SPGB Meetings (1952)

Party News from the April 1952 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

• Fulham Branch's meeting on "Sex and Sin", with Tony Turner as the featured speaker, apparently generated a lot of interest.
• The June 1952 Socialist Standard carried reports of the SPGB May Day rallies which took place in London and Glasgow.

May Day and the Class Struggle (1958)

From the June 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

May Day demonstrations used to be held on the 1st of May: how they came to be changed to the first Sunday in May is one of life’s little ironies, or should we say one of working class life’s little ironies?

It happened during the first World War when the British and German sections of the working class were killing each other. Then the British Government suggested that in the interests of winning the war it would be greatly obliged if the Labour Party, who were also "winning the war” as well as organising May Day, would hold it on the first Sunday in May. To hold it on a week day would mean thousands of workers might be absent from munition factories and that would mean a drop in war production and what was more vital it would mean a drop in the rate at which the British uniformed workers were killing their German comrades.

It always rains on Sunday

After the first World War the Labour Party, presumably on the grounds that a week day demonstration would affect “peace production,” continued to hold May Day demonstrations on the first Sunday in May. There were also “influential people” who thought that if workers wanted to demonstrate they should demonstrate in their own time and not on a day normally devoted to the bosses. And further, as it could be shown statistically that the first May Sabbath was a case—”That it always rains on Sunday" — or nearly always, and so was likely to dampen the demonstrators’ ardour, everybody that is everybody apart from the workers seems to have reached a happy May Day solution.

The First of the May Days

There are, of course, four May Days historically considered. Two in the past, one in the present, and a hypothetical one in the future. May Days go back a long way, even the Greeks had a word for it, or more accurately a day for it. So did the Romans, Mais was a month of celebration, games and feasting a time when even austere Romans like Julius Caesar and Mark Antony took their hair down.

In Feudal England it was a day of celebration for the return of spring. On that day our forbears consumed quantities of cake and ale and made whoopee. It was sort of “Knees up Mother Brown” of the Middle Ages, and when the warmth of the day had subsided the young men full of cake and ale picked up the young women, also full of cake and ale, and bore them off into the woods, and a new warmth entered into the proceedings. It is even said, and I hope that I do our forbears no injustice that the girls entered the woods as immature maidens and came out of the woods experienced women. It seems that our working forefathers had more definite ideas about May Day than their modern counterparts.

Exit file First May Day

But Feudalism went and those sorts of May Days went with it—as a result of economic development a new class was emerging who were displacing the old Feudal order, a class of merchants and merchant adventurers who burst asunder the dosed Feudal economy and opened up the world. And what with piracy and plunder and the slave trade and colonisation they were so busy amassing vast wealth that they had little time for anything else, least of all for such things as May Days.

But the peasants and draftsmen of England not only lost their May Days, but their immemorial rights. The Land Enclosure increased in severity—as the 17th and 18th centuries went by a vast mass of peasants became landless and in some cases homeless. At the same time economic development led to a bitter, competitive struggle between the old craft guilds and the new merchant class and in the end the guilds went down in ruins before the impact of a new and superior method of wealth production and organisation.

Thus at the end of the 18th century and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, a landless, unprivileged and unorganised mass were hungry to enter the new factories built by the new factory owners, i.e. the new ruling class which had emerged from this process of economic development. And these new factory owners equally hungry from the standpoint of profits to receive them into their factories. It was this uncouth, unorganised mass who were the nucleus and origin of the modern working class, yet an unorganised mass who were to become organised by the very process of production. And as the weight of misery and oppression bore more heavily upon their shoulders they were involved in the riots and machine breaking and other acts of violence. From this class struggle between owners and non-owners, the workers began to throw up their own class organs of defence, which later emerged as the modern Trade Union Movement. 

The Second May Day

It was out of this class struggle that the idea of a second May Day emerged. Not a May Day merely symbolical of a resurgence of nature, but of labour carrying a promise of a new life. The idea was mooted in France, Germany and England during the 19th century for by this time capitalism had become international and the working class had become international also, and it was felt by groups of workers in different lands that as they had common interests they should also have common aims.

