Policies Councils of Action

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First part of a two part series on the historical experience of The Russian Revolution was the inspiration for British Councils of Action.

Councils of Action were the names given to all-inclusive local workers organisations set up in Britain on a number of occasions during the great class battles in the years that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution.

They represented an advanced form of organisation for struggle and implied a challenge to the reformist leaders of the working class movement, even to the running of capitalist society itself.

However, because they did not mature in a way that was promised at their birth, it is necessary to say something about their nature and limitations.

The treachery of the leaders of the trade unions and Labour Party in supporting the imperialist war in 1914 and agreeing to limit wage increases and strikes, led to a series of revolts amongst rank and file workers.

Outmanoeuvred

The shop stewards' movement provided the most militant response, but they were defeated by their lack of political perspective and outmanoeuvred in the end by government and union leaders.

Many militant workers looked ior leadership in the Indefense: Linco Pers but ..:

ME.L: -Councils of Action.

was small, isolated, and divided, especially before the setting up of the Communist Party in August 1920.

In the meantime the horrors of the imperialist war, the inflation and the speed up in the factories increased the militancy of ordinary workers in the union branches, the Labour Parties and the Trades Councils.

First impetus The first impetus to expand on the local workers' organisations that already existed was provided by a meeting known as the Leeds Convention, called in May 1917 to commemorate the February Revolution in Russia and attended by a wide range of delegates from various working class organisations including 207 from local Labour Parties and trades councils.

The most important decision of the Leeds Convention was to set up councils of workmen and soldier delegates.

According to one of the future founders of the Communist Party, Robert Williams of the Transport Workers Federation, these were 'to break the influence of the industrial 'machine" and according to Sylvia Pankhurst of the Workers Socialist Federation, they were to prepare tor a provisional Government like the Russian Socialist Governmeni len Council ouncil Party, Tom Quelch, was Chairman of the Nat: nal Committee set up by the Convention to establish the new councils.

Banned

Conferences of councils of workers and soldiers were held in a number of towns throughout the country.

In Glasgow, a meeting was banned by the police and the one in London was broken up by hired hoodlums.

Leaders of the ILP like Phillip Snowden were also hostile to the new organisations, and the Leeds Trades Council was driven to conclude that their 'promising propagandist' work could "best be done by existing organisations'.

The ambiguity of function of the all-inclusive organisations of 1917 did not prevent the development of a number of similar bodies during the many important struggles of the period.

Strikes

In January 1919, two months after the end of the war a number of strikes took place in the big engineering centres tor a forty hour working week.

In Belfast the Trades Council constituted itself a 'Council of Action' to run the strike.

This was apparently the first use of the phrase, but similar arrangements were seen for example in Huddersfield during the railway strike * November 1919 where a ..e committee compridirectly affiliated' which discussed dealing with the existing situation in regard to provisions and other necessaries.

The first time that Councils of Action leapt to national prominence was in August 1920 during the culmination of the campaign against the War of Intervention by imperialist forces against the Soviet Union.

Development It is significant that the development of new organisations and new policies in the workers' movement coincided with the defence of the first successful workers' In May 1920 dockers in London refused to load a ship called the Jolly George with munitions to be sent to the Poles to fight the Russian Red Army.

Later in the summer it seemed possible that the British Army might itself be sent there to help the Poles.

After a series of local demonstrations, a meeting on August 13th of over 1000 representatives of various different working class bodies and including all the main trade union and Labour Party leaders, agreed to strike action in the event of the extension of war against Russia.

'Strictly limited'

A national Council of Action was set up to support and make propaganda for these policies.

The national leaders of the unions and Labour Party who were members of the Council began to negotiate with Prime Minister Lloyd George to persuade him to call off the war against the Soviet Union.

At the same time, they called on local organisations to form all-inclusive Councils of Action, carefully pointing out that their 'mandate was way to usurp the functions of Trade Union Executives' especially so far as the withdrawal of labour is concerned.

of Action The local Councils of Action set up during the next few weeks usually by meetings of trades council executives,, Labour Parties and union branches, found it necessary to go beyond their instructions in a number of ways.

Firstly. they did discuss = prepare strike action. nest though did out.

The Liverpool Trades Council Executive for example decided 'to use all possible means in its power to stop recruiting and transport of munitions' Secondly, the Councils of Action tried to take up questions other than those for which they were originally established, notably opposition to the war against Irish independence and to unemployment.

The third way in which Councils of Action went beyond the limits set by the leaders was in organising themselves to perform functions not generally considered by local workers' organisations.

Sub-committees

Thus at Merthyr Tydfil a network of sub-committees was set up to cover every phase of the life of the workers.

This was said to be necessary because 'the normal functions of trade unions are over and there is no machinery to take up the functions in a systemic way, preserve order and carry out necessary administrative work'.

It was actions such as these that led the Directorate of Intelligence to write to the Cabinet on September 16th that the Councils of Action were 'taking on more the form of Soviets' and that in some places they were 'forming plans for the seizure of private property and neans of transport' TUC 'left' Cook This was not really true, but what was obviously causing concern in the highest circles was evidently the plans to exempt essential services in the event of strike action.

Speaking in the following October, Lenin drew out the same signiticance in the setting up of the Councils of Action.

Although it did not call itself a soviet:

'that is what it was. It was the same kind of dual power as we had under Kerensky from March 1917 onwards'.

Possibilities

In other words, it opened up revolutionary possibilities, though it did not necessarily get near to achieving them.

Even though local Councils of Action remained in existance until well into 1921, the national Council of Action was disbanded as soon as it became obvious during the previous autumn that British troops would not be involved in the war against the Soviet Union by Poland.

In the years from 1921 to 1925, various forms of joint activity showed the momentous possibilities that remained.

In April 1921, before the leaders of the Railwaymen and Transport Workers indicated their refusal on "Black Friday" to support the miners in their fight against wage cuts, many local forms of joint action were discussed for the widely expected general strike.

Prepared permits

In Birmingham a Joint Trades Union Emergency Committee' was set up which prepared permits to allow the transport of essential goods and also food vouchers to be issued through the cooperative society.

As well as a number of similar schemes during other struggles in this period, a National Federation of Trades Councils was also set up during 1922-3.

This came increasingly under the influence of the Communist Party and opened the possibility of a chain of command within the trade union movement, separate from the reformist leaders.

Control

However, since neither the rank and file trade unionists who set up the new Federation nor the Communist Party could see the possibility of acting independently, the bureaucrats set up in 1925 a so-called Joint Consultative Committee of Trades Councils which has served to retain their control until the present day.

By John Docherty.

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strictly limited' , and the new local bodies were 'not in any