La historia del movimiento ciclista Clarion

El movimiento ciclista Clarion tiene sus raíces en 1891 con la creación del periódico The Clarion, una publicación socialista semanal con una perspectiva centrada en Gran Bretaña en lugar de internacionalista sobre asuntos políticos.

"No se trataba en absoluto de la idea preconcebida de una revista socialista. No era solemne ni intelectual... Estaba llena de historias, chistes y versos (a veces versos y chistes bastante malos), así como de artículos". Dame Margaret Isabel Cole, DBE (née Postgate), 1893-1980

Robert Blatchford

El Clarion fue la creación de Robert Blatchford (seudónimo 'Nunquam') (1851-1943), un ex soldado convertido en periodista cuyas preocupaciones por el bienestar social y los desequilibrios evidentes de la sociedad inspiraron sus "principios humanitarios, de sentido común y socialistas" autodidactas. Tras haber establecido su carrera literaria en el Sunday Chronicle, en el que escribía regularmente sobre las terribles condiciones que se soportaban en los barrios bajos de Manchester, la conversión definitiva de Blatchford al socialismo se produjo después de leer un panfleto titulado "¿Qué es el socialismo?", de William Morris y HM Hyndman.

En 1891, tras un desacuerdo con el editor del periódico sobre sus intenciones socialistas, Blatchford abandonó el Sunday Chronicle y, junto con Alexander Mattock Thompson (seudónimo "Dangle"), Edward Francis Fay (seudónimo "The Bounder"), William Palmer (seudónimo "Whiffly Puncto") y el hermano de "Nunquam", Montague Blatchford (seudónimo "Mont Blong"), publicó The Clarion en una pequeña oficina de Manchester. Se vendieron 40.000 ejemplares de la edición original y la popularidad del periódico hizo que se trasladara a Fleet Street en Londres en 1895. La tirada alcanzó un pico de 80.000 ejemplares en 1908 y el periódico siguió publicándose hasta 1934. Todos los que escribieron para el periódico The Clarion bajo sus distintos seudónimos eran queridos por los lectores y se convirtieron en nombres familiares. A ellos pronto se sumó Tom Groom, 1871-1945, (seudónimo 'The O'Groomio'), el segundo nombre más importante en la historia del movimiento ciclista de Clarion.

Los perecederos abatidos

En febrero de 1894, un pequeño grupo de amigos ciclistas no organizados que se hacían llamar los "Perecederos Abatidos" por el hecho de que todos estaban casados, se reunieron en una iglesia laborista de Birmingham. Como todos se habían vuelto socialistas y todavía querían seguir montando en bicicleta, concibieron la idea de formar un Club Ciclista Socialista. En marzo de 1894 se volvieron a reunir y decidieron además que iban a ser:

“Un club social, con mucha necesidad de camaradería” que se autodenomina “como ese periódico que todos amábamos, y que ha hecho más por difundir el espíritu de camaradería y la amplitud de simpatías en nuestro movimiento que cualquier otra influencia que conozca”. Tom Groom

La idea de "comunión" se había derivado de "Un sueño de John Bull", una novela publicada en 1888 por el destacado activista socialista William Morris. En ella, el sacerdote rebelde que lideró la Rebelión de los Campesinos en 1381 y que es citado por muchos como el primer socialista inglés, sueña que:

“La comunión es el cielo, y la falta de comunión es el infierno; la comunión es vida, y la falta de comunión es muerte; y las obras que hacéis en la tierra, es por causa de la comunión que las hacéis, y la vida que hay en ella vivirá para siempre.”

Como resultado de la reunión de marzo, nació el Birmingham Clarion Cycle Club y no pasó mucho tiempo antes de que el periódico The Clarion pidiera la creación de otras secciones en toda Gran Bretaña.

Los primeros clubes de ciclismo de Clarion

The Birmingham Clarion Cycle Club’s first social was to Bromsgrove on April 7th 1894.

