Police rally against workers in the Liverpool general transport strike of1911
Your new book looks at the period around the turn of the 20th century. What excites you most about this time?
The sheer level of class struggle which took place immediately before and after the First World War.
The extent of the industrial conflict and the numbers of workers—including both men and women—that were thrown into combat against the bosses.
And that there was also huge class struggle during the war itself. Today, we are told the British people all pulled together, but this is not true. People were imprisoned for going on strike, others were exiled for engaging in militancy.
One thing I found surprising was the minutes of the cabinet meeting which took place on the last night of the war, 10 November 1918, just hours before the armistice was signed.
They were not discussing the war—they were discussing the possibility of revolution in Britain.
They worried that if they sent troops to Germany, they would be infected with the spirit of Bolshevism.
The effect of the Russian Revolution on Britain is often downplayed. What was its real influence?
The impact of the Revolution—of working class people taking power into their own hands—on the rest of the world was inspirational. It set an example which millions of people wanted to follow.
In Britain, huge meetings were held after the February Revolution, and even more after the October Revolution. This led to the Hands Off Russia campaign and gave British workers the confidence to challenge their own bosses.
The number of workers who took a stand in support of Irish independence was also significant.
During the Irish War of Independence from 1919-20, lots of meetings called for Hands Off Russia and Hands Off Ireland.
The Russian Revolution demonstrated that working class support for independence movements could gain mass support. This is something that needs to be constantly reiterated.
Karl Marx insisted the British working class could not be free until the Irish working class was free.
And many British workers, and Irish workers living in Britain, realised that the struggle for Irish independence was part and parcel of their struggle.
Despite the enthusiasm for the revolt in Russia, relatively few people joined the newly formed British Communist party. Why was that?
The Bolshevik idea was shared by some on the British left.
But other socialists had an idea that socialism might come through parliament or through a process of reforms.
If you don’t have a clear conception, people get confused and take up different strategies. And to survive rapid change, you need to be clear what your goals are and how to achieve them.
The British left was confronted with the fact of the Russian Revolution, which showed that there was only one way in which working class people could come to power.
You spend a lot of time on the Scottish revolutionary socialist John Maclean. What role did he play in these events?
Maclean is probably the pivotal figure in the book. He was from a poor family but got an education and became a teacher. He won authority among the workers of Glasgow, his own city.
He had hundreds of people coming to his lectures on economics before the First World War. He must have been brilliant at explaining Marxism to people who left school at eleven.
But he became a figure in the international socialist movement because of what he did when the First World War broke out in 1914.
The two main Marxist organisations in Britain—the British Socialist Party and Socialist Labour Party—both supported the war. So, Maclean was going against many of the people he thought of as his comrades.
The ruling class severely punished him for his opposition to the war. He was jailed twice and was tortured.
What lessons can we today draw from this period?
Revolutionaries have always seen the working class was a motor force for the liberation of society. We have to be the best defenders of it.
We are not living in 1917, or the 1970s. But the working class is central to the successful liberation of all the oppressed and revolutionaries must be partisans of the working class.
- Raising the Red Flag: Marxism, Labourism, and the Roots of British Communism, 1884–1921 by Tony Collins is out now and available from Bookmarks, £30
