SPGB Meetings (1948)

Party News from the August 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

• The SPGBer speaker for the debate with the IWW was Bill Waters. There was a report of the debate in the October 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard. It'd be interesting to know how big the IWW was in Britain in the late 1940s.
• I'm intrigued about the notice for the special meeting of Party members on the subject of "Socialism and Violence". I wonder what prompted the meeting? I cannot see any report of the meeting in later issues of the Standard from that period,
• I included details of the Dublin Socialist Group 'cos it gives me another excuse to post a link to the obituary for Mick Cullen from the March 1951 issue of the Socialist Standard. Another stalwart from our tradition. Sounds like an incredible bloke.

Party News Briefs (1949)

Party News from the December 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

Glasgow now has a second Branch of the Party, Kelvingrove Branch having been recently formed. At present, they are co-operating with Glasgow Branch in the running of the winter indoor lectures, where already two of their members have taken the platform in the Central Halls. They are running a Study Class with lectures on Public Speaking, Logic and Economics to which all members and sympathisers are cordially invited. It is hoped that this class will bring forth new members and especially, new speakers. Most of the members of this Branch are in the 25/30 age group and have an average of five year’s membership. They have a hard and thorny path to tread but there is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm which will lighten their task. All the members of this new Branch have been very active in past years in the Glasgow Branch and it is hoped that this new venture will prove highly successful.

Our Educational System. Our Education Committee has submitted the second part of its report dealing with the 1949 Conference resolution which recommended the Executive Committee to review the entire education system of the Party. The Committee has reviewed the various suggestions that had been raised by the Executive Committee and by Conference, decentralisation of classes, correspondence courses, etc., and is not at present in favour of them. The Committee holds the view that expansion of the present scheme is in the hands of the members and that it is premature to review the system until it has developed beyond its present stage.

The Growth of our Party will, in time, necessitate that we appoint full-time paid officers. As our membership increases we shall find it impossible to continue as at present with all posts filled, and all jobs done, by voluntary effort. The special committee set up by the Executive Committee to examine this position has reported and has stated that in considering full-time posts of paid propagandists the E.C. should endeavour to find comrades with a good grounding in Socialist knowledge and Party work and that such comrades should be coached for the position, the training to be in line with that already laid down by the Party and to be for a period of six months.

Bloomsbury Branch is concerned with the disadvantages of holding meetings at the Trade Union Club, Newport Street, Leicester Square, London, W. The main disadvantage is that the hall available is not large enough to accommodate with comfort the audiences that gather on Sunday evenings. A search is being made to find suitable alternative accommodation but without success up to now. All members are appealed to for information regarding suitable halls in Central London for hire on Sundays.

Belfast Branch of the Socialist Party of Ireland continued its outdoor Sunday meetings up to October 16th and the meetings have been reported in the Irish News and the Northern Whig. The local Communists tried to out-do them and steal their pitch on High Street on Sunday afternoons but failed miserably and have not been out since. On Sunday. October 16th, the Irish Labour Party tried to muscle-in on the pitch, complete with a Member of Parliament, councillors, banners, microphones, “and the plough and the stars and all.” But they also failed. Our Belfast comrades challenged them from the S.P.I. platform, with two speakers and their own microphone. The report of this duel in Belfast High Street was headed in the Irish News (17.10.49), “Battle of the Microphone.” The Belfast lecture series has been running for some weeks. The lectures have been advertised and have been satisfactory. The prospects are, that audiences will grow as winter sets in.

The Dublin Branch of the S.P.I. also reports successful activities. A lecture by Comrade Walsh on “Russia ” on October 9th, was a record success— audience, collection and literature sales. The Secretary reports:—“We had a grand night into the bargain, as we were 'honoured’ by the presence of one of the Communists’ leading 'Marxists,’ Mr. O’Higgins, a Trinity College man (step aside for the intellectual!). Well, I can assure you that we merely used the poor fellow as a dish cloth . . . honestly, it would have moved you to tears, and sympathetic outpourings, to have seen the Collegiate squirm and wriggle to get out of the fire he’d so rashly jumped in! ”. . . "Last night I had the pleasure of handing out three application for membership forms with prospects of another two soon. If we can continue this winter lecture activity (and there is no reason why we shouldn’t) we should be well and truly ready, and equipped sufficiently well, to tackle next summer’s outdoor campaign with success.”

Dublin comrades also attend other organisations’ meetings but do not often get time allowed for discussion. Efforts are still being made to get literature into the Dublin public libraries, but without success. The Irish Association of Civil Liberties will not touch the business—outside their province, they say. In addition to these activities we receive regular bundles of cuttings from Eire newspapers bearing letters from members of the S.P.I., expounding, discussing and arguing the Socialist case.

The World Socialist Party, U.S.A., has sent the report of its 1949 Conference held at Boston during the first week in September. The matters discussed included a proposal to remove the National Executive Committee to Detroit. The proposal constitutes item No. I on a referenda ballot sent out to members of the W.S.P. The second item on the ballot is of particular interest to us. It appears to have been the main "bone of contention” at the Conference. The 1948 Conference elected a committee to consider suggested revisions to the Declaration of Principles, and the committee reported to this Conference. The revisions suggested are a re-wording of Principle No. 1, a new Principle No. 2 dealing with State Capitalism, a re-wording of the present Principle No. 2 to constitute a new Principle No. 3 and a re-arrangement of the thoughts in the present Principles 3 to 8. but including them all in a different order in new Principles 4 to 8. Following the carrying of resolutions to adopt most of these suggestions it was moved and carried "That final approval of the re-worded Declaration of Principles be contingent upon approval of the live Companion Parties.”

A number of amendments to the W.S.P.’s constitution were discussed and form items to be voted on in the referenda ballot. It is proposed to hold the 1950 Conference in Detroit. Figures are given in the report, showing a decline in the circulation of the Western Socialist between August, 1948, and August, 1949. We hope to see a reverse tendency before the next Conference; the W.S. is a splendid journal and deserves every effort to get it into the hands of workers in all parts of the world.

The Socialist Party of Canada, unable for financial reasons to engage in the 1949 General Election in Canada, has published a leaflet entitled, “The 1949 General Election—The Issue for the Workers.” We quote the first two paragraphs:— —

‘‘An election campaign is on again and the politicians are once more in the fore displaying their virtues. Peace, progress, democracy and freedom are being solemnly promised by people to whom these terms have questionable meanings. Liberals praise themselves for taking us out of the depression of the Hungry Thirties, forgetting that they also took us into it. Conservatives offer the extravagances of Mr. Drew, hoping these will be as effective in gaining votes as were the antics of Mr. Bennett at the turn of the Thirties. C.C.F. members offer all the good things that are alleged to have come to Britain under the Labour Government, but are awkward in their comments on the continued 'austerity' suffered by the British Workers. Communists rail against the imperialism of the Western World, but pretend that Russian imperialism is wholesome and attractive.

