1919: A Land Fit for Revolution by Phil Mitchinson Prime Minister Lloyd George promised troops returning from the carnage of World War One "a land fit for heroes." In place of this utopia they found a land blighted by unemployment and shortages. Inspired by the end of the war and the victory of the Russian workers and peasants, the spectre of revolution was taking on flesh across the continent and Britain was no exception. In 1918 strikes had already cost 6 million working days. This exploded to almost 35 million in 1919, with a daily average of 100,000 workers on strike. In the face of such a crisis the ruling class split into two main camps. Those who wanted an all-out assault against the working class, like Winston Churchill, soon to be Secretary of State for War. While others, including Lloyd George himself, preferred to dangle the carrot of concessions - all the more surely to drive the knife home later. Alongside the struggle of the workers in industry, their brothers in the armed forces and even the police were to take action which sent a shiver down the spine of British capital. After years in the bloodbath of filthy foreign trenches, Churchill now expected British soldiers to fight a new war against the young workers state in Russia. This was unacceptable and the troops revolted. On Friday January 3rd 2000 soldiers ordered to embark for service abroad at Folkestone refused. Instead they marched to the Town Hall. There they were promised a rapid programme of demobilisation. Next day, however, new orders arrived summoning a certain number to embark. Again they refused. This time they marched on the harbour. The flood of incoming troops swelled their ranks, and a Soldiers Union was formed. New demands were now added to the demand for demobilisation. Food in the barracks was a disgrace, sanitation was abominable. On January 8th the Army Service Corps at Park Royal in London elected a committee to advance demands including rapid demobilisation; shorter working hours; an end to training; no compulsory church parade; no drafts for Russia; control over messing arrangements; and no victimisation. Whitehall Their commanding officer conceded. Yet still 1500 of them marched to Whitehall the next day, against their officers express orders, to see the Prime Minister. The soldiers delegation must have borne an eerie resemblance to a soviet to the nervous gentlemen in Downing Street. The sailors too were demonstrating that their revolutionary reputation was well earned. In Milford Haven the Red Flag was hoisted on the HMS Kilbride. Writing in the Herald of January 11th, George Lansbury remarked "Have you wondered why demobilisation is so slow? Perhaps you think it is merely ‘red tape.’ It is not. It is the Red Flag...Our masters...are trembling for more than their Russian dividends; they are trembling for the security of the dividend-hunting system all the world over." British Soldiers Across the channel British soldiers formed the Calais Area Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Association. Field Marshal Haig wanted their leaders shot under the Defence of the Realm Act. As commanding officer during the war he always seemed more than keen to send his own men to certain death, whether at the front or by firing squad mattered little. Even Churchill, however, had a grain more sense than that, he feared for the repercussions back home. Meanwhile the Yorkshire Light Infantry stationed in Archangel, North Russia had formed their own soviet, under the influence of the revolution all around them. Their commanders prepared to turn the machine guns of the counter revolutionary White Russians on their own men in the event of open mutiny in the ranks. The mood in the armed forces alone was more than enough to alarm Lloyd George, Churchill and co. The soldiers however were not alone. Simultaneously there had developed a crisis on the industrial front. The miners and railway workers were preparing for a fight. British capitalism was living out its worst nightmare - a mighty industrial strike wave with no reliable army to restore order. This is no exaggeration. At the end of January Churchill sent a secret memo to his army chiefs. He asked them the following questions, "Will troops in various areas respond to orders for assistance to preserve the public peace? Will they assist in strikebreaking? Will they parade for draft to overseas, especially Russia?" Haig and the other generals complained that the army was "rapidly disappearing." Even Churchill, still clamouring for troops to fight the Bolsheviks, wrote that "the army is liquefying fast." On the 17th, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Henry Wilson, declared, "We are sitting on top of a mine which may go up at any minute." To try to defuse the situation demobilisation was stepped up and, on the 28th, the army was awarded a pay rise. The government now faced a dilemma over whether these same troops could be used to break the growing strike movement. Considering the use of soldiers as scab labour to break the 40 hours strike in Glasgow at the end of January, General Childs argued that although this had been done in the past, that was when "we had a well-disciplined and ignorant army, whereas now we had an army educated and ill-disciplined." With workers and soldiers taking action, surely British capitalism could rely on the police force? To their dismay, however, even the police were not immune to the movement that was sweeping the country. In October 1913 the police had formed their own union, the National Union of Police and Prison Officers. They were forced into a semi-underground existence from the outset by the threat of dismissal