The Paddington Revival. (1927)

Party News from the February 1927 issue of the Socialist Standard

There is no more depressing district in the western suburbs of London than that mostly lying between Harrow Road and the High Road, Kilburn. Its streets have lost their character and the houses have seen better times. They were put up for the snobbish bourgeoisie family, but nowadays these dilapidated residences shelter at least four proletarian families, with lodgers and lice complete. The poverty is heavy and demoralising, and in the dingiest part of this smutty region, that part which flanks the muddy banks of the filthy canal, ugliness and squalor reign supreme. The drab dens display the endless fierce struggle for existence, and in the gutters the health and innocence of children are wasted and killed. It is a veritable plague spot, “a land not fit for negroes to live in.”

Prior to 1914 there was a ring of propaganda stations stoutly maintained in this area, and with the sound branches of Paddington, Kilburn and Kensington in active service, the Socialist Party and its principles were well supported. The “war to end war” brought about the suspension of these activities, and when this military holocaust was ended for the time being, an attempt was made to broadcast the Socialist Party’s message at the street corner. The temper of the heroes was not inclined towards Socialist education and organisation. The aftermath of the war had left them at a loose end in the political arena and the crafty Communists made play with it. They went in for heroics and for unemployed stunts. In North Paddington the working class had been so soddened with capitalist dope that they actually threw away 6,000 votes on a worthless Liberal candidate, and this was done AFTER he had been publicly denounced as an impostor exposed and repudiated by both the local Tory and Liberal associations as an adventurer. He was destined to occupy a cell at Wormwood Scrubs instead of a seat at Westminster.

With this display of lightheadedness to remember, efforts were again made to restart Socialist propaganda, and at last the branch has been reopened. A perfect resuscitation has to be recorded. Will old members get busy and take their place again in the ranks? We have a clear aim and a policy which is on the right lines. If you still agree with us in this propaganda, then have no hesitation in joining and help us to build up a political party for the emancipation of labour. The party welcomes into its ranks everyone who sincerely believes in the establishment of the Socialist commonwealth as the only means of evolving order from the present social chaos. We exist to convert the great mass of workers to the Socialist point of view. We are the English section of the International workers of the world, and our great mission is to trail the way to economic freedom, our business is to end wage slavery.

Come in and help us.

Ben Carthurs.

Paddington To The Fore (1930)

Party News from the September 1930 issue of the Socialist Standard

Paddington is a borough of contrasts and paradoxes where social extremes can be seen rather more sharply defined than in many places. Monuments of pomp and power range themselves alongside of squalor and filth, and the insolence of wealth jostles disease and penury in the streets. The sooty air and polluted canals, the dingy piles of dwellings, the belching chimneys and the endless rushing to and fro of the melancholy “hands” would serve as the scene of some imagined Hades. Here devoutness goes hand in hand with hypocrisy and charity with brutality. It is the class conflict operating within the social system. The unemployed and the employed, harassed and ill-fed, alike can look forward to nothing better than an old age in which their lives become still more limited.

This is the black outlook of Paddington’s wage-earners.

The Paddington Branch of the S.P.G.B. has opened a campaign of propaganda to tell these too-patient fellow victims of capitalism that there is no earthly or heavenly remedy for their social ills except in Socialism, search the universe where they will.

We invite those who wish to learn more about Socialism to come to the meetings advertised elsewhere in this issue. We invite sympathisers to consider joining the branch and giving us their assistance in spreading our message. We are already having good results, and with more help we shall better them.

Ben Carthurs

A Paddington Placard (1913)

Party News from the May 1913 issue of the Socialist Standard

We desire to announce to the workers of Kilburn and North Kensington that Paddington Branch is holding meetings at Victoria Rd., High Rd., Kilburn, on Wednesdays at 8.30 p.m., and at Lancaster Rd., Portobello Rd., North Kensington on Fridays at 8.30 p.m.

This announcement will also constitute an effective salute to “our nearest friends,” the sympathetic scribes of the local sheets, who want Socialism in rag-time, please.

They are somewhat perturbed at the approach of summer, and with it the Socialist Party’s street-corner propagandists. This should allay their fears.

And then there is that Paddington pest, who revels in mouthing that miserable lie about the Socialists of Great Britain who hibernate during the winter to blossom forth with the flowers in May. There will be no plausible excuse after this— he will know where to find us in future, when he can present a case against us without resorting to dirty innuendoes and lying misrepresentation.

We are enjoying large audiences at Kilburn, and the prospects of forming a branch are promising. The wiseacres of Anti Socialists are in attendance twice a week when sober, and they regale their dupes with the ancient wheezes about us, which occasionally make them grin, but never prompt an intelligent question.

To get the workers to think and act is our business, not theirs, and in making this raid upon the preserves of these agents of reaction and confusion we shall ruthlessly expose and condemn them.

The local B.S.P. members boom the “Daily Herald,” advocate Syndicalism, and consciously do everything to frustrate the workers in realising what Socialism is and what it implies. For the workers to support such frauds as those is tantamount to committing suicide. We counsel them to ignore with contempt such a treacherous party. Have nothing to do with them! Attend our meetings, give an attentive hearing to our speakers and question them if need be.

We don't ask you to take for granted what we say just because we say it. We implore you to stop and think — stop and consider what your position in modern society represents. Reflect upon the value life has for you under the present hellish conditions! Listen to the Socialist Party’s propaganda and ponder over it. Procure our literature, the finest obtainable, and read it up, because men and women must be educated in order that they may be free.