“These socials are arranged for the first Saturday in each month. A spot is selected to which non-cyclists can get. The cyclists arrange the teas, walks and other diversions and a very enjoyable day is spent. Their popularity among the non-cyclists is shown by the fact that at the first one fourteen of them came, whilst in May we had thirty, June forty; in July when we co-operated with the Labour Church in its annual excursion, we had seventy.” Tom Groom

The first mention in print of the existence of the Clarion Cycle Club came on April 28th 1894 when a report appeared in The Clarion about the Birmingham Clarion Cycle Club’s Easter Tour. Further reports sporadically followed but on 14th July 1894 The Clarion set up a permanent section entitled ‘Cycling Notes’ in which Clarion Cycle Club content would appear forthwith.

Throughout 1894 a steady number of new Clarion Cycle Clubs quickly sprang up, mostly in the Midlands and North West. Many of the earliest Clarion Cycle Clubs were created by groups of workers banding together with the most rudimentary organising. They were derived through conversations with other cycling Clarionettes who they met on the roads or what little they could glean from their reading of The Clarion newspaper. As a result, there was little conformity and many Clarion Cycle Clubs created a Club badge using a traditional form of “shield and bar across it”. These were quite hard to discern on the road and, given that one of the aims of Clarion cycling was fellowship, they were considered less than ideal. The Birmingham Clarion Cycle Club, being based as it was in the heart of Britain’s jewelry making industry, had developed their own “artistic little affair” which was easily recognizable. They hoped all Clubs could be persuaded to adopt it. Whenever a fellow Clarionette was sited wearing a Clarion badge, “Clarion ahoy!” was to be the cry.

Within a few months of the Birmingham Clarion Cycle Club being established, the idea of a National Clarion Cycling Club ‘with uniform rules, badge and name’ was being mooted:

“Rules should be as few as possible and I should not like to see… one… to the effect that none but Socialists… be admitted as members… Let us admit any who cares to join, reserving, as we have done, the management of the Club to those connected with some distinctly Socialist body. By giving the non-socialists, who may join us, ‘Clarion’ reasoning and ‘Clarion’ comradeship, we may soon turn him in to a bona-fide Socialist.” Tom Groom

Los exploradores de Clarion

In April 1895, the Clarion announced the imminent publication of a new “journal for socialist workers” called The Scout. In the first edition, published on 30th March 1895, Robert Blatchford explained that it:

“Arose from the fact that so many young men wrote… asking to be told what active work they might undertake for the cause of socialism.” Robert Blatchford

Blatchford cautioned that:

The work would only suit “men of zeal and perseverance… For it is work that lies in silent doing, without applause or recompense of any kind; and it is work that must be done individually by every scout.”

“In each town, and in each district of a large town, let scouting parties be formed. These scouts are to be provided with tracts and leaflets, which they are to leave at the houses of the workers. Let one street be taken at one time, a tract being left for a week, to be called for the week after and left in the next street. The Pennie edition of ‘Merrie England’ is specifically designed for this purpose.”

Scouts were further directed by Blatchford to attend meetings and paste stickers:

“The ‘sticker,’ judiciously used, is one of the most effective means of attracting attention… The sentences should the short, the matter straight to the point. There is not much room for argument. A striking question or assertion will attract attention where a longer statement will pass unnoticed. The word SOCIALISM should occupy a prominent position.”

The Scout went on to say:

“A certain amount of discretion must be used in posting the ‘stickers.’

They should not be posted on railway carriage windows, for instance as they will be torn down by the carriage cleaners at once. Telegraph posts, field gates, blank walls suggest themselves as likely places…

”“Is there any reason why stencil plates should not be used to decorate the pavements in our towns? Given a fine dry night, a pot of black or white paint will bring our message home to thousands of pedestrians. Paint, if allowed to dry, will wear a long time.”

