The Russian Revolution and the British working class. Part 3: The Polish war and the ‘Jolly George’

It was in the spring of 1920, when the war against Poland began, that the issue became further inflamed. It was clear to everyone that 'the Marionettes are in Warsaw but the strings are pulled from London and Paris's At first 'Labour's protest in parliament lacked fire'." But, on May 10 'two years of tremendously hard and unremitting work on the part of a devoted band of comrades in London', mainly members of the WSF, bore fruit when dockers refused to load a cargo marked 'HMS Munitions for Poland' on to the Jolly George at the East India Dock. This action transformed the situation.

In the weeks that followed the BSP turned its campaign against intervention towards the TUC and the Labour Party. Opposition to the Polish intervention was described as 'Labour's Acid Test' and the party helped to organize a national appeal to the TUC and the Labour Party for strikes against the intervention, signed by, amongst others, Robert Smillie, President of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and Alex Gossip, General Secretary of the Furniture Trades Association. At the Labour Party annual conference in July BSP members campaigned for a General Strike against intervention. Ernest Bevin, however, persuaded the delegates to pass a purely formal motion on the subject.

Very soon, however, events were to take a more serious turn when the British army threatened to intervene in defence of the beleaguered Poles. This produced the

famous telegram from Henderson to every local Labour Party: 'Extremely menacing possibility extension Polish Russian war. Strongly urge local parties organize citizen demonstrations against intervention and supply men and munitions to Poland. Demand peace negotiations immediate raising blockade, resumption trade relations. Send resolutions Premier and Press. Deputize local MPs.'5* On Saturday and Sunday, August 7 and 8 there were demonstrations in every part of the country. The 'Daily Herald' on August 9 and 10 mentions about 70 meetings run by local Labour Parties and Communist Party branches, as well as many resolutions from union branches and executives. On August 9 there was a special conference of the TUC and Labour Party which called for 'the whole industrial power of the organized workers' to be used against the war, and set up a national Council of Action which included Clynes from the right, Purcell from the left and many others. On August 10 the Council saw the Prime Minister, who made no verbal concessions, but was later to give no help to the Poles. A call was issued on the same day for local Councils of Action to be set up. On Friday 13 at a national meeting of the Council of Action there were 1,044 delegates from 689 trade unions and 355 labour parties and _trades councils. Men who had done nothing to oppose the war in 1914 now felt that they could exonerate themselves by making statements as extreme as possible, and doing as little as they could. Jimmy Thomas, whose respect for the constitution bordered on religious mania, said that unconstitutional measures were necessary because 'the disease is so desperate and dangerous that it is only desperate and dangerous methods that can provide a remedy. The conference passed a motion calling for the withdrawal of British troops from the war, for the recognition of the Soviet Union and authorizing the Council of Action 'to call for any and every form of with- drawal drawal of very i0 which Circumstances require to give effect to the foregoing policy'."" In the weeks that was idated where 350 coun was initiated where 350 councils were set up, usually accompanied by big meetings, millions OI leaflets calling for peace with Russia were printed and distributed, and national August 27 and October 17on demonstrations were run ilt seems most likely that this had little effect on the 147: -Government's policy, since they probably had little intention of helping the Poles anyway. The fact is they did not do SO." Winston Churchill, however, thought that the 'violent agitation' of the Labour movement 'under Communist influence and guidance' forced Lloyd George to tell the Poles that 'the British Government could not take any action against Russia' even if the Poles were defeated. 58 These are, however, of less interest than the developments in the working class associated with the Council of Action issued a leaflet to the local councils under the militant title Form Your Councils of Action, but which went on "care should be exercised as to the functions of the Local Councils. They are not in any way to usurp the powers of the Trade Unions' Executives, especially so far as withdrawal of labour is concerned, but are to act as centres of information'. The national leadership boldly declared in October that 'there appears no likellhood of [peace with Russia] being secured by direct action' and refused local requests to extend the campaign to other issues such as the demand for Irish independence by claiming that 'the Council's mandate is strictly limited'.® Josiah Wedgewood, a recent convert from Liberalism and a member of the National Council, was clear about the Council's need for restraint: It has the necessary unanimity which ensures moderation... unanimity is not often achieved in action. Its power will be measured by its ability to avoid action.6l Such leaders could not, however, prevent local initiatives of all kinds. After the Hyde Park demonstration of August 8 for instance 'a crowd of about 4,000 assembled on the Edgware Road .... blocking the thoroughfare. Police were called in to restore order, red flags were waved and there were cries of "Hands off Russia!", "We don't want any war!" , "Down with organized force!" , "Three cheers for Sinn Fein!" • As a result four arrests were made'" Other local initiatives were of a more organized nature though they varied with the circumstances. There were councils of action in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other cities. In Sheffield, the Council of Action was set up on August 15 and included the General Executive of the Trades and Labour Council, local shop steward convenors, union district committee members and two representatives from the Cooperative Societies. Later the Council was calling for its activities to be extended to the questions of Ireland, unemployment and trade with Russia. The Council continued in existence until the following February 6 In Merthyr Tydfil every organized worker was represented on the Central Council of Action, which had a complicated network of committees to deal with such matters as transport, propaganda and finance. This organization was set up at a special meeting at the end of August when its role was outlined. 'Trade Unions function only in time industrial peace.' When there is a crisis in industry then 'the normal functions of trade unions are over, and there is no machinery to take up the problems in a systematized way, preserve order and carry on the administrative work that is necessary then.'® This was precisely the role the Councils of Action were to play during the General Strike in 1926.

