July\n 1917, and the bloody butchery of world capitalism had been unleashed \nfor nearly three years. Workers in their masses were being sacrificed as\n human offerings to the insatiable god of profit. The recruiting \nsergeants, in different countries and different languages, poured forth \nthe propaganda of nationalistic hatred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with them, supporting the recruitment for the trenches, were the \nbogus socialists. Yes, indeed, these so-called socialists, who wave the \nred flag in peace time and their national flags when the signal for war \nwas given, had spoken loudly of “internationalism” before the war began.\n Easy to favour peace when there is no war, isn’t it? But, because they \nwere tied up in the ideology of capitalism and did not recognise it as a\n world system based upon a clear class division between capitalists and \nworkers, the phoney socialists abandoned the interest of the working \nclass in favour of the interest of capitalist nations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We publish below the Manifesto which was issued in 1917 to be \nconsidered by the proposed anti-war conference which was due to be held \nin Stockholm. It shows that, at the time when it mattered, we socialists\n held tight to our principles and upheld the case for world peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1917 socialists have been urged to support other wars. Indeed, \nsome of those who were part of the minority of anti-war \ninternationalists in July 1917 were subsequently to create the Russian \nstate capitalist dictatorship which, in 1939, justified the \nStalin-Hitler pact in the name of socialism. We have been asked to \nsupport “wars for democracy” and “wars of liberation” and even “civil \nwars for socialism”. In every case the World Socialist Movement has \nrefused to support the view that the workers’ interest can be advanced \nin any way by means of capitalist war. It is not only in peace that we \nhave spoken of peace, but in war too, even though the consequences for \nour members have not been easy or comfortable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, in printing this, the first of our regular “classic reprints”, we\n stand by what we stated in 1917. The parties referred to may now have \ndifferent names; in different countries the militarist histories have \ntaken different forms; but war in this century is of global proportions \nand has a single cause: the system of capitalism. And, as war has only \none cause, so it has only one possible solution: world socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
_________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Socialist Standard, July 1917<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Manifesto of the Socialist Party of Great Britain<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the proposed International Congress<\/p>\n\n\n\n
COMRADES,- <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residing as we do under the control of the “democratic” British \nGovernment, we are not permitted to send Delegates to the Congress to \nstate our views, present our case, and defend our policy, as we so \nstrongly wished. All the more is this to be regretted as our \norganisation is the only one in the British Isles that takes its stand \nupon a definite and avowed Marxian basis and follows a policy logically \ndeduced from that basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We hold that the Working Class must march to its emancipation from \nwage-slavery and the domination of the Capitalist Class, by the conquest\n of political power. In the British Isles the means wherewith to \naccomplish this are already in the hands of the workers, as, despite \ncertain anomalies in our franchise, the workers have the overwhelming \nmajority of the votes at their disposal when an election takes place. \nHence the great, immediate, and pressing work requiring to be done is \nthe education of the Working Class to an understanding of Socialism -to a\n realisation of their slavery and the method of their emancipation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Working Class are slaves to the Capitalist Class. While the \nWorkers produce all existing wealth by applying their labour-power to \nthe materials provided by Nature, this wealth, and the instruments \nnecessary for its production, along with the great storehouse of \nNature’s materials -the earth- are owned and controlled by the Master \nClass under a system of private ownership that necessitates the selling \nof the bulk of the products upon the markets. But while powers of \nproduction increase by leaps and bounds, the markets grow but slowly. \nHence the struggles between the various groups of Capitalists for the \ncontrol of these markets and the routes thereto so that they may dispose\n of the commodities the wage-slaves have produced. Practically all the \nwars of the last three centuries, from the struggle against the Dutch \nand Portuguese in India to the present colossal carnage which is \ndevastating the whole world, have had their essential causes rooted in \nthe demands of the various groups of Capitalists to control these \nmarkets and routes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Workers’ share of these conflicts has been to slaughter each \nother in their Masters’ interests, to find a grave if killed, or be \noffered the degrading and comfortless shelter of the workhouse if \ndisabled or maimed. The hardship, misery, want, and suffering following \nthese wars fall always upon the Working Class. Thousands of cripples and\n tens of thousands of men with constitutions ruined by military service \nwill feel the horrors of the struggle for existence with tenfold \nbitterness after the war. In the midst of the conflict the Pensions \nMinister, Mr. G.N. Barnes – a member of the ILP and of the “Labour \nParty”, and “Labour” Member of Parliament for Blackfriars Division of \nGlasgow – has admitted that over 100,000 men have been discharged from \nthe British Army as medically unfit for Service without allowance or \npension of any kind. To soothe the ruffled feelings of these unfortunate\n victims of capitalist brutality this so-called representative of the \nWorkers said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It has been claimed that these men should be put on pension . . .\n . inasmuch as the doctors have passed them in . . . . I want to say \nthat they will not get it while I am in the office.”-Official Report, \ncol. 254, March 6th, 1917. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter which group of the Masters win the struggle, the Workers \nremain enslaved. The division of interests is not between the peoples of\n the world, but between the classes – the Master Class and the Working \nClass. Not, therefore, in their fellow Workers abroad, but in the Master\n Class at home and abroad, are the working-class enemies found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What interest have the Workers, then, in either starting or carrying on war for their masters? Absolutely none. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every Socialist must, therefore, wish to see peace established at \nonce to save further maiming and slaughter of our fellow Workers. All \nthose who on any pretext, or for any supposed reason, wish the war to \ncontinue, at once stamp themselves as anti-Socialist, anti-working \nclass, and pro-capitalist.