“Objections may be raised, on aesthetic grounds, to our methods of propaganda, but while our brothers and sisters are starving or slowly dragging out an existence of brutalising toil, we cannot afford to be too nice in the methods by which we hope to effect their salvation. When we have compelled people to face the horrors of our present system, aroused their better feelings and enlisted their sympathies, we can then consider the question of taste.”

However, in a later edition, Blatchford wrote:

“I have received many and serious complaints about the labels. One Scout has been threatened with prosecution. In fact, so serious is the matter, that I would ask scouts not to use any more. They have been stuck on doors of public buildings, private houses, trees, market crosses, farmyard pumps, ferry boats, omnibuses, &c., &c. A feeling decidedly antagonistic to Socialism is engendered in the minds of those whose private property is thus invaded, and I’m afraid the labels are doing more harm than good… I think money would be more profitably spent on leaflets.”

According to The Scout, the organisation that would principally assist the work of the Clarion Scouts would be the Clarion Cycle Clubs. However, it would also include the Clarion Glee Clubs (later the Clarion Vocal Unions and today called the Clarion Choirs), the Clarion Field Clubs (a socialist nature club), the Clarion Cinderella Clubs (who organised day trips to take poor children from inner city areas in to the countryside) and the Clarion Handicraft Guilds.

Antes de Pascua de 1895

Con el tiempo, también existirían los Clarion Ramblers, los Clarion Camera Clubs, los Clarion Drawing Clubs, los Clarion Swimming Clubs, las Clarion Dramatic Societies y la Clarion Fellowship (una especie de club social). En la década de 1930, incluso había un Clarion Motor Club. Por último, también existían las Clarion Houses, a las que las Clarionettes de varias organizaciones Clarion se retiraban los fines de semana para vivir una especie de existencia utópica socialista. Hoy, quienes hablan de "el Clarion" lo hacen ignorando la miríada de organizaciones Clarion que han existido o continúan existiendo. Este punto se destaca aún más en otro informe del Scout:

Los Scouts de Stockport sugieren que tengan una insignia similar en estilo a la de los ciclistas con la palabra “Scout” en lugar de “Clarion”. ¿Qué piensan otros cuerpos al respecto? En el informe del Field Club, Lowerison defiende la insignia “Clarion”. No veo motivos por los cuales cada Scout no deba llevar la misma insignia que los ciclistas, y sé que muchos ya lo están haciendo”.

Al explicar el papel del Birmingham Clarion Cycle Club en 1895, Tom Groom escribió:

“No comenzamos la temporada con ningún programa de trabajo elaborado; nada, de hecho, más allá de lo de divertirnos. Pero un socialista es un socialista, ya sea a pie o en bicicleta, y pronto comenzamos a discutir la mejor manera de promover el socialismo, así como la jigger. Nuestra primera idea fue dejar una copia extra de 'Clarion' por persona en los diversos 'artilugios' que visitamos, y sin duda ha tenido un buen efecto. Más tarde, con la llegada de las órdenes y los folletos del escultismo, esta característica se expandió considerablemente”.

“Contraptions” significaba bares públicos; de hecho, siempre hubo una tradición de socializar y beber en el Clarion y el London Clarion continúa con esa tradición hoy en día.

La formación de un Club Ciclista Nacional Clarion

The first edition of the Scout as well as corresponding editions of The Clarion contained much talk of a meeting of all cycling Clarionettes at Ashbourne over the Easter weekend.

