Social-Imperialism in Britain

Neil Redfern, Ph.D. (Manchester, 1998), is now retired. He has taught history at Manchester University and Manchester Metropolitan University. He has published a monograph Class or Nation Communists, Imperialism and Two World Wars (I.B. Tauris, 2005) and many articles on the communist movement.

“This book brings together a Marxist approach to the two World Wars and the British working class and a study of the regional history in the same period. This makes it both an unusual and interesting study of our region.”—Alan Fowler, North West Labour History

• Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Rallying Round the Flag1 The Labour Movement and the War 2 Mustering the Masses for War 3 The End of the Road for Liberalism? 4 The Discontents and Demands of the Labour Movement 5 &'Dilution' and the Mobilisation of Women 2 Labour's Unrest and Capital's Promises1 Conscriptions and &'Conchies' 2 Social Patriots and (a few) Internationalists 3 Labour Unrest and (eventual) Government Response 4 Strikes, Shop Stewards and Revolutionaries 5 A Better World Coming? 6 More Strikes, More Shop Stewards and Some Revolutionaries 3 1919: A &'Red Year'? 1 A Revolutionary Situation in Britain? 2 Expanding the Franchise: Suffragettes, Suffragists and the Labour Party 3 Labourists, Feminists and Socialists: Labour's New Platform 4 The Labour Movement in the General Election of 1918 5 1919: A Tumultuous but not &'Red Year' in Lancashire 6 Housing Reform and the Municipal Elections of 1919 7 The Post-War Crisis, the Working Class, and the Empire 4 Rallying Round the Flag Again1 An Imperialist War in Anti-Fascist Clothing 2 The Crisis of 1940 3 Building a Labour-Capital Pact 4 Never Again! The Early Growth of Popular Reform Sentiment 5 Dissent and Discontent in the Working Class and in the Labour Movement 6 Joint Production Committees: A &'Nazi System of Labour Organisation'? 7 Out of the Kitchen Again: Mobilising Women to &'do their bit' 8 Not Counting the Colonies: The Labour Movement and the Empire 9 A Social-Imperialist Surge for Reform 5 Building the Social-Imperialist Settlement 1 Beveridge Promises a New World 2 The &'Old Gang' Takes an Ideological and Political Beating 3 A Resurgence of Industrial Unrest 4 A Touch on the Reform Accelerator 5 More Promises, More Unrest, More Discontent 6 Social Imperialism Triumphant: The Last Phase of the War 7 Labour to Power: The End of the War and the General Election Conclusion and Postscript Bibliography Index