Anti-Militarism within the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1917-1929

This thesis examines the impact of First World War conscientious objection on the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) between 1917 and 1929. Beginning with an assessment of the No-Conscription Fellowship, the largest anti-conscription movement in Britain, it argues that many conscientious objectors became increasingly radicalised during the First World War. Harsh treatment by the British state, combined with the influence of revolution in Russia after 1917, served to highlight Bolshevism’s attraction as a viable form of revolutionary anti�militarism for many British anti-war activists. Tracing the subsequent paths these individuals trod in the post-war period, this thesis emphasises the role former conscientious objectors played in campaigning for the wider British political left to embrace the politics of Bolshevism. Many such individuals, finding a home within the CPGB after its formation in 1920, played a key role in the Party’s subsequent anti-militarist campaigns, which often remained influenced by personal experiences of the First World War. This thesis, examining in detail for the first time the domestic impact of the 1927 Soviet war scare, not only argues that fears of war were, to an extent, feasible across the political spectrum, but ultimately marked the culminating influence of this conscientious objector cohort within the CPGB. Obliged to reject passive resistance, many British communists were in fact reluctant to abandon their ingrained methods of fighting war. It will be argued that this perceived lethargy, going hand-in-hand with the political changes that ‘class against class’ marked for the Party after 1928, played a key role in the Comintern’s decision to remove the CPGB’s original leadership in 1929. In terms of contribution to knowledge, this thesis, in emphasising the radicalisation of First World War conscientious objectors, develops on previous interpretations which merely stress their passive status as victims of conscience. A focus on this cohort’s role within the CPGB between 1920-9 also highlights British communism’s staunch domestic influences. Though expected to reject any form of passive resistance, in line with a Bolshevik model that expected all communists to commit to revolutionary subversion in the event of war, a conscientious objector past instead saw a clear reluctance to follow Moscow directives. The Comintern’s decision to remove much of the CPGB’s leadership in 1929, therefore, symbolises the complete removal of these lingering influences, ensuring British communism’s complete subjugation to the Soviet Union.