BRITISH LABOR'S CHALLENGE TO AMERICA'S WORKERS
Stanley, Louis
British Labor's Challenge to America's Workers U.S. Movement Took England As Model But Now Lags Behind By Louis Stanley ON Thursday British labor sallied forth in an Its might to capture the...
...We were concerned only to build a new and nobler world on the ashes of the old...
...To crown all, the Coalition Government brushed aside the regular troops in Ireland who were striving by honorable methods to support a mistaken policy and Imported from the four corners of the world a ruffianly gang, known as the "Black and Tans," to terrorise the Irish into submission...
...The young men were In a minority and the "hardfaced men" were In a great majority...
...Daily contact with Labor MPs quickly banished the boyes and replaced them by warm hearted comrades-in-arms, patriots in their love of country, sober and banished the bogles and replaced them hard facts of their own origin to fight with passion and nobility for the relief of suffering, j After three years' daily association with such men...
...Capitalism was good enough tor them...
...they were old at the game and we were very new...
...Carpenters and Painters: Attention Socialist party members who are carpenters and painters and who can spare sometime to help in fixing up the new offices of the Socialist Party are requested to communicate immediately with Marx Lewis, executive secretary of the Socialist Party, 7 East 15th Street...
...wliat Made British Labor Change There were at least three factors which led the British workers to transform their movement into the great fighting machine we know today...
...Particularly trith the entrance of less skilled worksn into the trade union movement did 80:iallam become an ever more persistant aeed...
...In my view, I have passed through a process which is a very natural process for any normal man...
...They believed that the interests of labor and capital were Identical, though these might sometimes cross through misunderstanding...
...They saw no need for further legislation since new laws would lead to paternalism...
...Old men who had never fought were prating of reparations and revenge...
...Inevitably one learns in more than a decade something more of economics and of life...
...Particularly among the unorganiezd did the Socialist message meet with ready listeners...
...Out of the darkness, let us see that something Is brought up that will warm the hearths of England and lighten and brighten its homes and illuminate the roads along which England will march to a nobler and grander future...
...When the howls of his supporters had subsided, Churchill would charge down upon me '£:e an infuriated bull...
...Here, for what it Is worth, is the story...
...The work to be done can be done during spare time al a considerable saving to the Socialist Party...
...At first .he big trade union leaders who had disinguished themselves for respectability ind lobbying skill would have nothing o do with the general labor movement...
...housing schemes carried out by the community...
...the abolition of slums and backto-back houses: the compulsory acquisition of necessary land: educational facilities from the cradle to the university...
...Strikes were bad...
...I honestly believe that I hold much the same broad opinions as when I entered Parliament in 1918...
...it has been partially successful in its object, because it has deterred many young politicians who might have come over to the Labor camp in their complete disillusionment with their own party...
...Workers began to realize that Av> cialism held out the only hope for them: that trade union action' aion* could sot meet all their needs, even under capitalsm...
...Lloyd George produced his final master-piece of European ruin...
...They did not realize that the non-partisan tactics had fulfilled their function with the passage of the 1875 law...
...The next year William Morris' Socialist League took shap...
...Up to a certain point lobbying was effective...
...Since then, millions have passed through the same painful period of doubt which leads to an inevitable transfer of allegiance...
...None of those nonsensical revolutionary ideas that the workers of the thirties and forties had entertained could disturb them...
...It is a "wicked animal which defends Itself when attacked...
...we still proclaim the same vow...
...Various leaders flirted with us...
...We held ourselves as a generation set apart by a great ordeal and consecrated to a mighty task...
...I had very speedily in self-defence, to develop a certain ferocity in debating method, for which I have since been much blamed, as relying unduly on satire, invective, and the mors brutal weapons of controversy...
...In 1875 the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act sought to remedy the defects of the 1871 legislation by declaring that a union could not be held for conspiracy for acts which if committed by a single person were not criminal...
...Crosses the Floor Of Commons That was enough for me and at the opening of the Autumn Session of 1920 I crossed the floor to take my plaoe as an Independent on the Labor Benches...
...One of the first effects of crossing the floor was the dispelling of illusions concerning Labor leaders on which many of us had been brought up...
...Three years later the Fabian Society was established...
...Hoa» partisan politics has been proven com* pletely futile in the United States...
...Movement Took England As Model But Now Lags Behind By Louis Stanley ON Thursday British labor sallied forth in an Its might to capture the government »trong-hold of the oldest capitalist class in the world...
