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The Labour Spain Committee: Labour Party Policy and the Spanish Civil War*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. Fleay  and
M. L. Sanders
C. Fleay
Affiliation:
Middlesex Polytechnic
M. L. Sanders
Affiliation:
Middlesex Polytechnic
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Abstract

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Type
Communications
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 187 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

References

1 J. C. Pole, brief historical note to the papers of the L(abour) SP(ain) C(ommittee), Ch(urchill) Col(lege), Cambridge, LSPC/1/1.

2 Donald S. Birn draws a parallel between the experience of the Labour party and that of the League of Nations Union, where policy towards Spain was concerned: ‘In both cases rank and file opinion was Republican and impatient with a leadership which seemed as dilatory as the Government itself.’ Birn, Donald S., The League of Nations Union (Oxford, 1981), p. 186Google Scholar. For a basic account of Labour party policy towards the Spanish Civil War see Watkins, K. W., Britain Divided. The effect of the Spanish Civil War on British political opinion (London, 1963)Google Scholar, ch. V and Naylor, John F., Labour's international policy: the Labour party in the 1930s (London, 1969)Google Scholar.

2 See Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War (Penguin, 1977, 3rd edn), p. 344Google Scholar.

4 For further details of the H(ome) C(ounties) L(abour) A(ssociation) see Pimlott, Ben, Labour and the left in the 1930s (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 118–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Report on conference, 13 Mar. 1937, LSPC papers, LSPC/1/2.

6 Minutes of the executive committee, HCLA, Garnsworthy papers, B(ritish) L(ibrary) of Political and E(conomic) S(cience), Coll. Misc. 540, fo. 2.

7 Report on March conf., LSPC papers, LSPC/1/2.

8 H. N. Brailsford had been editor of the Mew Leader, the paper of the Independent Labour party, of which he was a member from 1922 to 1926. He was a member of the Socialist League and was known prior to 1936 for his sympathetic analysis of the Soviet Union.

9 Report by J. S. Middleton to N(ational) E(xecutive) C(ommittee) of the Labour party, 12 Apr. 1938, NEC minutes, BLPES, R/B7 (Microfiche, Harvester Press).

10 Draft letter to divisional Labour parties, LSPC papers, LSPC/1/7. There was informal co-operation at a local level but no formal links were established with the chief proponent of the popular front, the Left Book Club.

11 See report to P[rovisional] C[fommittee] of C[onstituency] L[fabour] P[farties], 11 Feb. 1937, Cripps papers, Nuf[field] Col[lege], Oxford, 505. See also Pimlott, , Labour and left, PP. 98–108Google Scholar.

12 Pole to Cripps, 29 Apr. 1938, LSPC papers, LSPC/1/4.

13 Dalton to Martin, 26 Oct. 1937, Dalton papers, BLPES, 5/3.

14 Memo. by J. S. Middleton, Jan. 1937, Middleton papers, L(abour) P(arty) A(rchives), London, box 11 JSM/CP/145. See also Pelling, Henry, The British Communist party. A historical profile (London, 1975), p. 88Google Scholar and ‘Labour-Communist relations 1920–1939’, Our history, v (1957), 33–7Google Scholar.

15 Account of L[abour] S[ocialist] I[nternational] and I[nternational] F[ederation] of T[rade] U[nions], 10–11 Mar. 1937, Report of 37th annual conference ofthe Labour party, Oct. 1937 at Bournemouth, p. 9, Labour Party Library.

16 Diary entry, 10 May 1939, Dalton papers.

17 Report of LSI/IFTU meeting, 4 Dec. 1936, Spanish Civil War, LPA, SCW/5/3.

18 Dalton to Martin, 26 Oct. 1937, Dalton papers, 5/3.

19 Address to conference, 5 Oct. 1936, Report of 36th annual conference of Labour party, p. 169.

20 Only after the debate were the addresses of two Spanish delegates heard, after which the whole conference stood to sing the ‘Red Flag’. One historian claims: ‘It was known that two delegates were on their way from Spain to the conference. On with the debate, then, and get it over before the delegates arrive.’ Estorick, Eric, Stafford Cripps (London, 1949), p. 150Google Scholar, A pamphlet The agony of Spain containing their speeches was published in Oct. 1936 by Transport House following a conference decision.

21 Minutes of the N[ational] C[ouncil] of L[abour], 8 Oct. 1936, NEC mins.

22 Minutes of NCL, 28 Oct. 1936, NEC mins.

23 Herbert Morrison was a consistent opponent of non-intervention, but exercised restraint in public debate because he had no wish to fuel the popular front argument – see Donoughue, Bernard and Jones, G. W., Herbert Morrison: portrait of a politician (London, 1973), p. 259Google Scholar.

24 8 Jan. 1937, NEC mins.

