Given the class collaboration of the trade union leaders, rank-and-file organisation in the form of shop steward committees spread throughout the country, and linked up to form the National Shop Stewards’ and Workers’ Committee Movement. Many of its leaders were committed members of the socialist groups, the Socialist Labour Party and the British Socialist Party, which attempted to give the industrial movement a revolutionary direction.
In December 1916, a new Coalition government was formed with Lloyd George as Prime Minister. An astute representative of the British ruling class, he rested increasingly on the Labour and trade union leaders to police the workers. In doing so, Lloyd George systematically drew these leaders into government posts explicitly responsible for the war effort. Henderson now entered the War Cabinet, John Hodge, secretary of the Steel Smelters, became Minister of Labour, and George Barnes of the Engineers became Minister of Pensions. Their authority as Labour and trade union leaders was then systematically exploited by the bourgeoisie to hold back the growing discontent in the working class, compounded by attacks at home and the needless loss of life abroad.
The year 1917 was to mark a turning point not only in the world war but also world history. On the home front, there was a major change in the industrial climate. In the engineering industry, 1917 was the peak year for strikes, with over 300,000 workers involved in action and two-and-a-half million working days lost. The new rank-and-file National Shop Stewards Committee was to the fore in strikes at Barrow and on the Tyne in March 1917, and in Coventry in November. In May, a rash of strikes broke out at munitions centres on the Clyde, Sheffield and London, against the extension of dilution and the use of the Munitions Act. Despite coercion and arrests under the Act, the strike movement did not decline, but on the contrary, it increased in intensity and scope. The class struggle, originally subdued by the pro-war mood, had once again re-ignited with a bang.
In the international arena, revolutionary events in Russia turned the world on its head. The first Russian Revolution of February 1917 (March in the new calendar) swept away the 1,000-year old Tsarist despotism, and placed power into the hands of the working class. As in 1905, the masses spontaneously created their own organs of self-rule, the soviets of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies. Unfortunately, the masses were not conscious of their power and handed it to the socialist leaders (the Social Revolutionaries and Mensheviks), who, in turn, handed it over to the bourgeoisie in the form of the Provisional government. Nevertheless, the Revolution had an enormous impact on the Labour movement internationally. In Britain, a Convention was called in Leeds, in June, to celebrate the event. The Convention, called by the leaders of the Independent Labour Party, attracted 1,150 delegates, 371 of whom were from the trade unions. It was an occasion for high spirits and great “revolutionary” speeches. So much so, that Ramsay MacDonald spoke in favour of establishing Soviets in Britain! He moved the following successful resolution:
This Conference of Labour and Socialist and Democratic organisations of Britain, hails the Russian Revolution. With gratitude and admiration it congratulates the Russian people upon the Revolution which has overthrown a tyranny that resisted the intellectual and social development of Russia, which has removed the standing menace to aggressive imperialism in Eastern Europe, and which has liberated the people of Russia for the great work of establishing political and economic freedom on a firm foundation and of taking the foremost part in the international movement for working class emancipation from all forms of political, economic and imperialist oppression and exploitation.
Phillip Snowden, who would later become a Lord and abandon the Labour Party to join MacDonald’s National Government, also addressed the Leeds Convention. Here he displayed great “revolutionary” passion by reiterating the words of a telegram sent in response to one sent by the Russian Soviets:
The largest and greatest Convention of Labour, socialist and democratic bodies held in Great Britain during this generation has today approved Russia’s declaration of foreign policy and war aims, and has pledged itself to work through its newly constituted workmen’s and soldiers’ council for an immediate democratic peace. The Convention received your telegram of congratulation with gratitude and enthusiasm.
But the February Revolution failed to solve the problems of the Russian masses. The socialist leaders, both Menshevik and Social Revolutionaries, pledged their loyalty to the Kerensky government, which, in turn, pledged its loyalty to the capitalists and landlords. As a result, the situation of the Russian masses grew steadily worse in face of demands for increased sacrifices for the imperialist war. In the space of nine months, the Bolshevik Party under Lenin and Trotsky worked steadfastly to turn the revolution into a socialist revolution, as a stepping-stone to a world socialist revolution. With the slogans “peace”, “bread”, and “land”, they won over the masses represented in the soviets and took power peacefully in October 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution – ten days that shook the world – had dramatic international ramifications. The Revolution proved to be the greatest event in human history. Capitalism and landlordism were thrown into the dustbin of history. For the first time ever, the working class and poor peasants came to power and established a democratic government based upon soviets of workers, soldiers and peasants. While the heroic Paris Commune proved a short episode, the Bolshevik Revolution managed to hold out in the face of an orchestrated attempt internationally by the bourgeois to overthrow the government.