Workers Socialist Federation
Encyclopedia
The Workers' Socialist Federation was a socialist political party
in the United Kingdom
, led by Sylvia Pankhurst
. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage
to eventually become a left communist grouping.
(WSPU, better known as the Suffragettes). The East London Federation was founded by Sylvia Pankhurst in 1913, and differed from its parent organisation in being democratic and including men, such as George Lansbury
.
By this point, Sylvia had many disagreements with the route the WSPU was taking. She wanted an explicitly socialist organisation tackling wider issues than women's suffrage, aligned with the Independent Labour Party
, based among working class
people in the East End of London
. She also wanted to focus on collective workers' action, not individual attacks on property.
At first, the group campaigned for universal suffrage
and agitated among parliamentarians
, with the assistance of Keir Hardie
. But with the outbreak of World War I
, they began also to attack participation in the war, supporting the positions of the Zimmerwald Conference
. This view initially lost the group support, but they began work to ameliorate suffering the East End.
The ELFS got a chain of cost price
restaurants set up, and itself set up a toy factory, free clinic
and Montessori nursery. They also agitated for widow's pension
s and dependent's allowances.
.
The WSF supported the 1916 Irish Rising and became a leading proponent of improved social welfare while continuing agitation for a universal franchise. As such, it opposed the Franchise Bill which ultimately gave women in Britain the vote in general election
s as the restrictions on women voting were much stricter than those on men.
of 1917 and renamed itself again, this time as the Workers' Socialist Federation. It was the first British party to affiliate to the Third International and lead campaigns against the British government's anti-Bolshevik
activities with the slogan "Hands off Russia". It also began working with the South Wales Socialist Society
(SWSS) and the London Workers' Committee.
Sylvia Pankhurst had become disillusioned with parliamentary
politics, particularly after the death of Keir Hardie
, and instead championed soviet
s. This led some syndicalists and anarchists to join the group. With the aim of forming a united British Communist Party, in April 1918 the WSF opened merger negotiations with the largest far left group in the country, the British Socialist Party
(BSP). Although this engendered a co-operative relationship, the negotiations broke down, as the BSP would not countenance withdrawal from the Labour Party
. Pankhurst attempted to convince Lenin of her positions, but he supported the proposed Communist Party tactically affiliating to Labour.
In June 1919, the WSF and BSP joined with the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and SWSS in broader negotiations. They agreed the main points of unity, but Pankhurst still foresaw difficulties in any subsequent party which would engage in Parliamentary action, and initiated an alternative conference, inviting the SLP, SWSS and the Communist League
but not the BSP.
and the British Section of the International Socialist Labour Party, but then withdrew, leaving the exercise a failure. However, the CP(BSTI) did gain influence in the Scottish Communist Labour Party and the tiny Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England
was formed on their platform.
The BSP had meanwhile formed the Communist Party of Great Britain
(CPGB). Lenin called on other communists to join the new party, and the CP(BSTI) was one of the groups covered in his work Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder. Although Workers Dreadnaught was openly critical of this pamphlet, Pankhurst attended the Second Congress of the Comintern
, where Lenin personally persuaded Sylvia that her objections were less important than unity, and that it would be possible to maintain an anti-Parliamentary opposition within the CPGB. Pankhurst called a conference, inviting the English Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee Movement, the Communist Labour Party, the Scottish Workers' Committee and the Glasgow Communist Group. She was imprisoned in September, but with the support of Willie Gallacher
, all the groups at the conference bar Guy Aldred
's Glasgow Communist Group agreed to merge with the Communist Party of Great Britain in January 1921.
After a period, Pankhurst was instructed to place the Workers' Dreadnaught under the control of the party, which she refused to do. In particular, she criticised the Communist Party members of the Poplar
Board of Guardians
for agreeing to reduce outdoor Poor Law
relief, which was cited as the reason for her expulsion from the CPGB in September 1921. While the idea of democratic centralism
, newly accepted as the governing principle for the CPGB, would seem to suggest that she was in breach of discipline, Labour Monthly
continued as the personal organ of R. P. Dutt and even received subsidies.
s to the Red International of Labour Unions, and warning that they felt the Bolshevik
s were beginning to "slip to the right". The group affiliated to the left communist Communist Workers International
(KAI) and announced its intention to form a Communist Workers Party. No national group was formally constituted, and they later referred to the network as the Communist Workers Group although it was now a very small party and dissolved itself in June 1924.
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, led by Sylvia Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst
Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst was an English campaigner for the suffragist movement in the United Kingdom. She was for a time a prominent left communist who then devoted herself to the cause of anti-fascism.-Early life:...
. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
to eventually become a left communist grouping.
East London Federation of the WSPU
It originated as the East London Federation of the Women's Social and Political UnionWomen's Social and Political Union
The Women's Social and Political Union was the leading militant organisation campaigning for Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom...
(WSPU, better known as the Suffragettes). The East London Federation was founded by Sylvia Pankhurst in 1913, and differed from its parent organisation in being democratic and including men, such as George Lansbury
George Lansbury
George Lansbury was a British politician, socialist, Christian pacifist and newspaper editor. He was a Member of Parliament from 1910 to 1912 and from 1922 to 1940, and leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935....
.
By this point, Sylvia had many disagreements with the route the WSPU was taking. She wanted an explicitly socialist organisation tackling wider issues than women's suffrage, aligned with the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
, based among working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
people in the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
. She also wanted to focus on collective workers' action, not individual attacks on property.
East London Federation of Suffragettes
These and other differences, including personal ones, led to Sylvia's expulsion, along with the East London Federation, from the WSPU. In early 1914, they renamed themselves the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS) and launched a newspaper, the Women's Dreadnought.At first, the group campaigned for universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
and agitated among parliamentarians
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, with the assistance of Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
. But with the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, they began also to attack participation in the war, supporting the positions of the Zimmerwald Conference
Zimmerwald Conference
The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...
. This view initially lost the group support, but they began work to ameliorate suffering the East End.
The ELFS got a chain of cost price
Cost price
In retail systems, the cost price represents the specific value that represents unit price purchased. This value is used as a key factor in determining profitability and in some stock market theories it is used in establishing the value of stock holding....
restaurants set up, and itself set up a toy factory, free clinic
Free clinic
A free clinic is a medical facility offering community healthcare on a free or very low-cost basis in countries with marginal or no universal health care. Care is generally provided in these clinics to persons who have lower or limited income and no health insurance, including persons who are not...
and Montessori nursery. They also agitated for widow's pension
Widow's pension
A widow's pension is a payment from the government of a country to a person whose spouse has died.Generally, such payments are made to a widow whose late spouse has satisfied the country's requirements, including contribution, cohabitation, and length of marriage.-United States:In the United...
s and dependent's allowances.
Workers' Suffrage Federation
As public opinion turned against the war, the group gained new support, and its newspaper increased its circulation. To reflect its now broader political positions, in March 1916 it renamed itself the Workers' Suffrage Federation (WSF). Similarly, the newspaper was renamed the Workers' DreadnoughtWorkers' Dreadnought
Workers' Dreadnought was a newspaper published by variously-named political parties led by Sylvia Pankhurst.Provisionally titled Workers' Mate, the newspaper first appeared on International Women's Day, March 8, 1914, as Women's Dreadnought, with a circulation of 30,000.The paper was started by...
.
The WSF supported the 1916 Irish Rising and became a leading proponent of improved social welfare while continuing agitation for a universal franchise. As such, it opposed the Franchise Bill which ultimately gave women in Britain the vote in general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
s as the restrictions on women voting were much stricter than those on men.
Workers' Socialist Federation
The party enthusiastically supported the October RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
of 1917 and renamed itself again, this time as the Workers' Socialist Federation. It was the first British party to affiliate to the Third International and lead campaigns against the British government's anti-Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
activities with the slogan "Hands off Russia". It also began working with the South Wales Socialist Society
South Wales Socialist Society
The South Wales Socialist Society was a federation of communist groups in Wales, with many of its members being coal miners. It was formed as the Rhondda Socialist Society in 1911 by participants in the Miners Reform Movement, which opposed right-wing trade union leaders., It enthusiastically...
(SWSS) and the London Workers' Committee.
Sylvia Pankhurst had become disillusioned with parliamentary
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
politics, particularly after the death of Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, and instead championed soviet
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
s. This led some syndicalists and anarchists to join the group. With the aim of forming a united British Communist Party, in April 1918 the WSF opened merger negotiations with the largest far left group in the country, the British Socialist Party
British Socialist Party
The British Socialist Party was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw the defection of its pro-war Right Wing...
(BSP). Although this engendered a co-operative relationship, the negotiations broke down, as the BSP would not countenance withdrawal from the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. Pankhurst attempted to convince Lenin of her positions, but he supported the proposed Communist Party tactically affiliating to Labour.
In June 1919, the WSF and BSP joined with the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and SWSS in broader negotiations. They agreed the main points of unity, but Pankhurst still foresaw difficulties in any subsequent party which would engage in Parliamentary action, and initiated an alternative conference, inviting the SLP, SWSS and the Communist League
Communist League (UK, 1919)
The Communist League was a small organisation of the far left in the United Kingdom. It was founded in March 1919 by the London District Council of the Socialist Labour Party and various anarchist groups in London and Scotland. These included Guy Aldred's Glasgow Anarchist Group...
but not the BSP.
Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)
The conference was held in June 1920 but was attended only by WSF members, some local groups and independents. It agreed to form the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) (CP(BSTI)) and voted to boycott future unity meetings. Instead, it attempted to interest the SLP in a merger. They proposed opening discussions with the Socialist Party of Great BritainSocialist Party of Great Britain
The Socialist Party of Great Britain , is a small Marxist political party within the impossibilist tradition. It is best known for its advocacy of using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes; opposition to reformism; and its early adoption of the theory of state capitalism to describe the...
and the British Section of the International Socialist Labour Party, but then withdrew, leaving the exercise a failure. However, the CP(BSTI) did gain influence in the Scottish Communist Labour Party and the tiny Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England
Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England
The Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England was a political party in Britain, formed in September 1920. The group was formed by a minority with the South Wales Socialist Society, that did not support merging into the Communist Party of Great Britain.The group was sympathetic to the...
was formed on their platform.
The BSP had meanwhile formed the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
(CPGB). Lenin called on other communists to join the new party, and the CP(BSTI) was one of the groups covered in his work Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder. Although Workers Dreadnaught was openly critical of this pamphlet, Pankhurst attended the Second Congress of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
, where Lenin personally persuaded Sylvia that her objections were less important than unity, and that it would be possible to maintain an anti-Parliamentary opposition within the CPGB. Pankhurst called a conference, inviting the English Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee Movement, the Communist Labour Party, the Scottish Workers' Committee and the Glasgow Communist Group. She was imprisoned in September, but with the support of Willie Gallacher
Willie Gallacher
William "Willie" Gallacher was a Scottish trade unionist, activist and communist. He was one of the leading figures of the Shop Stewards' Movement in wartime Glasgow and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain...
, all the groups at the conference bar Guy Aldred
Guy Aldred
Guy Alfred Aldred - often Guy A. Aldred - was a British anarchist communist and a prominent member of the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation...
's Glasgow Communist Group agreed to merge with the Communist Party of Great Britain in January 1921.
After a period, Pankhurst was instructed to place the Workers' Dreadnaught under the control of the party, which she refused to do. In particular, she criticised the Communist Party members of the Poplar
Poplar, London
Poplar is a historic, mainly residential area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about east of Charing Cross. Historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was...
Board of Guardians
Board of Guardians
Boards of guardians were ad hoc authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.-England and Wales:The boards were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish Overseers of the Poor established under the old poor law, following the recommendations...
for agreeing to reduce outdoor Poor Law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
relief, which was cited as the reason for her expulsion from the CPGB in September 1921. While the idea of democratic centralism
Democratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
, newly accepted as the governing principle for the CPGB, would seem to suggest that she was in breach of discipline, Labour Monthly
Labour Monthly
Labour Monthly was the magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain .-Authors published:* Alexander BogdanovLabour Monthly was the magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain .-Authors published:...
continued as the personal organ of R. P. Dutt and even received subsidies.
Communist Workers' Party
Pankhurst reorganised her group of supporters around Workers Dreadnaught, and began criticising the admittance of trade unionTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s to the Red International of Labour Unions, and warning that they felt the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s were beginning to "slip to the right". The group affiliated to the left communist Communist Workers International
Communist Workers International
The Communist Workers' International or Fourth International was a council communist international. It was founded around the Manifesto of the Fourth Communist International, published by the Communist Workers' Party of Germany in 1921....
(KAI) and announced its intention to form a Communist Workers Party. No national group was formally constituted, and they later referred to the network as the Communist Workers Group although it was now a very small party and dissolved itself in June 1924.
Honorary Treasurers
- 1913: Sybil Smith
- 1913: Sybil ThomasSybil Thomas, Viscountess RhonddaSybil Margaret Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda DBE , née Sybil Margaret Haig, was a Welsh suffragette, feminist and philanthropist....
- 1914: Evelina HaverfieldEvelina HaverfieldEvelina Haverfield was a British suffragette and aid worker. In the early part of the 20th century, she was involved in Emmeline Pankhurst's militant women's suffrage organisation the Women's Social and Political Union...
- 1915: Edgar LansburyEdgar Lansbury (politician)Isaac Edgar Lansbury , known as Edgar Lansbury, was a British socialist politician.Lansbury was the son of Labour Party politician George Lansbury. He grew up in Poplar in the East End of London, and joined the Civil Service at a young age...
- 1916: Norah Smyth