​Clarion Socialism

The Clarion Cycling Club was founded in 1894 by six young men who were members of the Bond Street Labour Church on Constitution Hill in Birmingham. Their leader, Tom Groom, was also a member of the Marxist Social Democratic Federation. Initially they called their Club, the Socialists' Cycling Club but quickly re-named it the Clarion Cycling Club after 'The Clarion', their favourite weekly newspaper, edited by the Socialist campaigner Robert Blatchford. Their aim was to combine a love of cycling with their Socialist principles. These principles were based on the Socialist Ten Commandments that were taught in the Socialist Sunday Schools