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Soviet and Comintern Policies Toward the British General Strike of 1926*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Morton H. Cowden
Morton H. Cowden
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Extract

The first general strike in the history of England, with its mass labor action, was bound to attract strong interest from the workers' state which proclaimed as its rallying cry: “Workers of All Countries, Unite!” Soviet concern for the British working class followed logically from the active participation of Marx and Engels in the movement, and the continued attention shown by Lenin to this important “section” of the “world proletariat.”

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , July 1953 , pp. 503 - 529
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1953

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References

1 Pares, Bernard, A History of Russia, New York, 1950, p. 494.Google Scholar

2 Vernadsky, George, A History of Russia, New Haven, 1951, p. 315.Google Scholar

3 Borkenau, Franz, A History of the Communist International, New York, 1939, p. 282.Google Scholar

4 See “Bibliographical Note” on ch. XVI, ibid., p. 435.

5 International Press Correspondence, VI, No. 35 (April 29, 1926), pp. 527–28 (hereafter cited as Inprecorr.)

6 Lozovski, A., What Is the Red International of Labour Unions?, Moscow, 1927, p. 9.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., p. 21.

8 Inprecorr, VI, No. 33 (April 22, 1926), p. 508.

9 Borkenau, , op. cit., pp. 278–79.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., p. 275.

11 Milne-Bailey, W., Trade Union Documents, London, 1929, pp. 342–43.Google Scholar

12 Fyfe, Hamilton, Behind the Scenes of the Great Strike, London, 1926, p. 10.Google Scholar

13 Ibid.

14 The Post-War History of the British Working Class, New York, 1938, p. 111.

15 Ibid., p. 112.

16 lbid., p. 125; Postgate, R. W., Wilkinson, Ellen G., and Horrabin, J. F., A Workers’ History of the Great Strike, London, 1927, p. 48Google Scholar; Arnot, R. Page, The General Strike, May 1926: Its Origin and History, London, 1926, p. 192.Google Scholar

17 Parliamentary Debates: House of Commons, 5th series, cxcv (May 3 to May 14, 1926), pp. 71, 72.

18 Ibid., p. 124.

19 Ibid., pp. 277–78.

20 British Gazette, May 5, 1926, p. 1.

21 Pravda, May 5, p. 3.

22 Ibid.

23 Pravda, May 6, p. 2.

24 Izvestiya, May 6, p. 2.

25 This committee, at times referred to as the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Unity Committee, or the Anglo-Russian Committee of Trade Unions, was born out of a long-raging dispute between the Amsterdam International of Trade Unions, and one of its affiliates, the British TUC. The controversy concerned the question of joining with the Soviet trade unions in a united front of world labor. Amsterdam opposed the idea; the British favored it. A British resolution to this effect was defeated at a congress of the Amsterdam International. Therefore, the British TUC alone approached the Soviet trade unions with a proposal for unity. The result was the establishment in April 1925 of this committee. It consisted of the chairman and secretaries of the TUC and the Soviet AUCC respectively, plus three members of each side. Its avowed purpose was to promote cooperation between the two bodies, to facilitate the free exchange of documents dealing with their structure, machinery, organization, and policy, and to develop the closest mutual aid. The Committee met periodically, but did not convene during the General Strike. It does not seem to have had any real binding power on either party. In the main, it was concerned with discussions on broad issues.

26 Izvestiya, May 8, p. 2; Pravda, May 7, p. 1, and May 9, p. 1.

27 Pravda, May 12, p. 3.

28 W. P., and Coates, Z. K., A History of Anglo-Soviet Relations, London, 1943, p. 229.Google Scholar

29 Izvestiya, May 6, p. 1.

30 Ibid., May 8, p. 1.

31 Izvestiya, May 12, p. 1.

32 Inprecorr, VI, No. 39 (May 6, 1926), p. 598

33 Ibid., No. 41 (May 13, 1926), pp. 653–54.

34 Ibid., p. 657.

35 Ibid., p. 660.

36 Izvestiya, May 5, p. 2.

37 Pravda, May 5, p. 2.

38 Bell, Tom, The British Communist Party: A Short History, London, 1937, p. 114.Google Scholar

39 Arnot, , op. cit., p. 175Google Scholar, as quoted.

40 Ibid., p. 180.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid., p. 200.

43 Pravda, May 13, p. 1.

44 Izvestiya, May 13, p. 3.

45 Italics added.

46 “The Tragedy of the Masses and the Farce of the Legal Leaders,” Pravda, May 13, p. 1.

47 Stalin, I. V., “Ob Angliiskoi Zabastovke i Sobytiyakh v Pol'she” [“Concerning the English Strike and Events in Poland”], Sochineniya [Works], VIII, Moscow, 1948, pp. 155–72.Google Scholar

48 Ibid., pp. 156, 158, 159.

49 Ibid., pp. 160–61, 163.

50 Ibid., pp. 163–64.

51 Ibid., pp. 164–65.

52 Ibid., p. 166.

53 Inprecorr, VI. No. 46 (June 10, 1926), p. 746.

54 Ibid., No. 47 (June 17, 1926), pp. 761–64; No. 48 (June 24, 1926), pp. 789–90.

55 VI, No. 47 (June 17, 1926), pp. 765–72.

56 Ibid., pp. 766, 767, 768.

57 Ibid., p. 770.

58 Ibid., p. 771.

59 Ibid., p. 772.

60 Arnot, , op. cit., p. 200Google Scholar, as quoted.

61 “C. B.,” The Reds and the General Strike, London, 1926, p. 12. “Published by the CPGB.”

62 Ibid., p. 30.

63 Ibid., pp. 35, 36.