...They nave in many cases decided to vote Labor without my advantage of personal . oontact with Labor men...
...IB 1924 labor took over the government of England In 1929 It once more steads on the threshhold of power...
...but it- was only by assailing with personal ridicule the noisiest of my assailant* that I oould get a hearing at alL It was not until years later that I Sir Oswald Mosley Tells Why He Turned His Back on Toryism and Joined Labor could advance a reasoned argument In the House of Commons without first beating down the lntemiptors by such methods...
...Britain became a Profiteers' Paradise and a Workers' Hell...
...It is a contrast between a working class challenging the very existence of capitalism and a working class not yet alive to its responsibilities...
...The untkffied and semi-skilled could find no place in the existing unions at all, first because they could not afford the high dues that had made the unions so respectable, and secondly, they'were more likely because of their exposed economic position to get involved in strikes at the expense of the union...
...But, substantially my opinions are the same that I held and that the county supported in 1918...
...The last great illusions of the war were lost...
...The young men, the new men, the men of thl war, were In charge...
...It is just over five years since I joined the Labor Party...
...The workers encountered the fun shock of their Deflation Policy...
...Two were fought as an Independent at Harrow, amid a hail of slander and abuse, finally checked by a successful slander action...
...These wage-earners were tee poorly paid and their position was tee precarious to make possible extenstvt benefit systems...
...Mond and "economy ' ruled in their stead...
...Through and beyond the failure of men and parties, we of the war generation are marching on, and we shall march on until our end u achieved and cur sacrifice atoned...
...We of the small band of Opposition spoke every night against a record majority and an extraordinary array of Ministerial talent in debate...
...The enthusiasm engendered spread to the ranks of the skilled...
...We cared for none of these things...
...That was the tanner of the times...
...They had the i1i Hisafs of profiting by British experience aha were setting up a more efficient essnomic system than their old-fashion"* competitors In the home of the Industrial Revolution...
...It was grand practice...
...It was this Trade Union Congress that the A. F. of L. took for its model In 1881...
...This money they cherished above all •1st...
...The second U the changed pntlthm if British capitalism In the last quarter X the nineteenth century...
...snobbish desertion ey %* hither grades of the tower, that «H ¦nee— to mbt dispute* taa^osasM...
...Today we march with a calm but mighty confidence, for marching beside us in irresistible power is the soul of England...
...At home, no attempt was made to use the great machine of war for the greater purposes of peace...
...A man who boasts that he has passed a lifetime without changing an opinion, boasts that he has lived his life without learning anything...
...We still hold the,same purpose...
...Social insurance ws* the only solution for their problems...
...Thus, the American trade unionists accepted the British experience for their own at a time when the old British labor movement had outlived its usefulness...
...In the British modal a Legislative Committee was created, which ha* since come to be known as the Executive Council...
...Let us cleanse the temple of things which dishonor Lot structure, dishonor the altar, and dishonor the sacrifice made on that altar...
...Were millions not right to leave the old party and to support the new...
...Politics: Lobbying Or a Party...
...Thus collective bargaining, which has become such a feature of the modem trade union world and which called forth the admiration of Oompers and his colleagues some fifty years ago, came Into existence...
...American capitalism will toon encounter the competition of the re* vived industries of competing nations and the pressure upon the workers * this country will be increased...
...It has...
...Why is that transfer of loyalty from Tory to Labor sooner or later inevitable for any thinking or feeling man or woman...
...The Old British Movement What were these virtues...
...The leaders would have nothing to do with strikes, because they cost money...
...w..l encounter, they will not do as much...
...Bonar Law and a pure Tory Government were returned to power, "not on a policy, but on a yawn...
...But disillusionment soon followed...
...In 1867 the Master and Servant Act freed the worker from imprisonment when he broke his contract of service by going on strike...
...Addision went, and w.th him the last faint visions of "homes fit i:r heroes to live in...
...Despite every pro| test of the Labor Party, the productive ' machine so painfully and laboriously erected was scrapped or sold at knockdown prices to the profiteers...
...The British soon embarked upon new ventures, leaving their obsolete machinery and ideas as survivals in America...
...No man before or> since has ever so entirely captured the Imagination of Young Britain—or more completely betrayed It...
...Captured by Lloyd George —And Betrayed I entered Parliament in 1918 as a Coalition Candidate, a member of the Conservative Party, but a follower and admirer of Mr...