“Good Friday came and the hundred or so who were riding to the Meet set out: half-a-dozen from Yorkshire, about fifty from Birmingham, Nottingham and the Potteries, ten from Liverpool and over forty from the Manchester area. Some cyclists came from places with no Clarion CC yet, like Sheffield and Halifax… True to their promise, members of The Clarion paper’s staff arrived – including Nunquam (the ‘Chief’) with the Bounder and Dangle. Mont Blong and Whiffly Puncto too the train to Derby, then cycled to Ashbourne, calling at two pubs on the way. Whiffly came off on a hill and tore his ‘six-and-sixpenny knickerbocker trousers!’ Eventually they were welcomed into Asbourne by a group of young men standing on the bridge who shouted, ‘Boots’; to which they gave The Clarion reply ‘spurs’ (By this date all Clarion readers were familiar with Blatchford’s ‘soldiers stories’ in which men spinning yarns in the barrack-room after lights-out tested the attentiveness of their audience by interjecting the word ‘Boots!’ at intervals, expecting a chorus of ‘Spurs’ in reply.)
Friday night’s ‘smoker’ or concert, in the George and Dragon, the Meet Headquarters, was an impromptu entertainment of songs and recitatations – ‘a right merry evening of good fellowship’. A Liverpool comrade sang the ‘Red Flag’. ‘Daisy Bell’ (about the couple on a ‘bicycle made for two’) was sung in chorus, with a zither accompaniment; and the ‘Lone Scout’ (Bob Manson, a well-known Liverpool activist) presented the Bounder with a trophy – the top from a street-lamp!” Fellowship is Life - The Story of the National Clarion Cycling Club – Denis Pye 1995.

At Ashbourne it was decided that (i) a National Clarion Cycling Club be formed (ii) That a Sub-Committee be formed to draw up the Rules (iii) That the National Clarion Cycling Clubs adopt the Birmingham Badge as the national badge (iv) that the Birmingham Badge should be one third bigger than its current size (v) that the Scout be the recognised centre of the Clarion Cycling Clubs (vi) that an annual meeting of the clubs be held.

The Sub-Committee met at Birmingham on 24th April and, in accordance with the resolution passed at Conference, drew up the following rules:

That the Association be called the National Clarion Cycling Union
Object – An Association of the various Clarion Cycling Clubs for the purpose of Socialist propaganda, and for promoting inter-club runs between the Club in different towns.
That the recognized communication between the Union and other Clubs be the Scout.
That the badge shown here, and accepted by the Ashbourne Conference, to be used by all affiliated Clubs.

Local Clubs can wear any other badge in addition if they choose to do so.

It is pertinent to note that although a National Clarion Cycling Union had been formed there was no requirement of sections to affiliate but also no charge for doing so. The purpose of the National Clarion was simply to standardise propaganda work and foster fellowship; it was never intended to rule over individual sections!

“Now… that Clarion Cycling Clubs are becoming national, the work that may be done by them is of much greater importance, and by discussing the various propositions which may be brought forward to-day, we may learn from each other the best methods of helping on Socialism.” Tom Groom

It was soon after the Ashbourne Meet, on 25th May 1895, that The Clarion announced the formation of the first two London Clarion Cycle Clubs. More followed in the ensuing months.

Socialismo

As today, there was much opposition to the Socialism which was espoused by the Clarion Cycle Clubs. Robert Blatchford cautioned that:

“In all cases of personal discussion Scouts should be careful to be calm and polite. Good-humoured argument is the best weapon. It is unwise to be over-eager. Give the seed time to grow… Scouts should invariably be careful not only to act in the friendliest manner… All Scouts should thoroughly prepare themselves to answer the common objections to Socialism. Most of these objections are answered in ‘Merrie England’. Scouts on duty would do well to carry a copy of “Merrie England” with them.