Yet it was not until 1888 that the 2nd International set aside the first day of May to be a day symbolical of international working class solidarity, with an advocacy of the eight-hour day. The first May Day Demonstration was in 1890. On that and subsequent May Days, Negroes, Indians, Chinamen, Germans, Frenchmen, marched in the name of the International working class in different parts of the world, transcending their national boundaries.

In England on May Day, workers marched in various towns and cities and often many of their women marched with them. They marched to the open spaces and parks and those who lived by the sweat of their brow gathered round coal carts and platforms to listen to those who lived or were later to live by the sweat of their tongues. 

Workers of the World unite

It was the high tide of working class international feeling. A time when Marx's slogan, “workers of the world unite” seemed to have more significance than ever before—or since. These workers were not Socialists; perhaps the nearest they got to Socialism was a passionate conviction to remould things nearer to the heart's desire, but they felt a common purpose in face of a common enemy. But this promised spring-time of the working class movement never flowered. The early blush on its cheek, faded before the long, hard winter of growing national sentiment and reformism.

By the turn of the 20th century a change had come o'er the spirit of the dream. The workers still marched, they still gathered round the same coal carts and still listened to the same old speakers. But the old speakers were now saying new things. No longer did they cry, down with the powers that be, for they were trying to start a political movement with the help of the trade unions which hoped to become part of the powers that be and in fact did become part of them—eventually what is more, some of the old agitators and speakers who boasted of their lowly origins successfully took part in that process. So successfully that in their ripe, or rotten ripe old age they recorded their success by writing books like “From Doss House to Debrett" or “From Pigstyle to Parliament," a perhaps not unnatural evolution.

Excelsior!

And so the Labour movement began to carry banners bearing strange signs. There were some in it demanding votes for women. Demands for the nationalisation of the Railways and Mines. Munidpalisation of gas, water and later electricity. The fact that these things came about has little to do with the early demands of the Labour Movement, but for other reasons. There was even a demand for the building of Labour Exchanges.

These things were now represented as being steps towards what was then termed the Millenium. The only trouble was that the more steps they took towards the Millenium the further it got away. In fact, they took so many steps towards it that it finally disappeared altogether and has never been seen since.

Freedom for Everybody

At the beginning of the 20th century there appeared the first of the Freedoms. Big banners proclaimed: "Freedom for the Boers." In due course the Boers got their freedom, but like so many such freedoms it turned out to be the freedom of the few to deny any sort of freedom to anybody else. Then there were demands for freedom for the Poles, freedom for the Slavs, etc., in fact, the only thing the workers never demanded was freedom for themselves, freedom from the servility of class domination.

Then the Labour Movement got mixed up with international politics, but international capitalist politics not international working class politics. They began by declaiming against "secret diplomacy." Then the Entente Cordiale. They demanded "No trafficking with Russia” against "The Big Navy Bill,” "Abolition of the Territorial Army,” etc.

So the Labour Movement, and with it May Days, instead of being the sounding board of international working class sentiment, became a big drum for national rivalries and conflicting foreign politics. A sort of Empire Day in reverse, but much more effective in compounding, confounding, complicating and obfuscating the pattern of working class politics.

After the war, with the advent of the communists in May Day demonstrations and other activities, British Foreign Policy got mixed up with Soviet Foreign Policy and things got in a glorious muddle. Then the communists started the "Hands off Movement" " Hands off China," "Hands off Spain," "Hands off Czechoslovakia," etc., although this did not prevent violent hands from being laid on all of these countries. Then there was the great down and up phase: "Down with Bonar Law," "Down with Baldwin,” "Up with Ramsay Mac and Snowden. “Down with Ramsay Mac and Snowden,” "Up with Cook and Maxton," "Down with Cook and Maxton,” "Down with Churchill," " Up with Churchill," then "Down with Churchill ”—ad infinitum.

Down with Fascism

Then in the years prior to the second world war there was “Down with Fascism" and a demand for a democratic military alliance against Hitler—Russia was then part of the " democratic alliance.” To show how May Days were only consistent in their inconsistency there were at the same time demands for drastic disarmament by the Tory government and devoting the savings to road making and increased doles. There were even demands that future wars should be conducted minus bombers and tanks. Although in demonstrations during the second world war unlimited quantities of both for the Second Front were the subject of slogans.

