Our Parliamentary Campaign (1938)

Party News from the June 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Local Labour Party Wakes Up

For months past we have been making an organised move to contact the electorate in East Ham North, where we are running a candidate for Parliament at the next General Election.

The result is that the local Labour Party has issued a circular warning its members against the Socialist Party. The following is an extract from ; the circular: —

   “. . . . Socialist Party of Great Britain. Some of our members may have been confused by the campaign for members which has been run by the above-named organisation. We want it to be clear that the Socialist Party of Great Britain is a small, intensely bigoted organisation, claiming to be the only pure disciples of Karl Marx. They have no connection with the Labour Party, are not affiliated, and have no belief in Parliamentary Government, except to demonstrate its futility. They have announced that they intend to run a candidate in opposition to the Labour Party in East Ham North at the next General Election. Members ought to know where to place an organisation which is insane enough to split the working-class at a General Election". 

So far so good! But why Labour Party members should be “confused” between the Socialist Party of Great Britain and their own party is difficult for us to comprehend. Perhaps the authors of the circular would care to try again with an explanation of their statement. Perhaps they mean that our activities have set the minds of their members to doubt the validity of the Labour Party’s claim to be a Socialist organisation. We can assure them that our own propaganda will do that good and proper. Our exposure of capitalist politics and economics must inevitably reveal the Labour Party as an organisation which is pro-capitalist in outlook and method.

The Socialist Party of Great Britain has never announced that we intend to run a candidate in opposition to the Labour Party. What we have stated is that our candidate will stand for the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of Socialism. As all the other candidates, including the one from the Labour Party, will support capitalism in one way or another, we shall be in opposition to them all.

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“A Small Organisation”

What a statement! The Labour Party was small at one time, and we well remember in its early days it was constantly charged by the Liberals that it was “splitting the votes of the progressive forces" whenever it ran candidates for Parliament.

We would hardly remind the East Ham Labour Party that there was a time when the entire Labour Party representation could have been carried to Parliament in a four-wheeled cab.

” Parliamentary Government”

We challenge the East Ham Labour Party to substantiate their statement that we do not believe in "Parliamentary Government.” We charge them with confusing the minds of their own members, inasmuch as underlying their statement is the suggestion that we think that Parliament is futile. We flatly deny this misrepresentation of our position. May we ask them to read some of the literature we have distributed in the constituency, in which we show the importance of controlling Parliament and the whole political machinery as a means of establishing Socialism ?

We suggest that the East Ham Labour Party might care to arrange for a public debate with us; we are as anxious as they are that their members should not be confused.

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More S.P.G.B. Canvassers Wanted

Now for a few words to our own members. The campaign in the constituency is steadily and surely gaining ground.

The East Ham Branch has arranged a series of lectures, and this must be made widely known.

Outdoor propaganda meetings have, and are, being held, but all this is not enough. A number of members have already canvassed some of the wards with satisfactory results. Some of them report that a discussion about Socialism on the doorstep, in the passage or the parlour, is sometimes welcomed by people who dislike answering the door to the landlord and the men with the vacuum cleaners.

We know that personal contact is a most effective way of making our case known, and we are sure that no member of the Socialist Party would like to feel that, but for his or her inactivity, our campaign would have been more successful. Therefore, we appeal to all who can do this to let us know as soon as possible. We must have more canvassers, and we intend to run a school, if necessary, to show how canvassing is done. Let us hear from you.

Robert Reynolds

(The Parliamentary Committee.)

Editorial: Still Another Mining Tragedy. (1938)

Editorial from the June 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

China is news, Russia is news, Austria, Czechoslovakia and other places where capitalist interests are strongly affected remain news, and daily figure prominently in the papers. But the Markham Colliery disaster was not even a nine days' wonder. After the first few days it has hardly been mentioned, although 80 men lost their lives in a peace-time occupation that has already claimed thousands of working-class lives.