25 Report by W. Gillies, secretary to the International department of the Labour party, to NEC, 23 Jun. 1937, NEC mins.

26 NEC mins.

27 Chairman's notes, undated, LSPC papers, LSPC/1/2.

28 NEC mins.

29 See Pelling, Henry, A short history of the Labour party (London, 1961), p. 83Google Scholar.

30 25 May 1938, NEC mins.

31 Speech at Bournemouth, , Report of 37th annual conference of the Labour party, p. 212Google Scholar.

32 27 Oct. 1937, NEC mins.

33 1 Nov. 1937, NEC mins.

34 In addition there were a number of co-opted members, a list of which reveals how radical critics of policy on Spain were drawn into the organizational net – see NEC mins, 1 Nov. 1937.

35 Labour party circular of S[pain] C[ampaign] C[ommittee], Spanish Civil War papers, LPA, SCW/1/21.

36 See International papers, LPA, LSI/20/2/3.

37 Speech at Birmingham, 28 Nov. 1937, Dalton papers, 6/2.

38 Speech, probably Jan. 1939 soon after he was expelled from party, Cripps papers, 483.

39 Wingate to Cripps, 29 Nov. 1937, Cripps papers, 521.

40 Minutes of SCC, 16 Dec. 1937, NEC mins.

41 Minutes of SCC, 31 Mar. 1938, NEC mins.

42 Report of the 68th annual congress of the TUC Plymouth 7–11 Sept. 1937, p. 275.

43 Memorandum to Labour party committee on help for Spain, 21 Nov. 1937, Cripps papers, 537.

44 Pyke to Gillies, 30 Mar. 1938, Cripps papers, 537.

45 Report on emergency conference on Spain, 9 Apr. 1938, Spanish Civil War papers, SCW/4/1.

46 21 Oct. 1938.

47 25 Jan. 1939, NEC mins.

48 Report of the 38th annual conference of the Labour party, Southport 29 May to 2 June 1939, p. 260, col. 1. K. W. Watkins, Britain divided, ends his chapter on the ‘British Left’ with the debate but does not trace the background to it. He misspells Pole's name as ‘Poole’, pp. 192 ff.

49 Undated letter circulated to members of the LSPC by Brailsford and Pole, in possession of Austen Albu.

50 Albu, Austen to Stubbington, Miss, 18 08 1939, Albu papersGoogle Scholar.

51 Foot, Michael, Aneurin Bevan, I, 1897–1945 (London, 1962), pp. 243Google Scholar ff.

52 Draft reply of letter from Middleton, J. S. to Wilmot, J., 2 02 1939, Gillies papersGoogle Scholar, LPA, WG/SPA/569.

53 Gillies, to Middleton, concerning a letter from Pollitt, Harry, 19 05 1943, Middleton papersGoogle Scholar, LPA, LP/JSM/IMT/4.

54 Speech at Southport conference, May 1939, Report, p. 260, col. 2.

55 For this and following poll figures see Cantril, H. and Strunk, M., Public opinion 1935–46 (Princeton, 1951), p. 808Google Scholar.

56 At Southport Wingate quoted the figure of 80 per cent – see Report, p. 260. Polls were published 28 Oct. 1938 and 25 Jan. 1939 in Mews Chronicle.

57 Spanish Civil War papers, SCW/1/21.

58 See Edwards, Jill, The British government andthe Spanish Civil War (London, 1979), pp. 196–9Google Scholarand Foot, , Bevan, I, 289Google Scholar.

59 Thomas, , Spanish Civil War, p. 792Google Scholar, footnote 2. Attlee does not mention this particular point in his autobiography As it happened (London, 1954) pp. 92–5Google Scholar, which gave scant coverage to the issue of Spain.

60 Preliminary draft resolution to be put before the conference, Apr. 1938, LSPC papers, LSPC/1/4.

61 Minutes of SCC, 26 Apr. 1938, NEC mins. Note that Brailsford had written to George Dallas to propose these ideas on 11 Apr. 1938, Spanish Civil War papers, SCW/4/3.

62 14 Mar. 1937, Reynolds News.

63 ‘Arms plans’, draft proposals by H. N. Brailsford, undated but probably beginning of Apr. 1938, Albu papers. In the original the word ‘influential’ applied to donors but was crossed out.

64 Cripps, to Brailsford, , 30 05 1938, Cripps papers, 521Google Scholar.

65 Labour and Spain – official report of the English conference of Labour parties, 23 10 1938, Cripps papers, 521Google Scholar.

66 See Seyd, Patrick, ‘Factionalism within the Labour party: the Socialist League 1932–37’ in Briggs, Asa and Saville, John (eds.), Essays in labour history, in (London, 1977), 204–31Google Scholar, for the suspicion which Cripps generated amongst the Labour leadership.

67 Brailsford and Pole issued a circular on 20 Jan. 1939 in the name of the LSPC supporting Cripps's memorandum on the popular front and protesting against his expulsion, Albu papers.