British Labour's turn to socialism in 1931

Callaghan, JT

Abstract

The article examines Labour’s turn to socialism in 1931. While the
events of that year have been examined in meticulous detail in the existing
academic literature Labour’s turn to socialism has not. I seek to explain that turn
to socialism with reference to the Soviet Union and to suggest that even before the
Five Year Plans a fund of goodwill and emotional investment was there to be
drawn upon by the Soviet state. The crisis of 1931 allowed these dispositions to
come to the fore, providing a glimpse of sentiments that the Labour
leadership would normally have no interest in encouraging. Thus, the crisis
provides a window on socialist convictions and draws attention to the significance
of the Soviet state for non-Communist socialist activists, a significance which is
apt to be lost in both contemporary memoirs of the left and academic accounts of
the ‘Soviet complex’ which focus on left-wing intellectuals.

Citation

Callaghan, J. (2009). British Labour's turn to socialism in 1931. Journal of Political Ideologies, 14(2), 115-132. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569310902925691

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009
• Deposit Date: Sep 11, 2014
• Journal: Journal of Political Ideologies
• Print ISSN: 1356-9317
• Publisher: Routledge
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 115-132
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13569310902925691
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569310902925691