...The necessities of the fight forced the consolidation of the ranks of the workers...
...You may search in vain my election address of 1918 for any mention of reparations or of "hanging the Kaiser...
...What folly it would be if we failed to assist this great movement in the winning of things to which we consecrated ourselves so many years ago, and which we have pursued through so many ordeals...
...Yet we of the war generation are still determined that these things shall be done, and Labor is the only Party which now gives us any hope of their being done...
...Spurred forward by a shower of minatory telegrams from mass meetings of the "hard-faced men," Mr...
...The Labor Party is a great instrument, forgpd in the agony of the working class...
...Let us review the experience of the decade I have spent in the House of Commons and see if the experience of one individual, wholly devoted to politics during a period of ten years, can provide any guidance for others who now feel the doubts I once felt but whose .daily occupations have precluded the same close attention to that curious blend of splendor and squalor which constitutes modern politics...
...You may be right, but for better or worse, our feelings and our determination were expressed in the sublime language of Mr...
...It was not until a few days before the poll...
...In 1906 in answer to the decision of ths House of Lords in the Taff Vale east, jeopardizing the funds of trade unless...
...Abroad, the tragedy of Versailles was in full swing...
...Have We Courage and Intelligence...
...when the A. F. of L. was established in its present form had the criticisms of the big complacent unions and their middleclass Blinded leaders yet come to a head...
...My opening speeches in opposition were rather gentle protests against what seemed to me an extraordinary and temporary aberration of my class and party...
...Boon after I crossed the floor, the Coalition and the Conservative Party finally surrendered to the great interests...
...Meanwhile, outside, the barrage thundered...
...therefore, natural that when the American Federation of Labor was being organized...
...It has been a tremendous barrage...
...All this, howalthough ft is necessary to give> the reader the complete story...
...Everything for which we fought—peace abroad and reconstruction at home—was thrown to the wolves of the great vested Interest...
...Yet I have occasionally been called an extreme influence in the Labor Party...
...High wages and shorter hours as the bases of a prosperous home market...
...Between them, they had begun to distract and divide as, even before the hammer blows of reality finally dissolved us...
...They began to orgsnies the unorganized...
...The first shock was the first sight of our colleagues...
...A Full-Fledge...
...In 1871 the Trade Union Act exempted the trade union from the operation of the common law doctrine of criminal conspiracy merely because, by striking it happened to be "to restraint of trade...
...Rationalization methods have drives \mericsn workers to the point of ehs« peratlon...
...It was much more sensible to deal in a business-like way with the employers through agreement...
...The great barrage descended to prevent other "class traitors" crossing over to the trenches of the enemy...
...Other strikes took place...
...drastic schemes for health and child welfare: these were the proposals of my election addressv Not far short of this toe was the program of Mr...
...In that year occurred, 'he famous Dock Laborers' Strike la London...
...Without those weapons, I could not have survived...
...My fear is not that the Labor Party will do r.ure than a united nation demanded ten years ago...
...And full consideration should be given to the difficulties in which the employer might find himself...
...We Don't Want to Lose You, But we Think You Ought to Go...
...The skilled trades had organised into national craft unions and by high membership dues had built up solid treasuries and substantial beneficiary systems...
...Two of them, leaders of the miners, were actually elected at the general election of 1874...
...I was at first very much surprised at the fury of my reception in the House and in the Press...
...American tag German buslsessmen had become formidable rivals of the British...
...The leadership Of the one point* the way to a new social order where labor will rule, the leadership of the other is smugly satisfied with things as they are...
...loyd George and the Coalition leaders at the outset of the campaign...
...transport and electricity "controlled and developed by the 3tate...
...It was as a result of this struggle tor .he legal protection of the trade union hat the British Trade Union Congress Mune into existence in 1868...
...In 1881...
...A treat opportunity for a prof^essive labor meee* ment Is opening up...
...tan, when It the Colon* were wtos...
...We were determined that the world should never again suffer what we had suffered: we were determined that as a result of that suffering Britain should be roused from the torpor of a century, to build the finest civilization mankind had ever known...
...Samuel Gompers, who had come from England, and the other .trade union leaders of the time, should look to England for an example...
...Rise to the jccaalon...
...The first, as we have indicated, i* the neglect of the unskilled and semi-skilled workers...
...That statesman had stated in incomparable language the practical conceptions and the higher aspirations of the war generation...