Politics has been described as a dirty game, and it must be difficult for the observing bystander to watch the conflicts of the candidates without feeling sick at the wretchedness of what he sees. Generations of Liberal and Conservative Governments are the political background of existing conditions in Canada. Three periods in office for the British Labour Party without release at all from the widespread want in Britain, have not taught the C.C.F. the uselessness of its own program. Thirty-two years of Bolshevik dictatorship, brutality and mass poverty still find the 'Labour-Progressive Party' offering a similar dictatorship here. Wherever one chooses to turn, the loudest voices to be heard are the voices of confusion and deceit.

But politics is not to be condemned because it is associated with so much that is foul. The rottenness of Capitalist society is bound to permeate its politics. . . .”

Our Canadian comrades in Winnipeg have at last managed to acquire premises for a Head Office.

The Socialist Party of New Zealand sends us a brief report of events in that part of the world:—

"The referendum for compulsory military training for the 18-year-olds resulted in a three to one victory for the proposal with about 60 per cent, of the electors on the roll exercising their votes. Another result of the ‘Victory' was the resignation of the Labour representative for Roskill electorate, Mr. Langstone. This was followed by three Roskill branches of the Labour Party going into recess. The victory was also closely followed by the withdrawal of the Labour Party candidate for the Hurunui seat, Mr. H. A. Kilpatrick. His withdrawal was accompanied by scathing remarks about our Parliamentary representation. It is his opinion that they are the biggest collection of political rabbits, yes-men and phobia-ridden politicians in both Parties that has ever been elected in New Zealand.’ He added that what New Zealand wanted defending against ‘is the present collection of subservient, bankrupt politicians, who can see no other way out of the world’s difficulties than to train young men for destruction.' With the exception of the Christian Pacifists the anti-conscription group were not opposed to conscription but merely to the form it was taking. The Russian Nationalists—pardon—the New Zealand Communist Party, were prominent but they stated that if the same conditions prevailed in New Zealand as prevailed in Russia then conscription would be quite alright. The T.U. representatives opposed it owing to the likelihood of the conscripts being used as strike breakers, which is something they have good grounds to fear as this has already been done by the Labour Government in 1944-45. Also Mr. Fraser has pointed out that should a similar position arise in New Zealand as pertained in Great Britain and Australia, the same measures would be adopted here. Like the man who likes to get drunk but does not like the hangover, the Christian Pacifists want Capitalism but not its hangover. War and all the conditions that go with it.

There has been a temporary lull in the strife on the New Zealand waterfront with the watersiders returning to the 59-hour week. The Minister of Labour has sacked the Union representatives from the Commission, for as the Minister would have us believe, their misconduct. As watersiders all over the country do not appear inclined to accept the Minister's ruling we can expect another flare-up at any moment, though probably the Moderates in the Union may manage to stay proceedings before the election in November. Their overtime strike proved one thing to many watersiders, and that is that they cannot live on money earned in a 44-hour week.

The last 14 years of Labour rule here has been a substantiation of what the S.P.G.B. pointed out so many years ago about Labour Governments and social reforms. They have been a practical example of the claim that the use of the name Socialism as a vote catching device makes the propagation of Socialism far more difficult Naturally, The Nationalist Party members are seizing upon every anomaly and blunder and are broadcasting them as evidence of 'Socialist' mal-administration. Making hay while the sun shines, as it were. The Government in its turn is blaming the Communists for everything and warning the workers against the 'Red Menace.' Owing to the stupid actions of the Communist Party members in the past, this line has had its effect and it is probable that the three to one majority on the conscription issue is a manifestation of it.

There is no doubt that the enthusiastic idiot is a far greater menace than the avowed enemy."

“Socialist Standard” articles have recently been reprinted in “The Socialist Forum,” Johannesburg, South Africa and in “John A. Lee’s Fortnightly,” Auckland, New Zealand.

W. Waters.

Party News Briefs (1948)

Party News from the December 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

Bloomsbury Branch  received a letter last May from Max Aitken, M.P. accepting a challenge to debate with the Party. This letter, dated 14th May, 1948, was a reply to one that had been sent to Mr. Aitken, and in it he said “. . .  I am quite willing to debate on any subject with a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain . . .” Subsequent letters dated 29th May and 5th June, were sent to Mr. Aitken suggesting the Holborn Hall as a venue, a subject for debate, offering to make and pay for all arrangements and giving a choice of dates. A request for a reply to these letters was sent on June 18th. There followed a reply from Mr. Aitken’s secretary who said that, as soon as Mr. Aitken returned from abroad he would bring the correspondence to his notice. A letter of acknowledgment was sent. On August 10th, when it was learned that he was back in London, Mr. Aitken was sent a further letter asking him to name the day. On September 11th, yet another letter was sent to him by registered post asking for an early reply. Bloomsbury Branch is still waiting.

It appears that we must add Mr. Aitken to the list of M.P.s who have valiantly accepted debate with us and then found that they were a little chilly below the ankles.

Kingston Branch has, at last, found a branch room in Kingston. The room is warm and comfortable and the situation convenient. The address is 9, Vicarage Road, enter by the door in Wood Street, facing Bentalls Stores. The first meeting at Malden Library was not an enthusing success, due, in part at least, to the fact that the branch’s advertising efforts were spoiled by the bills being covered with opponents’ posters. All the same, despite a small attendance, the literature sales were very good and the audience showed its appreciation of our case by contributing a bumper collection to defray expenses.

In Manchester a comrade has, during the past six or seven months, been engaged on a one-man literature drive. Going from door to door in the Manchester district, he had, at the end of October, sold 2,440 pamphlets. sales amounting to over £40. He expects to be well past the £50 mark by the end of the year. We understand that he has mainly concentrated on selling the pamphlet, “Principles and Policy of the Socialist Party” and he tells us that next year he will take the whole stock of ”Is the Labour Government the way to Socialism,” some four to five thousand copies, and he ‘‘will shift the lot.” This is a wonderful job of work, but the comrade tells us that he is really only just scratching the surface. Given a team of five or six assistants he considers that he could really “make things hum” around Manchester. He further recommends his scheme to London branches. "It is a method,” he says, “’that must be relentlessly followed up week after week. If some London branches co-operated to work in a chosen area and had every house 'taped’ for several calls, at the end of six months, I think you could really expect things to develop. Is there any possibility? When I see what a puny slice of the real possibilities rewards my labours, I want a hundred pairs of legs . . .” From figures given in his letters we learn that from October 16th to October 23rd he sold, single-handed, 110 pamphlets, and that the figure would have been higher had it not been for poor weather and lengthy discussions with some of the workers at their homes when he called on them. This is undoubtedly a great job well done and the greatest compliment we could pay this comrade would be to attempt to emulate his example.

