September, 1939, to September, 1941: two years of warfare on an unpreedented scale. Death and devastation rained from the sky on countless cities, with appalling consequences for the working class of this and other lands.
Looking back to the early days of this vast and terrible conflict, few of us in the Socialist Party then dared hope that conditions, even for a few months ahead, would permit us to continue propaganda for Socialism. But. here we are. after two years of war, still proclaiming that Socialism is the only way by which the working class can achieve a genuine "New Order” out of the present chaos of Capitalism.
It is true that in this period our meetings are not as numerous or as widespread as they were just prior to the war. but we can record that wherever they are held larger and more appreciative audiences are the result. Further, our literature sales are being effected in every party of the country.
Our difficulties, though, have been many and hard to overcome. The majority of branches were seriously dislocated as a consequence of the air raids. Many of the most active of our comrades were, through force of circumstances, compelled to leave the main centres of Party activity in order to follow their employment in distant parts of Britain.
Our Headquarters were bombed and demolished. causing us much extra work and not a little anxiety about meeting the inevitable expenses of transferring to new premises and the replacement of ruined equipment.
(From an Appeal by the Party Funds Organiser. Socialist Standard, September 1941.)
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