Now there are no longer cries, such as “ Down with capitalism—" Down with war." Nor even that tanks and aeroplanes should not be used in war. Only the Hydrogen Bomb should be taken off the war list so that war might once again become humane, decent and friendly. Such then has been the rise and fall of the second May Day.

May Day in Russia

One cannot, of course, omit May Day in Russia. No doubt the communists' dialectic skill has more than anywhere else turned May Day into its opposite. The communist boast that Soviet May Days are bigger and better than anywhere else. Unlike any other government they have made them state subsidised ceremonies, replete with the panoply and pomp of circumstance. As a show they probably make even a coronation look like a seaside carnival. All the great ones in Russia occupy the seats of the mighty on this day—symbolical of international working class solidarity. In Czarist times the police and military marched with the workers, but they were only with them, not of them. Now under the formulae of the unity of opposites they are included.

Tanks and jet bombers are also thrown in to show that communist war weapons can kill quicker and faster than bourgeois ones, thus demonstrating the superiority of "Socialism" over capitalism. And perhaps if Engels could have seen these Soviet May Days he might have thought that his aphorism—"the irony of history turns everything upside down," was an historic understatement.

To draw an historic parallel, one might think of the British Government in the 19th century organising the workers' May Day. Of thousands of workers with banners headed by old Queen Victoria in the gilded state coach and as they wheeled into the park massed bands of the guard playing with a row tow row tow to the British Grenadiers. And Gladstone, Disraeli and choice spirits from the House of Lords standing on coal carts with faces grimed for the occasion, proclaiming "Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your brains." Only the communists could turn such a May Day fantasy, into a Russian May Day nightmare.

No doubt in turning back the pages of May Day demonstrations we might laugh at our Victorian working class grandfathers. We tend to laugh at many things in the past especially the Victorian past if only perhaps to prevent us from laughing at ourselves, because that might not be so funny. Whether if they could' see across the years to the present May Day demonstrations they would "look forward in anger” one cannot say. But one feels whatever they did they wouldn’t laugh at us but blush for us instead.

May Days of To-morrow

It might be that when the clock of history has gone forward by establishing a rational society we might so far as May Day is concerned put the clock back and make it once more a day of celebration and merry making. Then there will be no need to demonstrate. No need to cry “Down with secret diplomacy,” because there will be neither secrets nor diplomacy. Nor to call for disarmament, because there will be no need to arm or disarm Neither shall we organise for the abolition of the Hydrogen Bomb because it, or a miniature specimen of it, will have been relegated to the museum of pre-human history. Men will at last have become truly human, and in the light of that development I will conclude by saying—MAY DAY IS DEAD—LONG LIVE MAY DAY.

Ted Wilmott.

Blogger's Notes:

"Yet it was not until 1888 that the 2nd International set aside the first day of May . . . " This might be a typo. The 2nd International wasn't formally launched until 1889.

The May 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard carries a notice for a May Day meeting, entitled "The Class Struggle and May Day", to be held at Denison House, 296 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London. The speakers listed were Lisa Bryan and Ted Wilmott. There's a strong chance that this article by Wilmott is the text of his speech at that meeting.

Party News Briefs (1958)

Party News from the June 1958 issue of the Socialist Standard

May Day, 1958. Party activities in London, Glasgow and Nottingham had the best results for many years and it is most heartening. The weather was good, which is a helpful factor, but even with weather in our favour, it is essential that members should organise to get te best results. This they did, and although full details have not been collected, we do know that thirty-five members in Hyde Park sold at least 200 Socialist Standards and ten shillings' worth of pamphlets. An evening meeting at Denison House was also successful, but full details are not yet to hand. Nottingham. Members from London added to the efforts of the local members and held most successful meetings; literature sales amounted to nearly £3. Glasgow. Comrade D’Arcy, from London, joined forces with the Glasgow members, and outdoor meetings and one indoor meeting resulted in the sale of over £4 worth of literature, and collections amounted to £7 10s. 0d. At all the meetings the audiences were attentive and asked good questions.

