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

Abstract

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?