Then Mr. Tom Mann came back from Australia as the prophet of
the new proletarian gospel, and for a few months attracted working-class
attention by his energy and eloquence. The South Wales miners, after
many years of acquiescence in the rule of successful and highly
respected but somewhat old-fashioned leaders, were awakening to a sense
of power, and demanding from their Unions a more aggressive policy. The
parliamentary Labour Party since 1910 had resolved to support the
Liberal Government in its contest with the House of Lords and in its
demand for Irish Home Rule, and as Labour support was essential to the
continuance of the Liberals in power, they were debarred from pushing
their own proposals regardless of consequences. Although therefore the
party was pledged to the demand for Women's Franchise, they refused to
wreck the Government on its behalf. Hence impatient Socialists and
extreme Suffragists united in proclaiming that the Labour Party was no
longer of any use, and that "direct action" by Suffragettes and Trade
Unionists was the only method of progress. The "Daily Herald," a
newspaper started by a group of compositors in London, was acquired by
partisans of this policy, and as long as it lived incessantly derided
the Labour Party and advocated Women's Franchise and some sort of
Syndicalism as the social panacea. Moreover a variant on Syndicalism, of
a more reasoned and less revolutionary character, called "Guild
Socialism," was proposed by Mr.
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