A-Infos (en) Britain, Aanarchist journal Direct Action #40 - history - The revolution that never was

In 1917 the shock waves of the Revolution went far beyond the borders of Tsarist 
Russia. All over Europe war-weary and increasingly restless workers were 
inspired by the news of the Tsar's overthrow, and later by the news of the 
Bolsheviks' seizure of power. In Britain these events profoundly affected the 
labour movement and eventually led to a significant shift from pre-war 
anti-electoralism, direct action and rejection of political parties to a 
movement dominated by a unified, centralised and highly-disciplined Communist 
Party under Moscow's direct control.
<image>
Shop Stewards arrested in connection
with engineering strike 1917

The years before 1914 had seen widespread industrial unrest in Britain during 
the period known as 'the Syndicalist Revolt'. Syndicalism had developed from the 
British anti-parliamentary socialist traditions and was becoming the dominant 
revolutionary current. Before the outbreak of war in 1914 the British state 
faced further unrest and a potential syndicalist inspired general strike by the 
militant 'Triple Alliance' of miners, railworkers and transport workers.

The war had begun with industrial calm but this ended in 1915 when the South 
Wales miners and the Clyde engineers came out on strike. The latter signalled 
the beginning of the Clyde Workers' Committee, the catalyst for the war-time 
shop stewards movement. The syndicalist inspired shop stewards became the focus 
of rank and file resistance. Trade union leaders co-operated with the government 
to dampen working class discontent but the shop stewards attempted to widen the 
issues and raise class antagonisms.

News of the Tsar's overthrow in February 1917 and the creation of Soviets 
brought an immediate response. If Tsarist Russia, long considered the bastion of 
reaction, could be overthrown then anything was possible. The mounting war 
casualties, food shortages, rising prices and low wages, combined with 
excitement over Russia, saw a wave of strikes in May 1917. Later in the year, in 
August, there was a shop stewards' conference in Manchester declaring that the 
most important features of the revolution were the 'mass uprisings and the 
formation of Soviets'.

Then came the news of the second revolution in October. Reports were confused, 
but in Britain the Bolsheviks were closely identified with the Soviets and were 
considered to be almost syndicalist in nature. From this point onward, any 
attempts to set up breakaway industrial unions were sidetracked down the blind 
alley of creating a British Communist Party.

The future Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was shaped by the Third 
International, which was created and dominated by the Bolsheviks. The Third 
International first met in March 1919. 'Delegates' were mainly Russian 
Bolsheviks and a few foreign communists who happened to be in Russia at the 
time. Foreign parties were 'affiliated' by so-called delegates who had little 
contact with them. The meeting did little more than announce the founding of the 
Third International or Comintern, and call for the immediate seizure of power by 
the working class creating the dictatorship of the proletariat. Nothing was said 
about the Bolsheviks' belief in the need for political centralism under their 
control. Lenin calculated (not unwisely) that this would lead to any 
syndicalists withdrawing their support for the new International.

At the second congress in 1920, among the British representatives were the BSP 
(British Socialist Party), SLP (Socialist Labour Party), Sylvia Pankhurst's 
Workers Socialist Federation (WSF) and delegates from the Shop Stewards and 
Works Committee Movement (SSWCM). The main aim for Lenin and the Bolsheviks was 
to set up a centralised international party with national sections modelled on 
the Communist Party of Soviet Russia, i.e. the Bolsheviks themselves.

Before the Comintern conference opened, the newly arrived syndicalist delegates 
from different countries were invited to attend a Comintern Executive Committee. 
Here, the Bolsheviks announced they were to launch a new international trade 
union organisation, the Red International of Labour Unions, ostensibly to 
counter the reformist International Federation of Trade Unions, recently 
launched in Amsterdam. The syndicalists were handed a document entitled 'To 
Syndicalists of all Nations'. It contained a clear message; the world 
syndicalist movement was to become subordinate to the communist political 
leadership in Moscow. It argued for a 'close indestructible alliance between the 
communist party and the trade unions' and claimed that the aim of the new 
International should be to set up 'communist cells' within reformist unions in 
order to capture the leadership. The syndicalists rejected the document out of hand.

The conference itself provided further controversy. On the opening day, the 
Bolsheviks presented a document stating that the proletariat cannot accomplish 
its revolution without a political party leading it. They argued that the aim of 
the revolution was the capture of state power under the leadership of the 
communist party. Thus, the Bolshevik proposals explicitly repudiated the basic 
principles of revolutionary syndicalism. They claimed that the syndicalists' 
rejection of political parties 'helps only to support the bourgeoisie and 
counter revolutionaries...They fail to grasp that, without an independent 
political party, the working class is a body without a head [and, in comparison 
to revolutionary Marxism]... syndicalism and industrialism are a step backward'.
http://www.direct-action.org.uk/img/40/40-19-01.png
Commissions headed by Bolshevik experts examined each country's situation - the 
'British Question' was Before the Comintern conference opened, the newly arrived 
syndicalist delegates from different countries were invited to attend a 
Comintern Executive Committee. Here, the Bolsheviks ann
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