3. The Socialist Organisations

3.1 Introduction When the TUC Parliamentary Committee voted to establish a new independent labour organisation it included in the organising committee not just the trade unions but three socialist organisations. In order of seniority of establishment these were: the Social Democratic Federation (founded 1881); the Fabian Society (founded 1884); and the or ILP (founded 1893). Each of these bodies will be considered in turn. But first it may help to set a slightly broader perspective by tracing the socialist movement as it emerged during the industrial revolution.

3.2 The socialist response to Industrial Capitalism The rise of industrial capitalist society produced a considerable wealth of writing and literature offering critiques or commentary on the new system and some putting forward ideas for its reform or replacement. This is not the place to go into the ideas of Spence, Ogilvie or Paine, nor the romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge, or the prose writers such as Carlisle and Ruskin. But, they all had their place in framing a response to the new society. They each also played a part in influencing public opinion, especially among advanced workers. It is also important to note that the American struggle for independence between 1873-83 and the French Revolution of 1789 and its aftermath and the philosophical currents associated with Rationalist philosophy all contributed to the development of socialist thought and action.

The British working class initially relied on their own resources of resistance through strikes, machine breaking and attempts to form their own local organisations. However, when this largely failed they moved on to the political stage to try to achieve universal suffrage. This switching in emphasis from what may be termed the economic field to the political one, and vice versa, in an attempt to seek solutions to their dreadful conditions, has been a continuing feature of working class reaction to the capitalist system ever since.

One of the first socialists to have a significant impact on workers in Britain was Robert Owen. His views could be described, as utopian socialist in that he thought capitalism would be surmounted by example rather than revolution or gradual reform. He achieved early prominence in his experiments in, what we may term, welfare capitalism at the massive mills at New Lanark and from that experience went on to outline his wider ideas about a better society. In 1813/14 Owen wrote an influential tract called, A New View of Society, in which he

Page 1 of 12 outlined his proposals for a new social and economic system based on co- operation rather than competition.

Robert Owen The Mills at New Lanark

In the 1820s Owen tried to establish ideal, model settlements in Britain and later in the USA, based on his co-operative ideas. But none were a lasting success and so he returned home from America in 1829 to develop new ways to struggle. In his last major initiative he tried to form one all-embracing Trade Union, The Grand National Consolidated Trade Union, which was discussed in the last section on Trade Unions. Despite a lack of practical success Owen’s ideas inspired a significant number of advanced workers and several Owenite societies and Owenite Halls of Science were formed in the industrial areas and these ideas later merged with those of the Chartists and other socialists who came later.

But it was the idea of universal suffrage that took the main hold on the imagination of the working class in the first half of the 19th century. Massive demonstrations took place seeking basic democratic demands from the 1830s through to the 1840s. These were organised by the Chartists. The work and ideas of the Chartists and its leaders deserve separate consideration elsewhere. Suffice it to say here that the People’s Charter was a list of 6 key democratic demands. Massive petitions with millions of signatures supporting these demands were organised and presented to parliament. Most Chartists were also socialists and believed that if the vote was achieved then socialism could be achieved via Parliament. The early success of the 1832 Reform Act gave momentum to further agitation by Chartists for additional reform was fiercely resisted by the ruling bourgeois elite, and Chartism subsided along with the socialist movement generally.

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A Chartist Demonstration The Six demands of the Chartists The next revival of socialism occurs after the Great Depression of the 1870s and early 1880s and it is in this phase that the new socialist organisations were born.

3.3 The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) The oldest of the socialist organisations to help establish the Labour Party was Marxist in its broad orientation. The origins of the SDF lie in its forerunner, the Democratic Federation (DF). The key figure was Henry M. Hyndman, a radical Tory by upbringing.

H. M. Hyndman The banner of the Democratic Federation

Hyndman had turned to socialism, after reading Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, in a French translation in 1880. He became convinced by the basic ideas of Marxism and sought out Karl Marx in London, where they held a number of meetings.

Karl Marx German edition of Capital Book setting out Marxist ideas

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In1881 Hyndman had discussions with several prominent radical figures including old Chartists and members of the International Working Men’s Association (IWMA), also called the First International. Additional discussions were held with London’s Radical Working Men’s Clubs and Irish Associations. From this it was agreed to form the Democratic Federation and Hyndman wrote an initial book or manifesto, England for All (1881). In this he sought to embody the essential doctrines of Marx without acknowledging their source. Marx and Engels, already suspicious of this upper class convert, thereafter, would have nothing more to do with him. Many prominent socialists and radicals joined the DF notably William Morris and Eleanor Marx (Marx’s daughter) and some workers such as James MacDonald and Harry Quelch.

