Labour Party condemns ‘sinister aims of reactionary men’

Bristol, 27 January 1916 - The annual conference of the Labour Party, held in Bristol this weekend, has pledged to assist the government in the successful prosecution of the war but has reaffirmed its opposition to conscription.

The three-day conference was chaired by W.C. Anderson MP who said: ‘Militarism and democracy cannot live together. The phrase 'We are at war' has frequently been used to cloak the sinister aims of reactionary men.’

Mr Anderson particularly condemned the government minister, David Lloyd George, claiming that he ‘would apparently like to see the rules of the army applied to the workshop... The labour situation has been, in many respects, badly handled since the outbreak of war. Forced labour or attempts in that direction would always prove a calamitous failure against British workers’.

Mr Anderson warned against the dangers of forced industrial service coming on the back of forced military service. He added:

‘Any attempt to use the new legislation as a weapon against trade unionists would lead to great bitterness and end in failure. If men were asked to sacrifice their lives it was not asking too much that wealth, luxury and landed estates should be surrendered, and part of the revenue so obtained devoted to the generous reward of the heroes in the trenches.’

The conference voted to continue its opposition to the Military Service Bill by an overwhelming majority, but also, narrowly voted not to agitate for its repeal.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]