The W.S.P. of U.S. send us some encouraging news. A new local is in the process of being organised in San Francisco. Also at Chicago local members are going about the job of organising a new local with determination. The Detroit local, formed last year, has made considerable gains. New York local is holding regular classes and discussions. Some ”members at large” (members who reside in districts where no branch exists, as our Central Branch members) are extremely active. An instance is given of one in Ohio who has recently collected $15 for Party funds, obtained 20 new subscribers to the Western Socialist and puts the Socialist case at local forums and discussions. Los Angeles local is also conducting regular activities. Boston is as active as ever—attracting large audiences resulting in fine literature sales and a number of new contacts. Headquarters at Boston is ‘‘open seven days a week from early morning to, frequently, late at night.” From some standpoints the Western Socialist has made advances, ‘‘but, 'Red scares,’ thought control propaganda, etc., have had some effect on contacts and subscribers. Also, some of the locals and Companion Parties have cut their W.S. orders.” The paper is now badly in debt. S.O.S.

The Dublin Socialist Group reports further progress. There was recently formed in Dublin a Civil Liberties organisation. At a meeting of this organisation held at the Mansion House, Dublin, our comrades spoke from the floor with such effect that they were reported even in The Cork Examiner which spoke of them as being "well briefed” and an "advanced Socialist Group.” Their meetings at The Boilermakers Hall are still a success. They have now held over 30 consecutive meetings in this hall since the group was formed in the early part of this year. A sixth member of the group has now made his public speaking debut. Like all Socialist organisations, they have to count their coppers before they embark on any line of activity. Irish readers please note.

The Publicity Committee reports that enquiries have been received from individuals who have read the volume of "Collected Socialist Pamphlets” in their public library. Is this Party publication in YOUR public library? It should be !

Paddington Branch is making arrangements for the kick-off for the election campaign. The campaign will be opened with a meeting at the Metropolitan Theatre this month.

An ex-Comrade (deceased) made the Party the beneficiary under his will for the sum of £1,400. The General Secretary has reported that ho has received a cheque for £1,276 17s. 10d., this being the sum remaining after the deduction of death duties.

Two New Discussion Groups have recently been formed, one at Derby and the other at Barking in Essex. Interested readers will find the respective addresses on other pages.

In Africa we have a number of comrades who are anxious to get on with some Socialist work. They reside as far apart as Nigeria and Natal, The Gold Coast and Rhodesia, but all are in contact with one another and are eager to correspond with, or otherwise contact, all readers of the Socialist Standard living on the African continent. The following is from a letter received from a comrade who tells us that he is "a full-blooded African ”:

   ”. . . The idea of a World Socialist Party appeals strongly to me. It lifts the ideal of Socialism above national boundaries and sovereignties. The difficulty, as I see it, is organisation, and organisation means finance. The unequal fight between a Capitalism hoary with age and triumphant with remarkable successes, and nascent Socialism, is disheartening to contemplate. We see how even the S.P.G.B.'s activities are being seriously hampered by lack of funds. Centuries of unrestricted growth have sent Capitalism’s roots deep down into the fertile soil of societies. The tasks confronting Socialists in Africa are even more formidable.
    “But the work must be done — and done doggedly and tellingly. To this end those of us who dream dreams and see visions have to address ourselves.
   “Africa is calling all writers—all those who have some gift or claims to self expression—to sing of the triumphs and failures, joys and sorrows of this continent which is now stirring with all the vim of centuries of suppressed energy. It would be of great advantage if Socialists take this tide of African Renaissance now in its flood . . . . you can count on my full co-operation in anything that lies within my power.”

African readers can be “linked-up” by writing to the Overseas Secretary of the S.P.G.B.

Journals and Papers are requested for overseas comrades. In particular we are asked for weekly issues of newspapers. Any member or friend who has copies to send can be supplied with addresses to which to send them.

W. Waters.

Party News Briefs (1948)

Party News from the October 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

Comrade Groves is temporarily unable to compile the Party News Briefs and until he resumes they will be carried on by the member whose signature is at the end.

The newly-formed St. Pancras Branch is wasting no time in making itself felt in an area until now barren of a working-class Political Party. A very convenient Meeting Room has been secured at the Fred Tallant Hall in Drummond Street, just off the Euston Road end of Hampstead Road, and a large hall has been booked there for a series of Winter Lectures to be held at 7.30 p.m. on the first Friday of each month. The first Lecture will be on Friday, October 1st, introducing the S.P.G.B. to St. Pancras. Well attended Outdoor Meetings have resulted from the Branch’s establishment of a Sunday evening Station at Islip Street, Kentish Town. Questions and discussion from the audience have shown the pressing need for Socialist Propaganda in this area of St. Pancras.

Edgware Branch’s debate with the I.W.W. on 12th August was attended by about 60 people; J. M. Hutchinson, putting the I.W.W.’s point of view gave a good indictment of the capitalist system, but in putting the I.W.W.’s case left the way open for Waters’ rebuttal for the party. Briefly, Hutchinson advocated that the workers should “organize and educate” themselves on a basis of class-consciousness for the purpose of “organizing their industry at the point of production and distribution.” The futility of the industrial unionism of the I.W.W. as an instrument for working class emancipation was amply explained by Waters who demonstrated the inseparability of the means from the end which the I.W.W. failed to face up to, and instanced another "non-political” trade-union that had concluded its activities by urging its members to join the Conservative Party! The activities favoured by the I.W.W. were shown by Waters to be abortive and disillusioning to workers, whose task of emancipation is political in character.

Kingston Branch commenced its outdoor meetings at "The Fountain,” New Malden, Surrey, on Saturday, September 18th. It is hoped that the weather will allow these meetings to be continued for six weeks, by which time a programme of indoor meetings will have been arranged and advertised to be held at the New Malden public library on Saturday evenings, commencing in November.

The meetings at Castle Street, Kingston, on Friday and Saturday evenings will continue until winter weather makes outdoor activities impossible. After September, speakers for the Friday evening meetings will be drawn exclusively from the branch.

In co-operation with Ealing Branch, a coach outing has been arranged for October 3rd to Southsea. Thirty-three members and friends of both branches, including four or five speakers, will journey to Southsea and hold a continuous afternoon and evening meeting on or near, the Marine Parade. Members living on the south coast within travelling distance of Southsea have been invited to join the party at the meeting place.

Door to door canvassing with a distribution of literature in the Twickenham district was conducted by two members of the branch during the early months of the year and resulted in collections for branch funds totalling £7 18s. 5d. This averages 5s. per hour of canvassing from each of the two members.

The Overseas Secretary reports that the response to his appeal for assistants to help with the overseas correspondence has been far beyond his expectations. The number of volunteers exceeds the amount of work to be done. As the amount of overseas correspondence increases a job will be found for everyone who has offered to help.

To the request that branches send in the overseas addresses of ex-members who have gone abroad, the response has not been so good. Where such an address is passed to the overseas department an attempt is made to link up the ex-member with comrades who may reside near and to keep in touch with him as well.

When the "Racial Problem” pamphlet first appeared a number of copies were sent to native trade unions, newspapers and journals, and to individuals in Africa, India, America, Ceylon, Malaya and British West Indies. A few encouraging replies have been received. Here are extracts from one or two such replies:

From Trinidad: ". . . [it] is a masterpiece. Since reading same I have lent it to no fewer than twenty- five persons . . . I am now beginning to know the why and the answer to many problems. I would really like a catalogue of Socialist works . . .”

