“Socialists – genuine and not make-believe Socialists – have seized the reins of power. . .” stated the British socialist paper, The Call on 29 November 1917.
For the first time we have the dictatorship of the proletariat established under our eyes… The Bolshevik success has been carried out with the sympathy and support of the town workers and the common soldiers… Peace and bread, the suppression of the war-profiteer and the greedy landlord – this is what Lenin and his friends are trying to obtain for their own countrymen and for the distressed world at large. Are we going to help them?
The paper revealed the deep internationalist spirit of the British working class who rallied to the side of the Russian masses.
Lenin and Trotsky, the leaders of the Revolution, immediately issued an appeal to the workers of the world to put an end to the bloody war, publish all the secret treaties of the imperialists and follow their revolutionary example in the fight for a world revolution. It had an electrifying effect in Britain and throughout war-torn Europe.
The Russian Revolution roused the Labour movement and lifted the sights of workers everywhere. This created a revolutionary ferment in the ranks of the movement, which began to exert tremendous pressure on the leadership. Revolution was in the air – literally. As a result the Labour Party and the TUC moved towards semi-opposition to the war policies of the British government. Things began to turn into their opposite. A by-product of this pressure was the resignation of Henderson from the Cabinet, although Barnes and Hodge chose to remain. In early 1918, under the impact of the Bolshevik agitation at Brest-Litovsk under the skilful direction of Trotsky, the idea of peace negotiations – the “Memorandum on War Aims” – was endorsed by a conference of Allied labour leaders.
In the last year of the war, the Shop Stewards’ Movement in Britain had assumed an immensely powerful position. TUC membership had also jumped from less than two-and-a-quarter million in 1913 to over four and a half million in 1918. There were extensive moves towards further trade union amalgamation and federation, such as with the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation. This process was extended further with the formal ratification of the Triple Alliance of miners, railway and transport workers, which was originally planned in 1914, but was postponed due to the outbreak of war. At the Labour Party’s Nottingham Conference in January 1918, there were unprecedented scenes of jubilation. The Bolshevik Litvinov, the representative of the Soviet government, received a standing ovation, amid cheers for Lenin and Trotsky. Later, at a special Labour Party conference at Central Hall, Westminster, amid the flames of revolutionary Russia, the party decided to adopt a new Socialist Constitution, the famous Clause Four, pledging to secure for the workers the “common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange”, based upon workers’ control and management.
The tidal wave of unrest during the war swelled to new heights in 1918. This was reflected in the monster May Day demonstrations on the Clyde, an unprecedented police strike in August and mutinies at a number of South Coast naval bases. A new rash of unofficial rail strikes broke out in September, with further unrest in the South Wales coalfield and in the Lancashire cotton industry. The crisis of British capitalism was also affecting the state itself. The police, who formed their own union, the National Union of Police and Prison Officers, in October 1913, had struck at the end of August over recognition, employing flying pickets to bring out police stations. Amazingly, this was still during the war. One should still be aware that while the government was forced to grant wage rises, and reinstate those dismissed, it failed to bring about the recognition of the NUPPO, with the government only prepared to concede a Police Representation Board. Consequently, thousands of police joined the union as a result of this militant stand.
Internationally, war was giving birth to revolution. Within a few short months, the November 1918 German Revolution brought the World War to an abrupt end. Sailors had mutinied and workers’ and soldiers’ councils, following the example of the Russian Revolution, were established all over Germany. The Hapsburg and Hohenzollern empires followed the dynasty of the Romanovs into oblivion. The German Revolution was a further beacon to the working class everywhere, which increasingly looked to revolution to solve its problems. Unfortunately, at the head of the German workers stood not a Bolshevik party as in Russia, but the right-wing social democrats Ebert, Scheidemann and Noske, who set about opposing the Revolution.
It was the German Revolution and not the plans of the politicians or generals that had brought the First World War to an abrupt end. The armistice to end war was signed on 11 November, a week after the outbreak of the Revolution. Like wild fire, revolution spread throughout Europe as workers and soldiers decided to take their fate into their own hands. The masses poured onto the stage of history in a torrent, filled with the desire to put an end to the Old Order and build a new world for themselves. In Bavaria, a soviet republic was proclaimed, but was quickly overthrown by counter-revolutionary forces. In Hungary a similar regime held power for months but was eventually drowned in blood by Western powers. A series of revolutions and counter-revolutions, which developed in rapid succession, terrified the capitalist class internationally. They were literally shaking in their boots.
“The whole of Europe is filled with the spirit of revolution”, noted the cunning Lloyd George. “There is a deep sense not only of discontent, but of anger and revolt amongst the workmen against pre-war conditions. The whole existing order in its political, social and economic aspects is questioned by the masses of the population from one end of Europe to another.”
With workers looking at the example of Soviet Russia, the capitalist system appeared on the brink of being overthrown.
The British government, together with the bourgeoisie internationally, regarded the Soviet government as a mortal threat to their system, to be eradicated as quickly as possible. In their struggle with the Bolsheviks, the imperialist powers gave whole-hearted support to the counter-revolutionary White armies. In July 1918 the British dispatched an expeditionary force to Archangel and Murmansk to overthrow the Bolsheviks. In all, twenty-one imperialist armies of foreign intervention were dispatched against revolutionary Russia. As soon as news of this became apparent, a protest movement mushroomed in one country after another. In Britain, the ILP issued a manifesto against the counter-revolutionary intervention of the British government. Later, a national “Hands off Russia” Committee led by Harry Pollitt and others was established and garnered support from all sections of the Labour movement. The British working class, demonstrating its internationalist instincts, rallied unequivocally to the cause of the Russian Revolution – the first break in the chain of world capitalism.