V. I.

Lenin

The Thirteenth Conference of the British Labour Party was held in
London from January 29 to 31 (new style). It was attended by 500 delegates.

The Conference passed a resolution against war, and by a considerable
majority passed another resolution calling on the Party’s representatives
in Parliament to vote against any electoral reform Bill that does not
extend the franchise to women.

The British Labour Party, which exists side by side with the
opportunist Independent Labour Party and the Social-Democratic British
Socialist Party, is something in the nature of a broad labour party . It is a compromise between a socialist party and non-socialist
trade unions.

This compromise resulted from the peculiarities of British history and
the segregation of the labour aristocracy in non-socialist,
liberal trade unions. These unions have begun to turn towards socialism,
and this gives rise to a host of intermediate, confused situations.

On Party discipline, for example, a resolution was adopted threatening
expulsion from the Party for violation of the decisions of the Party or of
the Parliamentary group .

Disputes arose that would be impossible in any other country—as to
whether this resolution is directed against the Liberals or against the
Socialists?

The fact is that out of forty Labour M.P.s, 27 are non-Socialists !! In opposing the resolution, the Socialist Will
Thorne said they wanted to tie the hands of the thirteen
Socialists by subordinating them to the non-Socialists . Even
Bruce Glasier, of the I.L.P., while supporting the resolution, admitted that there are about hail a dozen Labour
M.P.s whose place is among the Conservatives.

The resolution was carried.

A resolution that not only the posters of the opportunist Daily Herald [1] be displayed in Party premises was defeated by 643,000
votes to 398,000. The voting here is calculated according to the number of
members which each delegation represents.

The majority at the Conference consisted of non-Socialists and
extremely bad Socialists. But definite voices were heard indicating that
the mass of the workers are dissatisfied with such a party and they demand
that their M.P.s should do less playing at legislation and more socialist
propaganda.

---
Notes:
[1]
A line seems to be missing in this passage in Pravda . The
draft resolution analysed by Lenin proposed hanging up posters of The Daily Herald as well as of The Daily Citizen , which was in
the hands of opportunists, on the premises occupied by Party organisations.

The Daily Herald was founded in April 1912 by George Lansbury
as a Left-wing Labour newspaper. In 1922 it became the organ of the British
Labour Party.