From the Gold Coast: ". . . I hope to review [The Racial Problem] as soon as the present censorship of the Gold Coast Press is lifted. I am keenly interested in Socialism, personally, and would be most grateful for any literature on the subject that you could forward to me.”

From Madras: "Please be good.enough to send regularly every month a copy of your monthly 'The Socialist Standard’.”

There are other similar letters.

From the All-India Trade Union Congress we learn that " . . . in the last week in March, office bearers and organisers of a very large number of affiliated unions of the AITUC all over the country were arrested and detained without trial, and warrants were issued against many others, on the ground that they were Communists.” They tell us that offices were sealed and registers and papers were confiscated. From Assam we learn that "In the course of the last month [June] more Trade Unionists have been put behind the prison bars in Assam than even within a year of the worst days of direct British rule.”

The Dublin Socialist Group hope to have their Economics class started sometime during October. Their attempts to get the S.S. and the W.S. in the Dublin libraries have met with no success. "The ordinary channels just don’t exist as far as we are concerned . . . in other words, the bar is up to us.”

The new pamphlet on Russia, to be published by the Socialist Party of Canada, went to the printers in August.

The Johannesburg paper formerly known as Europe To-Morrow is now entitled Socialist Forum. This paper comprises, in the main, a selection of articles from “left” European journals. We thank the Comrades in Rhodesia for their recent generous donations to our party funds.

To readers of the Socialist Standard in all parts of the world. There may possibly be another reader of the S.S. residing near you. There are some parts of the world, very remote from Great Britain, where we have more than one subscriber or contact. If such readers would like to be put in contact with one another it will be arranged when they write to Overseas Secretary.

W. Waters.

Party News Briefs (1948)

Party News from the September 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Autumn Delegate Meeting takes place on Sunday morning and afternoon, September 26th, at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.1. It will be followed in the evening by a mass rally at the same hall. The Executive Committee’s report on the first six months of 1948 is now in the hands of branches. Among other things it shows that our propaganda has been more extensive during the six months than for a considerable number of years, even including 1945 when we fought a General Election campaign. The Central Organiser considers that the prospects of the party are now brighter than ever before. The sales of the Socialist Standard have also increased recently after a dull period during the winter. We are still, however, facing difficulties owing to a shortage of competent writers for the Socialist Standard. These difficulties may be solved by the Head Office Tutorial Class, which now has a sufficient nucleus of tutors to go ahead as a general introductory class for new members, and as a means of finding out the aptitude of members for speaking, writing and teaching. In the section of the report devoted to overseas contacts the question is raised of socialists living in countries where no socialist parties exist, and who wish to maintain ties with a socialist party. Financially our position is still a difficult one, although it improved at the beginning of the year but deteriorated afterwards. Delegates will probably give this item serious consideration, particularly in view of the Executive Committee’s decision to contest at least one constituency, North Paddington, at the next General Election. The total membership of the party at the end of June was 1,008, yet another increase. The Delegate Meeting will be interesting and stimulating, and we will give a report of it in the November Socialist Standard.


Hackney Branch commence their weekly Friday evening winter lecture course at the Bethnal Green Public Library, Cambridge Heath Road, on October 1st. at 8 o’clock, when A. Turner will speak on “ Our hostility to other parties.” On October 8th C. Groves speaks on “Nationalisation,” and October 15th S. Cash speaks on “ Socialism in our time.”


Islington Branch appeal to all their members to support their outdoor meetings, with which they are having difficulties owing to tack of branch support. The co-operation of members is urgently required.


Two New Branches have just been formed, one at St. Pancras and the other at Fulham. These two areas are ripe for party development and it is gratifying to have party units established there.


“Collected Socialist Pamphlets," the bound volume of party pamphlets is now ready. This is a limited special Library edition, 307 pages, strongly bound in quarter blue calf, with gold lettering along the back. The price is 8s. 6d. nett. It is available to public and university libraries only, and until the supply is exhausted, all librarians who apply for a copy can be supplied. Several public libraries in Lancashire and Yorkshire have already applied for copies. Party members are urged to put this book on the “Suggestion Slips” at their local libraries. Remember the title— “Collected Socialist Pamphlets.” Publishers—The Socialist Party of Great Britain.


A Fuller Report of the Debate with Christopher Hollis (Conservative) at Ealing Town Hall has now been received. H. Young opened the debate by defining a class as a body of people united by a common economic interest: the existence of one class presupposed the existence of at least one other and consequently a conflict of interests or a class struggle.

He wound up his first session by tracing the development of classes and the class struggle and by defining the class division.of society to-day.

Hollis stated that he agreed with Young’s definition of a class.

Although Marx had had some “horse sense” and although his "economic determinism” was fundamentally correct, his psychology was behind the times —Young was stating a case which may have been all very well in 1848 but was hardly applicable to-day: capitalism was now nearly dead, nevertheless it had succeeded during its lifetime, by the development of the world’s productive resources in improving the condition of the working-class and had not, as Marx had predicted, merely increased their misery.

To-day in England, as a result of a diffusion of ownership, there were more capitalists than working men.

The people with real power to-day were not the capitalists, but the rising managerial class, who were neither capitalists nor workers.

One might well ask then, is there not a class-struggle on this basis? The answer he would give was that at present there was not, but that one may develop in the future.

As for the socialist revolution: there was every indication that it would follow the pattern of revolutions in the past—that despite the equalitarian promises of its advocates, a new ruling class would arise from it. Young, in his second period, repeated his definition of classes.

If Hollis was right, and the majority of people were capitalists, there would still be a minority class.

William Beveridge (and many other prominent statisticians agreed with him) had stated that 9 per cent. of the total population owned 91 per cent. of the total wealth—this indicated a vast gulf between two classes in society and this view was sustained by the proof of the large amounts of money left in the wills published daily in the newspapers.

When Marx spoke of the increasing poverty of the workers he was relating their position to that of their masters, poverty and riches being relative, one presupposing the other.

Managers were not capitalists, and capitalists did not need any special capabilities of knowledge to attain their superior social position.

Young wound up his second period by describing Socialism and the means by which it was to be achieved.

Hollis opened his second period by repeating that Marx was an economic determinist.

Society, he said, contained an infinite variety of classes—some people were capitalists and workers in varying degrees.

He did not deny that there were rich and poor but did deny that riches in any way necessarily gave power: a large number of very powerful people were without riches.

There was a conflict between the managerial class and the capitalists—society would undoubtedly change, but not as Marx and the S.P.G.B. envisaged.

Young stated that it was futile for Hollis to look back to past conditions when considering present-day poverty—this did not explain anything nor did it in any way help to solve the problem.

It was very strange that despite the privileged position which Hollis stated to be the lot of the managers, no capitalist wanted to suffer the social fall to a manager, but many managers wanted to rise to capitalists.

Socialism could not be established by a minority, even a Marxist minority: it must be the work of the working-class themselves. Hollis replied that Young had been speaking in the past—his contentions were out of date, since the face of capitalism Had changed.

Marx had not meant relative poverty, but actual poverty.

