Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates
The Council of Workers and Soldiers Delegates was established on 3 June 1917 at a convention held in Leeds, England.[1] The founding conference was attended by 1,150 delegates. It was inspired by the events of the Russian February Revolution.
When news of the February Revolution (8-12 March 1917) in Russia spread to the British Isles, it inspired the labour movement to celebrate the event. The first event was a meeting organised in the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 31 March. This was attended by 10,000 people with a further 5,000 outside, for whom there was no space.
The conference established the organisation, which had the support of both the Independent Labour Party and the British Socialist Party. However, a few months later, the Bolshevik October Revolution took place; the participants had different attitudes towards it, and the council collapsed.[2]
Founding conference
Speakers
The convention was addressed by:[1]
- Ramsay MacDonald, MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party
- Robert Smillie, President of the Scottish Miners' Federation
- Dora Montefiore, British Socialist Party
- Philip Snowden, MP,
- Edwin C. Fairchild
- William O'Brien,
- Charles Roden Buxton
- Edward Tupper, National Sailors' and Firemen's Union
- Ernest Bevin
- Tom Mann
- Charles Ammon
- Charlotte Despard
- Frederick Pethwick Lawrence
- Bertrand Russell
- William Crawford Anderson MP
- Robert Williams
- Ethel Snowden
- Sylvia Pankhurst
- Fred Shaw
- Richard Wallhead
- J. Sanders
- Nellie Cressall
- Joseph Toole
- Willie Gallacher
- Noah Ablett