Wednesday, October 26, 2022

SPGB Meetings. (1929)

Party News from the October 1929 issue of the Socialist Standard











2 comments:

Imposs1904 said...

A couple of unfamiliar names amongst the speakers listed. (Part of the reason that I now post meetings notices from old issues of the Socialist Standard.)

The Head Office Economics Tutor, A. Beales, was a member of Hackney Branch of the SPGB. There's no record of when and why he left the SPGB, but we do know that he joined September 1924 and resigned within a month so that he could vote Labour. He rejoined the SPGB in August 1925, recognising he was wrong to vote for the Labour Party. We also know that he was formerly a member of the Social Democratic Federation, which suggests he might have at least middle aged in the late 1920s. (The SDF still existed in the 1920s . . . but it's kind of complicated.)

There's no listing for an 'A. Goldberg' - one of the speakers at an SPGB East London public meeting - but there is listed a David Goldberg who joined the Hackney Branch of the SPGB in March 1925. Barltrop mentions him briefly in The Monument. According to Barltrop, he was turned down for conscientious objection during WW2 when he told a Tribunal he would fight for Socialism. That answer resulted him being considered eligible for the armed forces. He was killed in action during the Italian Campaign.

Imposs1904 said...

PS - Nearly forgot.

I had to include the notice about the request for tinfoil. I mean, the jokes just write themselves, don't they?