Was Emergency Workers National Committee

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The War Emergency Workers' National Committee was a committee in which the various organizations of the British labor movement coordinated during the First World War 1914–1920. Both trade unions and the Labor Party were represented, as were the various wings of the movement.

Assignments and history

The committee was established on August 5, 1914 by the leaders of the Labor Party and the trade unions. It served to cope with the economic upheavals as a result of the transition from a peace economy to a war economy , a change that directly affected the labor market and thus the labor movement. At the same time, the committee, in which the most prominent representatives of all currents of the British labor movement were represented, served as a space for political debate. The core question here was the dispute between opponents of the war like Ramsay MacDonald and unconditional supporters of war. In addition, there was a large middle group that stood between the two positions.

Despite this political difference, there was no split in the labor movement in Great Britain like in Germany. Common political interests and campaigns may have contributed to this - for example the campaign organized by the committee against the introduction of universal conscription , which did not exist in Great Britain before the World War and was only introduced in 1916 against the resistance of the labor movement. One reaction of the labor movement, also prepared in the War Emergency Workers' National Committee, was the campaign "Conscription of Riches" (confiscation of the riches) with the demand for taxation of high wealth ( property tax ) to finance the war costs.

The experiences of the war ultimately led to the contradicting result that the British labor movement on the one hand acknowledged socialism as a political goal with the introduction of the famous "Clause 4" - but at the same time accepted the existing political system of Great Britain as the basis for this desired change.

literature

  • André Keil: Between cooperation and opposition - The British labor movement and the "War Emergency Workers National Committee" during the First World War, in: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume III / 2014.
  • Peter Wittig: The English way to socialism . In: Contributions to Political Science . No. 43 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-05244-7 .
  • Royden Harrison: The War Emergency Workers National Committee, 1914-1920 . In: Asa Briggs, John Saville (Eds.): Essays in Labor History 1886-1923 . London 1971, p. 211-259 .
  • David Silbey: British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914-1916 . Frank Cass, London / New York 2005, ISBN 0-415-35005-0 .