Edward Fay conveyed the resistance to the Socialism espoused at the Asbourne Meet:

"The meeting in Ashbourne Market Place was not only profoundly interesting, but to every lover of Humanity it was deeply instructive. It gave us all a taste of the opposing forces-of the rancorous malice which ever accompanies besotted ignorance. There was the single-speech little man whose head was on a level with Citizen’s foot, who kept up a running fire of ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar!’ all through the latter’s speech and who, when offered an opportunity of reply safeguarded from interruption, had no other words handy. The pompous farm bailiff who declared that ‘We don’t want that sort of talk here,’ but who also declined to take the rostrum, and who, when asked a few questions, had no reply but crept shamefacedly away… Then we had the cattlemonger, who was very angry with us, for that he ‘could get up to-morrow morning and earn twice as much many as any of we-‘ But when asked by a Scout for a definition of earning, and also as to how the making of his money affected other people, his was the old cry, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ annotated with up-to-date blasphemy. Then there was the lady… who had been to church four times that day, and told her husband, much to the gentleman’s dismay, that she’d heard more common sense and good Christian sentiment talked in that Market Place, by the Socialists, than in the whole of her previous existence.”

“The following appears in the ‘Ashbourne News’… ‘I have just finished reading a Socialist brochure called ‘Merrie England’; we people in the country do not often come across this class of literature, and I confess I can neither make head nor tail of it…”

“As others see us ‘The London Evening News’ of April 16 says ‘Many quiet nooks in the Midlands and North of England have been invaded during the last few days by a band of cycling Socilists, who describe themselves at the Clarion Club. They have been endeavouring, with scant measure of success to propagate their views in the country districts, and to advertise the Socialist organ after which their club is named’ ‘With scant measure of success. We smile!”

Fay concluded:

“The Clarion Scouts will have very varied experiences. They will in the course of their peregrinations amongst these dark stagnant places sample ‘humours’ more side-splitting than any penned language. They will also be subjected to the dull sneer of self-loved ignorance, and the bitter malice4 of educated selfishness. But these two classes are-thank Heaven-not large. The great bulk of the English people have sound hearts, but they are very obstinate and want shifting. And a great number are sound at heart, but timid. The work is difficult work, and requires the greatest tact and forbearance…”

The Clarion Scouts were also tasked to assist the Red Vans or Clarion Propaganda vans (horse drawn caravans/later motor vans), covered in socialist slogans from whose platforms speakers would espouse socialist virtues. It was in this guise that Clarion Cyclists get mentioned in Robert Tressel’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropist; singing the traditional Hymn of the National Clarion Cycling Clubs ‘England Arise’ by Edward Carpenter which was sung at every National Clarion Cycling Club Easter Meet until 2006:

“One Sunday morning towards the end of July, a band of about twenty-five men and women on bicycles invaded the town… As they rode along they gave leaflets to the people in the streets, and whenever they came to a place where there were many people they dismounted and walked about, giving their leaflets to whoever would accept them… The strangers distributed leaflets to all those who would take them, and they went through a lot of the side streets, putting leaflets under the doors and in the letter-boxes. When they had exhausted their stock they remounted and rode back the way they came.
The leaflet which had given rise to all this fury read as follows:

WHAT IS SOCIALISM?

At present the workers, with hand and brain produce continually food, clothing and all useful and beautiful things in great abundance.
BUT THEY LABOUR IN VAIN--for they are mostly poor and often in want. They find it a hard struggle to live. Their women and children suffer, and their old age is branded with pauperism.

Socialism is a plan by which poverty will be abolished, and everyone enabled to live in plenty and comfort, with leisure and opportunity for ampler life.

If you wish to hear more of this plan, come to the field at the Cross Roads on the hill at Windley, on Tuesday evening next at 8 P.M. and

LOOK OUT FOR THE SOCIALIST VAN

The cyclists rode away amid showers of stones without sustaining much damage..
On the following Tuesday evening… the Socialist van, escorted by five or six men on bicycles, appeared round the corner at the bottom of the hill.

… The van was drawn by two horses; there was a door and a small platform at the back and over this was a sign with white letters on a red ground: 'Socialism, the only hope of the Workers.'