...The American Federation of Labor was founded under the influence of the British labor movement of fifty years ago...
...They had, as we have said, accumulated huge funds for that period...
...Laborite Then came the challenge to the great Tory machine in Birmingham srsd the fierce struggle with Neville Chamber* lain...
...The Labor Government One short spell of Labor minority government with a better performance in eight months than all the ten years since the war, was succeeded by Baldwin's relapss into five years' torpor...
...as an Independent, I joined the Labor Party without a doubt or hesitation...
...let us see whether the reader will agree...
...The British abandoned the model the A F. of L. had copied but the Am- '¦ erlcan Federation of Labor went on blissfully defending the virtues the British could no longer see...
...Drift and idleness have governed ever since...
...The difference is historical...
...Ths Socialists were not content with sen speech-making...
...The Leaders of that demonstration of labor solidarity were Ben Tillett, Tom Mass \nd John Burns...
...In 1871 the first Parliamentary Committee was elected...
...are From Conservative To Laborite A Challenge to the War Generation — "Before We Go We Will Do Something Great" By Sir Oswald Mosley rr IB Just under nine years since i left the Tory Party...
...Abandoned Policy Copied Here This axeativ imnrnMiJ fh...
...It led to the passage of a number of laws which placed the trade unions on a legal footing...
...We hastily banded ourselves into a body known as "The New Members' Group," of which I was secretary, and which quickly attracted a powerful membership...
...We were all "extremists" in the sense that we wished to get things done, until the young grew tired and the old ways and the old men crept back...
...In their suffering and bitter disil.v.rlon, they have created their own weapons, and in my belief they will continue to forge and perfect these weapons until an instrument to evolved by which their great purpose can be achieved...
...How applicable to the present American situation is this statement of one of the insurgents in England in 1885 when our American Federation of Labor was Just getting under way: "The great bulk of ear laborer...
...By non-partisan political action and lobbying they had secured certain favorable legislation...
...Before we go, we will do something great for England...
...However, those were good Parliamentary days...
...Nevertheless, to* lobbying manoeuvres of the trade union leaders teemed to have met with a large measure of success...
...the present Labor Party was termed...
...My rising in debate evoked at once a howl of abuse from the "hardfaced men...
...Lloyd George once truly observed that "Labor is a Party in the making," to which we might well reply, that it Is better than a party "on the make...
...Let us cleanse this noble land...
...In his famous Bristol speech, that he surrendered to the reparation clamor...
...in»rwn...
...It was conclusively proven that tho>e without skill could be orjanlsod...
...When organised labor in this country includes the unskilled, the present hostility to social legislation will automatically go by the board...
...They accepted the lsisses-faire ideas of their employers...
...Why not come in and help "in the making" and the perfecting of a possible instrument for the winning of the great ends for which we of the war generation have paid so dearly...
...But tht British unions carried this to an extreme...
...position of the trade unions, though the effects were partly nullified by other legislation and hostile Judicial decisions...
...few this setnsh...
...Ostracised by their ieUows...
...These three statutes made enormous Improvement in the legs...
...The American Ftdarttlon of Labor when it was founded ia 1*81 as the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, was not aware of tht stagnation which was beginning to come over the British unions they wars imitating...
...la 1900 the Socialist and Trade Uwoi movements united In the Labor Representation Committee and returned KeJT Hardie and Richard Bell to Parliament...
...the , gentle process of leading up the garden path soon began...
...It was...
...Then blow followed fast upon blow...
...British capitalists, te tceep up their large margin of profits, began to press down upon their worksn more than ever...
...We came back from the war with a great determination...
...Lloyd George...
...In the half century that has elapses since the American Federation of Labor took the old stultified British labor movement as its model, the British working class has struck out on an entirely new path and created a movement throbbing with hopes and aspirations...
...The year 1889 may be said to mark the beginning of the modern British labor movement...
...The A. F. of L. leaders have not yet quite grasped the fact that the British laker movement has undergone a revolution since the days when it was good enough, for Americans to copy...
...The Altar Demolished Not until we got back to Westminster and the old games did the old men resume the reins...
...They had captured their own domestic nuisesj and were now competing with the Snrlish abroad...
...Frightfulnes*" became the governing principle of a Conservative Party led by a Liberal chief...
...Women and children were shot down in cold blood in the name of Britain...
...Then, 'so far as I was concerned, the storm burst...
...Ran as a Conservative That was the temper in which we approached the problems of the post-war world...