The revolutionaries, though to some extent aware of the possibilities existing in the situation, did little to seize the initiative. The WSF, by now calling itself the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) made the correct propaganda point but did little to act on it. It now rests with the rank and file to see that these councils do not munist Party of Great Britain, just formed from the BSP and sections of the SLP, tried to act on this advice, but they Clearly thought their membership of the local Councils was a right to be expected, rather than a privilege to be won." A year later a leading member of the Communist Party plained how it was that little been achieved: The Central Council. • • maintained its hold on the situation. This was not a result of any brilliant measures on their part, but simply because no effort was prepared which would lead to their removal às the crisis developed. Had a vigorous criticism of their policy been maintained, had the idea of a new leadership representing the local councils of action been steadily forwarded, the possibility of securing new leadership would have been advanced enormously, and its main effect would have been to force the central authority to a more vigorous policy.?" It was the political immaturity of the British Marxists which made them unable to seize the initiative at this high point in militancy and internationalism of the working class.

In 1917 and in 1920, when soviets were begun in Britain, could only have been developed through a struggle against centrism rapidly expanding bureaucracy. On these two occasions the defence of the Russian Revolution was an important event in the development of the working class and the revolutionary movement. In the future it could have led either to an appreciation of the gains which were being defended or to the mechanical defence of things Russian later characteristic of the Stalinized Communist Party of Great Britain. A British October revolution will be carried forward only by those who can defend the gains of the last October revolution, and carry out that struggle against centrism and betrayal so lacking fifty years ago in Britain.

50 Daily Herald, April 30, 1920. S1 S. R. Graubard, op. cit., p. 93. 52 Pollit, op. cit., pp. 111-118. 53 The Call, May 20 and June 10, 1920. 54 W. & Z. Coates, A History of Anglo-Soviet Relations (1943), p. 42. 55 Council of Action, Report of the Special Conference on Labour and the Russo-Polish War (1920). 56 F. Bramley, J. Middleton and H. Lindsay, Report of the Council of_Action (October 18, 1920), pp. 57 See S. R. Graubard, op. cit., pp. 111-114 for a discussion of this point. 58. W. Churchill, The World Crisis: the Aftermath (1929), p. 269. Volume Sni (Londent 196), Ks. 308. 60 F. Bramley, et al., op. cit., pp. 61 Article entitled The Council of Action: Triumph for Labour Unanimity in Review of Reviews, September-October 1920, p. 170. 62 Willesden Chronicle, August 13, 1920. 63 Sheffield Federated Trades and Labour Council Executive Minutes for August 15 and 17 and September 14, 1920, and January 14 and February 1, 1920. 64 W. Paul, Communism and Society (1922), p. 174-175. The Pioneer (Merthyr Tydfil), September 4 and 18, 1920. 65 Workers' Dreadnaught, August 21, 1920. 66 The Communist, August 26, 1920. 67 Article entitled On Leading the Masses in the Communist Review, February 1922, p. 271.