The driver pulled up, and another man on the platform at the rear attempted to address the crowd, but his voice was inaudible in the din of howls, catcalls, hooting and obscene curses. After about an hour of this, as the crowd began pushing against the van and trying to overturn it, the terrified horses commenced to get restive and uncontrollable…

…Then the chairman announced that they were coming there again next Sunday at the same time, when a comrade would speak on 'Unemployment and Poverty, the Cause and the Remedy', and then the strangers sang a song called 'England Arise', the first verse being:

England Arise, the long, long night is over,
Faint in the east, behold the Dawn appear
Out of your evil dream of toil and sorrow
Arise, O England! for the day is here!

During the progress of the meeting several of the strangers had been going out amongst the crowd giving away leaflets, which many of the people gloomily refused to accept, and selling penny pamphlets, of which they managed to dispose of about three dozen.” The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist (Lawrence & Wishart 1955) - Robert Tressell, 1870-1911,

Walter Crane y William Morris

En 1912, el famoso ilustrador socialista Walter Crane, amigo de William Morris, regaló al National Clarion Cycling Clubs un nuevo logotipo que proclamaba "La camaradería es vida", "La falta de camaradería es muerte" y "El socialismo, la esperanza del mundo".

1912 fue el mismo año en que The Clarion estableció que los clubes ciclistas Colonial Clarion también habían sido creados por emigrantes británicos en Australia y Nueva Zelanda. De hecho, fue un ex miembro de The Clarion de Londres quien primero confirmó este rumor:

“Harry M. Allbon, ex secretario del Croydon Clarion CC, escribe desde Sydney, NSW, para explicar por qué el Colonial Clarion CC no está prosperando allí. “Los Colonial disfrutan de la vida al aire libre más que la gente de casa. Por un lado, podemos confiar en el clima. Pero el ciclismo no es muy bueno aquí. Las carreteras son tan ásperas y polvorientas. Y tenemos una gran variedad de lugares hermosos a los que se puede llegar fácilmente, y viajar en tranvía, tren o ferry es tan barato que no vale la pena comprar una bicicleta. El paisaje es más accidentado que en casa, pero extrañamos el paisaje inglés. El sur de Inglaterra, Gales, ¡Ah! Con los mejores deseos para la Comunidad en casa de parte de la Comunidad Sydney Clarion”.

A lo largo de la primera mitad del siglo XX, los clubes ciclistas nacionales Clarion continuaron con sus actividades de gira y de carácter socialista. En 1921, Tom Groom publicó Cyclorama, en el que narraba algunas de sus propias experiencias como ciclista de Clarion.

En The Severn Valley, recuerda un viaje incómodo con un "hombre metódico":

“El plan cuidadosamente preparado de nuestro viaje, con el kilometraje de cada día cuidadosamente calculado, cada lugar de parada previsto, las horas y el tiempo asignado para cada comida fijados, arrastró mi alma entristecida hasta el aburrimiento”.

“Había comido sin apetito, porque había llegado la hora de comer acordada. Me sacaron de la cama para remar en arroyos frescos, porque teníamos que recorrer 20 millas antes de llegar al lugar de parada previsto. Me despertaron de la cama cuando quería acostarme y reflexionar sobre los problemas de la vida, porque una hora más en la cama habría perturbado la belleza de nuestros planes.
Y entonces ataqué. «¡Señor!», dije, «me fui de casa para escapar de los toros de Brum, con su monótona regularidad de llamar y enviar; para olvidar la necesidad de comer a intervalos establecidos; de dar cuerda a mi reloj; de afeitarme o de lavarme más de dos veces al día. Este plan que hemos ideado es un plan podrido. ¡Déjeme, le ruego, que siga mis propios caminos sin gobierno, pues viajo sólo para olvidar la tiranía de los días!».
Después de eso me dejó andar a mi propio ritmo y la miseria recayó sobre sus hombros, pues era un hombre preciso y amaba el método y el orden, incluso en sus placeres. Mientras que yo había aprendido a andar en bicicleta en un club ciclista de Clarion.

