Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of Tables and Graphs
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 ‘If this is to be a jingo, then I am a jingo’ – Labour Patriotism before 1914
- 2 ‘I'd sooner blackleg my union than blackleg my country’ – Labour Patriotism, 1914–18
- 3 ‘Middle-class peace men?’– Labour and the Anti-War Agitation
- 4 ‘Our Platform is Broad Enough and our Movement Big Enough’ – The War and Recruits to Labour
- 5 ‘The experiments are not found wanting’ – Labour and the Wartime State
- 6 ‘The greatest democratic force British politics have known’ – Labour Cohesion and the War
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - ‘The greatest democratic force British politics have known’ – Labour Cohesion and the War
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- List of Tables and Graphs
- List of Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 ‘If this is to be a jingo, then I am a jingo’ – Labour Patriotism before 1914
- 2 ‘I'd sooner blackleg my union than blackleg my country’ – Labour Patriotism, 1914–18
- 3 ‘Middle-class peace men?’– Labour and the Anti-War Agitation
- 4 ‘Our Platform is Broad Enough and our Movement Big Enough’ – The War and Recruits to Labour
- 5 ‘The experiments are not found wanting’ – Labour and the Wartime State
- 6 ‘The greatest democratic force British politics have known’ – Labour Cohesion and the War
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
‘A trade unionist who is only a trade unionist is a barbarian.’
—R.B. Suthers, The Clarion, March 1915‘The three great Movements – Industrial – Political – and Co-operative – will be linked up so as to become the greatest Democratic Force that ever British politics have known.’
—Jim Middleton to Bob Williams, October 1917This final chapter is concerned with the continued cohesion of the labour movement during and after the war. Given that the conflict divided the Liberal party to the extent that it was excluded from office for almost a century, why did it not have the same effect on Labour, a far more recent political creation, and one facing apparent existential ideological conflicts over nationalism and internationalism? British labour emerged stronger, more united, and with a new sense of purpose. The idea that the Liberals merely ‘lost’ their position, allowing Labour to become the main opposition to the Conservatives by default, is unsatisfactory; and the question of how Labour was able – institutionally and ideologically – not merely to survive the war intact, but to actively prosper, has not received enough attention. This chapter takes a broad view of all of the various organisations which could be said to compose the British Left at the time of the war: the Labour Party itself; the roughly one thousand trade unions in different groups and associations; various women's groups which, while not necessarily sympathetic with all of Labour's policies, sometimes co-operated on franchise reform; the three-million strong Co-operative movement, consisting of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) and the Co-operative Union; and the socialist societies such as the British Socialist party (BSP), the Fabian Society, and the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Finally, the war created great impetus for an ultra-patriotic secession from the labour movement, or even a nationalistic coup within labour. The failure of this movement will also be examined. The selection of trade unions here deliberately eschews groups such as miners or cotton operatives, and includes both skilled craft and general labourers’ unions, the overtly patriotic and those more sceptical of the war.
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- Information
- For Class and CountryThe Patriotic Left and the First World War, pp. 171 - 200Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2017