In 1883 the DF published a pamphlet, Socialism Made Plain which sold 100,000 copies which urged a number of practical reforms concerning housing, education, the 8 hour day, national banks and the gradual abolition of private banks, nationalisation of railways and land, organisation of unemployed under state control on co-operative lines and rapid redemption of the National Debt. At the end of 1883 members resolved to publish a weekly paper and in January 1884 Justice began publication. Edward Carpenter and William Morris provided the necessary financial backing.

Hyndman was the undisputed leader and although a good speaker (even in his top hat!) and energetic organiser was dogmatic and authoritarian. His grasp of Marxism was rigid and mechanistic and he understood none of the fluidity of Marxism embodied in dialectics. William Morris proved to be a tireless socialist and revolutionary, who wrote much for the paper, Justice and spoke up and down the country.

An early copy of Justice

In August 1884 the DF held its 4th Annual Conference and adopted the name Social Democratic Federation (SDF). Shortly afterwards there was a significant split when William Morris led a breakaway group called the Socialist League.

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Newspaper of the Socialist League

Hammersmith Branch of the Socialist League William Morris

One of the reasons the split occurred was the question of whether the SDF should stand candidates in elections. William Morris, Belfort Bax and others refused to accept a Parliamentary road to socialism at this time. They had also fallen out with the difficult Hyndman.

The SDF found it problematic to embrace both reform and revolution and tended to swing from one extreme to the other. At the point of the defection of William Morris and his group the SDF opted to try to get Parliamentary representation. In this they were singularly unsuccessful and so in the late 1880s they put their emphasis into organising large demonstrations against unemployment.

The Riot of 1887 Trial of SDF Leaders, including Hyndman and

The agitations against unemployment certainly gave considerable publicity to the SDF, especially after the trial of their leaders in 1887 and they were able to expand and develop a number of branches up and down the country on the

Page 5 of 12 strength of it. The demonstrations became more and more violent and the actions of the police and authorities more aggressive. The energy of this phase of street agitation began to fade towards the end of the 1880s. The SDF began, once more, to favour a more reformist and less insurrectionist approach. Although the SDF did not experience great membership growth in this period it did exert a lot of influence up and down the country, especially among the new, militant trade unionists. Many future union leaders, such as Tom Mann, and were members and owed much to the SDF. The SDF was widely recognised as the first socialist organisation in the period after 1880 and widely credited with spreading socialist ideas to a whole new layer of workers.

3.4 The Fabian Society The Fabian Society was established a few years after the SDF. It’s early inspiration was drawn largely from a socialist perspective but it was reluctant to get involved with either other socialist groups or trade unions and veered, in its early years, towards seeking to influence the Liberal party, intellectuals and state administrators. Its character was essentially middle-class, London-centric and academic with a tendency to elitism as this quote from Beatrice Webb indicates,

“Do we want to organize the unthinking persons into Socialistic Societies, or to make the thinking persons socialistic? We believe in the latter process. “

The story of the Fabian Society starts in 1883 when a number of people, mainly young and living in London, met in Edward Pease’s lodgings to discuss setting up a new association dedicated to reconstructing society along high moral lines. Some of them had already joined the Democratic Federation, others had flirted with the Fellowship of the New Life, which was established by a visiting American scholar called Davidson to promote ethical socialism. In January 1884, after months of discussion they set up the Fabian Society, named after Fabius, the Roman general, whose tactics were based on the idea of waiting patiently for the right moment to strike. There were two competing strands to Fabianism from the outset, the practical and the visionary. The practical wanted to do something immediately and favoured research, writing and influencing policy. The visionary were concerned to formulate the long-term aims.

Two new, powerful members strengthened this initial group of adherents. The first was George Bernard Shaw, at that time a poor journalist with a strong rebellious streak and a mischievous sense of humour. He had been a member of the SDF and thought of himself at that stage as a Marxist but he disliked Hyndman and was doubting Marx’s theory of value and when Morris left the SDF to form the Socialist League he decided to move over to the Fabian Society. He joined in September 1884 and immediately became a dominant voice. The second important figure was Sidney Webb a civil servant at the Colonial Office. He had a brilliant mind, was already a friend of Shaw but had only recently

Page 6 of 12 begun to accept the arguments for socialism. Shaw tended to be the man of ideas and verve whereas Webb was the practical, reformist voice, keen to see government run on more democratic and efficient lines. A third key figure was Edward Pease, who had been instrumental in establishing the Society and was its chief organiser.