En dos entrevistas, Groom recuerda un encuentro casual con un socialista en otra gira:

“Estaba sentado en el muro de ladrillo que delimitaba el pequeño jardín que había frente a la casa, con los pies colgando y en la mano una olla que parecía útil. Reconoció mi insignia del club cuando desmonté y, inclinándose hacia mí, me ofreció la olla y gritó: '¡Clarion, a la vista! ¡Bebe! Es la primera Clarionette que veo en meses y me estoy poniendo azul por ver a un socialista".

La Olimpiada Obrera y la Guerra Civil Española

A principios de la década de 1930, los miembros del Clarion Cycle Club asistieron a las Olimpiadas de los Trabajadores e incluso trajeron una copa que el National Clarion Cycling Club conserva en la actualidad. A finales de la década de 1930, varios ciclistas de Clarion fueron a España para ofrecerse como voluntarios en las Brigadas Internacionales, incluido nuestro propio miembro del Clarion Cycle Club de Londres, Tom Groom, del Battersea Clarion Cycle Club.

Sin embargo, después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y con el inicio de la Guerra Fría a partir de los años 50, el apoyo abierto al socialismo disminuyó, al igual que el número de miembros del Clarion Cycle Club. En general, los Clarion Cycle Clubs siguieron siendo socialistas, pero la mayor parte del trabajo político se agotó.

En la década de 1980, el Club Ciclista Nacional Clarion modificó el membrete de Walter Crane y reemplazó las palabras "El socialismo, la esperanza del mundo" por "El club de los ciclistas sabios", "La camaradería es vida" y, más tarde, por el vulgar "Redes sociales en bicicleta". Con el tiempo, un nuevo liderazgo eliminó los vestigios restantes de aspiraciones socialistas y, en su lugar, se dedicó a las carreras y a ampliar su membresía.

Sin embargo, en los clubes de ciclismo de Clarion hubo muchos que se opusieron a esos cambios. Jim Straker, de Leeds, secretario de la Unión de Yorkshire y miembro del Comité Nacional desde los años 1950 hasta los 1970... sostuvo, junto con Tom Groom, que el socialismo era el alma del National Clarion... que "los números no lo eran todo".

Continuó diciendo:

"Me uní al Clarion simplemente por los principios en los que se fundó". En aquellos días, "todos aceptaban la creencia de que el color, el credo, la raza y la religión, o el dinero, eran secundarios; y todos se daban cuenta de que la vida significaba algo más que montar en bicicleta". Allí donde las secciones eran solo clubes ciclistas, había, sugirió, "un declive en el deseo de reunirse y mezclarse con otras secciones".

Jim tenía temores sobre el futuro del Clarion:

"La sola idea", declaró, "de que en algún futuro encuentro un Quintin Hogg [un destacado político conservador de la época] o una persona similar pudiera ser invitado a presentar los trofeos de Tom Groom, de la Asociación Deportiva de los Trabajadores Británicos y de Checoslovaquia me enfermaría físicamente".

A pesar de los intentos de detener el declive del Clarion y restaurar sus aspiraciones socialistas, el National Clarion se dividió en 2006.

En la actualidad, existen el National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 y el National Clarion Cycling Club.

El National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 sigue comprometido con los objetivos de los fundadores del movimiento de ciclismo Clarion, es decir, "combinar los placeres del ciclismo con la propaganda del socialismo". La membresía se otorga automáticamente a las personas de todos los clubes (como London Clarion) que se afilian a él.

En la actualidad, el National Clarion Cycling Club se dedica principalmente a organizar eventos de carreras y ofrece una membresía paga a individuos, ya sea como miembros de los Clarion Cycle Clubs (secciones, como los llama) o como miembros privados.

Ambas organizaciones reivindican el mismo legado, aunque sólo el National Clarion 1895 se mantiene fiel a los objetivos de los fundadores del Clarion Cycling Club.

Alex Southern - Marzo de 2019