Progressive League

Last updated

The Progressive League was a British organisation for social reform and the promotion of scientific humanism, founded in 1932 by H. G. Wells and C. E. M. Joad under the name "Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals" (FPSI).

Contents

One of the first of a generation of non-governmental organisations, as influenced by Wells' idea of the "open conspiracy", the organisation had its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, advancing liberal and humanistic approaches to many of the issues that animated the concerns of contemporary intellectuals and freethinkers. The organisation became quieter in the later part of the 20th century as numerous other organisations sprang up as specialised advocates for many of the same causes – many of which had originally spun-off from the League, such as the Marriage Law Reform Society. At the same time, within the humanist movement, other organisations such as the British Humanist Association became prominent as broad platform campaigners for social reform.

History

The "Great Conway Hall Plot"

In 1931 J. B. (Jack) Coates wrote to the Rationalist Press Association's (RPA) Literary Guide, advocating a form of scientific humanism, which he associated with Bertrand Russell, H. G. Wells [1] and Julian Huxley:

The great work of the modern period, these eminent thinkers argue, is the framing of constructive moral and social policies. The special work of the modern Rationalists should be, therefore, to direct the modern world conscience so as to bring about that scientific world reconstruction which is the goal of the hopes of the scientific humanist. [2]

His call produced a large response in subsequent issues of the Literary Guide. He was opposed by many, however, [3] including the leading rationalist J. M. Robertson, but gained support from the veteran rationalists F. J. Gould, Archibald Robertson and especially C. E. M. Joad, who wanted Conway Hall to become the headquarters of "an association of progressive organizations with humanist aims." [4]

In what became known within the movement as the "Great Conway Hall Plot", a group of nine RPA "modernisers", including Joad, Robertson, Coates and John A. Hobson, stood for the RPA Board on a "scientific humanism" platform. The plot failed and Robertson resigned from the Board in March 1932. [5]

Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals

In early 1932 the Conway Hall plotters met at Joad's house, where they decided to form an independent group, the Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals. The Federation's first conference took place in France, at a chateau owned by Pryns Hopkins. [6] Individual members were invited to a meeting in April 1932.

Meanwhile, on 20 August 1932 the New Statesman published a call from H. G. Wells for a Federation of X Societies, "open conspirators to change the world." [6] It was suggested to Joad that he contact Wells, and on 11 September 1932 another conference took place, this time in England. [7]

C. E. M. Joad was President of the Federation. The Vice-Presidents included Wells, A. S. Neill, Bertrand Russell, Barbara Wootton, Miles Malleson, David Low, Vera Brittain, Cyril Burt, Norman Haire, Aldous Huxley, Kingsley Martin, Harold Nicolson, Beverley Nichols, Olaf Stapledon, Geoffrey West, Rebecca West, Leonard Woolf and J. C. Flügel.

Joad announces the Federation

On 4 October 1932 The Guardian published a letter from Joad announcing the formation of the Federation. In his letter Joad noted the existence across the country of a huge number of groups of people of "advanced" opinion. However, they were

small; they preach only to the converted: their literature is read only by their members, and not always by them; and they are politically and socially completely impotent. The influence which they exert upon legislation is negligible, and the cerebrations of statesmen proceed to their indifferent ends unaffected by their activities.

According to Joad, progressive opinion had "crystallised" around a set of positions:

That the economic arrangements of the country should be planned and not haphazard; that war debts should be cancelled, tariff barriers removed, national armaments abolished, and armed force pooled in a collective international police controlled by the League of Nations; that the divorce laws should be changed out of all recognition, birth control information and appliances made available for all, the congenitally unfit sterilised; that the censorship should be abolished, Dora liquidated, Sunday rescued from that dead hand of the nineteenth century; that rural England, what is left of it, should be preserved; that national parks should be established and citizens be given access to mountains and moorlands, irrespective of the needs of “sportsmen”.

The Federation, Joad announced, had been formed out of agreement with these propositions. Joad's letter went on to note that this progressive agenda was not reflected by the "old-fashioned" media, but that "the times ... are serious":

Economic breakdown and international anarchy threaten to destroy civilisation, which, if it persists, seems increasingly likely to pass into the control of those who regard the traditional ideals of democracy - freedom and equality and the right of citizens to live their lives without moral, religious, or political interference - with amused contempt. If democracy were to founder, the intellectuals would be the first to go down in the wreckage. Either Communism or Fascism would give them short shrift, and social and civil liberties... would be swept down the drains of the Corporate or the Communist State as the discarded refuse of an outworn social structure.

