Workers' Socialist Federation
Workers' Socialist Federation | |
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Communist Workers International | |
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The Workers' Socialist Federation was a
East London Federation of the WSPU
It originated as the East London Federation of the
By this point, Sylvia had many disagreements with the route the WSPU was taking. She wanted an explicitly socialist organisation tackling wider issues than women's suffrage, aligned with the Independent Labour Party, based among working class people in the East End of London. She also wanted to focus on collective workers' action, not individual attacks on property.[2]
East London Federation of Suffragettes
These and other differences, including personal ones, led to Sylvia's expulsion, along with the East London Federation, from the WSPU. In early 1914, they renamed themselves the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) and launched a newspaper, the
At first, the group campaigned for
The ELFS got a chain of
Workers' Suffrage Federation
As public opinion turned against the war, the group gained new support, and its newspaper increased its circulation. To reflect its now broader political positions, in March 1916 it renamed itself the Workers' Suffrage Federation (WSF).[2] Similarly, in July 1917, the newspaper was renamed the Workers' Dreadnought. From the start of 1917, it adopted a new aim: "to secure Human Suffrage, namely, a Vote, for every Woman and Man of full age, and to win Social and Economic Freedom for the People".[4]
The WSF supported the
Despite its evolving position, during much of 1917, the party remained focused on campaigning for universal suffrage and an end to World War I. It welcomed the February Revolution in Russia, largely on the basis that it would establish a Constituent Assembly elected by universal suffrage[5] and withdraw Russia from the war.[6] As the months went by, the WSF noted in Workers' Dreadnought that a situation of dual power had broken out between the Petrograd Soviet and the Russian Provisional Government,[7] and upon analyzing the attitudes of the various socialist faction, decided to align with the Bolsheviks.[8]
The party then enthusiastically supported the
Workers' Socialist Federation
The WSF's support for the soviet system led them to doubt the possibility of establishing socialism through a parliamentary system,[15] increasingly arguing that only the Soviets could form the "guiding and co-ordinating machinery" of the social revolution.[16] In May 1918, the party's conference agreed to again rename the group, now as the Workers' Socialist Federation, reflecting its growing opposition to Parliamentarism. However, their views on parliamentarism remained in a state of transition, with substantial internal disagreement on the issue.[17] As preparation for the 1918 United Kingdom general election was underway, the WSF stated that it would not stand candidates in the election, Pankhurst herself refusing to stand for the Sheffield Hallam constituency, but it remained willing to support other socialist candidates for Parliament. The group went on to support the Socialist Labour Party's (SLP) three candidates in the election, along with independent socialists David Kirkwood and John Maclean, and permitted individual members to campaign for Labour Party candidates.[18]
By March 1919, the WSF had moved to a hardline anti-parliamentary position, with Pankhurst arguing socialists needed to choose between "perpetuating the Parliamentary system" or building up "an industrial republic on Soviet lines."
It also began working with the London Workers' Committee.
Alongside the question of parliamentary action, the issue of affiliation to the Labour Party provided another roadblock to the unity negotiations. In March 1920, the WSF's executive committee declared that "if the BSP refuses to withdraw from the Labour Party, we get on with [the] formation of [a] Communist Party."[24] By June 1920, it had become apparent that the unity negotiations would not satisfy all the participants, as they were unable to agree either on the issues of parliamentary action or whether the new communist party should attempt to affiliate to the Labour Party. In an attempt to get ahead of the Communist Unity Convention, which they believed would be dominated by those on the "right-wing" that favored parliamentarism and affiliation, the WSF instead called an "Emergency Conference", inviting all the "left-wing communists" which opposed parliamentarism and affiliation.[25]
Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)
The conference was held in June 1920 but was attended only by WSF members, some local groups and independents. It agreed to form the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) (CP(BSTI)) and voted to boycott future unity meetings. Instead, it attempted to interest the SLP in a merger. They proposed opening discussions with the
The BSP had meanwhile formed the
After a period, Pankhurst was instructed to place the Workers' Dreadnought under the control of the party, which she refused to do. In particular, she criticised the Communist Party members of the
Communist Workers' Party
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Pankhurst reorganised her group of supporters around Workers Dreadnought, and began criticising the admittance of
The Dreadnought group advocated grouping together
To prepare for the proletarian revolution, by setting up Soviets or workers' councils in all branches of production, distribution and administration, in order that the workers may seize and maintain control.