Then, having achieved education, organise on class lines for the conquest of political power, making for the overthrow of slavery and bringing about the birth of the Society of the future.

Ben Carthurs.

Paddington going strong (1913)

From the November 1913 issue of the Socialist Standard

It has long been realised by the Paddington members that there existed in the surrounding districts ample material to work upon and thereby extend the Party's influence, the only barrier being the lack of speakers. Finding ourselves continually bombarded with inquiries as to when we intended opening up these sources for Socialism, we determined to meet this insistent demand for the Party’s propaganda with a series of week’s meetings at selected venues. Operations were therefore commenced at Kilburn, which duly materialised into an energetic branch that has completely pulverised the wobbly opposition formerly entrenched in the locality.

Fortified by that triumph, we made tracks for North Kensington, where further conquests were made. Our speakers had no difficulty in effectively smothering the smattering interruptions of the local illiterates, and the large audiences that nightly assembled showed that the time was never more opportune for the establishment of a branch of the Party.

That treacherous section of the Anti Socialist brigade, the B.S.P., till recently had a motley following, and to hasten the millenium they put up their chief mesmeriser as “Socialist” candidate for the General Election to come. The local sheets commented on the “self sacrifice of this well known gentleman,”and unkindly suggested that the prospect of £400 a year should bring forth quite a crop of budding M.P.s. The campaign was opened by inviting the constituents to nibble at a mish-mash of social reform. Street-corner harangues were held extolling the candidate's virtues, and for a while it looked as if the day of universal emancipation was at hand. Then dissension arose over his “programme,” recriminations were flung about, the '‘rankers” began to revile their “leader” and renounce bis unofficial candidature, and the branch went “nap.”

So we concluded that it was our duty to get our platform out and explain why it is the B.S P., so-called, is anti working class right through. This was done, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that our week's mission will fructify into a branch of our organisation.

In North Paddington an agitation is being worked up against the M.P. because be happens to be a foreigner. In spite of his Tory views and Tariff Reform ideas he is anathema to the local patriots because, to use their own words, “he is no good ; he does nothing for the working man." Well, this is what we have said for quite a long time. If anything is to be done for the working class, that class has got to do it itself. Millionaire Parliamentarians have not the remotest intention of abolishing unemployment and poverty. They are in Parliament to conserve their own privileges and power. Therefore we call on the working class to organise in the Socialist Party for the capture of this stronghold of capitalism.

Our itinerary for 1914 embraces the N.W. corner of London, but this cannot be successfully accomplished unless those who earnestly desire to see the pall of ignorance rent asunder by the spreading of scientific Socialism come inside and get on with the business. “The harvest, truly, is plentiful, but the labourers are few."

Ben Carthers

“Socialism in Paddington” (1912)

From the October 1912 issue of the Socialist Standard

Under the above heading a somewhat demoralising discussion has been carried on in the columns of the local Press, during which the S.P.G.B. in general and the Paddington Branch in particular have been favoured with the biased opinions of certain "well-educated, reasonable people," such being duly appreciated and assessed at their true value.

Undoubtedly much of this anonymous animosity was created by the wilful misrepresentation and historical lies that the cunning Anti Socialist and his co-partner, the Christian Socialist (!) are endeavouring to spread in this locality of extremes. In particular, a "Socialist" curate has been making himself conspicuous in that devilish direction by attempting to discredit our party by stating that "the S.P.G.B. is an obscure little sect, numbering (at the most) some 200 members in the whole of Great Britain."

As several supporters of our propaganda enquired whether such was true, a letter from the present writer was published in the local Press, in which it was pointed out that if the membership of the S.P.G.B. did not exceed 100 that of itself would not prove that the Party's principles were wrong.

It is clear that this genial cleric pinned his faith to numbers and not principles, and that his conception of a Socialist body is one that commences its career with a million members and dwindles down to a few choice spirits to perpetuate the species.

The sycophantic attitude of these "Socialistic" sky-pilots becomes apparent upon reflection. They are Anti-Socialist spies seeking to permeate the Socialist movement with the chloroform of a dead religion. It is all humbug to say that Socialism is based upon Christianity or "the Sermon on the Mount," because neither Theism nor Atheism can be the basis of a social system.

Another correspondent put forward the suggestion that the time had arrived when their united energies should be concentrated against "the only party worth talking about; the party of revolutionary Socialists ; the S.P.G.B." He proposed immediate action being taken to smash the branch up, because he felt convinced that when the S.P.G.B. citadel has been demolished and the rubbish cleared away, the Socialist movement in Paddington will cease to be a fighting force, and will gradually fade.

This hostile announcement acted like a tonic on the branch, who replied by advertising a series of lectures on Socialism at the "Prince of Wales," Harrow Road. It was proclaimed that our object in holding these lectures was to give citizens an opportunity to discuss the question of Socialism and all its implications, and we invited opponents to attend and submit questions, or state their case against us from the platform. With what result ? The week's mission was a great success. Large and attentive audiences listened to the exposition of Socialism, and the collections and sales of literature were very good. And from the enquiries that were made concerning the party the branch confidently expects an increased membership.

Our Secretary is at all times ready to enlighten any wage-worker who is desirous of joining the Socialist Party. If there is any doubt or difficulty that wants explaining, now is the time to have such matters cleared up. Our branch meeting is held for that purpose among others, and we cordially invite our fellow workers in Paddington to bestir themselves, throw off the shackles of superstition and ignorance, and join with us in securing our emancipation from the thraldom of capitalism by the institution of Socialism.

Ben Carthurs