This chapter is intended as a brief discussion of the ideological and practical relationship between nationalism, patriotism, and the labour movement before 1914. It introduces some of the principal concepts and personalities that would dominate the Left during the years of the First World War, surveys the debate surrounding the Boer War, examines the history of ‘radical patriotism’ on the British Left, and notes the theoretical and actual commitments of the British Left to internationalism and pacifism. Outside of the British labour movement, reference is made to the contemporary pacifism of the period and one of its most noted advocates, Norman Angell. The chapter aims to contribute to our understanding of the extent and nature of labour patriotism during the war by examining the continuity or lack thereof in the decades immediately preceding 1914. The argument outlined here is twofold. Firstly, across the labour movement as a whole there was an ambiguous attitude towards nationalism and patriotism. Uncertainty and contradiction resulted from abstract commitments to peace and camaraderie coupled with the realities of the European situation, popular nationalism, and broader British culture. Nonetheless, for many across the labour movement, commitment to internationalism and pacifism was superficial at best. Very often their left-wing views were based around an idea of community and nationhood that belied any internationalism. The fight for national survival against imperial Germany allowed the façade of internationalism to slip, and confirmed the compatibility of left-wing and nationalist sentiment.

In terms of both his own personality and the principles and approach to politics he represented, Robert Blatchford was a profound influence on many working-class socialists in this period. Born in Maidstone in 1851, the son of a comedian and an actress, Blatchford began performing on stage himself from a young age; it is probably no coincidence that both he and Ben Tillett, two men who had such an acute understanding of the mind of working-class Britain, came from the music hall background that dominated mass culture at the time. An avid reader of the Bible and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress as a young man, he joined the army and eventually rose to become a sergeant major, before leaving to take up work as an office clerk and aspiring journalist.