Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park is one of the greatest places in the Universe.
The Web site is intended to allow you to explore and understand Speakers' Corner. We will to reach into the future and the past, combining the oratory, discussion, debate, humour and madness, that has sustained Speakers' Corner for over a hundred and fifty years.
Amongst those who have attended meetings here, are the some of the most influential figures in world history such as Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and V.I. Lenin. Oliver Cromwell's corpse was hung up here in a cage for public display, as a warning to others who might wish to abolish the Monarchy. This was of course in the days before Speakers' Corner, when "Tyburn", one of the "hanging fields" of London was located there.
Others whose ghosts haunt this corner include William Morris, George Orwell, the Pankhursts, C.L.R. James, Benn Tillet, Marcus Garvey, and a star-spangled cast of millions more who shall remain unmentioned, excepting the immovable Lord Soper, who was still speaking till three weeks before he died at 95 years of age.
Speakers' Corner has had a more powerful influence than any "university" in the world, because here there are no entry requirements, no rules of intellectual formality and above all, no class restrictions. It is, as Leslie James the Hyde Park pamphleteer wrote, a fitting location to represent "the century of the common man."
Tourists or visitors to such official places of "learning" as Cambridge or Oxford University are not allowed to attend any lecture they like, come and go when they choose, or take part in debate and discussion.
It is precisely these characteristics that mark out Speakers' Corner as a strange and exciting place, a place where mankind meets itself in a generally pleasurable atmosphere.
There are many tens of thousands of people who come to Speaker's Corner once or twice a year, many thousands who come 5-10 times a year, and hundreds who come virtually through hell or high water. When you consider that there is nothing to buy here, no music, just human interaction without the mediation of machines and without any protection from the weather, you begin to get a small glimpse of the significance of this place.
Consider for a moment the so called "opinion polls" that the mass media constantly pump out. They take a survey of random samples from certain social groups, then claim an accuracy rate extrapolated from this data to the entire country, of plus or minus 3 or 4 per cent.
But opinion polls are static phenomena, a snap shot, seeking out for example a yes, no,or maybe, answer. The human brain is not static but undergoing constant change, a person may think one thing, and yet internally have doubts. Speakers' Corner may be seen as a dynamic refection of mass psychology, in that you have here people from every walk of life, every class, and almost every country, who engage in discussion of the issues, altering and forming opinions. Speakers' Corner is a microcosm of the entire planet.
There is of course a widespread belief that Speakers' Corner is some kind of "nuthouse", where "cranks" and tourists go. This idea is widespead, particularly amongst those who visit it only once. Lenin once related the story of a man who was wildly shaking, seated, his arms were swinging around, the observer thought it was a madman, but upon closer inspection he discovered it was a man sharpening a knife.
Over the years I have observed the changing moods and responses to ideas. I've seen the hostility to certain ideas dissolve, to others increase. Speakers' Corner is perhaps the most dynamic mirror of human consciousness in the world.
This page is dedicated to all who come to Speakers' Corner and particularly to the older generation of Socialists who have battled for their ideas here many for more than half a century. These "regulars" still continue to educate new generations about the facts of life, and send people away from Hyde Park with new ideas which change both their lives and the lives of others for the better.
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