...Tot Socialist agitation found a hearty response among the workers...
...My fear is rather that in face of the terrific opposu.j.i...
...however, if anything, encouraged rather than deterred thousands who have taken no personal pajrt in politics, but who have been led to vote Labor by the same facts and mental processes which have Influenced me...
...still lobbying was looked upon as the greatest of virtues...
...that independent political action Hy labor was a grim necessity...
...The Americans also failed to notice that trade unionists here and there had announced their candidacies for members of Parliament without relying on the old politician...
...Lloyd George: / " "There are many things that are wrong and which ought* not to be—poverty, wretchedness, and squalor...
...The outstanding British unions were safe and sane...
...Two days earlier the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor traveled to West Point to review the military crdets of the strongest capitalist class today...
...Finally, the entire Press of the country unsuccessfully concentrated its fire in the Smethwick by-election...
...Our object was to force through the great measures of our program against the resistance of the reactionaries within the Coalition...
...The profiteer outnumbered the fighter...
...a aptrft «f revenge alone often prompts mm ai appasn or remain Indifferent te rnii...
...It was his first great surrender—the first of many...
...The unskilled tad semi-skilled suffered especially...
...What the A. F. of L. leaders have never discovered is that at the very moment when they were copying the British model, that model was swiftly passing into uselessnets, that the forces of rebellion were already gathering, that within another decade a new British labor movement was to arise whose fruits we now witness...
...The Labor Party Nearing Power As A. F. of L. Begs Favors ignored by the tktned workers...
...Before we leave the mortal scene, we will do something to lift the burdens of those who suffer...
...The skilled aristocracy of labor too often If .lores the pleadings of the unskilled, un» organized workers...
...A half century ago British labor stood where American labor Is today...
...Was I not right to finish with the old world In 1920...
...The American Federation of Labor was founded chiefly to carry on lobbying activities...
...The generous, but idle aspirations of youth," you may murmur with a smile...
...After that year the British trade union leaders practically retired from politics to guard their treasuries...
...Lethargy was to be the balm for England's wounds...
...The workers soon realized that their unions were nothing more than mutual insurance companies...
...ganization which became known as ths Social Democratic Federation cam* into existence under the leadership of H. U. Hyndman,c a follower of Karl Marx...
...I passed through a series of the stormiest elections of our time...
...Not even in 1886...
...Having survived it, I do not regret it...
...Party politics was forbidden in most of the British unions fifty and sixty years ago...
...Meanwhile, organised labor In ths United States Is still pursuing the policies it adopted from the British at • time when '-hose policies were betas ds> credited aud were about to be abandoned in the country of their origin...
...The War Generation Marches on* You may dislike some things about a young party, with perhaps some of the crudity which must accompany the vigor c' youth, but what other hope have you got...
...Let us cleanse it and make it a temple worthy of the sacrifice which has been made for its honor...
...They had won the respect of the general public and the admiration of workers in other parts of the world...
...In is»3 the Independent Labor Party was formed...
...the same year that the A. F. of L. was founded, ths or...
...Have we the lead* ership and pluck to take hold of <¦* I situation as the rebels in England d* forty years aon...
...For four weeks the traffic oa .he London docks was tied up...
...Their dotard chorus was swelled by a few hysterical ladles whose war efforts had been mostly confined to singing that once popular refrain...
...Let us get back to the broad outline of political history...
...The granting of the suffrage to the English town worker in 1867 made the politicians of tht two old parties a little more sensitive to the appeals of trade union lobbyists...
...You may be surprised that on a program In effect, a* Socialistic as that which the Labor Party advances, I was adopted by a Conservative Association and returned by a majority of nearly 11,000 by a Conservative constituency...
...The Appearance of the Socialists Ths leads us to our third cause of change In the BriUsh labor movement of forty years ago, the advent of tea Socialists...
...You will find Instead, great schemes of social reform and ruthless Socialist measures, designed to cut through the great vested Interests to the reconstruction of Britain...
...and more conciliatory, rapport weeaT have been forthcoming when new pBatoney and discontent pn-nam...
...The arms were tarnished that had passed unsullied through the strain and temptation of the Great War...
...Over two million suffered unemployment, and industry crumbled to rain while the great bankers grew richer: the -rentier doubled his wealth, and the community doubled Us burden of debt The rich were relieved of taxation and the poor were laden with Imposts...
Vol. 8 • June 1929 • No. 20
