Labour and Colonialism

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Labour and Colonialism

(Part 1)

The best traditions of the working class movement in Britain include its internationalism and opposition to all form of colonial oppression and exploitation. Such was the stand of the London Corresponding Society and others in regard to chattel slavery even in the late 18th century and of the Chartists, the first national political organisation of the working class in the middle of the 19th century. The Chartists, for example, maintained strong opposition to the colonial oppression of Ireland and specifically demanded the repeal of the union in the second Charter presented to Parliament in 1842. Commenting on the First Indian War of Independence in 1857, the Chartist leader Ernest Jones stated: “there ought to be but one opinion throughout Europe on the Revolt of Hindustan. It is one of the most just, noble and necessary ever attempted in the history of the world.” Anti-colonialism was very much a feature of the early working class movement in Britain, which recognised the link between its own oppression and that carried out in the colonies.

            The transition of capitalism to imperialism at the close of the 19th century saw a re-awakening in the working class movement and demand for its own political party. The Labour Representation Committee was formed in 1900 and, in 1906, because of anti-union and anti-working class legislation, it was decided that the workers had to have a party in parliament and the Committee adopted the name of the Labour Party and became a fully constituted political party. However, the Labour Party was a coalition of different political grouping and trade unions, and was also an alliance between different social classes. It accepted neither socialism as its aim, nor the class struggle as the basis of its tactics and was strongly infected with the jingoistic prejudices of the labour aristocracy, that section of the working class whose privileged existence was maintained out of the profits of colonial exploitation and empire.

            The Fabians were one of the most influential of the groupings within the early Labour Party. Their attitude to colonialism was set out in the manifesto Fabianism and the Empire in 1900. The Fabians recognised that the partition of the world amongst the great powers was “a matter of fact” and concluded “whether England is to be the centre and nucleus of one of these great powers of the future, or to be cast off by its colonies, ousted from its provinces, and reduced to its old island status, will depend on the ability with which the empire is governed as a whole”.

            The workers and people of Britain needed a political party that would champion their interests at home and abroad but the leaders of the Labour Party performed the task of creating the illusion amongst the workers that the Empire was of benefit to them and thus attempted to encourage the view that the workers had the same interests of the big monopolies. This was particularly the case at the time of the outbreak of the First World War, when the Labour Party within a matter of days reversed its anti-war policy, voted for war credits and encouraged the workers to join the army as cannon fodder. The war, fought by the imperialist powers for the re-division of the world, brought the mass slaughter of the workers and, ultimately economic ruin, but greatly increased the power and the colonial possessions of the British capitalist state.

            Following the First World War the Labour Party took a leading part in the re-establishment of the Second International in 1919. This was established on the basis of opposition to the path that had been opened up by the Great October Revolution in 1917 and the establishment of the Soviet Republic. At this time the Labour Party was equally active in declaring itself against the revolutionary struggles of the peoples in the colonies of the British Empire, such as India. The same was true in relation to the revolutionary struggles of the Irish workers.

            The first two Labour governments, in 1924 and 1929-31 attempted to ably govern the British Empire as the Fabians had suggested and did nothing that distinguished them from any other British government of the period. Colonial policy during the lifetime of these Labour governments continued to be based the exploitation of the inhabitants of the Empire and included the brutal suppression of anti-colonial uprisings in Palestine, Iraq, India, Nigeria and Burma.

(to be continued)