Wickford. Branch reports that successful sales of the Socialist Standard have resulted from the Branch members canvassing in the Basildon New Town area of Essex.

Glasgow’s May Day Meeting. Glasgow City and Kelvingrove Branches turned up in full strength at Queens Park Recreation Grounds for their afternoon meeting. Twenty-one members sold nearly £4 worth of Socialist literature while Comrade James D'Arcy addressed an appreciative audience of two hundred, in opposition to the Glasgow Trades Council, whose representative, Mr. Hugh Gaitskell—addressing a somewhat thicker audience—explained how the Tory Party were to blame for the impoverished condition of the British working class.

The Party's May Day venture was well organised and the opening shots were fired when six members distributed 1,500 leaflets, from door to door, advertising the Sunday evening meeting. Later, in the wee small hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings, the streets of Glasgow received a face-lift of whitewash in the shape of adverts for the meetings. In the evening the finishing touches were put to the May Day campaign when Comrades Higgins, Richmond and D'Arcy put the Socialist case to seventy enthusiastic members of the working class assembled in the St Andrew's Halls.

The total collections and donations from both meetings more than covered all expenses. Full details of the literature sales are not yet to hand, but it is expected these will be better than they have been for many years.

During the afternoon, while our members were swarming over the Queens Park selling Standards, some members took the opportunity to expose to a small group of workers the anti-working class activities of the Communist Party. A few members of the Paisley Branch of the Communist Party were so incensed by the Socialist analysis that they rashly challenged the S.P.G.B. to debate and, needless to say, their challenge was accepted. We are writing to the Paisley Branch and can only hope that the “Foreign Office” of the U.S.S.R. will come out of their funk-holes long enough to be opposed by a Socialist speaker.

After the success of May Day members of both branches are looking forward to an excellent hearing during the summer months.

Comrade Russell, who lives in Manchester, is greatly assisting in the disposal of back numbers of the Socialist Standard. His work takes him travelling constantly over an area stretching from Yorkshire to London, and over to Wales. During these trips he takes the opportunity of leaving our journal in prominent places and has had many interesting discussions with fellow travellers on trains, buses, and in station waiting rooms. He travels over the same ground, mainly in a weekly cycle, and maintains his “distribution” constantly. As he so modestly says, perhaps the constant effort on these lines may bear some much-wanted fruit. Well said, indeed, and perhaps other members similarly placed might like to try their hands at this method of propaganda.

Bristol. Meetings will be held at Durdham Downs on Sundays at 3 p.m. Will members and sympathisers make every effort to attend and assist Comrade Flowers and other members of Bristol Group ?

Fulham and Chelsea Branch report that they are holding regular and interesting Branch meetings and discussions on the first and third Thursdays in each month.

As an experiment, the Branch Organiser has arranged a number of meetings and discussions with the aid of special L.P. records. The first record, “Shuttle and Cage,” which includes a very dramatic ballad about the Gresford mining disaster of 1934, and a number of English, Irish. Welsh and Scottish industrial folk songs, sung by Ewan MacColl, gave rise to much interesting discussion. Further recordings made by Alan Lomax deal with the life of the American negro.

Since the advertisement of these discussions, the Branch Organiser has received a number of letters (including one from Comrade Rab of America) enquiring about the records used; or making suggestions of other recordings that might benefit Party discussion Groups and Branches. A reader in Glasgow suggests that the recording “Old Man Atom,” by Guy Carawan, which deals with nuclear weapons, would be of interest to Socialists. He also mentions “Jack Elliott’s "Woody Guthrie’s Blues," which contains, along with four other titles, the ‘1913 Massacre’ and 'The Ludlow Massacre,’ both songs of the murders of early Trade Unionists in America.”

At Easter a number of members of the Branch went to Aldermaston, and helped with the distribution of the leaflet, “Nuclear War,” and sold Party literature on the march. On Sunday, April 13th, six members of the Branch, along with over forty other members of the Party, distributed “Nuclear War” leaflets, and sold Party literature (one member of the Branch sold 16 “Socialist Party and War” pamphlets!) at the Labour Party and T.U.C. meeting in Trafalgar Square.

