The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. Thereafter, it continued in being, essentially as a pressure group, until 1993. Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Vijay

Common Wealth was founded in July 1942 by the alliance of the left wing 1941 Committee - a think tank brought together by Picture Post owner Edward G. Hulton, and their 'star' writers J.B. Priestley and Tom Wintringham - and the neo-Christian Forward March movement led by Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP) Richard Acland, who disagreed with the electoral pact established with other parties in the wartime coalition, former Liberals who believed that party had no direction, and independents. Led by Sir Richard Acland, Vernon Bartlett, J. B. Priestley, and Tom Wintringham the group called for common ownership, "vital democracy" and morality in politics. Its programme of common ownership echoed that of the Labour Party but stemmed from a more idealistic perspective, later termed "libertarian socialist". It came to reject the State-dominated form of socialism adopted by Labour under the influence of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, increasingly aligning itself instead with co-operative, syndicalist and guild socialist traditions. The 1941 Committee was a group of U.K. politicians, writers and other people of influence who got together in 1941. ... Picture Post, a magazine that pioneered photojournalism along with its competitor Lilliput, was first published in the United Kingdom in 1938. ... Edward George Hulton (1869-1925) was a British newspaper publisher and Thoroughbred racehorse owner. ... John Boynton Priestley (September 13, 1894, Bradford, England - August 14, 1984, Stratford-upon-Avon) was a British writer and broadcaster. ... Thomas Henry (Tom) Wintringham (1898-1949) was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (26 November 1906, Broadclyst, Devon–24 November 1990) was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party and a Liberal and Labour politician. ... Vernon Bartlett (30 April 1894, Tiverton, Devon - January 18, 1983) was a British politician and journalist. ... A cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) comprises a legal entity owned and democratically controlled by its members, with no passive shareholders. ... Syndicalism is a political and economic ideology which advocates giving control of both industry and government to labor union federations. ... Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds. ...

Initially chaired by Priestley, he stepped down after just a few months, unable to reconcile himself with the politics of Acland - who as a sitting MP had undue influence within the party. Wintringham was Priestley's natural successor but deferred to Acland, despite very real political differences between them.

Acland himself had a less easy-going approach that ultimately led to his parting company with CW. In his book The Forward March he claimed that in Britain under a Common Wealth government:

"...the community as a whole which must decide whether or not a man shall be employed upon our resources, and how and when and in what manner he shall work...[the community shall] run camps for shirkers on very tolerable conditions".

Acland went on to say of these camps:

"[Hitler] has stumbled across (or has needed to make use of) a small part, or perhaps one should say one particular aspect of, what will ultimately be required of humanity".

During the war years, there was an all-party coalition government incorporating the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Parties, who agreed that casual vacancies should be filled unopposed. CW intervention allowed a radicalising electorate to return socialist candidates in Conservative heartlands, in Eddisbury, Skipton and Chelmsford. In the 1945 UK general election, voters deserted CW for Labour and only Chelmsford (not fought by Labour) was held. In 1946 after Tom Wintringham finally left the party, Common Wealth's MP, Ernest Millington, crossed the floor to join the Labour Party. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and is the second oldest extant political party in the world. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in England, Scotland and Wales. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... Eddisbury is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Faversham was a parliamentary constituency in Yorkshire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Chelmsford (UK Parliament constituency) can refer to West Chelmsford East Chelmsford, part of Maldon and East Chelmsford constituency This is a disambiguation page—a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Clement Attlee Winston Churchill The United Kingdom General Election of 1945 held on 5 July 1945 but not counted and declared until 26 July 1945 (due to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas) was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th... Ernest Rogers Millington (15 February 1916– ) is a former British Labour Member of Parliament. ...

Post-war development

The inability to maintain a Parliamentary presence created a crisis for Common Wealth and at the Hastings conference in 1946, the party split. Two-thirds, including the original leadership, defected to Labour but were unable to persuade the remainder to disband. Many of the new leadership then elected had joined while serving in the armed forces and included a number of personalities who had played an active role in the Cairo Forces Parliament. During the 1950s, CW made preparations to contest the Oxford constituency, with Douglas Stuckey as prospective candidate, but these were never brought to fruition. For the remainder of its existence CW became, de facto, a pressure group, its organisation evolving, and generally contracting, as old age took its toll of the leading figures. For other uses, see Hastings (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In the post-war period CW was active in a number of domestic and international campaigns and developed worldwide contacts. In the Middle East, it worked for a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine issue. At home, it helped to form the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM) and campaigned with others in its situation for small parties to be allowed to make party political broadcasts. Through the latter campaign it developed close links with Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party. Common ground was found with Plaid Cymru’s syndicalist tradition. The high point of active collaboration was the joint publication in 1956 of Our Three Nations. This advocated the replacement of the United Kingdom by a ‘confraternity’ of self-governing states. CW also favoured regional government within England and was sympathetic to Mebyon Kernow. Executive Committee members played an active, at times leading, role in English regionalist movements, especially during the 1980s. Other members were active in the environmental movement, including the Ecology Party. Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales (pronounced IPA: ; Plaid) is a political party in Wales. ... The Scottish National Party (SNP) (Scottish Gaelic: is a centre-left political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. ... Mebyon Kernow (Cornish for Sons of Cornwall, often abbrieviated MK) is a political party in the United Kingdom. ... The Green Party was formed in 1973 as the Ecology Party. ...

