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British Labour, Marxism and Working Class Apathy in the Nineteen Twenties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Stuart Macintyre
Stuart Macintyre
Affiliation:
St John's College, Cambridge
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Extract

A problem of crucial importance confronted the British labour movement in the 1920s. The working class - those who earned their livelihood by selling their labour power, as well as their dependents - constituted a majority of the population. To the left it seemed manifest that their interests lay in ending a social system which exploited them and putting socialism in its place. Yet during the decade only a minority of British voters committed themselves to socialism, even at the minimal level of voting for the Labour party. As Philip Snowden lamented, ‘the very people for whom [the socialist] works and sacrifices are often indifferent and seldom show any gratitude’. Why did the British working class lack class consciousness?

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 479 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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