On Thursday, May 1st, members of the Branch collaborated with Paddington Branch members in holding a meeting at Earls Court. And, during the summer months, Branch members will be collaborating with Paddington Branch in running outdoor meetings at Earls Court on Thursday and Friday evenings. All readers of the Socialist Standard are welcome to come. Meetings commence at 8 p.m.

The Overseas Secretary asks all members who have overseas' contacts to send the names and addresses of these contacts, together with any other information about contacts, to the Overseas Secretary, c/o H. O., 52, Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.

The Overseas Secretary would also be pleased to hear from readers of the Socialist Standard abroad.

Comrade Ivy Groves. It is a sad duty to have to report the sudden death at the age of 50 years, of Ivy Groves, who had a heart attack on Sunday, May 4th. The not so very young members will well remember her as a loyal Comrade who. although not a writer or a speaker for the Party, was always ready with a smile and much energy, to help in any way. Until the last few years, when owing to domestic circumstances when it was not possible to be around so much, she regularly attended branch meetings and Head Office. It was 25 years ago when Comrade Ivy Groves joined the Chiswick Branch which via Wembley Branch became Ealing Branch. Latterly, when living in South London she transferred to Camberwell Branch. Many Comrades well know that her help and thoughtfulness greatly assisted Clifford Groves in his work for the Party as a propagandist, E. C. Member and General Secretary for many years.

Hackney Branch. Hackney Branch consider that the election campaign in the Bethnal Green division was extremely successful, in fact, far more successful than we had hoped.

The votes cast for the three candidates were 356, 333. and 306, indicating in some small degree, the growth of Socialist ideas within the constituency.

During the campaign 24,000 election manifestoes were distributed (one to each home in the constituency), together with several thousand leaflets advertising meetings some “Introducing the S.P.G.B.” and a number of free copies of the Socialist Standard. Apart from this canvassing of the Socialist Standard continued, and about 24 dozen copies were sold.

The support given by other branches was extremely encouraging, a number of members attending from Islington, Wood Green, Paddington, Lewisham, Woolwich and West Ham branches. Branches also assisted with financial support.

Attempts were made to hold a number of outdoor meetings, but these were not successful due to the very bad weather. The three school meetings were also poorly attended, probably for the same reason.

We do not claim to have made the best possible use of the election, but we have acquired considerable experience in the campaign which will be an invaluable help on future occasions. We hope that the result of the campaign will encourage other branches to contest local elections in their own area. A good opportunity will arise next year when London Borough Councils are due to be elected.

Phyllis Howard

Blogger's Notes:

• The obituary for Ivy Groves has appeared elsewhere on the blog.
• Despite my best efforts I can't find out the identity of the three Hackney Branch members who were the local election candidates in 1958. They are never mentioned by name in the Standard. I could make an educated guess  . . . but I won't. Hackney Branch actually contested the Bethnal Green parliamentary constituency the following year at the General Election. Jack Read was the party candidate on that occasion. Anecdotes about that campaign are aplenty in Barltrop's 'The Monument'. 
• Unfortunately, there were quite a few typos in the Fulham and Chelsea Branch report. Musician names misspelt all other the place. I did try to provide YouTube links for the songs mentioned in the report, but I can't guarantee that they are the actual versions referred to. Ramblin' Jack Elliott singing Woody Guthrie's songs is especially recommended.

Party News Briefs (1953)

Party News from the June 1953 issue of the Socialist Standard

Another May Day has passed and it is pleasing to note that very successful outdoor rallies were held by the Party in Hyde Park and on Clapham Common. Glasgow (City and Kelvingrove Branches) ran a rally in the Cosmo Cinema and this, too, proved a great success.

* * *

Just a reminder to members. During the summer months considerable time and effort is spent on outdoor propaganda meetings. These provide, in the majority of cases, excellent opportunities for selling the “Socialist Standard” and pamphlets of the Party. Whilst it is interesting to listen to the speaker, and at times stimulate questions from the audience, it is certainly gratifying if members make greater efforts to sell our literature—the best form of propaganda—the written word. An overall attempt to increase the sales of the “Socialist Standard” and pamphlets will not only assist the Party financially, but help on the work of establishing Socialism. Why not have a go ?

