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The British Labour Party and Foreign Policy, 1900-31, Part I


  • If war threatens to break out, it is the duty of the working class in the countries concerned... to use every effort to prevent war by all the means which seem to them most appropriate.... Should war none the less break out, their duty is to intervene to bring it promptly to an end, and with all their energies to use the political and economic crisis created by the war to rouse the populace from its slumbers, and to hasten the fall of capitalist domination. [10]

    • Many in the Labour Party had expected, as Lansbury did, that this would stop any war. However, when the ultimate test came in August 1914, the resolution was ignored by nearly all, as the German Social Democrats, by far the largest socialist party in all of Europe, voted unanimously for war credits, and others followed suit. [11]

    Footnotes:

    [1] MPs were at this time unpaid. It would not be until the Parliamentary Act of 1911 that MPs received a salary. Thus in order to serve, MPs had to have an independent source of income, which prohibited many would-be working-class MPs from serving.

    [2] The British equivalent of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

    [3] An intellectual organization consisting of such intellectuals as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, George Bernard Shaw, and many others. It is still in existence today.

    [4] Carl F. Brand, The British Labour Party, (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1974), p. 11.

    [5] A power delegated officially to the monarch, but one which is the prerogative of the Government. As long as at least one General Election is held within a five year period (beofre 1911, seven), it can be held at any time and at the Government's choosing. The General Election of 1900 was known as the "Khaki election" for its jingoistic and pro-war political atmosphere. Both the Labour Party, which was anti-war, and the Liberal Party, which was split on the issue, lost seats.

    [6] Peter Clarke, Hope and Glory: Britain, 1900-90, (NY: Penguin, 1996), p. 405.

    [7] The British equivalent to the U.S. Party Platform, adopted at each Presidential Nominating Convention.

    [8] Andrew Reekes, ed. Documents and Debates: The Rise of Labour, 1899-1951, (London: Macmillan, 1991), p. 18, quoting Beasly and Peeling, Labour and Politics, 1900-1906, (Macmillan, 1958), pp. 264-5.

    [9] The major body of European Socialist movements and political parties between 1889 and 1914. An earlier First International was held from 1864-72 in London with Karl Marx presiding, and the Third International was held between 1917 and

    The copyright of the article The British Labour Party and Foreign Policy, 1900-31, Part I in Modern British History is owned by Joseph Sramek. Permission to republish The British Labour Party and Foreign Policy, 1900-31, Part I in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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