Working in a coal-mine is not spectacular, but it is exceedingly unhealthy and dangerous under present conditions. When the miners ask for higher wages or improved conditions their demands are met with opposition by the people who live on the dividends resulting from the miners' work. When disaster, like that at the Markham Colliery, or the many other disasters that darken the record of coal-mining, occurs, then for a day or two there are loud protestations of sympathy for the victims and their dependents, there are photos of pitiful scenes; then, after a short interval, the tragedy is forgotten by those outside the narrow circle of the victims.

There will be an inquiry into the cause of the disaster, but the finding will not place the responsibility for the tragedy on the head of the real criminal—the system that lives on the exploitation of workers—the profit-making system of capitalism.

While this system continues tragedy will always hover over coal-mines. When the principle of wealth production is changed to production for the benefit of all, coal-mines will only be operated in a manner that will be safe for the workers in them. If coal-mining, or any other occupation, cannot be carried on without danger then some substitute for coal will be found, because under Socialism human life will at once become of supreme importance.

Our May-Day Meetings (1938)

From the June 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

All our members who organised and took part in the meetings and sale of literature on May-Day in Hyde Park are to be congratulated upon their magnificent efforts.

The two propaganda meetings were well arranged for such an occasion. Two vans were so placed that, with large banners bearing the name of the Party, our presence in the Park could hardly go unnoticed by anybody. Comrades Rubin, Turner, Ambridge, Otto, Clifford, Cash, Kilner and Willmott addressed well-ordered and attentive audiences, each from a different angle, driving home the soundness of the Socialist Party position, with the result that nearly 1,400 copies of THE SOCIALIST STANDARD and a large number of pamphlets were sold.

Another gratifying thing was to see a number of "old faces," sympathisers of the Party, who expressed their delight as seeing the S.P.G.B. once more laying low the lie of our being nothing but "armchair philosophers." Bravo!

Considering that the sale of literature is prohibited inside the Park (a striking example of bourgeois democratic rule), the amount of literature sold during the march from the Embankment, and then outside the Park gates, was simply amazing. Altogether over 60 members of the Party put their "shoulders to the wheel" in this part of the day's work. Let us keep on keeping on.

Robert Reynolds

Obituary: George Bellingham (1938)

Obituary from the June 1938 issue of the Socialist Standard

During the past few months the Party has suffered severely at the hand of death, and we regret the loss of another propagandist, George Bellingham, who died in April, at the age of about 55.

His attention was directed to the Socialist movement during the early days of the War. The conduct of the Labour Party in its whole-hearted support of that slaughter, and the betrayal of the workers by the Trade Union leaders, prompted him to take a more active part in working-class affairs.

In 1916 he was elected to the Executive Committee of his Trade Union, the London and Provincial Union of Licensed Vehicle Workers. The following year, in company with a member of the Socialist Party, he attended a conference of the Transport Workers' Federation, held at Bristol. While there they noticed that the whole of the passenger-carrying industry was in the hands of the Bristol Tramway & Carriage Co. The employees were unorganised, and dare not mention a word about Trade Unionism.

Realising that the time was favourable to rectify this, they reported the matter to their Executive Committee, and, as a consequence, Bellingham was sent to Bristol to undertake the task of organising this body of workers, and so bring them into the Trade Union movement. This work he carried out in a thorough and efficient manner, and as a result he was approached to stand as a Parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party. This offer being in conflict with his Socialist principles, he declined.

He continued the work of Organiser until the various Trade Unions catering for the Transport Workers were amalgamated into the "Transport Workers' Union." When this took place our late comrade gave up his position and ultimately returned to his work as a journeyman cab-driver.

For many years he gave unsparing service to the cause of Socialism, carrying on consistent propaganda, both among his fellow drivers and from the platform. Not until his recent illness compelled it, did he relax those efforts to help forward working-class enlightenment and ultimate emancipation.

E. L.