* * *

The Central Organiser would like members interested in the Summer School, being held on Saturday and Sunday, June 20th and 21st, at “Treetops,” Farley Green, to get in touch with him without delay in order to reserve accommodation.

* * *

For members who prefer a day at the sea the first of the Ealing Branch summer social and outdoor propaganda trips is on Sunday, June 21st This one is to Southsea. Will any members wanting seats reserved contact E. Warnecke at Head Office or c/o of the Ealing Branch Secretary, as quickly as possible.

* * *

Paddington Branch reports that their Social on May 9th was successful socially and financially. A very happy evening was enjoyed by all and the Branch were able to make a donation to Head Office from the

proceeds.

Phyllis Howard

Editorial: May Day myths (1965)

Editorial from the May 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

The myths of capitalism die hard.

There is, for example, the myth that the processions and demonstrations which take place on May Day have something to do with the unity of the working class.

It is true that the First of May is traditionally the workers’ day, the day on which working people of all countries should express their solidarity with each other. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, and our companion parties abroad, celebrate the day in those terms. But apart from us, the tradition has been debased by modern realities.

The tanks, the missiles, the guns, the soldiers which are paraded through Moscow’s Red Square are expressing, not the international unity, but the national strifes and prejudices, of the working class.

Throughout the so-called Communist bloc the story is the same bellicose speeches spiced with one or two outworn and meaningless cliches, which in reality are a challenge to the Western capitalist powers on behalf of their counterparts fn the East, are applauded as revolutionary statements of working class interests.

In this country, the situation is no better. The Labour movement, which claims May Day for its own, is concerned not with the unity of the working class but with aggravating the issues which divide them.

A part of this movement demonstrates over Vietnam, disappointed that the Wilson government has treated the war there just as any other capitalist administration would.

It demonstrates over rents, losing itself in the impenetrable jungle of capitalist reform. It attacks the Conservatives, mistakenly believing that they are greater enemies of the working class than are the Labour Party.

It demonstrates on many things, none of them of any worth. Hands off this country. Hands on that country. Get this person out of goal. Put that person in.

These are all part of what the Left wing has always loved to call “spontaneous” demonstrations which show the “solidarity” of the workers. They are part of a favourite Left wing myth—that the working class are united.

This is a lie. The workers are split on a multitude of issues. They are split over the race and colour issue. They are split over which side they should take in the international disputes of the world's ruling classes. They are even split over which party they want to run British capitalism.

These splits are the fruits of about sixty years of Labour Party propaganda., The Left wing—the “progressive” politicians—have never done anything to heal them. Rather have they created some of the worst of them.

There is, therefore, an urgent need for someone to state, constantly and consistently, the reasons why the working class should be united.

The working class are those people in capitalist society who get their living by working for a wage. They sell their ability to work to their employers, which means that their interests as sellers of labour power are one, against those of the class who buy their labour power.

In the process of labour the working class are exploited. Here is the source of their problems—their poverty, their degradation, the ceaseless pressures of insecurity which distort their lives.

Here is the source of bad housing, of worry, of much misery and sickness.

Capitalism overshadows all our lives with fear and restrictions. All workers share an international unity of interest to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism.

None of this is ever whispered at the multitude of Left wing demonstrations which deface May Day. The myths are dying hard, but facts have a force which cannot be denied.

The working class as a whole do not yet realise where their interests lie. If they demonstrate on May Day at all, it is for the wrong motives. Rather than waste their time in this way, they should unite to abolish the system which causes the problems they demonstrate about

SPGB Meetings (1965)

Party News from the May 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Notes:

Sam Orner and Len Fenton were both longstanding members of the World Socialist Party of the United States, who were obviously paying a fraternal visit to the comrades in Britain. For more background on them both, their obituaries give some flavour of their contribution to the cause:

• Sam Orner (October 1973 Socialist Standard)
• Len Fenton (World Socialist Review #21)

SPGB May Events (2025)

Party News from the May 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

Our general discussion meetings are held on Zoom. To connect to a meeting, enter https://zoom.us/wc/join/7421974305 in your browser. Then follow instructions on screen and wait to be admitted to the meeting.