The main fault with Marxism and the S.P.G.B. case was that one could not solve the problems of 1948 with solutions which were propounded in 1848. Young wound up the debate by pointing out that Hollis had agreed that there was a class-struggle and had now passed on to a discussion of Socialism.

It may be that the face of capitalism had changed, but the ugly body remained the same.

He finished by stressing the necessity for the working-class first understanding and desiring Socialism before that system of society could be established.

Kingston Branch is preparing for a season of winter activity in Malden, Surrey district. The local Labour Party in this area was challenged to debate, but has replied with the usual “no useful purpose would be served by such a debate at the present time.” The success of the outdoor meetings at Castle Street, Kingston, on Saturday evenings has prompted the branch to hold meetings at the same place on Friday evenings. ‘‘The Fountain” at New Malden is now being considered as a further outdoor station as a preliminary to a series of indoor meetings in that locality later in the year.

The Overseas Secretary reports that the recently formed Dublin Socialist Group is progressing very satisfactorily. Meetings held at the hall at 33, Lower Gardiner Street, on Sunday evenings are a stimulating success. The subjects cover a wide range and each meeting is reported, and future ones announced, in the Dublin Evening Mail. Readers of the Socialist Standard in any part of Eire are invited to contact the group through M. Cullen, 34, Lower Buckingham Street, Dublin. We have received a collection of news cuttings taken from Dublin daily and evening papers which show that the group is making itself known in that city.

The International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, which lost most of its journals and periodicals during the war, is now re-collecting material and is being supplied with Party literature.

Attempts are being made to link up a number of ex-members and friends in Africa in order that their socialist activities may be co-ordinated.

The World Socialist Party of U.S.A. have sent us the report of the 1948 National Conference held in Boston on May 30th and 31st. Some of the problems' discussed by the delegates are problems that beset our own Party or have had to be thrashed out by us in the past. In particular is the ever present problem of maintaining a sufficient financial income to continue socialist activities. The finances of a Socialist Party, dependant upon the shallow pockets of its working-class members and friends, are always a source of headaches.

Another common problem to both our organisations is to find ways and means to increase the circulation of our literature. The W.S.P. conference discussed a number of projects With this object in view, the result of which we may soon see embodied in their journal, “The Western Socialist”

We note with interest that a $1,000 drive is to be instituted in an effort to put their full-time National Organiser back in the field.

Also discussed was the suggestion that some form of organisation be established to embrace socialists who reside in parts of the world where no Socialist Party exists, and who desire to keep in touch with the socialist movement in an organised manner.

Next year's conference venue will be Detroit.

Greetings are sent to all comrades in Great Britain.

C. C. Groves,

General Secretary. 

Party News Briefs (1948)

Party News from the June 1948 issue of the Socialist Standard

May Day in London was a battle of endurance in which members won a victory over atrocious weather. We had members along the route of the procession selling literature, and they all got a drenching. In Hyde Park we had a decorated cart for our meeting and our banner with the party’s name on it could not be missed. Prior to May Day we had been disputing with the Ministry of Works their refusal to permit us to use amplifying apparatus in the park, and the permission given by them to the London Trades Council. We told them that while we did not advocate the use of this apparatus in Hyde Park, we had no other means of defence when others used it. It would seem reasonable that its use should be permitted to all responsible organisations or none. In the event, the amplifiers used at the Trades Council meeting were pitched quietly, possibly as a result of the stand we had taken, and while they interfered with our meeting to some extent, we nevertheless kept the attention of a very large audience. On Sunday we had another large meeting in the Park, followed by our mass rally in the Conway Hall. This we very nearly filled and our speakers, Cash, Young, Groves and Turner were listened to attentively and applauded with enthusiasm by the audience who donated about £40 to our funds. Party members in good numbers played an active part in making the May Day celebrations in London a success in spite of the conditions; Glasgow also report a good day up there on the Sunday. They sold 20 doz. Socialist Standards along the procession, and widely advertised the evening meeting in the Cosmo Cinema by street-chalking, billposting, etc. We were not permitted to hold outdoor meetings in Queens Park as this was reserved entirely for Labour Party meetings. F. Duncan and C. May spoke in the Cosmo Cinema to an audience of about 300 and the branch were well satisfied with the meeting. The collection was approximately £7 10s. C. Lestor went to Bristol for a May Day meeting on Durdham Downs. We have a few members down there who keep pegging away in conditions that are not too easy. Lestor spoke for three hours to about 200 people and the effort stimulated the local comrades. So far we have not received Manchester’s May Day report, but will give it in this column when received. From the U.S.A. also comes news of a successful May Day week-end in Boston by the W.S.P. of U.S.A. A feature of these meetings (on Boston Common and at their headquarters) was the exceptionally heavy literature sales.

The Head Office Librarians require copies of early party pamphlets, as they wish to prepare bound sets for the library. Have a look at your library and send along what you can spare. Also old pamphlets of the S.D.F., I.L.P.. etc., and copies of Justice.

Kingston Branch’s outdoor meetings at Castle Street are as successful as was anticipated. Cold and damp weather has not stopped us getting a good audience every Saturday evening. On one Saturday evening A. Turner held an audience of over 300 for two hours. The branch is confident of producing two speakers from its strength in the very near future

Leyton Branch have how opened a new outdoor station at the “Elms,” Leytonstone, on Wednesday evenings and the first meetings have been very encouraging to members.

A General Election Fight in North Paddington has been decided upon by the Executive Committee as a minimum General Election programme. The Executive Committee have not excluded the possibility of fighting other constituencies as well. This decision must be backed up by members and sympathisers immediately. Money will be the main limiting factor in our forthcoming election campaigns. We have members able and anxious to do the work, and an organisation fitted to deal with the tasks involved. The membership is in support of the fight on the electoral field in the immediate future, but we must build up the funds. Do whatever you can as quickly as you can!

The Overseas Secretary reports that the W.S.P. of of U.S.A. is holding its Annual Conference at Boston at the end of May. Representatives of the Canadian party will attend. They are trying to make a big effort of it with a series of outdoor meetings and possibly a debate. The Dublin socialist group is planning to extend its activities with regular propaganda meetings both outdoors and indoors, and also is trying to form an educational class. The group now has its own headquarters at the Boilermakers’ Hall, 33, Lower Gardiner Street. It meets there on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, having lectures on Sundays, a business meeting on Tuesdays, and plans in progress for an economics class on Thursdays. The hall was packed for the first lecture on May 2nd.

We have been asked by the Overseas Secretary to make a special request for members to assist him. He wants his correspondence with contacts in various parts of the world taken over by a member or members. Workers in other countries are now frequently asking for information from us. and trying to maintain correspondence with someone in Great Britain. The correspondence can be, if necessary, in English, but anyone who can correspond in a foreign language can be put in direct touch with a contact abroad.

Lewisham Branch are following in the footsteps of some other branches in running a Socialist Standard canvass every Sunday, and have already doubled their usual sales.

Bristol Group aims to run fortnightly outdoor propaganda meetings on Durdham Downs this summer and have already booked a series of speakers up to the end of August.

