The Colonial Question and the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1920s

The article presents an analysis of the approach of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to the colonial question. The purpose of this article is to provide the analysis of the programme suggestions and tactics of the British communists for resolving of the colonial and national questions in 1920s and to answer the question why the CPGB’s colonial platforms were relevant and unpopular at the same time. The relevance of the research topic stems from the fact that the communists in their programmes raised the question of self-determination of colonial peoples. The national question remains significant nowadays, while the experience of the British communist understanding of the issue of selfdetermination is little-studied. A variety of sources is used in the article: the programmes of the CPGB of 1924 and 1929, the Communist Papers, party resolutions and manifestos, the documents of the Communist International (CI). At the beginning of the article the author provides the data on the development of the national movements and the overall economic decline of the British Empire. In the second part the author analyzes the CPGB platform concerning the colonial peoples. Moreover, the tactics of the CPGB are analyzed through the prism of the regulations of the Congresses and Plenums of the CI in 1920s. Then the author marks a number of factors in the British Empire and its metropolis which were favorable for the activities of the CPGB in 1920s. Among them are the aggressive policies of the British governments in colonies and dependent territories, the failure of the mandate system of the League of Nations, the overall decline of the imperialist ideology in the British society and the rise of the labor movement in 1925 - 1926. After that the factors which obstructed the communist activities are named: the defeat of the General Strike, repressions against the British communists and the CI’s line change. Though the author concludes that all the negative factors are not sufficient for the explanation of the communists’ colonial rhetoric unpopularity. As a result, the author turns to the ideological sources of the CPGB colonial platform and formulates the general conclusion that the reason of the failures of the British communists in their attempts of making their position on the British Empire widespread consists in their radical position on self-determination, which was neither pragmatic, nor popular among the British workers. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

Keywords

Authors

References