Joad identified "vanity, the lack of discipline, the overdeveloped individualities of progressives" as obstacles to organisation, but "danger may effect union where common sense has failed."

Joad concluded: "it is precisely this danger which has called into being a Federation of Progressive Societies to give unity and cohesion to those woefully impotent forces."

Failure

Initially supported by the Fabian Nursery and the Promethean League, and briefly by Youth House, the FPSI soon found itself without any federated organisational members. Faced with this failure, Joad and J. C. Flügel (a Freudian psychoanalyst) proposed closing the organisation. However, at the urging of Jack Coates, the AGM voted to continue on an individual membership basis. [6]

Some of those involved in the League, realising that it was not to become the umbrella for the left that it was intended to be, found their way back to the RPA and Archibald Robertson "remained active in the RPA for the rest of his life". [8]

The name "Progressive League" was adopted in 1940.

After 1940

In 1946 a sub-committee of the League became the Marriage Law Reform Society.

By the 1980s, like many civil society organizations, the League was suffering from a gradual ageing of its membership, and a failure to attract new and younger members. Its events were advertised regularly in the New Statesman, but did not succeed in reversing a gradual decline.

In 2005 the organisation was wound up.

Journals

The League published Plan: For World Order and Progress from April 1934 to September 1939; Plan Bulletin from October 1939 to December 1941; Plan from January 1942 to June 1948; Plan: For Freedom and Progress from July 1948. Plan was published from 1990 to 2002, and the Progressive League Newsletter from 2002 to 2005.

Manifesto

The Progressive League provided a platform for the advocacy of ideas such as world government, Freudian psychology, sex, free love and nudism (hence it was nicknamed by opponents the "Federation for the Promotion of Sexual Intercourse"). [6]

Its programme was set out in a "Charter for Rationalists", published in 1932 in Joad's autobiography: [9]

According to Tribe, the FPSI's official programme was: [6]

Cooke comments: "the debt to H. G. Wells is enormous. The Federation's programme was essentially Wells's open conspiracy." [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secular humanism</span> Life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism

Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, logic, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanists UK</span> Charitable organization promoting secular humanism

Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs" in the United Kingdom by campaigning on issues relating to humanism, secularism, and human rights. It seeks to act as a representative body for non-religious people in the UK.

The Thinker's Library was a series of 140 hardcover books published between 1929 and 1951 for the Rationalist Press Association by Watts & Co., London, a company founded by the brothers John and Charles Watts and then run by the latter's son Charles Albert Watts. The name was suggested by Archibald Robertson, a member of the company's board of directors, who took an active interest in setting up the series and was later to write several volumes himself. The Thinker’s Library was intended as a successor to the cheap paperback “Sixpenny Reprints” from the same publisher, the aim being to bring humanist, philosophical and scientific works to as wide an audience as possible. Unlike the previous series, the volumes in the Thinker’s Library were small hardbacks bound in brown clothette, with grey dustjackets, priced at one shilling. The covers of the early editions featured title, author’s name and a brief description of the book between Doric columns, with the image of Rodin’s The Thinker at the foot. The design would change several times over the course of the series, but the figure of the Thinker remained ever-present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Smoker</span> British humanist (1923–2020)

Barbara Smoker was a British humanist activist and freethought advocate. She was also President of the National Secular Society (1972–1996), Chair of the British Voluntary Euthanasia Society (1981–1985) and an Honorary Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Happy Human</span> Symbol of secular humanism

The Happy Human is an icon that has been adopted as an international symbol of secular humanism. Created by Dennis Barrington, the figure was the winning design in a competition arranged by Humanists UK in 1965. Various forms of it are now used across the world by humanist organisations of all sizes including Humanists UK, Humanists International and The American Humanist Association (AHA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Walter</span>

Nicolas Hardy Walter was a British anarchist and atheist writer, speaker and activist. He was a member of the Committee of 100 and Spies for Peace, and wrote on topics of anarchism and humanism.

New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists was established in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1927. The Association promotes rationalism and secular humanism.

The Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA) is an umbrella body of 83 rationalist, atheist, skeptic, secularist and scientist organisations in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narendra Nayak</span> Indian activist (born 1951)

Narendra Nayak is a rationalist, sceptic, and godman debunker from Mangalore, Karnataka, India. Nayak is the current president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA). He founded the Dakshina Kannada Rationalist Association in 1976 and has been its secretary since then. He also founded an NGO called Aid Without Religion in July 2011. He tours the country conducting workshops to promote scientific temper and showing people how to debunk godmen and frauds. He has conducted over 2000 such demonstrations in India, including some in Australia, Greece, England, Norway, Denmark, Sri Lanka and Nepal. He is also a polyglot who speaks 9 languages fluently, which helps him when he is giving talks in various parts of the country.

The Atheist Centre is an institution founded by Goparaju Ramachandra Rao and Saraswathi Gora (1912–2006) to initiate social change in rural Andhra Pradesh based on the ideology of Gandhism and atheism. Founded in 1940 at Mudnur village in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, India the Centre was later shifted to Vijayawada in 1947. As a member organisation of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, the Atheist Centre endorses the Amsterdam Declaration 2002. The institution received the International Humanist and Ethical Union's International Humanist Award in 1986 for pioneering in the field of social work. After the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Atheist Centre worked with the Institute for Humanist Studies to provide aid to the victims of the disaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham</span> Rationalist group based in India

Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham is a rationalist organization based in Kerala, India. The organization says it stands for rationalism and humanism. It is the initiator of the umbrella organization for rationalism and humanism, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations.The Rationalist Movement in Kerala had started with the Sahodara Sangham, formed by K. Ayyappan on May 29, 1917 at Cherai, in Ernakulam. This fraternity forum propagated 'Mishra Bhojanam', which was unthinkable as well as very revolutionary at the time. These movements paved way for a rationalist organization which started functioning in 1967. Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham is the continuation of this parent avatar. The organization started functioning in 1967. It has units in all the districts in Kerala and in the Union Territorial district of Mahi. Yukthirekha, a monthly in Malayalam, is the official magazine of Kerala Yukthivadi Sangham, which has been in circulation since 1983. KYS has a youth wing, Humanist Youth Movement, and a parallel wing, Kerala Misra Vivahavedi, a sub-organisation for the cause of inter-religious and inter-caste married lives. KYS also manages A T Kovoor Trust and Pavanan Institute. KYS is an associate organization of International Humanist Ethical Union, now Humanist International, headquartered in London.

The Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) promotes the interests of rationalists nationally in Australia. Originally formed as the Victorian Rationalist Association, the society originated in a meeting of freethinkers in the University of Melbourne in 1906. It is the operational arm of the rationalist movement in Australia.

A person's life stance, or lifestance, is their relation with what they accept as being of ultimate importance. It involves the presuppositions and theories upon which such a stance could be made, a belief system, and a commitment to potentials working it out in one's life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humanism</span> Philosophical school of thought

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of humanism</span> Overview of and topical guide to humanism

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to humanism:

Kathleen Cecilia Nott FRSL was a British poet, novelist, critic, philosopher and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rationalist Association</span> Irreligious organization in the United Kingdom

The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual tenor of the British secularist movement. The purpose of the Rationalist Press Association was to publish literature that was too anti-religious to be handled by mainstream publishers and booksellers. The Rationalist Press Association changed its name to "The Rationalist Association" in 2002.

Archibald Horace Mann Robertson was an English civil servant who became a writer on history, social affairs from a left-wing perspective and critiques of Christianity.

References

  1. ↑ Cooke 2003 (p. 100) suggests that Coates was influenced by Wells' idea of an Open conspiracy.
  2. ↑ Coates, J. B. (1931), "Scientific Humanism and the RPA", Literary Guide, August, p. 155, quoted in Cooke 2003, p. 99.
  3. ↑ According to Walter 1997, it received a "generally hostile response" (p. 50).
  4. ↑ Tribe 1967, p. 49.
  5. ↑ Cooke 2003, p. 103.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Tribe 1967, p. 50.
  7. ↑ "Organising the Intellectuals: Address by Mr. Joad", The Guardian, 12 September 1932, p. 7.
  8. 1 2 Cooke 2003, p. 104.
  9. ↑ Quoted in Cooke 2003, p. 104.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.