\nMoreover, where the Working Class have the necessary means – the \nfranchise – for their emancipation within their grasp it is clearly an \nanti-Socialist and treacherous act to urge them to use those means for \nthe purpose of placing political power in the hands of the masters. The \nflimsy excuses so often used to cover up such acts of treachery to the \nWorking Class merely add evidence to support the truth of this \nstatement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Applying these tests of real understanding of Socialist principle and\n correct action to the organisations in this country claiming to be \nSocialist, we find all of them except the Socialist Party of Great \nBritain failing to stand that test. The Fabian Society, with Mr. Bernard\n Shaw and Mr. Sidney Webb at its head, merely wishes for an extension of\n the Civil Service system under the control of a bureaucracy, and is \nopposed to the Workers being emancipated from their slavery .In addition\n to supporting the carrying on of the war, both the society and its \nindividual members readily support the return of Liberal Capitalists to \nParliament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The so-called Independent Labour Party is ready at all times to make \npolitical bargains with the Capitalists and to urge the Workers to place\n power in the hands of the masters. Thus Mr. Ramsay Macdonald at \nLeicester, Mr. Philip Snowden at Blackburn, Mr. F. Jowett at Bradford, \nMr. James Parker at Halifax, Mr. G.H. Roberts at Norwich, Mr. G.N. \nBarnes at Glasgow, and Mr. Clynes at N.E. Manchester all owe their seats\n in Parliament to bargains made with the Liberals, in return for which \nthey gave their support to Liberals in these and other constituencies. \nWhile protesting – in some forms – against the war, and now urging \n“Peace by negotiation”, the ILP allowed its members like Mr. Parker and \nMr. Clynes to assist in the recruiting campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter sent to his constituency on 11th September, 1914, Mr. Ramsay Macdonald said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I want the serious men of the trade unions, the brotherhoods and\n similar movements, to face their duty .To such it is enough to say \n\u2018England has need of you’ and to say it in the right way.
\n “They will gather to her aid; they will protect her.” Daily Chronicle, September 9th, 1914. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Merthyr Pioneer for 27th November, 1914, the late Mr. Keir Hardie, another ILP Member of Parliament, said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I have never said or written anything to dissuade our young men from enlisting. I know too well all there is at stake.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How is all this different from assisting in carrying on the war? How \nclearly it shows the treachery of the ILP leaders and Members of \nParliament! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, the ILP has allowed its members to accept office in a \nCapitalist government without making any protest or repudiation. It is \ntrue that their 1917 Conference passed a resolution dissociating the \norganisation from Mr. Parker’s action in taking a Government office, but\n not only is Mr. Parker allowed to remain a member of the ILP, but no \nprotest at all is made when other members, as Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Barnes, \nand Mr. Roberts, accept office under similar conditions. While \nprotesting against German Social-Democrats voting war credits in the \nReichstag, ILP members have steadily voted for war credits here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The claim of the ILP to be a Socialist organisation is fully \nrepudiated by the actions of its members, of which the above are but \nexamples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The British Socialist Party has been just as ready – if with less \nsuccess – to try and enter into arrangements with the Capitalist parties\n for seats and offices. At General Elections they have shown their \nimpartiality by advising the Workers to vote for Capitalist candidates \nof the Tory brand in some constituencies – as South Hackney, Norfolk, \netc. – and for Capitalist candidates of the Liberal type in other \nconstituencies. The one MP who until recently was a member of the BSP – \n Mr. W. Thorne owes his seat to the Liberals and Tories in West Ham \ncombining to make him a present of that constituency. In the early days \nof the war he, with Mr. Hyndman, Mr. Hunter Watts, and others, took a \nprominent part in the recruiting campaign, calling upon the Workers of \nGreat Britain to take up arms for the slaughter of their fellow Workers \non the Continent, although Mr. Hyndman admitted that whichever side won \nthe Workers would not benefit a single jot. Just lately Mr. W. Thorne \nhas returned from a trip to Russia, taken, along with Mr. O’Grady and \nMr. W. Saunders, on behalf of the British Capitalists, to persuade the \nRussian Workers to continue the war on the Eastern side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the ranks of the BSP a division of opinion has developed, \nresulting, after a struggle between the two sections, in the secession \nof the defenders of the war – Hyndman, Hunter Watts, Lee, Irving, and \nthe rest – and the formation by the secessionists, of the National \nSocialist Party .The absurdity of the title is balanced by the merit it \nhas of showing how completely pro-Capitalist and