With this object, to organise One Revolutionary Union:
(a) built up on the workshop basis, covering all workers, regardless of sex, craft, or grade, who pledge themselves to work for the overthrow of Capitalism and the establishment of the workers' Soviets;
(b) organised into a department for each industry or service;
(c) the unemployed being organised as a department of the One Revolutionary Union, so that they may have local and national representation in the workers' Soviets.
The CWP had been influenced by the formation of the General Workers' Union of Germany (AAUD) by the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD) during the German Revoution. They intended as such to establish a British counterpart to the AAUD, just as the CWP was intended as the British counterpart to the KAPD.[30] Taking the AAUd's programme as a basis, in September 1922 the CWP established the All-Workers' Revolutionary Union (AWRU) in order to implement its revolutionary unionist goals, envisioning the AWRU as the One Big Union that would itself manage the transition to socialism.[29] The union organized itself along industrial unionist lines, where recallable delegates were elected by workshops, factories, districts, areas and national councils from the bottom-up.[31] The CWP was quickly rendered redundant and was subsequently superseded by the AWRU, as the AWRU adopted the CWP's entire programme as its own and developed it into an even more comprehensive one than the CWP's, with membership of the AWRU being accepted only on the condition of adhering to all six points of the CWP platform:[32]
- to spread communist ideas;
- electoral abstention and anti-parliamentary propaganda;
- refusal of affiliation to the Labour Party or any other reformist organisation;
- to emancipate workers from the existing trade unions;
- to organise 'One Revolutionary Union' as the forerunner of the workers' councils;
- and affiliation to the Communist Workers International(KAI).
The foundation of the AWRU was grounded in the CWP's
Despite the failure of the AWRU, by July 1923 the CWP had announced the formation of the Unemployed Workers' Organisation (UWO), modelled closely on the IWW as an alternative to the CPGB's "reformist" National Unemployed Workers' Movement (NUWM). Initially, this attracted numerous former members of the NUWM, sometimes even whole branches throughout London. By the start of 1924, it claimed 3,000 members, mostly in London but also with a branch in Leeds.[39] The organisation grew rapidly, which ended up becoming counterintuitive to the UWO's aims of organising an "army of production", given its members were made up of the unemployed.[40]
In the end, no national group was formally constituted, and they later referred to their network as the Communist Workers Group, although it was by that point a very small party. On 14 June 1924, Workers' Dreadnought ceased publication, bringing a definitive end to the CWP.[41]
Honorary Treasurers
- 1913: Sybil Smith[42]
- 1913: Sybil Thomas[42]
- 1914: Evelina Haverfield[42]
- 1915: Edgar Lansbury[42]
- 1916: Norah Smyth[42]
References
- ^ Elizabeth Crawford, ‘Bull , Amy Maud (1877–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 1 January 2017
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Davis 1999.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 3.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 4.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 33.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 34.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 4–5.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 37.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 5.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 19.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 6.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 7.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 9.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 8.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 66.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 11.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 91.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 16.
- ^ a b Shipway 1988, p. 92.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 93.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 94.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 94–95.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 95.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 95–96.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 97.
- ^ Shipway 1988, pp. 97–98.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 98.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 99.
- ^ Shipway 1988, p. 107.
- ^ a b c d e Elizabeth Crawford, The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928, p.185
Bibliography
- Bullock, Ian (1992). "Sylvia Pankhurst and the Russian Revolution: The making of a 'Left-Wing' Communist". In Bullock, Ian; OCLC 925160984.
- Davis, Mary (1999). Sylvia Pankhurst: A Life in Radical Politics. OCLC 1162569507.
- OCLC 500079933. Archived from the originalon 1 April 2006.
- Hayes, Mark (2005). The British Communist Left: a contribution to the history of the revolutionary movement 1914-1945. OCLC 642281773.
- Jones, Rob (October 1991) [1989]. "Anti-Parliamentarism and Communism in Britain, 1917-1921". Discussion Bulletin. OCLC 13302352. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- Shipway, Mark (1988). Anti Parliamentary Communism: the movement for workers' councils in Britain, 1917-45. )
- OCLC 1201686427.