In 1992, surviving members and political associates met in London for a 50th anniversary lunch. Shortly after, the death of W.J. ‘Buck’ Taylor, for many years CW’s secretary, called into question the organisation’s ability to continue. At a meeting in Cheltenham in 1993, the decision was taken to dissolve. For the parliamentary constituency, see Cheltenham (UK Parliament constituency). ...

The CW archives are deposited with the University of Sussex. The early history of CW was the subject of a PhD thesis by Dr Angus Calder. Later history was written up by John Banks in a series of articles in CW’s periodical, The Libertarian and its successor, Common Wealth Journal. The University of Sussex (also known colloquially as Sussex Uni) is an English campus university which is situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, and is four miles from Brighton. ... Angus Calder is an academic writer, historian, and literary editor with a background in English literature, politics and cultural studies. ...

Managerialism

CW’s later political philosophy was pervasively influenced by James Burnham’s The Managerial Revolution (1941). Burnham argued that the rise of a salaried managerial class, accompanied by the withdrawal of shareholders from active involvement in the running of businesses, had transformed the nature of capitalism, creating a split between ownership and control. CW used this idea to develop a modified Marxist analysis, interposing managerialism as a new mode of production between capitalism and socialism. This proved to be a powerful tool for understanding the Attlee government’s nationalisation programme. In 1948, CW set out its critique in a pamphlet, Nationalisation is not Socialism. James Burnham (1905–1987) was an American popular political theorist, former Communist activist and intellectual, known for his work The Managerial Revolution, published in 1941, which heavily influenced George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four. // Burnham was of English Catholic stock, although he was an atheist for much of his life...

Many features of Labour’s programme appeared to confirm the theory that power, in ‘socialised’ economies as much as market ones, was now in the hands of a largely unaccountable managerial class serving the owners of capital at arm’s length. Private owners were not expropriated; in many cases their shares were replaced by loan stock at inflated valuations, the interest on which was paid from the profits of now State-run industries. Ministers refused to answer Parliamentary questions on operational matters, meaning in effect that the managements of nationalised industries were not subject to ongoing democratic control. Worker representation at board level was either token or non-existent. The official explanation for not extending worker involvement was that workers did not yet possess the organisational skills required, an unconvincing argument given the record of the co-operative movement, the trade unions and the Labour Party itself. The extent to which former military leaders were appointed to run the nationalised industries led Common Wealth to warn throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s against trends towards regimentation in society and later the growing cult of the ‘expert’ technocrat.

CW was active in publicising successful examples of workers’ control in industry, notably the Scott Bader Commonwealth. It was also an admirer of the system of workers’ self-management introduced in Yugoslavia under Josep Tito, though not of the Communist regime itself. Although sympathetic to the non-aligned movement, it was critical of dictators from whatever part of the political spectrum and some members were active in Amnesty International. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Josip Broz Tito (Cyrillic: Јосип Броз Тито, May 7, 1892 (May 25th according to official birth certificate) – May 4, 1980) was the leader of the Second Yugoslavia, which lasted from 1943 until 1991. ... Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is a pressure group that promotes human rights. ...

Other influences during this era included humanistic psychology. Noted psychologists Dr Don Bannister and Dr James Hemming were CW members. CW enthusiastically adopted the 'executive-sensory nexus' model of organisation, derived from left/right brain theory. Under this model, the Executive Committee, responsible for current decision-making, is shadowed by a scrutiny panel, known in CW as the Sensory Committee, whose role is monitoring and review, research and longer-term development. CW's interest in optimising social organisation consistent with its principles also led it to develop close links with the School of Integrative Social Research at Braziers Park.

Members of Parliament

• Sir Richard Acland (Barnstaple 1942-1945)
• John Loverseed (Eddisbury 1943-1945)
• Hugh Lawson (Skipton 1944-1945)
• Ernest Millington (Chelmsford 1945-1946)

Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (26 November 1906, Broadclyst, Devon–24 November 1990) was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party and a Liberal and Labour politician. ... Hugh McDowall Lawson (13 February 1912 – 23 March 1997) was a politician in the United Kingdoms short-lived Common Wealth Party, which was founded to contest parliamentary by-elections during World War II. He was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Skipton at... Ernest Rogers Millington (15 February 1916– ) is a former British Labour Member of Parliament. ...

External links

• Spartacus on the Common Wealth Party

• Common Wealth archives at University of Sussex