By Ian Bullock
Within the years instantly following the 1st global battle and the 1917Russian Revolution, a lot of these at the British Left have been tempted, toa larger or lesser measure, by way of what Ian Bullock calls the“myth” of soviet democracy: the assumption that Russia hadembarked on a courageous test in a sort of well known executive moreadvanced even than British parliamentarism. In Romancing theRevolution, Bullock examines the response of a vast spectrum ofthe British Left to this idealized thought of soviet democracy. Atconferences and congresses, and specially within the modern left-wingpress, debates raged over how most sensible to put the foundation for a sovietsystem in Britain, over how soviets can be geared up, over thevirtues (if any) of the parliamentary procedure, over the real that means ofthe “dictatorship of the proletariat,” over even if Britishcommunists should still associate to the 3rd foreign, and over a hostof different issues—including the perplexing query of what wasactually happening in Russia. As Bullock demonstrates, even within the faceof mounting facts that the Bolshevik revolution had producedsomething towards real dictatorship than real democracy, manyof these at the Left have been gradual to desert the desire that revolutionarytransformations have been certainly in shop for Britain—that the sovietsystem could in the end permit the rustic to accomplish genuine socialequality and fiscal justice.
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Additional resources for Romancing the Revolution: The Myth of Soviet Democracy and the British Left
Example text
60 Many individual unions did make use of membership referendums. J. T. Murphy’s The Workers’ Committee. indd 38 11-10-06 2:12 PM in the introduction, Murphy’s pamphlet contains the following observation on the lack of democracy in British trade unions: The constitutions invest elected officials with certain powers of decision which involve the members of the organisations in obedience to their rulings. It is true to say that certain questions have been referred to the ballot box ere decisions have been arrived at; but it is unquestionably true also that important matters have not been so referred, and increasingly insistent has been the progress towards government by officials.
All those influenced by syndicalism, and even guild socialists to a very large degree, shared the belief that the real struggle was the industrial one. ” In this respect, the new “syndicalist” radicalism was the heir to the older traditions. J. King, the originator and promoter of nigftlu: “The initiative and referendum will do much to check the abuses of irresponsible persons. ” 60 Many individual unions did make use of membership referendums. J. T. Murphy’s The Workers’ Committee. indd 38 11-10-06 2:12 PM in the introduction, Murphy’s pamphlet contains the following observation on the lack of democracy in British trade unions: The constitutions invest elected officials with certain powers of decision which involve the members of the organisations in obedience to their rulings.
We can assume that, whatever the name at the time, Pankhurst’s groups were always even smaller than the slp. Kendall gives the membership of the cp (bsti ) as six hundred when it merged with the Communist Party of Great Britain (cpgb ) early in 1921, although this is based on the party’s own report and is probably on the generous side. indd 19 19 11-10-06 2:12 PM organization, the Communist Workers’ Party, subsequent to her expulsion from the cpgb must have been tiny. But, as with the slp, the small size of these bodies did not prevent them — and, above all, Pankhurst herself — from playing a prominent role in the years following 1917.
