Romancing the Revolution

by Bullock, Ian

• ISBN13: 9781926836126
• ISBN10: 192683612X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-16
• Publisher: Athabasca Univ

Summary

In the years immediately following the First World War and the 1917 Russian Revolution, many of those on the British Left were tempted, to a greater or lesser degree, by what Ian Bullock calls the "myth" of soviet democracy: the belief that Russia had embarked on a brave experiment in a form of popular government more advanced even than British parliamentarism. InRomancing the Revolution, Bullock examines the reaction of a broad spectrum of the British Left to this idealized concept of soviet democracy. At conferences and congresses, and above all in the contemporary left-wing press, debates raged over how best to lay the groundwork for a soviet system in Britain, over how soviets should be organized, over the virtues (if any) of the parliamentary system, over the true meaning of the "dictatorship of the proletariat," over whether British communists should affiliate to the Third International, and over a host of other issuesincluding the puzzling question of what was actually going on in Russia. As Bullock demonstrates, even in the face of mounting evidence that the Bolshevik revolution had produced something closer to genuine dictatorship than genuine democracy, many of those on the Left were slow to abandon the hope that revolutionary transformations were indeed in store for Britainthat the soviet system would at long last allow the country to achieve real social equality and economic justice.

Author Biography

Ian Bullock's interests have long centred on the often ambivalent relationship between socialism and democracy. Currently a visiting research fellow in history at the University of Sussex, he is the co-author, with Logie Barrow, of Democratic Ideas and the British Labour Movement, 1880-1914, and the co-editor, with Richard Pankhurst, of Sylvia Pankhurst: From Artist to Anti-Fascist.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Abbreviations	p. xiii
Timeline: May 1916 to January 1925	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 3
Well-Prepared Ground: The British Left on the Eve of the Russian Revolution	p. 17
The Main Constituents of the British Left	p. 17
Radical Plebeian Democracy in British Socialism	p. 21
Shop Stewards, Syndicalism, and Guild Socialism	p. 29
De Leonism and the Socialist Labour Party	p. 34
Initial Responses to the Russian Revolution: The British Left in 1917 and the Leeds "Soviet" Convention	p. 41
The "Marvellous Revolution"	p. 41
The Origins of the Leeds Convention: Anticipations and Preparations	p. 45
The Convention Meets	p. 49
The "Soviet" Resolution	p. 51
Reactions to Leeds	p. 55
Trying to Make British Soviets Work	p. 58
The Bolsheviks and the British Left: The October Revolution and the Suppression of the Constituent Assembly	p. 67
The "Unknown" Bolsheviks Begin to Register	p. 67
The Bolsheviks Take Power	p. 72
How the British Left Reacted to the October Revolution	p. 73
The Crucial Turning Point: The Suppression of the Constituent Assembly	p. 76
The Suppression of the Assembly: Immediate Reactions	p. 80
The Labour Party Conferences of 1918: Litvinov Versus Kerensky	p. 88
Snowden's Early Optimism	p. 91
"Replacing" the Constituent Assembly: Retrospective Justifications	p. 92
The Myth Established: The Positive View of Soviet Democracy	p. 99
"The Superiority of the Soviet"	p. 99
The Reality of Soviets-as Seen by Supporters and Sympathetic Observers	p. 107
Labour Leader and "an Experiment Which Mankind Truly Needs"	p. 114
Allowing the Bolsheviks a "Run for Their Money": The New Statesman, 1918-1921	p. 116
Polarized Social-Democrats: Denunciation and Debate	p. 125
The National Socialist Party, Justice, and the "Anti-Bolshevik Campaign"	p. 125
Parliamentarism and Trade Unionism: The 1919 Debate in The Call	p. 135
Equivocal Reformists: The Independent Labour Party, the Guild Socialists, and the Reaction to Kautsky	p. 147
ILP Critics: Giving the Bolsheviks Some Benefit of the Doubt	p. 147
Conflicts in the National Guilds League	p. 153
The "Aunt Sally of the Third International"	p. 162
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat	p. 169
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Soviet Democracy	p. 169
The Temporary Nature of the Dictatorship	p. 177
The Revolutionary Party and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat	p. 179
Defenders of Dictatorship	p. 183
The Independent Labour Party and the Third International: A Crucial Test for Belief in Soviet Democracy	p. 189
Which International?	p. 189
Third International Support in the ILP in Early 1920	p. 194
The 1920 ILP Conference	p. 198
Reports from Russia	p. 200
The Left Wing of the ILP and the 1921 Conference	p. 205
"An Infantile Disorder": Communist Unity and the Brief Life of the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)	p. 215
The Khaki Election of 1918	p. 215
Waiting for the Soviets: The "True Believers" of the Workers' Socialist Federation	p. 217
"Left" and "Right" Communists	p. 220
The "Leading English Communist"	p. 222
"A Wrecking Policy" and the Failure of the "Appeal to Caesar"	p. 227
"Left-Wing" Communism: Wary Shop Stewards Remain Aloof	p. 229
Gorter Rejects Lenin's Criticism	p. 231
The Short but Eventful Life of the CP (BSTI)	p. 233
British Bolsheviks?: The Socialist Labour Party	p. 245
Some Limits of SLP Sectarianism	p. 245
Parliament and the Labour Party	p. 254
The Communist Unity Group and the "Unity Gag": The SLP Declines to Unite	p. 256
The Third International and the 21 Conditions	p. 257
The SLP and the Soviets: A Changing Emphasis	p. 260
The Revival of De Leonism: The "Industrial Republic" and the WIIU	p. 262
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and "Civilised" Conflict	p. 264
The Nature of the Revolution and the Role of the Revolutionary Party	p. 271
Pankhurst's Dreadnought and the (Original) Fourth International: "Left Communism" and Soviet Democracy	p. 275
The Dreadnought Before Pankhurst's Expulsion	p. 275
Pankhurst's Expulsion, "Freedom of Discussion," and the Dreadnought Reprieved	p. 279
Perceptions of Russian Reality: The Beginning of the Change	p. 283
The Original Fourth International and the Communist Workers' Party	p. 284
The Role of the Soviets in the Coming Revolution	p. 289
The Nature of Soviet Democracy	p. 294
The Degeneration of the Russian Revolution: "Right-Wing" Communists Abandon Soviet Democracy	p. 298
The Spread of Soviets and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat	p. 302
The Early British Communist Party: Soviet Democracy Deferred and Redefined	p. 307
The First Step to Socialism: A Labour Government	p. 307
Redefinition Begins: Democracy...or Ergatocracy?	p. 309
The Role of the Soviets: Zinoviev's "Theses"	p. 310
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat: From Class to Party	p. 312
"Bolshevization" and Democratic Centralism	p. 314
Desertions from the Left	p. 318
Soviet Democracy Deferred	p. 322
Soviet Democracy Depoliticized	p. 323
Endings and Conclusions	p. 333
Kronstadt and the "Collapse" of Communism	p. 333
The Decline of Left-Wing Alternatives in Britain	p. 338
The Demise of Solidarity and The Guild Socialist	p. 340
The End of The Socialist and the Sinking of the Workers' Dreadnought	p. 342
Justice and the Ending of the SDF-BSP Tradition	p. 345
The Beginning of the End of Labour Leader: Snowden Versus Mrs. Glasier	p. 346
The End of Labour Leader	p. 350
Attitudes Towards Leadership and the Cult of Lenin	p. 352
Conclusions	p. 359
Notes	p. 367
Bibliography	p. 401
Index	p. 409
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