Islington Branch have at last nailed down the Communist Party to a debate. The arrangements are that Geo. Jones (late parliamentary candidate for Hornsey) for the Communist Party will be faced by A. Turner for the S.P.G.B. at Hornsey Town Hall on Tuesday, June 1st. A report of the debate will appear in our next issue.

The New Pamphlet “Russia since 1917,” due soon, will be sold at 1s. per copy. It is another lengthy pamphlet and there’s plenty for the money.

The New E.C. Member is G. Kerr (West Ham branch) and the new Central Organiser, J. D’Arcy Bloomsbury branch), both election results having been recently declared.

C. C. Groves,

General Secretary.

Dublin Letter (1949)

From the May 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

It is some weeks now since the world heard the result of the General Election in Northern Ireland—though how much the world really cared about that election result, we, of course, can’t say. The election issue, however, was said to be a clear one. "King or Republic?”—that is, maintenance of the constitutional status quo or incorporation in an all-Ireland Republic. For the King and continued union with Gt. Britain, were the ”Ulster Unionists” (Tories); for the Republic, the Nationalists. Uncomfortably straddling the constitutional fence, swaying, now this side, now that, were the Northern Ireland Labour party, and a few “Independents.” Though the result was never in any doubt—the return to power of the Tories—the utter debacle of the Labour party came about as a complete surprise to most people. Not one of their nine candidates were elected, including three fighting to retain their seats in Belfast; all told, the Labour party lost about 35,000 votes. And McCullough, the one Communist party candidate, only got 688 votes as compared with his 5,802 in 1945—in the same constituency, and against the same opponent. Lord Glentoran, one of the foremost Tory leaders.

To Socialists, the ups and downs of the Tory and Nationalist votes are unimpressive by comparison with the disintegration of the “Leftist and Progressive” ones; for these went, overwhelmingly, to the Tory party. Apologists have said that the supporters of the Labour party and the "Leftist” groups were stampeded. into voting Tory because of the jingoism and sabre-rattling of the Orange (Freemason) Lodges and the alleged threat to their Protestantism, etc., of absorption in a Papist-dominated all-Ireland Republic. Be that as it may, what volumes does it not speak for the Socialist attitude on reformism in general and, to Socialists in Ireland, on the "Partition question” in particular? That one-time adherents of the Labour party can be persuaded that a new national flag is a greater threat to their interests than the continuation of the capitalist economic system constitutes, indeed, a pitiful and sad commentary on the efficacy and worthwhileness of that tragically mis-named party, the Labour Party. But then, what are we to say of the lamentable decline of the alleged "revolutionary” vote, the Communist Party one ? Of McCullough’s [3.9] per cent. depleted vote, can we justifiably attribute it to the same cause? We think so, for no other fits the facts.

So, in this respect, the Northern Ireland elections have afforded one more demonstration of the uselessness of reformist votes as a means of effecting any real change in the worker’s position vis-a-vis the capitalist. Such votes are as easily lost in the next election as they are won in this. Though Hitler won quite a proportion of the Communist and Social Democrat parties’ votes, to a large extent by outdoing their promises of "social betterment,” any analogy between that phase of German history and the recent Tory victory in Northern Ireland would be not only misleading but involve the paying of false compliments to the Labour and "Leftist” parties. For the truth is that Sir Basil Brooke (Tory leader) and his party were under no great pressure to defend existing social and economic conditions in Northern Ireland. When, now and then, they did do so, it was only by way of superficial comparison with Eire, saying: "Look how worse off you’d be in an Irish Republic!” But that all they had to do, for the most part, was to wave the Orange flag and beat the Orange drum, is due to the pusillanimity of the Labour party and others, and their inability, because of their capitalist-reformist base, to point the way out to the Northern Ireland workers.

That the workers there, no less than their fellows down here in Eire, and elsewhere under capitalism, are “getting it in the neck ” all of the time, is ably borne out by an examination of the available social and economic statistics. With a population of 1,330,000, Northern Ireland has, at present, 37,000 men and women on the Unemployment Register. And this unemployment figure is not only proportionately higher than Britain’s—it was two-and-a-half times the British rate in 1947—but higher even than Eire’s, with 83,766 unemployed. This very large and ugly social blot on Northern Ireland is not of recent occurrence either. Except for the war periods, unemployment has always hovered round the 20,000 mark, and in more recent years, between 25,000 and 35,000. As a matter of fact, in March, 1947, it actually reached the 45,000 figure.

Working class housing and health conditions are, in general, no better than they are here in Eire—and that comparison is, indeed, an odious one. The number of houses officially estimated as unfit for habitation in Northern Ireland is 27,000. In Belfast itself (the Northern Ireland capital), where there were over 17,000 applications for houses by January, 1948, the Corporation and Housing Trust had between them built only 322! A survey recently undertaken by the Northern Ireland Council of Social Service (a semi-official body) revealed appalling conditions existing in this area of the "King’s Dominions.” Those conditions are all too graphically detailed in the work embodying the Council’s findings, "Rural Life in Northern Ireland ” (Oxford University Press, 1947).

For instance, taking the Beveridge Report subsistence benefit (and that low enough by any standards) as “ the poverty line,” the Council found that in County Fermanagh, twelve labourers’ households out of twenty-nine fell below this line, as well as nineteen pensioners’ households out of twenty-nine. And in Co. Down, likewise; while in Nth. Antrim, fifty per cent. of the farm labourers exist below this "minimum required to maintain health.” As to housing; not a single labourer’s cottage has been built by any Rural Council in Co. Fermanagh since Northern Ireland became a separate State (1921)! Much the same story is told of the other five counties. Even in Nth. Down, which is claimed to be the "most advanced” area because of its proximity to Belfast, only six per cent. of the houses have a W.C.! Also—and not far from Stormont either, where the "King’s men” legislate in the interests of the linen, brewing and shipbuilding industrialists and big farmers, and rave about the ‘‘prosperity of Ulster and the poverty of Eire”—in Belfast, according to the Council, the main causes of distress in that city were tuberculosis and the housing shortage.

But enough has been said already to show that there are working-class problems in Northern Ireland apart from the capitalist constitutional ones. The solution of these problems, because they are specifically working-class ones, is not to be found in formulae concerned with national boundaries. Neither Statute of Westminster nor Republican Declaration can offer a solution of them. The division which gave birth to these problems—the division of the wealth of the few and the poverty of the many—is, needless to say, conveniently ignored by all of the current publicity devoted to that sorrowing tale, "Divided Ireland.” Even a King and a Republic (and that’s not a piece of Irishry, for through the External Relations Act that was the situation in Eire from 1937 to 1949) holds no hope of the ending of that division. And that Partition is one which will remain until a majority of the workers decide to end the capitalist system—complete with all its Republican and Monarchical paraphernalia—and establish Socialism.

Chris Walsh

(Dublin Socialist Group).

