The Russian Revolution and the British working class. Part 2

Already the overthrow of Tsardom and the events of early 1917 had prompted the forming of Councils of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. The Leeds Convention of these bodies in June expressed the solidarity of British workers with the Russian Revolution and resolved to carry forward the struggle for peace and 'the complete political and economic emancipation of international labour'. Russian revolution has so far meant the defeat of the middle class and the triumph of the workers'. The SLP was, however, over-enthusiastic in identifying itself with the Bolsheviks. "The theories as put into operation by the Russian Maximalists (i.e. Bolsheviks) are similar to those advocated by the international Socialist Labour Party.' The BSP, in the period before the October revolution, was closely following the course of events in Russia. As early as the beginning of October they called for the Soviets to take power because 'the Soviets is the only body that can rally the people of Russia in the defence of the revolution', . Thus, the BSP saw the October revolution as a necessary development. Within a week of the revolution its paper said: "The expected has happened, Kerensky and the provisional council have been overthrown and the Soviet has taken control of Petrograd." The BSP's enthusiastic support for the revolution was soon to drive a wedge between them and their erstwhile allies in the ILP As news of the actions of the Bolshevik government arrived—in particular the publication of the secret treaties and the call for peace negotia1904 10 99090 2009902 4002 ."COPEE... 2. October 26 the BSP was mainly responsible for the establishment of a London organization. On November 7 the national body was set up again 'representing the united forces of the political and industrial working class movement without distinction of opinions or tendencies. 343 By the end of the year the 'Hands Russia' movement was running campaigns in every major city every night of the week. These were usually addressed LieutenantColonel Malone, Liberal MP, recent visitor to Russia and recruit to the BSP, or by Prinport the direct action policies of the Triple Alliance earlier in the year. These developments in the working-class movement forced Churchill to promise to withdraw troops by the end of the year, a promise which was never carried out. Because of the failure of the Labour leaders to extend the campaign Lloyd George could assert by the end of 1919 that 'there is no basis for peace with Russia'.* Labour's record had indeed been, as Snowden was forced to admit, 'a sordid story of apathy and indifference'"

The October revolution provided at the same time an inspiration and an object lesson for British revolutionaries. A leading figure in working-class struggles of the period later described their hopes and fears: 'How we watched and waited in those days for every scrap of news from the East! Would the Bolsheviks hold power? Lenin; Trotsky; Could they hold on?' Only the sectarian, syndicalist-orientated SLP at first understand the decisively different nature of October. Within a month they said 'The S.34 At the same mies were lead'ialist offensive r workers' state. this interventhe revolutionved an essential of the most rs in the interstory of the g class. ith big strikes every industry, rch-Fabian and of Stalinist 'The leaders of : distinctly unspırit of revolt : and file, which ns its sympathy Joings of Petrole same time, t in the army pice force was causing increas ling concern to shooting of military policemen." In November of 1918 a revolt at Shoreham in Sussex involved over 1,000 men. 'Antagonism to officers' is listed as one of the major causes of revolts which broke out in Folkestone on January 3, 1919.32 Ten thousand soldiers marched into Folkestone and put up pickets to prevent troops from being demobilized. At the same time it was said that 'everywhere the feeling is Le men o go Hom that the same: "the war is over, mean Further mutinies against conditions at Valdelure and elsewhere in Northern France resulted in the camps being taken over and being run by the men, who forced the officers to come and go only with the authorization of perRussia, and also whether there was any sign of trade union organization or rank and file committees amongst the troops. The government was clearly worried.

This unrest in the army was often consciously linked with the struggles of the working class in Britain. It was the failure to materialize of 'the expected general strike which had begun on the Clyde' January 1919 which was 'largely responsible' for the failure to extend the Valdelure soldiers' strike." A leading participant in the engineering strikes themselves later said that 'a rising was expected. A rising should have taken place. The workers were ready and able to effect it: the leadership never thought of it'.3 It was in January that the Revolution. At this high point of militant struggle it was said that there was 'no single issue that has ever within living memory SO amazingly moved the imagination and heart of the working class as the intervention in Russia' 39 As soon as the intervention began in the middle of 1918 the ILP echoed the protests of the Bolsheviks. They did SO only while dissociating themselves from the revolution itself. Ramsay MacDonald took to advising the employers that 'intervention , even from a capitalist point of view... is bad'. The BSP on the other hand called for the end of intervention on the grounds that 'the cause of the social revolution in Russia is the cause of the workers of the world'. By November, the BSP was Tanks In the Saltmarket, Clydeside in 1919 were sent to control strikers and to meet a rising that was expected'. intervention. On January 18, in the week when Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered, a conference mainly organized by the shop stewards in London set up a national 'Hands Off Russia' committee. The five hundred delegates represented 350 organizations including 48 from trade union branches and district committees, and leading figures from the shop steward movement and all the main revolutionary groups. Molions were passed at the conference during the day and at a mass meeting in the evening calling for strikes and other sympathetic action • to defeat not simply intervention in Russia cipal Goode who had also been to Soviet Russia. These meetings were continued during 1920, and other activities of the campaign included the circulation of union branches and the leafleting of factories and dock gates.