May-Day and the Socialist Standard (2020)

As I've just reposted a 2016 May Day message from the Socialism or Your Money Back blog, I may as well also take the opportunity to repost below a 2020 post  from this blog. Sadly I never did follow up on the promise to provide an expanded version of this piece. Maybe next year . . .

May-Day and the Socialist Standard (2020)

One of those rare good ideas you get when it's too late in the day to fully implement them.

Today is International Workers' Day and, in years gone past on the blog, it has usually meant a random smattering of May Day articles or editorials from old Socialist Standards where, to be honest, there can be an overall tone of repetition and general gloom whatever the decade. However, it struck me this morning that the blog is so far ahead in breaking the back of fully digitizing the Standard, that it is now in position to start pooling together articles around a general theme for the attention of the random reader.

"Breaking the back" is, of course, a bit of an overstatement but a good place to start such an endeavour would be the various May Day messages that appeared in the Socialist Standard over the years. Though in 2020, it's hard at times to fully comprehend the significance of May Day for the organized working class, back in the day it has to be understood that May Day was a day when all unions and radical groups would make that extra push in both celebrating the day and seeking to communicate their message to a wider audience than usual. 

The SPGB was no different in that regard, and it was usually the case that the May Socialist Standard would be the issue in any particular year where the print run for the Standard that month was at its highest, and it was expected that the May issue would quickly sell out (no jokes at the back, please!).

I'd love to be able to provide a full list of Socialist Standard May Day articles from its exhaustive history but, as I stated at the beginning of this ramble, this idea sadly came too late for May 2020. However, it will be something I will be working on in the coming month(s) and, who knows?, short of the final breakdown of civil society à la Cormac McCarthy's The Road or *cough* a Socialist Revolution (are you still laughing at the back?) there should be a definitive list for May 2021.

In the meantime, linked to below is the Socialist Standard May Day messages for the period from 1904 to 1918. If you read them in sequence, you will note that the initial enthusiasm and hope for Socialist Revolution just over the horizon is gradually seeping away in May Day messages even in the SPGB's early years of its history. That's fine as far as I am concerned. Why pretend? Why kid your readers on with fake boosterism about how it's all about one final push, and we'll at last have possession of the bakery? The SPGB was quickly aware that the writing was on the wall for the Second International pre it's final capitulation in 1914, and it's to its credit that it didn't try to sweeten that pill.

As you will note from below, not all May Socialist Standards from this period carried a May Day message within its pages. I guess I'm especially surprised that one is absent from the very first May Socialist Standard (1905) but, in mitigation, I would point out that a big portion of that issue was given over to reporting the SPGB's first Annual Conference. It was initially surprising to discover that there were no explicit  May Day messages from the war years but it maybe reflected the mood of both the Party and the country at large. For Socialists, the wider Labour Movement had failed a major test of principle in 1914, and perhaps it was not felt that a May Day message would carry the same weight as it would in 'normal' times.

For this reader, the May Day message from the 1912 issue is especially powerful, and I would hazard a guess that its unnamed author was A. E. Jacomb. He just had a certain style and tone of authorial voice that set him apart from other Socialist Standard writers during this period.

It was not all doom and gloom for that period. May Day carried a double significance for Socialists; it was also considered the semi-official opening day for when Outdoor Speaking would kick in again at full throttle. The more clement weather meant that once again there were SPGB speakers all over London and its environs, putting forward the socialist message at speaking pitches on street corners' and in public parks. We sometimes forget that for the early decades of the SPGB the outdoor meeting carried so much more weight and significance for popularizing and propagandizing socialism. Sadly, that lost history is not always captured in the pages of the Socialist Standard or in the SPGB's pamphlets.

If I've missed any Socialist Standard May Day messages from this period, please let me know in the comments section.

Happy May Day! Happy International Workers' Day!

• 1906: May 1st, 1906.
• 1907: The Significance of May Day.
• 1908: A Word in Season.
• 1909: May-Day.
• 1911: Our Motto For May Day.
• 1912: A May-Day Message.
• 1913: A Deadly Parallel. 