anti-Socialist these \nindividuals are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BSP has now joined hands with the ILP in a so-called peace \npropaganda, but the confusion and double-dealing lying behind this \nmovement is shown most glaringly by the fact that both these \norganisations remain affiliated to the Labour Party that has \nwhole-heartedly supported the war from its inception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the rewards given for this support was the appointment of Mr. \nJ. Hodge, “Labour” Member for Gorton, as Labour Minister. Within a week \nof his appointment he tried to show his utility to the masters by \nthreatening to use the powers of the Defence of the Realm Act against \nthe Boilermakers of Birkenhead, who were protesting against the rotten \nconditions imposed upon them by the employers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The organisation calling itself the Socialist Labour Party has never \nunderstood how the Workers are enslaved, and for years has propagated \nwhat it calls Industrial Unionism as the method of emancipation. Its \nattempts to reconcile this position with its claim to be a political \nparty has led to such confusion in its ranks that when the war broke out\n it was divided as to whether it should support or oppose it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN alone takes up the Socialist \nposition here. At the beginning of the war we pointed out the essential \nfactors forming its cause which we have given above, and we have \nsteadily and consistently pressed this view by all the means in our \npower, and maintained it upon all occasions without change or deviation.\n Thus we said in the first issue of our official organ to be published \nafter Britain’s entry into the war (Sept. 1914): <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN . . . whilst placing on \nrecord its abhorrence of this latest manifestation of the callous, \nsordid and mercenary nature of the international capitalist class, and \ndeclaring that no interests are at stake justifying the shedding of a \nsingle drop of working-class blood, enters its emphatic protest against \nthe brutal and bloody butchery of our brothers of this and other lands, \nwho are being used as food for cannon abroad while suffering and \nstarvation are the lot of their fellows at home.
\n “Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend \nto our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our goodwill and \nSocialist fraternity . . .” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in the February 1915 issue we said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We . . . declare again that there was nothing in the conditions \nof any country which justified Socialists voluntarily supporting either \nside in the war, and record our condemnation of such action as a \nbetrayal of Socialist principles arising from lack of political \nknowledge and unsound political organisation.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, with our own hands clean and our every action in accord with the \nCLASS struggle and the solidarity of the interest of the Working Class \nthe world over, we bring before the international proletariat our DEMAND\n FOR PEACE without any change of attitude or re-adjustment of policy. We\n stand for PEACE without reference to terms, since the fruits of \nCapitalist war are the Masters’, and only the pains and penalties \nthereof the Workers’. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The grim humour of the claim that Britain is fighting to “crush \nPrussian Militarism” is clearly shown by the fact that a Bill is being \npassed through the liberty-loving, democratic British Parliament \nestablishing “Militarism” in a far worse form than either the present \nPrussian or the late Russian rulers ever attempted. Men who have crossed\n the seas because they refuse to accept military service are to be \nforced into the army of the “allied” country they may be in or brought \nback to serve in the army here! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the Socialists of other countries we extend our fraternal \ngreetings. As soon as conditions will permit us to do so we shall \nendeavour to join forces with our Comrades for the purpose of \nestablishing a Socialist International Congress where Socialist policies\n shall be decided, where misleaders and tricksters who use the name and \nfame of Socialism will be exposed and denounced, where the message of \nSocialism will be sent forth to the toilers of all countries in clear \nand unmistakable terms, where the gage of battle against the Capitalist \nClass will be thrown down to the clarion call: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS; YOU HAVE A WORLD TO WIN.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
\nTHE SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN<\/p>\n\n\n\n
20th June 1917
\n193 Gray\u2019s Inn Road, London WC1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
July 1917, and the bloody butchery of world capitalism had been unleashed for nearly three years. Workers in their masses were being sacrificed as human offerings to the insatiable god of profit. The recruiting sergeants, in different countries and different languages, poured forth the propaganda of nationalistic hatred. And with them, supporting the recruitment for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2478","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2478\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}