hanging over any officer who joined or attended union meetings. Strike Wave The industrial strike wave had begun a year earlier in 1918, when women workers, in particular, fought for equal pay with the drafted men they’d replaced. The miners and railway workers too had taken action, securing significant advances. The police were drawn into this struggle when one of their number, a certain constable Thiel, was sacked for his union activities on August 25th 1918. The union immediately suspended their no-strike clause and called a strike for better pay and Thiel’s reinstatement for the 29th. Union membership was still small, but 10,000 of the Met’s 19,000 force came out. Hard though it may be to imagine today, the striking officers sent flying pickets from station to station. Lloyd George was forced to negotiate with a union he didn’t even recognise. As he did so, soldiers drafted in to Whitehall refused to drive striking police officers off the streets. Years later Lloyd George recalled with a shudder, "This country was nearer to Bolshevism that day than at any time since." He capitulated. The police got a pay rise, a widow’s pension, and Thiel and all others dismissed for union activity were reinstated. However the union would not be recognised "while the country was at war." In the coming months the union mushroomed reaching 55,000 members in June of 1919. They affiliated to the TUC and organised a number of large demonstrations in London. Industrial Movement By the end of March there was an ebb in the industrial movement. Now seemed like an appropriate moment for the government to try to finish off the police union. On May 30th they were threatened with instant dismissal and loss of pension if they participated in strikes. In response, at the beginning of June, the union balloted for a strike for union recognition and the reinstatement of a sacked member. Compare this with the timidity of today’s union leaders, unwilling to break the draconian Tory anti-union laws, and these were police officers. The vote was 12 to 1 in favour of taking action. Again Lloyd George gave way making big concessions on pay and conditions. Once the mood for action had dissipated however, the government charged full steam ahead. They provoked a strike at the end of July. Although it lasted almost a week, this time there were only a thousand or so out in London which remained fairly calm. In Liverpool, however, where 1600 officers were out, there were three days of serious rioting. A battleship and two destroyers were sent to the Mersey to restore order. This time all the striking officers were dismissed. They were never reinstated. An immensely favourable opportunity existed here, but such opportunities do not exist for long. Workers, soldiers, sailors, and police officers showed the will to struggle. Every day they were learning and their demands were broadening. The whole history of our movement however shows that that will, although vitally important, is not enough on its own. To unite these different struggles requires a party, a programme and a leadership. The crucial advantage which the Russian workers had over their British counterparts was the Bolshevik party, and the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. Such a leadership cannot be expected to flower overnight but must be built up in advance. The British working class had built up powerful organisations over generations. However, they were saddled with a leadership who had become enmeshed in defending the status quo. Already in 1919 they anticipated the treacherous role they were to play in the General Strike seven years later. Early on in the year Lloyd George had met with the leaders of the Triple Alliance. He told them "Gentlemen, you have fashioned in the Triple Alliance of the unions represented by you a most powerful instrument. I feel bound to tell you that in our opinion, we are at your mercy. The army is disaffected and cannot be relied upon. Trouble has occurred already in a number of camps....if you carry out your threat and strike, then you will defeat us. "But if you do so, have you weighed the consequences? The strike will be in defiance of the government of this country, and by its very success will precipitate a constitutional crisis of the first importance. For, if a force arises in the State which is stronger than the State itself, then it must be ready to take on the functions of the State itself, or withdraw and accept the authority of the State. Gentlemen, have you considered, and if so, are you ready?" Was he told to pack his bags? On the contrary, Robert Smillie, President of the Miners Federation replied "From that moment on, we were beaten and we knew it." Opportunity An historic opportunity was tossed aside. The trade union leaders, who had developed a comfortable existence on the backs of the workers, had stared revolution in the face, and it terrified them as much as it did Lloyd George. Capitalism was forced to lean on the union leaders to maintain itself. That most famous opponent of the working class Winston Churchill drew the following conclusion from the mood of the workers and soldiers of 1919, "The curse of trade unionism was that there was not enough of it, and it was not highly developed enough to make it’s branch secretaries fall into line with head office." Not for the first or the last time, the trade union leaders played the role of capitalism’s last line of defence. We must all learn from the events of 1919 in order to transform the unions, and finally breach those defenses once and for all.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 23:02:04 +0000
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