already developing in the Allied states. The APCF took the implementation of Defence Regulation 18B as evidence of their position on the development of totalitarianism in Britain, due particularly to its introduction of conscription. In response, it reprinted some anti-war remarks made by James Connolly in 1917: "In the name of freedom from militarism it establishes military rule; battling for progress it abolishes trial by jury; and waging war for enlightened rule it tramples the freedom of the press under the heel of a military despot." Position on Vanguardism The role of political parties in the labour movement was of particular interest to the APCF, which published in its journal Solidarity a debate between the council communists Anton Pannekoek and Paul Mattick, who rejected the party form, and the De Leonist Frank Maitland, who argued in its favour. The position of the APCF itself lay somewhere between the two, arguing that the development of class consciousness could only be organically induced by material conditions rather than by an organisation, while also holding that workers that had already developed class consciousness needed to unite together to lead those that had not. Like Pannekoek's conception of a revolutionary organisation, which the APCF sought to emulate, its goal would not be to seek power for itself but to serve as a propaganda organ to "educate, agitate and enthuse; perhaps even to inspire" the working classes to take self-organised direct action. In their arguments against vanguardism, the APCF stated: The APCF took a hardline against sectarianism during World War II, opening up its journal Solidarity as a platform to a variety of left-wing positions and personalities, including anarcho-communists, council communists, De Leonists, Trotskyists, Marxists and members of the ILP. The APCF strongly rejected vanguardism, which it believed forced revolutionary groups into competition with one another, claiming that as no single group can hold correct positions on every issue or contain all the best elements of the working class, these groups needed to co-operate with each other in an alliance with a commonly agreed-upon programme. This anti-sectarian attitude extended to collaboration with the USM and GAF, with the APCF's Willie McDougall even going out of his way to distribute the USM's Word and the GAF's War Commentary. Position on the Soviet Union Although the APCF had initially supported the Soviet Union, by this time accounts of repression were starting to emerge from the country, with