Leader Victor Fisher Ideology Socialism
Nationalism | Founded 1915 | |
Split from British Socialist Party Succeeded by National Democratic and Labour Party | ||
The Socialist National Defence Committee also known as the Socialist National Defence League was a pro First World War socialist faction.
The party's origins lay in the 1915 split by the right-wing of the British Socialist Party, led by Victor Fisher, primarily over issues raised by the First World War, comprising the supporters of the failed leadership candidate Henry M. Hyndman. They supported "the eternal idea of nationality" and aimed to promote "socialist measures in the war effort". This group, including H. G. Wells and Robert Blatchford, formed the Socialist National Defence Committee.
They believed that it was desirable to support the United Kingdom in World War I against "Prussian militarism". They still maintained that they were a Marxist party. They were grouped around the newspaper Justice.
Elements later became part of Hyndman's National Socialist Party which affiliated with the Labour Party in 1918. They were to renounce vanguardism and see the Russian Revolution as a danger that in weakening the United Kingdom's war effort.
Other supporters joined the British Workers League which in turn became part of the pro-coalition National Democratic and Labour Party.