Unlike the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Socialist Party of Great Britain did not encourage any of its members to act as “volunteers” to fight on either side of the Spanish Civil War.
The Republican Government attracted sympathy for being attacked by the army, led by General Franco who wanted to seize power and establish a Fascist regime.
The result was the Left, with its anti-Fascist position, encouraged by Moscow, recruited volunteers to fight on the side of the Republic and “democracy”. However, the Left was split: the Stalin-backed CPGB (Communist Party of Great Britain) vs. the wider Left including the ILP (Independent Labour Party), anarchists, and Trotskyists which sent its own volunteers, including Orwell, to form the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista).
But the CPGB used the war to eliminate many of its unreliable members – in a purge, with snipers and so on targeting many of other volunteers. (See Orwell on this in ‘Homage to Catalonia’) It was during this Stalinist purge, that led our late comrade, Harry Young to quit the CPGB and ‘disappear’ to avoid the same fate as others on Stalin’s list.
The Left forms strategic alliances in an opportunistic way, which is disastrous. Marx in his “18th Brumaire” -chap 3- argued that with the coalition which formed the Social Democratic Party – “a united front… a coalition” between the petty bourgeois and the workers, the result was a “joint programme” – “The revolutionary point of the socialist demands of the proletariat was blunted, and these demands were given a democratic gloss.” (p57-8, – tr. Eden and Cedar Paul, 1926).
At the same time, this alliance enabled “the petty bourgeois demands were made to seem as socialistic as possible. That was the origin of social democracy.” Note, Marx was not just warning against such alliances and coalitions, but was clearly predicting the future of, for example, the Labour Party, the German SDP (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) and countless other ‘socialist’ parties around the world with their reform programmes – better housing, health services, trade union laws and so on. These reform programmes were an abject failure or impossible to implement under capitalism. And he was clearly warning against the disastrous idea – taken up by Lenin and others – that the workers’ movement should form such opportunistic alliances.
During the Spanish Civil War: the British Government refused to allow any aid or arms for the Spanish government, and enforced this by a naval blockade. So much for a democratic opposition to Fascism! In fact, Word War Two was far from being a noble cause: the UK government had no problems with Hitler’s concentration camps and other repressive measures. The matter only became serious when it seemed that Hitler’s forces were about to threaten Britain’s own interests, especially the Channel as a trade route and its interests elsewhere in the Empire. But Fascism? No problem.
With regards the Second World War, which was said to be about defending democracy: the British government from 1941 onwards was happy and proud to be allied with Stalin, such a fine defender of freedom and democracy!
Thank goodness the SPGB had the common sense and principles needed at that time, and stayed clear of cheering on the militarists.
As for SPGB members being in the army in WWII: there was conscription and it was very hard to argue for exemption as a Conscientious Objector. For instance, Ken Knight was conscripted but into the army but given a teaching job he was a handful so gave him an education job.
Another of our late comrades, Cyril May spent some time in Wormwood Scrubs while other members of the Party, like Jim D’Arcy followed the example of some members in the First World War and went on the run. Doug Ayres was a CO and because of his geological knowledge, he was given “land work” down the Welsh mines. Heather Williams was conscripted into an armaments factory. Some others argued their cases at the CO tribunals – Arthur George won his tribunal with supportive evidence given by an active RAF Squadron Leader – he was directed to work on the land. Some got conscripted, others were let off or diverted into, like Harry Young, the Auxiliary Fire Service. When speaking on behalf of the Party at Hyde Park Corner during the war, Young would sometimes be called “a coward” for not fighting in capitalism’s wars but reminded the heckler how dangerous it was driving through London with bombs being dropped over your head. Would the heckler have driven a fire engine during the Blitz? Conscription was an act of state coercion, except, that is, for members of the Communist Party who willingly joined the armed forces of the capitalist state to “kill fascists” – that is other members of the working class – once Germany had invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.
Whatever the case with individual members, the SPGB as a party was united on the position of opposing the Second World War on grounds of class, a position argued back in September 1914. In our ‘War Manifest’, published at the outbreak of the First World War, we wrote:
“The Socialist Party of Great Britain, pledges itself to keep the issue clear by expounding the class struggle, and whilst placing on record its abhorrence of the latest manifestation of the callous, sordid, and mercenary nature of the international capitalist class, and declaring no interests are at stake justifying the shedding of a single drop of working class blood, enters its emphatic protest against the brutal and bloody butchery of our brothers of this and other lands who are being used as food for cannon abroad while suffering and starvation are the lot of their fellows at home. Having no quarrel with the working class of any country, we extend to our fellow workers of all lands the expression of our goodwill and Socialist fraternity, and pledge ourselves to work for the overthrow of capitalism and the triumph of Socialism”.
As for being “doctrinaire hard liners”, if this meant opposition and hostility towards Lenin and his supporters, we plead guilty. We joined the Socialist Party of Great Britain in agreement with its Object and Declaration of Principles. This included taking political action as The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We still do.
