185 From glory on the offensive to misery in the trenches

This episode wraps up the outbreak of the First World War and the first phase of great offences in which all sides sought glory and, above all, quick victory. Something that eluded them.

We spend a little time looking at the failure of the international socialist movement, then very much in its heyday, to prevent war, even though the warmest supporters of socialism, the workers of different countries, were going to have to supply most of the soldiers put in harm’s way by the fighting. Then we move on to two other great radical movements, the Irish nationalists, who parliamentary representatives partially rallied to the British government, and the Women’s Suffrage movement, with the two main organisations taking opposed directions. The Suffragettes put the campaign for the women’s vote on the back burner and rallied support for the war effort. The majority movement of Suffragists continued to demand the vote and denounced the war for its butchery.

Finally, we briefly review how the early offensives, above all in the west, led only to the appalling construction of a double line of trenches, all the way from Switzerland to the English Channel, and the start of a war of attrition.

Illustration: The ‘taxis de la Marne’ that ferried French troops to the river Marne, to stop German offensive there.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.