A Letter From Ireland (1949)

From the January 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

Our "Friend from Across the Water” (as the Otoe, Indian tribe of "native Americans" rechristened Eamon De Valera, during his recent tour of the U.S.) has indeed been at all times only too anxious to prove himself a “friend in need, a friend indeed” for the industrial-capitalist class of Eire. And now he’s off again, campaigning against the Partition of Ireland, but still in the service of his same old masters. This man who, as you well know, is boosted as the indefatigable opponent of everything anti-Republican in Ireland; this man who resolutely stood out against the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921 and, when all else failed, took “arms against a sea of troubles” ; this man who tenaciously stuck to his guns and his Republican principles—this man is actually non-existent, he’s a figment of the imagination.

Wasn’t it “Dev." who declared fearlessly at Newry, "north of the border,’’ in 1918, that he was “ready to blast the North out of his path”? And, again, in 1919, to an American newspaper correspondent:

“If the Paris Conference fails to take steps to extend self-determination to Ireland, violence will he the only alternative left to Irish patriots. This will mean something like continued revolution until Ireland’s rights are recognised.” (Times, London, March 13th, 1919.)

"Fighting words," you say? Perhaps. Though let me remind you that those were “fighting days.” However, let’s skip, for the moment, all that happened afterwards and come to the year 1946. In that year, in our parliament, “An Dail,” a certain man made a speech. Among other things, he said:

“The Border can only be done away with when the majority in the North decide of their own free will to come in and join us, without any coercion or compulsion whatever, and if any coercion or compulsion was used to bring them in I would he the first to oppose it.”

Yes, it was—" Dev.” When you’re in, you’re in; when you’re out, it’s another story. See? And now that “Dev’s.” out he’s been telling another story—the Newry story. To an audience in Chicago during his recent American tour, he said:

“If we get assistance the day will not be far off when we will have not twenty-six counties (Eire) but thirty-two.” (Press, March 21st, 1948.)

Now I ask you—can you beat it?

For sixteen years, remember, he wielded the power of a continental political dictator—he commanded the whole forces of the Irish State—and for sixteen years this great man, who was destined (“they’’ said) to fulfill the "1916 dream" of Irish Republicans, sat on his backside and lifted not a finger to bring any nearer that “glorious day.” What a man ! And what a game !

And now, in Britain, no less than the U.S. and Ireland, he’s once more donned the cloak of the Irish Republican Moses, and is rearing to storm the Stormont citadel in the North and lead his people to the wonderful Promised Land, “the Republic.” However, the above statements surely show, if nothing else, the utter disregard of principles which characterises this much-inflated personality, Eamon De Valera.

“For the Irish Republic! For national independence!”—remember the inspiring phrases which so intoxicated the Irish working man and woman? In the meantime, though, De Valera and his crowd were getting on with the real, down-to-earth job of attempting to establish the supremacy of the Irish manufacturers and industrialists. That was their goal.

Yes, history does record that De Valera was indeed the leader of the anti-Treatyites when the so-called split took place in the Irish Republican movement (Sinn Fein) over the signing of the Treaty in ’21. But did this division arise over some fundamental difference between those for and against that Treaty? Did it divide those involved into “for the Republic” and “against it”? And was there, from now on, an impassable gulf between these two sections? To all three questions the answer is a very simple “no”! The split over the Treaty was, in fact, no more than a fake split It didn't occur because the terms of that Treaty were such as to make manifest two irreconcilable principles within Sinn Fein. All that took place then was merely a disagreement between two sections of one negotiating side over the terms of the bargain struck, but, as a matter of fact, neither of these two sections were opposed to the conclusion of such a Treaty. Both accepted the basic conditions laid down by Lloyd George for the British Government.

From the official correspondence between the British Government, and Sinn Fein which preceded the actual Treaty conference of 1921 (published by the British Government, Command Paper 1470, 1921), I quote the following:

September 12, 1921. De Valera to Lloyd George: declaring Sinn Fein’s willingness “to enter a conference to ascertain how the association of Ireland with the community of nations known as the British Empire can best be reconciled with Irish national aspirations.”

(“Reconciled,” mark you! The Republican virgin was going to lie down with the Imperialist profligate . . Kathleen ni Houlihan!)

September, 29,1921. Lloyd George to De Valera: ‘‘There is no purpose to be served by any further interchange of explanatory and argumentative communications upon the subject. The position taken up by H.M. Government is fundamental to the existence of the British Empire, and they cannot alter it.”
September 30, 1921. De Valera accepts : "Our respective positions have been stated and are understood. . .”

So much for the alleged Republicanism of De Valera. But the whole tragedy was that this fiction was a not unimportant contributory cause of the Civil War which followed the signing of the Treaty. For the best part of that following two years, brother slayed brother. You well know all that. And what did these men and women—the men and women who did the fighting—get out of it? But need I ask you that? You know they got nothing. Why, even the victors got little more than the vanquished: a pittance and some medals. They weren’t invited to the “Irish Free State banquet” which followed, although it was they who provided all the good things that were spread on the table. That historic banquet is now celebrated annually by a few, at functions known as “annual company meetings.” But those who were once the soldiers at the front are now no more than the wage slaves in the rear. Some of these soldiers, as you may be aware, are lying in the re-named Dublin Workhouse, St. Kevins, as I write, and—perhaps—are fondling their medals and certificates of ‘‘I was there.”

After the Civil War, Fianna Fail was formed, in 1926, with “Dev.” at its head. Yes, he forgave and forgot, accepted and recognised the Government that derived its legitimate authority from the 1921 Treaty, and prepared to battle for political power. During the years that preceded his 1932 victory he and his party were always ready and willing to barter, to sell their support and the votes they commanded for a share in the governing and administering of the new, up-and-coming Irish capitalist exploitation of the Irish people. And they were not loath to offer their allegiance to their “bitterest enemies” either, the so-called pro-Treatyites. Shortly before the 1927 elections, when the leader of the “pro-Treaty Government” in power then; Cosgrave, declared: “I am prepared to forgive and forget,” Sean Lemass, for “Dev’s ” party, replied:

“We are prepared to forgive . . .  If he wants a political truce with Fianna Fail he can have it tomorrow.” (The Republic, September 17th, 1927.) 

See how they trick you!

The wide gulf that separated the “friends of the Republic” from the “enemies of the Republic” wasn’t so very wide after all. In point of fact, it just didn’t exist. It was as imaginary .as “Dev’s” compact morroco-bound, Oxford dictionary, Republic or his own “100 per cent. Republicanism.” One side was as wide awake as the other on the desirability, and resulting advantages, of building-up a native capitalism. That is the plain fact. They merely differed as to the means to employ to achieve that end. In such conflicts the workers have nothing at stake. The interest of the worker is to dispense with his chains, not fight over who shall rivet them.

Today, Irish working men and women are in the same old boat. Yes, the old tramp, the coffin-ship of millions, capitalism; the only difference being that now, in Ireland, there’s a Republican master at the helm. But wage-slavery for the majority continues—now, in the Republic, as much as before it. De Valera or Costello—either name spells capitalism and exploitation of the mass of the Irish people!