George Bernard Shaw Sidney Webb Edward Pease

Once Shaw had been persuaded to leave Marxism behind the Fabian Society was able to coalesce around the Utilitarian dictum of seeking the greatest happiness of the greatest number, through state intervention rather than laissez-faire. Their approach was to seek to influence administrators and leaders by reasoned argument and good research. They also stressed that they were “constitutional”, which meant that they accepted the State (including the monarchy and House of Lords) and sought to work within it. Given this approach it was a grouping, which largely attracted the middle class and the intellectuals, especially in London.

They set out their stall by producing a series of tracts, the first of which was called, Why are the many poor? (1884). The second tract also in 1884 was penned by G. B. Shaw and presents a manifesto of the Fabian Society.

Fabian Tract No. 1 Fabian Tracts carried on after World War I

Shaw became the dominant figure in these early years, speaking widely and writing a great deal. But Sidney Webb had the more lasting impact, quietly working away at both policy research and developing ideas for improving governance and administration. The Society was tireless in preparing Fabian

Page 7 of 12 Tracts and setting out facts and figures to support social and economic reform. A series of Fabian lectures in 1888 formed the basis for Fabian Essays in Socialism, edited by Shaw. This proved a big success and was re-printed many times.

In terms of their political stance the early Fabians favoured a policy of “permeation”. That is, to influence the existing main parties, especially the Liberal Party, to adopt radical reforms at both local and central level by force of argument and evidence. The Liberal-Radical tradition was strong in London, where the Fabians were almost entirely centred. Radical Working Men’s Clubs thrived and in 1886 a Metropolitan Radical Federation was formed and obtained representation at the annual conferences of the National Liberal Federation. The Fabians concentrated on the Radical Clubs, seeking to gain their support for their policies and programmes. The London County Council (LCC) was formed under the County Councils Act of 1881 and the Fabians helped the Liberal Party to form the Progressive Party to fight LCC elections in 1889. The Progressive Party won a majority of seats and later Sidney Webb became one of their Councillors. The Fabians also supported candidates for the London School Board elections in 1888, again achieving some success. They also made overtures to the Liberal press and won over H. W. Massingham, Assistant Editor of the Star. In another initiative and under Webb’s direction the Fabian Society used a bequest to establish the London School of Economics in 1895. The School was to focus on being a centre of excellence for the social sciences, a relatively new area of academic study.

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Election posters for the Progressive Party for the London County Council The practical orientation of the Fabian work provided a basis for what became known as Municipal Socialism. The Society argued that many utilities and services operated by private concerns were inefficient and could be better run by local authorities in the interests of residents. This appealed to the increasing number of liberal and labour councillors up and down the country.

In terms of organisation the Fabian Society remained dominated by London and generally uninterested in spreading its reach throughout the country. Despite this a number of local societies did set up, especially in the Universities. However, in a bizarre reflection of the elitist approach of the Fabians the University Branches were always deemed to be a part of the London Society and not Provincial Branches. The London Society took all the main decisions and although there were annual meetings when all members could attend the power always remained with an Executive that was, to all purposes, chosen by the leading members in London. There was a brief period when the Society decided to encourage a greater spread of membership and branches and by 1893 there were 72 in existence. However, by 1900 only 4 branches were reported as active.

Although the Fabian Society was not particularly interested in affiliating to other parties it was tolerant of those of its members who became active in socialist organisations. It declined to send delegates to the founding conference of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1892 but a number of provincial branches did so. In most cases these provincial branches left the Fabian Society and moved over to the ILP. However, by 1900 when the Fabian Society received an invitation to participate in the TUC’s new independent labour organisation, The Labour Representation Committee, it did agree to send as delegate, Edward Pease, its Secretary and also a member of the ILP.

3.5 The Independent Labour Party (ILP) Efforts to get the “old gang” of the TUC to break with their historic support for the Liberal party and support the idea of independent labour representation continued in the 1880s but to no avail. In fact, as we know, this did not finally happen until 1899/1900. But pressure for independent labour representation both in parliament and in Local Authorities persisted. , a key figure in this endeavour, stood as an independent Labour candidature in the 1888 Mid Lanarkshire by-election. He had tried and failed to gain Liberal Party support for his candidature, and the experience convinced many of his fellow miners of the

Page 9 of 12 need for an independent party representing the interests of labour. This led to the creation of the Scottish Labour Party later in 1888. Hardie became the Party’s Secretary.

Efforts to secure the first independent Labour MPs continued and in the General Election of 1892 Keir Hardie, John Burns and Havelock Wilson secured election. These were the first working class M.P.’s elected on a purely labour ticket, against Liberal and Tory opposition. John Burns and Havelock Wilson later became Liberals. Ben Tillett narrowly failed to win in West Bradford, standing as an independent labour candidate.

Keir Hardie, M.P. John Burns, M.P. Havelock Wilson, M.P.

