Raising the Red Flag

Tony Collins is Emeritus Professor of History at De Montfort University. He has published extensively on working-class culture and sport, including Sport in Capitalist Society and Rugby League: A People’s History.

List of Figures

Abbreviations


Introduction


1 Mr Hyndman versus Comrade Engels: The Birth of the Social Democratic Federation

 1 The Birth of the Social Democratic Federation

 2 From the Socialist League to the Independent Labour Party


2 The Labour Party Question: Labourism, Leftism, and the Second International

 1 The Russian Influence

 2 The Labour Party and the Second International


3 Britain in Crisis: Labour’s Great Unrest and the Revolutionary Left

 1 Realignment on the Left and the British Socialist Party

 2 The Second International Steers towards the Labour Party

 3 The Rise of the Revolutionary Left

 4 The SLP and Revolutionary Syndicalism

 5 Beyond Suffragism


4 August 1914: British Marxists in the Face of War

 1 The BSP and SLP and the Test of War

 2 The Anti-war Left

 3 Revolutionary Opponents of War


5 The Clyde Turns Red: John Maclean and the Enemy at Home

 1 The War on the Home Front

 2 The Easter Rising and the British Left

 3 Nashe Slovo, the BSP and Revolutionary Internationalism

 4 The Zimmerwald Debate in Britain


6 ‘Lads Like Me Had Whacked the Bosses’: The Coming of the Russian Revolution

 1 Repression and Revolt

 2 Follow Russia! The Leeds Convention

 3 Labourism Responds to the Russian Revolution

 4 Bolshevism and the British Left


7 1919: The Question of Power

 1 ‘Are You Ready to Take Power?’

 2 The Police Strikes

 3 Leadership, the Lefts and the Left

 4 Racist Scourge in Europe

 5 Ireland’s Tragedy, Labour’s Disgrace


8 Between Labour and Bolshevism: Towards A Communist Party

 1 Towards Unity … and the Labour Party?

 2 The Coming of the Communist International

 3 Britain and the Amsterdam Bureau

 4 The Fate of John Maclean


9 ‘Long Live the Communist Party!’ Building a British Section of the Communist International

 1 The Second Congress of the Comintern

 2 The Birth of the Communist Party of Great Britain

 3 The Unification Conference

 4 A Stillborn Party?


Conclusion

 In Praise of Learning


Appendix 1: Timeline

Appendix 2: Figures

Bibliography

Index