The British Workers League was a ' patriotic

labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

' group which was anti- socialist and pro- British Empire. Founded originally as the ''

Socialist National Defence Committee The Socialist National Defence Committee also known as the Socialist National Defence League was a pro First World War socialist faction. The party's origins lay in the 1915 split by the right-wing of the British Socialist Party, led by Victor ...

'', the league operated fro
''May 1916''
to 1927. The league's origins lay in a split in the

British Socialist Party The British Socialist Party (BSP) 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 t ...

in 1915, primarily over the need to win the First World War. A group, dissenting from the pacifism of the Labour Party, would be formed by

Victor Fisher Frederick Victor Fisher (10 July 1870 – 30 January 1954) was a British political activist. Fisher was born in London; his mother was English, and his father was Hungarian. He was privately educated in London and Paris, then worked in journalism ...

and supported "the eternal idea of nationality" and aimed to promote " socialist measures in the war effort". Fisher, and

Alexander M. Thompson Alexander Mattock Thompson (9 May 1861 – 25 March 1948), sometimes credited as A. M. Thompson, was a German-born English journalist and dramatist. From the 1880s, Thompson wrote for socialist newspapers and journals, co-founding '' The Clarion'' ...

, would form the

. This group, included H. G. Wells and Robert Blatchford. In 1916 the Committee transformed itself into the British Workers National League, subsequently shortened to the British Workers League. It executive included Edward Carson,

Leo Maxse Leopold "Leo" James Maxse (11 November 1864 – 22 January 1932) was an English amateur tennis player and journalist and editor of the conservative British publication, ''National Review'', between August 1893 and his death in January 1932; he ...

, H.G. Wells and fifteen Labour MPs including Will Crooks and

John Hodge John Hodge may refer to: *John R. Hodge (1893–1963), United States Army officer *John E. Hodge (1914–1996), American chemist *John Hodge (politician) (1855–1937), British politician *John Hodge (engineer) (1929–2021), British-born aerospace ...

. Hodge would preside as chairman, and James Andrew Seddon was chairman of the organization committee. The league's first public meeting was held at the Queen's Hall in London on 10 May 1916, and its guest speaker and big advocate was Prime Minister Billy Hughes of Australia. Now avowedly

anti-socialist Criticism of socialism (also known as anti-socialism) is any critique of socialist models of economic organization and their feasibility as well as the political and social implications of adopting such a system. Some critiques are not directed ...

, it described itself as a " patriotic

" group and focused on support for the war. The Rev. A.W. Gough, Prebendary of

St. Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Gr ...

, was chairman of the British Workers League for London and the Home Counties.

Edward Robertshaw Hartley Edward Robertshaw Hartley (25 May 1855 – 18 January 1918) was a British socialist politician. Hartley began work in a mill at the age of ten, before becoming a warehouse clerk and then a butcher. He became an active socialist in 1885, in reac ...

was also a member. The Labour MP Stephen Walsh and the Liberal MP

Leo Chiozza Money Sir Leo George Chiozza Money (; 13 June 1870 – 25 September 1944), born Leone Giorgio Chiozza, was an Italian-born economic theorist who moved to Britain in the 1890s, where he made his name as a politician, journalist and author. In the early ...

were vice presidents. During the war period the British Workers League sometimes threatened to break up

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

meetings. The League received funding from

Viscount Milner A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

and had links to the

British Commonwealth Union The British Commonwealth Union (BCU) was a protectionist organisation formed in the United Kingdom in 1916 to "found a solid business group in parliament" and to "press for the protective tariffs and restrictions on imports discussed at the Pari ...

. The first issue of the league's newspaper, the ''British Citizen and Empire Worker'', published the party's platform:

A Standard Living Wage for Industrial and Agricultural Workers;
The Revival and Development of National Agriculture;
Adequate Pensions for all Our Disabled Soldiers and Sailors;
Victory in the War to be followed by the Expropriation of Enemy Economic and Industrial Interests Within the Empire;
National or Municipal Control of National Monopolies and Vital Industries;
The Full Exploitation of the Natural Resources of the Empire in the Interests of the Whole People.

The league's secretary, ''

'', stressed the need for 'respectable' socialism, noting that, "The British Commonwealth still remains the highest and finest embodiment of social life which men had yet developed...the main business of our public life and of our public activities...must be..To unite by every possible link the scattered states of the British Commonwealth." As such, it was an advocate for Imperial Preference. In 1916, the newspaper severely criticized Prime Minister Asquith, nicknamed "Squiff", for drinking too much, allowing no crisis to interfere with his two hours of bridge every evening, and, while hundreds of thousands died, spending leisurely nonworking weekends at friends' country houses. He even raised eyebrows on one occasion by attending a Saturday morning meeting at 10 Downing Street in his golf clothes. 1917 was the high water mark for the British Worker's League, with over 150 branches and in open opposition with the Labour Party, and its decision to send politician '' Arthur Henderson'' to Stockholm for an international labour conference supported by communists. The conference proved to be Henderson's downfall. In 1918 the British Workers League stood candidates in the

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

as the National Democratic and Labour Party. From 1921 to 1927 the League published a newspaper entitled ''The Empire Citizen''. In the years after World War I, Lord Milner was unhappy with what he saw as Labour inheriting the Liberal "indifference, not to say hostility to the Empire". It would have to rid itself of this if it was to ever become a "great National party". For example, while Labour was enthusiastic for the League of Nations, why had the League of British Nations found no support? He attributed anti-national bias to "superior persons" more interested in eradicating working class patriotism and substituting it with class-consciousness.Thompson, pg. 199

Video

British Workers League in Hyde Park (1917)

British Workers' League & March video newsreel film (1914-1918)

British Workers' League - celebrate France's Day in Hyde Park

Citations

Sources

The Times''digital archive''
* Thompson, J. Lee., ''A Wider Patriotism: Alfred Milner and the British Empire'', Pickering: London, 2007 * Hochschild, Adam
''To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion: 1914-1918''
Boston: Houghton, 2011 {{Authority control British Socialist Party