IN 1919, Mann said: “The workers of Russia have taken things into their own hands successfully. We must take our affairs into our own hands.”

Mann could see how syndicalism could be moved on by a more sophisticated theory of social change evidenced by the Russian Revolution.

In 1920, Mann began to work with the Labour Abstentionist Party, a halfway house between syndicalism and communism.

There were three direct outcomes of the Russian Revolution in Britain. The first was the short-lived formation of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils. The second was the rebooting of the Labour Party. The third was a realignment of revolutionaries with political action placed at the same importance as industrial action.

A “Hands Off Russia” movement emerged, determined to stop armed intervention by imperialist powers aiming to strangle the Bolshevik revolution.

This campaign achieved a unity of the left that wasn’t possible before. In January 1919, the movement elected a national committee, with Mann as its vice-chair.

There was genuine support among Britain’s working class for the workers of Russia and suspicion that government intervention would restart conscription.

Anglo-French forces attacked Archangel in August 1918 and formed a North Russia Expeditionary Force.

In May 1920, working-class opposition was tested as the SS Jolly George was loaded with munitions bound for a Polish assault on Russia; dockers refused to load the ship.

The threat became imminent although clashes went undeclared in Britain. Hundreds of Russians were killed and thousands captured, but the Red forces prevailed; by late 1920, all British forces withdrew.

The Hands Off Russia movement is unusual in many respects. First, it involved the TUC taking an open position on government policy. Moreover, it contested foreign policy and threatened to use industrial action to impose an alternative.

It is worth marking Mann’s importance here, since if British labour had signed up to a war effort, history may have been very different.

First visit to Russia

By 1920, revolution in Russia had turned into civil war and a war of intervention. Armed incursion, peasant uprisings and the struggles with Poland and Japan meant much fertile soil would go unsown. Mann launched a Famine Relief Fund and travelled to Russia to research the famine’s impact.

In 1921, Mann went to Russia again. The purpose of this visit was to attend the Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU).

Mann agreed to serve as chairman of the RILU’s British section and was elected to a praesidium of seven. His command of several languages meant he was very much part of the debate.

For the first time, Mann had to consider the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” Those who asked, “Why dictatorship by any section?” did not understand that classes had conflicting interests; the class benefitting most from existing conditions wants to maintain its own order.

Mann reasoned modern productive forces could raise “the standard of life… much higher than has been possible in past history; but these productive forces are still directed sectionally and privately by the master class…” Therefore, there was a need to overthrow capitalism.

Mann’s visits to Russia showed what made it different from capitalist countries. Mann saw Lenin, Trotsky and Zinoviev in action and Lenin insisted on meeting Mann.

He thought Lenin “was astonishingly well informed as to the world’s doings… clear as to what he is after, and centres all upon the complete dictatorship of the proletariat.”

After testing his ideas among some of the world’s leading union figures, Mann returned more determined than ever.

From syndicalism to communism

In 1920, the Communist Party appeared. No modern workers’ party in Britain had embraced internationalism and placed it central to its aims. But in 1882, Marx and Engels had been insistent the working class must have its own independent foreign policy.

Following this, the Communist Party took a big leap forward. It was also aware that it lay at the heart of the biggest empire on Earth. Early on, it gave material support to communists in countries such as Ireland, Egypt and India.

Mann served the party on many fronts, taking him around the world. As a member rising to election to its central committee, he sat on the praesidium of congresses. He spent a lot of time working with young communists and union organisers.

In October 1922, Mann published an article in Labour Monthly: “From syndicalism to communism.” Mann was clear: what was ultimately required was the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.

Furthermore, Parliament would not ensure workers’ control over industry or protect their inalienable rights. Syndicalism had achieved a good deal but was no longer driving change in the labour movement. In early syndicalism, workers often fought defensive struggles, making the question of state power appear remote.

The first world war changed this, as the capitalist state took over direction of key industries to prevent war profiteering and end competition deleterious to the war effort.

The Russian Revolution similarly presented the issue of state power and resolved that only a workers’ state could generate sufficient production to forge a socialist society.

Mann on imperialism

The Russian Revolution also changed the debate about imperialism. More importantly, it established a “right of self-determination” as an antidote to imperialism, and the great empires were now retreating.

The acknowledged leader of the world’s dockers had much experience to draw on; India, Ireland, China and South Africa were uppermost in Mann’s campaigning.

In September 1922, Mann outlined how imperialism might be checked. In a preface to Americanism, A World Menace, by WT Colyer, Mann surveys the state of post-war Europe. The two emerging powers were America and Russia.

Mann had paid attention to the steel industry, where it was usual for a labourer to work a seven-day week, 12 hours a day. Such unbearable conditions were “a direct consequence of its [the US’s] success and as a condition of its development.”

Mann was well placed to write for an audience, many of whom believed the United States’ economic success to be the way forward. He shared his scepticism of this.

■ Phil Katz’s book Yours for the Revolution is published by Manifesto Press Co-operative Ltd. Readers can buy the book by visiting the Morning Star shop shop.morningstaronline.co.uk/collections/books. This article was abridged for the Morning Star by Chloe Mansola and Jasmine Niblett.

■ Manifesto Press are embarking on their first summer speaking tour, WELL READ. WELL RED. Tickets can be reserved at linktr.ee/manifestopresscoop.

■ Phil Katz is a designer and writer and has been a union organiser for 40 years. He contributes regularly to the Morning Star. Buy next weekend’s Morning Star to read part VI in this serialisation.