Turner Controversy

Movement for Social Integration
Movement for Social Integration
Spokesperson	Tony Turner
Founded	1955
Split from	Socialist Party of Great Britain

The Turner Controversy was a dispute within the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) regarding the nature of socialism instigated by party member Tony Turner. The dispute ultimately led to an exodus of members who formed the short-lived Movement for Social Integration.

When membership and activity was at a peak in the period after the

Second World War, Turner began giving lectures for the party on what he envisioned socialism would be like. The content of these lectures led him to develop a position that caused controversy in the party by the early to mid-1950s and which was elaborated by Turner and his supporters in articles in the party’s internal discussion journal of the time, Forum.^[1]

Three interlocking propositions underpinned the ‘Turnerite’ viewpoint:

that the society of mass

News From Nowhere

.

that the creation of the new socialist society was not simply in the interests of the working class but was in the interests of the whole of humanity, irrespective of class, a proposition they thought it essential for the Party to recognise in its everyday propaganda, and
the means of creating the new peaceful and cooperative society had to be entirely peaceful, indeed
pacifist
(and in the view of some, possibly even gradual).

This view was in direct contradiction to the party's 'Declaration of Principles', which identifies

class struggle

and which claims that the socialist movement will organise for the capture of political power, including power over the state’s coercive machinery, which can be wielded to repress those who resist the imposition of socialism.

A series of acrimonious disputes between the ‘Turnerites’ and the majority of the party^[2] culminated in a party referendum and then a resolution being carried at the 1955 party conference to the effect that all members not in agreement with the Declaration of Principles be asked to resign. Turner, having survived a previous attempt to expel him, promptly did so, along with a number of other members including Joan Lestor (later to become a Labour minister) and the psychologist John Rowan. Some of these ex-members formed a short-lived Movement for Social Integration, though the impact the dispute had on the party as a whole was almost entirely disruptive and negative.

References

^ Turner, A. W. (November 1954). "Socialism - or Clause 6?, Forum 26". London: Socialist Party of Great Britain. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ Trotman, J. (January 1955). "Socialism and Clause Six, Forum 28". London: Socialist Party of Great Britain. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Bibliography

ISBN 0-904383-00-8
.

DAP (June 2004). "Getting Splinters". Socialist Standard. 100 (1198). Socialist Party of Great Britain: 38–41.
ISSN 0037-8259
.

[Forum_26-1] Turner, A. W. (November 1954). "Socialism - or Clause 6?, Forum 26". London: Socialist Party of Great Britain. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[Forum_28-2] Trotman, J. (January 1955). "Socialism and Clause Six, Forum 28". London: Socialist Party of Great Britain. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

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See also

References

Bibliography