Socialists and the First World War

This month marks the 90^th anniversary of the end of WWI. We recall the socialist opposition to it.

The historian George Haupt has written that in July 1914 the workers movement did not consider war a possibility. Speaking six years later the German Social Democrat Karl Kautsky admitted that:

“It is surprising that none of those present at the meeting thought of raising the question of what to do if war broke out...or which attitude the socialist parties should adopt in this war” (cited in Georges Haupt: Socialism and the Great War: the Collapse of the Second International. Oxford, 1972. p. 220.])

Haupt comments that it is impossible to say whether the leaders of the International were “captives of their own myths or whether their reaction was the classical manifestation of that characteristic trait of the Second International: Reformist practice screened behind verbal radicalism.” (ibid. p. 221.)

The parties of the Social Democrat Second International shared our view that capitalism causes war and, like us, called for the international solidarity of the working class but when war broke out in August 1914 this proved to be mere talk.

To their disgust, but not to their surprise, the members of the Socialist Party saw workers and their leaders line up behind their respective governments ready to take part in the slaughter. Labour leaders such as Keir Hardie, Ramsay Macdonald and George Lansbury assured the government that “the head office of the Party, its entire machinery, are to be placed at the disposal of the Government in their recruiting campaign.” (Labour Leader 3 September 1914)

The British Socialist Party (successor to the SDF) war manifesto declared that it recognised:

“…that the national freedom and independence of this country are threatened by Prussian militarism and that the Party naturally desires to see the prosecution of the war to a speedy and successful issue.” (Justice 17 September 1914 cited in H. W. Lee and E. Archbold Social-Democracy in Britain: Fifty Years of the Socialist Movement. London, 1935. p.225.)

The Socialist Party on the other hand denounced the war as none of the workers business. It was a war of capitalist interests,

“ ...the workers’ interests are not bound up in the struggle for markets wherein their masters may dispose of the wealth they have stolen from them (the workers), but in the struggle to end the system under which they are robbed....The Socialist Party of Great Britain...declaring that no interests are at stake justifying the shedding of a single drop of working class blood, enters its emphatic protest against the brutal and bloody butchery of our brothers in this and other lands...

Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our good will and Socialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of Socialism.” (‘The war and the Socialist position.’ Socialist Standard , September 1914)

In common with most political parties the Socialist Party carried on a vigorous programme of in-door and out-door meetings. From street corners and open spaces Party speakers on platforms propounded the socialist case against war. In his memoirs R. M. Fox (an early member of the Party) recalls the almost mesmeric effect of one Socialist Party member, a man called Anderson, who could project his voice above the noise of a brass band hired by local shopkeepers to drown him out. (R. M. Fox: Smoky Crusade. London. 1938.)

But even the most redoubtable speaker could not withstand the onslaught of a crowd whipped into fever pitch by jingoistic propaganda. There survives in the Party archive a bound minute book recording outdoor meetings held in North London. It records in a neat italic hand each meeting held by the branch giving details of date, time and speaker and chairman. Also recorded are the size of audience and occasional comments as to the kind of questions asked and the temper of the audience. Audience size seems to have fluctuated between 100 and 250. The meetings in August 1914 increased in size and the entry “Many questions mainly about the war. Good meeting” occurs a number of times. On Sunday August 30th a member named Wray addressed an audience this time of around 800:

“Many questions mainly about the war...Hostility shown by the audience so soon as the speaker began to reply to the opposition and the police closed the meeting leaving Party members to get away with the platform amongst the hostile audience that had closed around it and damaged it one side of the steps torn away and lost thus rendering the platform useless for further propaganda meetings.”

A later entry for September 20^th records:

“Opposition by Grainger of Daily Herald League [sympathetic to the Labour Party] supported by several members of B.S.P. [British Socialist Party] in the audience with design of raising prejudice against the SPGB and so of breaking up the meeting.”

On a Sunday in mid September one Hyde Park meeting was the subject of a concerted attack. The organiser of the meeting reported

“...There was a determined attack made to smash up the meeting. Just as Elliot was closing the meeting the police intervened and told him to close down. As he did not close down as quick as they wished they arrested him.
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