ABSTRACT
The British Labour Party and trades unions were of the first importance in recreating international organisation after 1918 and continued to play a prominent international role until 1939. Then, Britain became a haven for emigre socialists, a repository for the relics of the International Faith. Britain held the presidency of the International Federation of Trades Unions throughout the inter-war period, provided the Labour and Socialist International (LSI) secretariat in its early years and was consistently represented on the LSI Bureau and Executive. Just what British Labour Movement figures meant by internationalism was rarely defined. To many of the British leadership, including Ramsay MacDonald, Arthur Henderson and later, Hugh Dalton, internationalism meant, in part, helping to form and maintain organisations that were fora for discussion. Abroad, where many people organised in communist, communist front or united front groups, Britain’s attitude was of major importance in dividing socialist resistance to fascism.
