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). One of the first of a generation of

non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

, as influenced by Wells' idea of the " open conspiracy", the organisation had its heydey 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 Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...

, H. G. Wells and

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthes ...

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.

His call produced a large response in subsequent issues of the ''Literary Guide''. He was opposed by many, however, including the leading rationalist

J. M. Robertson John Mackinnon Robertson (14 November 1856 – 5 January 1933) was a prolific Scottish journalist, advocate of rationalism and secularism, and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Member of Parliament for Tyneside (UK Parliament constituency), Tyneside ...

, but gained support from the veteran rationalists

F. J. Gould Frederick James Gould (19 December 1855 – 6 April 1938) was an English teacher, writer, and pioneer secular humanist. Early life and career He was born in Brighton, the son of William James Gould and his wife Julia, who were evangelical Anglic ...

, Archibald Robertson and especially C. E. M. Joad, who wanted

Conway Hall The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United Kin ...

to become the headquarters of "an association of progressive organizations with humanist aims." 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 John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption. His principal and e ...

, stood for the RPA Board on a "scientific humanism" platform. The plot failed and Robertson resigned from the Board in March 1932.

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.Tribe 1967, p. 50. Individual members were invited to a meeting in April 1932. Meanwhile, on 20 August 1932 the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...

'' published a call from H. G. Wells for a Federation of X Societies, "open conspirators to change the world." It was suggested to Joad that he contact Wells, and on 11 September 1932 another conference took place, this time in England. C. E. M. Joad was President of the Federation. The Vice-Presidents included Wells, A. S. Neill,

, Barbara Wootton, Miles Malleson, David Low,

Vera Brittain Vera Mary Brittain (29 December 1893 – 29 March 1970) was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir '' Testament of Youth'' recounted her experiences during the Firs ...

, Cyril Burt, Norman Haire,

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

, Kingsley Martin,

Harold Nicolson Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West. Early li ...

, Beverley Nichols, Olaf Stapledon, Geoffrey West,

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed book ...

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own w ...

and

J. C. Flügel ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

Joad announces the Federation

On 4 October 1932 ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' 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. 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".Cooke 2003, p. 104. The name "Progressive League" was adopted in 1940.

After 1940

Influenced by

Emmanuel Mounier Emmanuel Mounier (; ; 1 April 1905 – 22 March 1950) was a French philosopher, theologian, teacher and essayist. Biography Mounier was the guiding spirit in the French personalist movement, and founder and director of ''Esprit'', the magazine ...

, Jack Coates left the League in 1945, founding the London Personalist League. In 1946 a sub-committee of the League became the

Marriage Law Reform Society Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

. 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

, 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"). Its programme was set out in a "Charter for Rationalists", published in 1932 in Joad's autobiography:Quoted in Cooke 2003, p. 104. *repeal of the divorce laws *repeal of discriminatory laws against homosexuality *diffusion of knowledge on birth control *legalisation of abortion *sterilisation of the feeble-minded *abolition of censorship on plays, films and books *abolition of all Sabbath restrictions *disendowment and disestablishment of the Church of England *conservation of the countryside, curbing urban development, creation of national parks *prohibition of exhibitions of performing animals *abolition of licensing restrictions *unilateral and complete disarmament According to Tribe, the FPSI's official programme was: *World government *Socialisation *Worldwide education: "humanistic, scientific and cosmopolitan" *Individual freedom *Humanisation of criminal law and procedure *Control and optimal distribution of the world's population (including eugenics) *Town and country planning Cooke comments: "the debt to H. G. Wells is enormous. The Federation's programme was essentially Wells's open conspiracy."

References

Bibliography

*Cooke, Bill (2003). ''The Blasphemy Depot: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association.'' London: RPA. . *Coupland, Philip (2000). "H. G. Wells's "Liberal Fascism" ", '' Journal of Contemporary History'', Vol. 35 (4), pp. 541-558
jch.sagepub.com
*Forsyth, Dorothy (2002). "Notes on the History of the Progressive League", ''

Ethical Record The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United King ...

'', Vol. 107 (8), October, pp. 3–7 (summary of a lecture to the Ethical Society, 17 March 2002). *Tribe, David (1967). ''100 Years of Freethought.'' London: Elek. * Walter, Nicolas (1997). ''Humanism: What's in the Word.'' London: RPA/BHA/Secular Society Ltd. {{ISBN, 0-301-97001-7

External links

Archives of the Progressive League, 1936–2000
1930s in the United Kingdom Defunct political organisations based in the United Kingdom 1932 establishments in the United Kingdom 2005 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Humanist associations