Let me quote once more. From an old article on the Sinn Fein movement in the Socialist Standard:

“What part can the Irish workers, devoid of capital, take in the Industrial Revival except the toiling part? All those revivals are useless to the worker until he owns the product of his toil, then he will be able to enjoy to the full all the advantages to be obtained. So long as private property is the order of the day it matters little to the property less Irish worker (the vast mass of the Irish population) who rules Ireland.” (June, 1917.) 

It’s a far cry from 1948 to 1917 but the foregoing is every bit as applicable now as it was then.

And now “Dev.” and Costello, and the other “great Irish leaders,” are hitting the headlines with speeches railing against Partition in Ireland. Well, in conclusion, let me say that we Socialists in Ireland equally desire, and ceaselessly work for, the ending of Partition, also—but we never get any headlines in the Press. Oh, no; for the Partition we speak against is not a geographical one but an economic one. The Partition we oppose is that between the rich and poor, between the capitalist class and the working class. That is the Partition, a universal one, which Socialists everywhere seek to abolish, and that I suggest, is the only Partition which you, and all other workers, ought to concentrate on and bend all your efforts towards removing.

National boundaries may be altered—may even disappear—but such re-arrangements of things geographical can in no way abolish, or even lessen, the poverty of the many. The solution to that problem will not be found by struggling for Empires or Republics (whether of the 26- or 32-County variety), but by striving for the World Socialist Commonwealth.

So—Yours for Socialism,

CHRIS. WALSH.

(Dublin Socialist Group.)

James Connolly Commemoration, 1949

From the archives. 

The following is the text of a leaflet that dates from 1949, and was produced by the Dublin Socialist Group for distribution at events organised in the city to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the execution of James Connolly. 

The socialists who made up the Dublin Socialist Group later helped form the World Socialist Party of Ireland.

FELLOW-WORKERS ! TRADE UNIONISTS !

May the 15th, 1949 – thirty-three years after his death which you now commemorate, and less than thirty-three days after the roar of guns ushered in “The Republic of Ireland”. What relationship is there between these two events? That is the question which, on this day, it is only fitting that you should ask yourselves. Once a year you can march through the streets in your thousands to commemorate his death yet every other day of the year your actions – your very ideas – are, apparently, in violent conflict with all that the man lived for. Is that an unwarranted assumption? Emphatically, we reply: NO. The truth remains the truth, however unpalatable it may be.

We have not the least desire to advance any claim to James Connolly, nor do we consider ourselves the especial inheritors of all of his ideas. But to-day, when everybody acclaims him and sings his praise, we think it very necessary to re-state the simple but vital fact, namely, that JAMES CONNOLLY WAS OF THE WORKING CLASS. His ideas are not, and never will be, the sole preserve, nor in the custody, of any particular section BUT THE WORKING CLASS. Here it is as well to recall – when many are clamouring to bask in the light of the but recently-discovered glory of Connolly – that his ideas were vehemently denounced, and his very person attacked, by the representatives of those interests who, to-day, so anxiously press their claim to his name. We would not be so much concerned at this were it not for the fact that the workers have been “taken in” by these spurious claims. You, fellow-workers, have been duped; for you have supported political parties which have acted in the interests of any and every class in and out of this county but the working class. And you have supported them and placed them in power mainly on the strength of their nationalism and Republicanism. You, who now march to-day in memory of James Connolly, have you forgotten his “Labour in Irish History”? Have you forgotten the thoughts he put on paper in order that you might the better be able to wage your struggle against a social system which condemns you to poverty and insecurity? We think you have forgotten. At the cost of remembering the symbolic moment of his death in a national struggle you’ve forgotten the toiling years of his life on behalf of the working class. Connolly didn’t struggle, and write and speak, and organise, in order that the workers might adhere to this or that Republican constitutional formula; no, not for that. There was no James Connolly if such a man did not desire and work to change the world, not its paper constitutions.

And you, fellow-workers, who, in your Trade Unions and political parties stoutly maintain that you strive to follow in his footsteps, do you direct your efforts towards changing the world? Evidence that you do is certainly very much lacking; for on every occasion you’ve entered the polling-booth you’ve either returned you out-going set of masters or merely changed them for a new set. Not yet have you evinced any great desire to get rid of the master class AS A WHOLE. And that, simply, is what is meant by “changing the world”.

FELLOW-WORKERS ! As you may march, as you may stand at the meeting-place, to-day, why not summarise your present position in your own mind – after twenty-seven years of native government, and after twenty-seven days of “The Republic of Ireland”? Line up your wage-packet (assuming you’re not one of “the 75,000”) alongside the cost-of-living figure: which is higher? Dwell a little on the plight of the thousands “living” in the tenements – that is, of course, if you happen to be blessed (!) with a suburban (!!) “working class house”. Recall the thousands who are unemployed (if you’re not one of them, of course), and remember they’re the ever-present threat of capitalism which hangs over your head – you may join their ranks to-morrow. Again, tuberculosis and other medically-classified poverty diseases are capitalism’s constant threat to the health and happiness of your children. And topping these and the other social evils you know only too well the experience is the threat of another capitalist war – yes, another, and promising to be everything (and much more) that all the previous wars of history weren’t together.

That is the real world you live in. Say – if you wish – that you reside in a portion of that world known as “The Republic of Ireland”. So what? Does that alter your position one bit? Of course not. And that world, reflected in the capitalist system of that country and the conditions of the Irish working class, surely deserves to go. And it will go WHEN THE WORKING CLASS WILLS IT. If James Connolly can be said to have left a message for the working class, it is this: THE WORKING CLASS MUST ACHIEVE ITS EMANCIPATION ITSELF AND IT CAN ONLY DO SO THROUGH THE ABOLITION OF THE CAPITALIST SOCIAL SYSTEM.

We are not given to lip-service, and much (judicious) quoting of Connolly, but the following, we think, is by no means out of place, and we especially commend it, on this particular occasion, to those who – to put it bluntly – have made a good thing out of such practices.

“Ireland as distinct from her people is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for ‘Ireland’ and yet can pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and suffering and the shame and the degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland: AYE, WROUGHT BY IRISHMEN UPON IRISH MEN AND WOMEN without burning to end it, is a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call ‘Ireland’”. [From Connolly's 1900 article, 'The Coming Generation'.]

Fellow-workers, there is but one way to really commemorate Connolly, and all those – whoever and wherever they may been – who have fought and died for and on behalf of the world’s workers, and that is by striving to abolish capitalism and establish SOCIALISM, THE COMMON OWNERSHIP AND DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION (the factories, mills, mines, railways, etc.), BY AND IN THE INTERESTS OF THE WHOLE OF THE COMMUNITY WITHOUT ANY DISTINCTION WHATSOEVER. By devoting your time and energy to the achieving of such an aim you will be truly commemorating Connolly and all those of his kind every day.

THE DUBLIN SOCIALIST GROUP

(c/o 33 Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin).

Meetings every Sunday at the above address, commencing 8 p.m. Questions and discussion at all meetings. Socialist literature available.

To-night – Sunday, 15th May – “The Need for a Socialist Party”.

THE WORLD FOR THE WORKERS! UNITE FOR SOCIALISM!