03.07.1997

On to victory

From ‘The Call’, paper of the British Socialist Party, June 28 1917

A statement is now being issued to all working class organisations in the country by the Provisional Committee of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Council giving particulars regarding the formation of local committees.

It states that

“they should be so constituted that they cover the whole of the local labour, socialist, cooperative and democratic organisations. The trades council, where sympathetic, should take the initiative in the formation of such councils. Delegates from all working class organisations should attend their meetings. It is suggested that factories, workshops and committees of shop stewards should send representatives.”

It further states that

“there must be no desire on the part of local councils to encroach upon or to supersede organisations already established. All friction must be avoided, a broad spirit of toleration encouraged and overlapping eliminated as far as possible.”

If in such circumstances the local councils are called into being then a decided step will have been taken on the road to victory. With all the workers gathered under the banner of the local committees there is no limit to their potentialities if with clear purpose and courageous leading they deliberately aim at the rule of the proletariat.

The real power rests with the workers. They are the only necessary members of the community. Upon their shoulders rests the whole fabric of society. Without them wheels would not turn, cloth would not be woven, houses would not be built, food would not be produced, marketed and distributed - no vital service would be performed. And, realising that, the organised workers in the towns and districts are in such numbers that they could easily dominate all the public bodies - political, economic and social - in their respective localities.

If the local workers’ and soldiers’ committees achieve complete local solidarity then the next parliamentary election should witness the return to the House of Commons of an overwhelming majority of direct representatives of the working class. A working class power would thus express itself politically, so also would it express itself industrially. No industrial struggle would take place without the conscious support of the whole of the workers, and the growing movement towards the control of industry would receive tremendous impetus.

Nor is that all. The cooperative movement, by the active participation of cooperative guilds in the work of the councils, can be induced to play its part in the struggle of the workers for emancipation. The Belgian workers before the war set an example to the workers of all countries by their effective coordination of the three great branches of the movement - the trade unions, political organisations and the cooperative societies. It required the Dublin dispute, when the ships owned by the cooperative societies took cooperative supplies to the striking transport workers, to make the workers of this country even faintly realise how powerful could be the support of the cooperative movement in industrial struggles. Since that historic struggle there has been an ever growing desire for a closer working between the cooperative and industrial organisations.

Inspired with revolutionary social democracy, the workers’ and soldiers’ councils, by locally coordinating the three branches of the movement, by rallying all the workers and implanting in their minds the sense of power and the will to conquer, will pave the way to victory. After 30 years of persistent socialist propaganda in this country we believe there is sufficient socialist consciousness amongst the workers to accomplish the revolution if means can be found to give it complete and definite expression.

The workers’ and soldiers’ councils will provide the means: it remains for the branches of the BSP and the socialists everywhere to provide the necessary revolutionary enthusiasm, leading and enlightenment.

Tom Quelch

John Maclean

The All Russia Congress of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates in Petrograd last week enthusiastically adopted a resolution of fraternal greetings to comrade John Maclean, “now sitting in jail for preaching internationalism”. This resolution of the Russian workers and soldiers should stir our comrades here to still greater efforts to secure Maclean’s speedy and unconditional release.