Joseph Burgess who edited the influential weekly, Workmen’s Times issued a call that same year, 1892, for people to sign up for a new independent . Within a few months 2000 names had been submitted and local branches were being formed. Momentum gathered and a national arrangements committee was established linking the main independent left elements. A Conference was arranged for Bradford in 1893.

The Bradford Conference was attended by 120 delegates, the majority from the North (especially the West Riding of Yorkshire) and Scotland and included many young working men. Local northern SDF branches were represented but London SDF held aloof. Similarly in the case of the Fabian Society most of their provincial branches from north sent delegates but the leadership in London decided not to participate, although G. B. Shaw attended as an active participant. In addition to Shaw most of the leading lights of the socialist movement were there including, Keir Hardie, John Trevor, (founder of the Labour Church Movement), Joseph Burgess, (editor of Workmen’s Times), and Robert Blatchford (the founder of the Clarion and its associated clubs). Eduard Bernstein was the fraternal visitor

Page 10 of 12 from the mighty German Social Democratic Party and editor of their paper, Vorwarts.

The Conference adopted a wide-ranging socialist programme of reform, guided by Edward Aveling (Karl Marx’s son-in-law) and G. B. Shaw. A high degree of local autonomy was adopted under a federal system of organisation but they agreed to establish a National Council representing all the regions. The first elected Secretary was Shaw Maxwell and Keir Hardie was elected Chair. It had been hoped that this new Party could bring together all the main left bodies but neither the Fabian Society nor the SDF chose to affiliate. Most of the northern Fabian sections voted with their feet and abandoned the Fabians in favour of the ILP. A few SDF branches did likewise. In 1894 the ILP decided against outside affiliations and shortly after the Scottish Labour Party folded. The 1894 Conference also agreed to a smaller, directly elected National Council and Tom Mann took over as Secretary. Although the basic structure was more centralised local branches retained considerable autonomy and frequently challenged the National Council.

In terms of an official organ for the new Party, Keir Hardie brought with him from the Scottish Labour Party, The Labour Leader and transferred it as the main voice of the ILP.

Regular paper of the I.L.P. Examples of ILP Banners

With high expectations the ILP ran 28 candidates in the 1895 General Election but none was elected and even Keir Hardie lost his seat. Whilst this marked an end to the unbridled optimism that had attended the party's foundation there was much fervour and enthusiasm in these years with speakers, educational and social activities in the branches and in the local communities. Women played a vital part, often linked into suffragette activities. National membership started around the 4000 mark but this was heavily concentrated in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland. By 1895 some estimates suggest there were 10,000 fee- paying members with many more supporters.

Page 11 of 12 The Clarion organisation, run by Robert Blatchford, was closely allied to the ILP and provided an important element of leisure, fun and popular propaganda that reached wider layers of workers and won them over to the socialist cause. The Clarion was an important and popular paper in these years and when Blatchford re-printed many Clarion articles as the book Merrie England it sold 750,000 copies in one year, an extraordinary achievement. Blatchford was a brilliant propagandist and expanded the scope of the Clarion to include local Clubs, Clarion Scouts, Clarion Cycle Clubs, Camera Clubs, Field Clubs and Houses that were forerunners of Youth Hostels and a general interest in working class sport.

Robert Blatchford The Clarion paper Govan Clarion Cycle Club

From it’s beginning, the ILP never sought to establish a homogeneous ideology, but rather attempted to act as a broad left party of the working class, advocating a rather vague and amorphous socialist agenda. The ILP always maintained a strong orientation to trade unionists and had an ultimate object of tapping trade union funds for the attainment of Parliamentary power. The socialism of the ILP was ideal for achieving this end; lacking as it did any real theoretical basis it could accommodate practically anything a trade unionist was likely to demand.

In a party of loose and diverse opinions, the issue of control and direction was subject to contest. By and large the branches sought to exert a broad democracy but the leading figures sought to control and direct as much as they could. Towards to end of the 19th century the power of the National Council grew and a strong leadership emerged around Hardie, Philip Snowden, an evangelical socialist and Christian from the West Riding of Yorkshire, Ramsay MacDonald, who came to the Party after he finally ditched illusions in the Liberal party, around 1895, and Bruce Glasier, who became Chairman in 1900. Whilst there was some tension between these four they shared the view that they needed to forge an alliance with the trade unions rather than an ideology-based socialist unity with the SDF. Pressure to form some form of left unity with the SDF and the Fabian Society grew after 1895, supported by Blatchford and the Clarion. In fact a referendum of members of both organisations favoured unity but Hardie and the ILP leadership resisted, seeking instead to ally themselves with the Trade Unions and Trades Councils to create a different kind of unity. This eventually came to pass in 1900 with the creation of the Labour Representation Committee. This will be the subject of the next episode of this story.

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