During 1919 these campaigns began to bear fruit. British sailors refused to sail to Russia from Rosyth, Invergordon, Portsmouth and Rosyth, dockers had sts. At number of other SLP pamphlets to the men who brought their cruiser back to port rather than go to Russia. These sailors had to be demobilized as a result." In March the Miners' Federation of Great Britain called for the withdrawal of British troops.* On April 16 this demand was taken up by the Triple Alliance, though opposed by the TUC. At the Labour Party Conference in early June the national executive was instructed to consult with the TUC leaders 'with a view to effective action being taken to enforce these demands (i.e. the ending of intervention) the unreserved use of . their political power.' Only the revolutionary groups fought to carry out these policies. On CONTINUED TOMORROW 24 J. T. Murphy New Horizons, p. 68. 25. The Socialist, January and February 1918.

From mid-1918 to the end of 1919 Britain saw numerous mass class actions and many isolated revolts of revolutionary potential. In the months when the BSP, SLP and other organizations were going through their tortuous negotiations to form the Communist Party, the militancy of the British working class was the authorities ; who thought that the rank and file committees being set up amongst policemen and soldiers represented 'a deter 'mined effort to emulate the F Russian Bolsheviks in this c ountry.

In August of 1918 there were extensive police strikes in many cities, ar id again in the following July • in Liverpool combined with large scale rioting. In the su immer of 1918 lower-deck co mittees were elected in sor uth-coast naval bases and ther e was news of riots at base camps and the mits signed by the camp committees. At Vendroux, the whole of an ordnance corps group went on strike until two of their number who had been arrested were released." At Shoreham, in March, a further outbreak involved 2.000 unarmed troops marching into Brighton to the cheers of the populace." In January the War Office sent out a circular to all Commanding Officers asking them whether the troops under their command would be willing to break strikes or to fight in coal miners decided to campaign for nationalization and improved conditions and in February the transport workers put in for a big wage rise. The November national railway strike was one of the most bitterly fought class battles *he country had ever seen, in many aspects foreshadowing the General Strike of 1926.

While all this was happening the struggle against imperialist intervention in the Soviet Union was rallying thousands of British workers to the defence of the Russian centring its campaign inside the Labour Party on opposition to intervention. It issued an appeal to the Labour Party Conference which began 'Long Live the Socialist Republic! No Intervention Anywhere!' By December even the Labour Party had issued a manifesto calling for the withdrawal of allied troops but the parliamentary party did nothing about it until the following July.

During 1919, the revolutionary groups were actively volved in the struggle against but also the blockade of Germany." Mass meetings were held in early February at the Albert Hall and the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, which passed identical motions asserting that 'intervention must be ended' and 'that the working class must see this demand enforced by the unrestricted use of their political and industrial power'. Further efforts to co-ordinate the national movement were made at a Manchester meeting in June, and in September Harry Pollitt became national organizer. On Sunday July 20 there were international demonstrations against intervention. joint leaflet issued by the BSP, the SLP, the WSF and the South Wales Socialist Society called for support of the Sunday demonstration and the workers to 'Down Tools on Monday July 31!' This call was disowned by the Labour Party leaders, but received some response, notably from London dockers." By September the TUC Conference condemned its Parliamentary Committee for failing to supnaught during 1919 and 1920 make clear the extensiveness of the campaign. See also Harry Pollitt, Serving My Time (1940), ch. 6. 43 A. Hutt, op. cit., p. 36. 44 T. H. Wintringham, op. cit., p. 36. 45 S. R. Graubard, British Labour and the Russian Revolution (1956), pp. 71-72. 46 Labour Party, Annual Conference Report (1919), p. 156. 47 Workers' . Dreadnaught, July 19 and 26, 1919. 48 S. R. Graubard, op. cit., PP. 81 and 87. 49 Labour Leader, 1919.

October 4 and and 31, 1918. 28 Ibid., February 7, 1918. An article on March 7 entitled The ILP and the Bolsheviks is hostile to the Soviet government, largely on a pacifist basis. 29 B. Webb, Diaries 1917-1924, (1952), p. 106. 30 Davidson Papers, January 10, 1918: quoted in R. K. Middlemas, The Clydesiders (1965), p. 89. 31 A. Hutt, Post-War History of the British Working Class (1937), p. 13. 32 T. H. Wintringham, , Mutiny (1936), pp. 305-328 gives an account of many of these events. 33 The Herald, January I1, 1919. 34 B. G. A. Connell, From Monk to Busman (1935), pp. 80-82. 35 R. Groves and A. Hodge, The Long Week End (1940), pp. 25-26. 36 W. Crook, The General Strike (1931), p. 240-243. 37 T. H. Wintringham, op. cit., p. 328. 38 W. Gallagher, Revolt on the Clyde (1936), p. 234. 39 The Call, December 11, 1919. 40 Labour Leader, July Il and August 1, 1918. 41 The Call, November 14, 1918. 42 The Call and Workers' Dread-