Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/529

Rh

who do not accept this Communist view, keen criticism has been directed in recent times upon the structure of the present-day State and upon the conception of political democracy which was almost universally accepted in the igth century. Universal political suffrage is no longer held to furnish any adequate basis, or even necessarily any basis at all, for truly democratic insti- tutions; for it is pointed out that, as long as great inequalities of wealth and power exist in the community, and as long as the industrial system is based on an acute division of classes, this " political democracy " is in fact inoperative, since the power and wealth of the few can be used in order to prevent the will of the people from finding expression, and, indeed, to prevent the people from developing any conscious or clearly formulated will of its own. By the Guild Socialists and by many others of the newer schools of Socialist thought, stress is laid upon the impor- tance of securing a system of democratic self-government in the industrial sphere as the necessary condition of democracy in poli- tics or in Society as a whole.

These changes in the conception of Socialist aim and method have resulted in a much closer relationship between Socialist ideas and the definitely economic forms of working-class organi- zation, such as Trade Unionism and Cooperation. No longer basing their hopes of Socialism entirely upon action in the polit- ical sphere, Socialists are driven more and more to rely on the development of the organizations created by the working classes themselves for the protection of their interests and standard of life, under capitalism. Whereas the earlier Socialists appealed to Trade Unionists and Cooperators to realize the necessity for Socialism and to embark upon political action, the newer schools of Socialism are endeavouring also to influence the policy of the Trade Unions and of the Cooperative movement in the direction of Socialism applied to industry that is, of the devel- opment and expansion of working-class industrial control (see TRADE UNIONISM and GUILD SOCIALISM).

The organization of the Socialist movement in Great Britain is often exceedingly bewildering to those who approach it for the first time. There are a large number of bodies of varying degrees of importance, and often with names which bear a close resem- blance one to another. The Labour party, which is by far the largest political body, may be regarded as definitely Socialist in the sense in which the majority of continental European Socialist parties are Socialist. Its annual conference has repeat- edly pronounced, in general terms, in favour of Socialism, and its policy on the whole coincides with that of the " right wing " Socialist parties of Europe. At the same time, its main strength is drawn from the trade unions. In 1920 it consisted of 126 affil- iated trade unions with a total affiliated membership of 3, 5 1 1 ,000. In addition it included the Independent Labour party and the Fabian Society and one or two smaller Socialist bodies. Locally it was organized in several hundred Local Labour parties, which in their turn consisted mainly of affiliated branches of trade unions, Socialist societies and kindred bodies. These Local Labour parties, under the new constitution of 1918, also admit individual members who accept the aims of the party. There is a very considerable individual membership enrolled in this way; but no figures are available. In 1920 the Labour party had 66 members in the House of Commons.

Apart from the Labour party, although in some cases affiliated to it, are the various Socialist societies, of which the largest is still the Independent Labour party, which has been mentioned above. This party had in 1920 35,000 members organized .in local branches throughout the country. It had returned five members as Independent Labour party members to the House of Commons; and these sat as members of the Labour party. In addition a considerable number of members who were returned under the auspices of the trade unions, affiliated to the Labour party, belonged to the Independent Labour party.

Next in point of size stands the Communist party of Great Britain, formed in 1920 by a fusion of the British Socialist party with a number of local Communist organizations. This party is affiliated to the Third or Moscow International. It was gaining adherents in 1921. Its total membership, however, certainly did

not at that date exceed 10,000. Of minor Socialist parties the following deserve mention. The Social Democratic Federation, formerly the National Socialist party, is the result of a split which took place during the war in the British Socialist party. A section of the British Socialist party, including H. M. Hynd- man, the veteran Socialist leader, and many of the older members of the earlier Social Democratic Federation, resigned from the British Socialist party as a protest against its anti-war attitude and formed a separate body of their own. The Social Demo- cratic Federation (the name was again assumed at the end of 1920) is affiliated to the Labour party. It is very small, its member- ship in 1920 being returned as 2,000.

The Fabian Society, founded in 1883-4, nas been principally associated with certain intellectual leaders of the right wing of British Socialism, especially Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb and Mr. Bernard Shaw. It had about 2,000 members in 1920 and was affiliated to the Labour party. Its pamphlets and other propagandist work exercised a powerful influence on the forma- tion of Socialist opinion during the period from 1889 to 1910, but it has since ceased to count as an effective influence; for, although Mr. and Mrs. Webb and other leaders remained active, they had transferred their main activities to other bodies, such as the Labour party itself.

The Socialist Labour party is an offshoot of the American "De Leonite" Socialist Labour party. It gained considerably in membership and influence during the war, when its leading members took a prominent part in the shop-stewards' move- ment, and in other rank-and-file trade-union and anti-war movements. Most of its more active members, however, passed over to the Communist party in 1920; and it then ceased to exercise any considerable influence. The Socialist party of Great Britain is a very small and unimportant body of rigid Marxians of the extreme left wing. The National Guilds League, the propagandist organization of the Guild Socialists, is described in the article GUILD SOCIALISM.

It will be seen from the foregoing account that the Socialist movements of the world were in 1921 in a state of unrest and transition, due largely to the events of the war and to the revo- lutions in Russia. It is impossible to forecast what will be the ultimate result of this ferment of forces and ideas, or in what manner the Socialist parties and societies of the world will eventually regroup themselves. Two clearly defined tendencies can be seen in the movement. The first is a constitutionalist and parliamentary tendency, expressing itself in the activities of the Majority Socialist parties of many countries. Its adherents re- pudiate for the most part recourse to revolutionary methods save under quite exceptional circumstances. At the other ex- treme is the tendency represented by Communism and the Com- munist parties which have arisen in most countries in recent years. Its adherents favour the use of political as well as indus- trial action, but regard the transition to Socialism essentially in terms of force to be generated by the uprising of the " proletariat." They envisage the transformation of Society by a catastrophic overthrow of the existing political and economic system, and the substitution for it of a new system based on the " dictatorship of the proletariat." Between these two extremes there is no equally definite central body of opinion extending to a number of countries; but in almost every country there are "centrist" groups and tendencies, bearing in some cases a closer resemblance to the constitutionalist right wing (e.g. the Independent La- bour party in Great Britain), and in others to the revolutionary left wing (e.g. the Socialist party in Italy).

The Guild Socialists and, in a less degree, the French Syndica- listes stand to a considerable extent in a different position, since in their case the main stress is laid neither on revolution nor on constitutional political action, but on the extension of the indus- trial power of the workers towards control over industry.

A marked feature of the more recent developments of the Socialist movement has been the growing closeness of the rela- tionship between it and the economic organizations created by the workers for the defence of their interests and aspirations as producers and consumers. It has become far more manifest