May Day Message repost (2025)

Cross-posted from the Socialism or Your Money Back blog

The following May Day message was originally posted on the Socialism or Your Money Back blog in 2016. It was originally posted by Alan Johnstone ('ALJO' in the Standard), and the article was probably written by Alan.  The SOYMB blog reposted it today. 

"Arise ye prisoners of starvation, Arise ye wretched of the earth."

May Day inspires fear in the hearts of the capitalists and hope in the workers the world over. Why do they fear the worker's holiday? What are they afraid of? May Days have come and gone yet each and every year they are a sign of what rulers’ fear: the fear of general strikes, of political revolt, of workers’ uprisings, of the militancy of workers. 

Eugene V. Debs wrote: "This is the first and only International Labor Day. It belongs to the working class and is dedicated to the Revolution."  

Our May Day is actually the only holiday celebrated internationally. It obliterates all differences of race, creed, colour, and nationality. It celebrates the brotherhood of all workers everywhere. It crosses all national boundaries, it transcends all language barriers, it ignores all religious differences. It makes clear the difference between all workers and all employers. It is the day when the class struggle is reaffirmed by every conscious worker. 

May Day is the portent of a new world, a classless world, a peaceful world, a world without poverty or misery. A world of abundance. It is the promise of socialism, the real brotherhood of mankind. May Day is a warning to the capitalist class, “Do your damnedest to us but your days are numbered!” May Day proclaims that there is but one race – the human race! 

May Day says the future is ours. More than any other group, the working class suffers from war; and only the working class, in all its strength, can win the struggle for peace. Workers march for freedom from deprivation on May Day. Workers march for equality on this May Day. 

On May Day, workers march shoulder to shoulder, in solidarity, black, brown and white — for democracy and social justice. Workers call for unity of all workers. 

May Day is a time for casting away illusions and preparing for the struggle. It is a time for the working class to heighten its vigilance against its enemies. It is a time to unite real friends to defeat our real enemies.

May Day is not simply a time of celebration of our class. World events serve to remind us that this is also a solemn occasion, a time when we bow our heads in respect for our fellow workers and brothers and sisters who have fallen. On May Day, we remember that the workers’ flag is red for a reason as our traditional labour song goes:

“The people's flag is deepest red,

It shrouded oft our martyred dead,

And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,

Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.”

Not all those who wave the red flag or claim to speak for the working class actually do. Rather than overthrowing the capitalists, they argued that labor should try to win friends among the capitalist politicians and support one faction against another. For sure, over the past decades the ruling class has made a considerable number of concessions. But what are these gains, really? If you consider the wealth that the working people have produced, when you consider the power and potential for an abundance of the productive forces that the workers themselves have created, then these reforms are shown up for what they really are. They are nothing but crumbs, scraps left over from the table after the capitalists have had their feast.

Our May Day is the day of solidarity.

“Arise, ye prisoners of starvation.” 

May Day is the day of the working class, the class that has borne untold sufferings and has nothing, nothing to lose but its chains.

“Arise, ye wretched of the earth.”

May Day is the day of the exploited, here and around the globe. You have been despised and spat upon by capital, but now the road to your liberation is clear.

“The earth shall rise on new foundations, we have been naught, we shall be all.” 

May Day, is when we pledge to break the power of capital and declare war against these bloodsucking leeches. Their time is over, their days are numbered.

“Tis the final conflict, let each stand in his place. The Internationale shall be the human race.”

The Socialist Party cannot be bribed or bought, nor can we be diverted from our struggle in the defence of workers and oppressed people of the world. The Socialist Party advocates a class war that will only end with the complete emancipation of the working class and the total defeat of the capitalist class. In the revolutionary class war to rid the world of the evils of capitalism you will find us ready to volunteer to fight with all our hearts and souls. 

Socialist Sonnet: No.191 May Day (2025)

From the Socialism or Your Money Back blog

May Day

This feast day of Joseph the Artisan,

Liberated for Labor from the Church

When congregations of workers began

Gathering to confront the capital rich.

An infamous Haymarket bomb, a hail

Of police bullets, then the hangman’s rope

Demonstrated reasoned reforms would fail:

Workers must make and pursue their own hope.

Now, fourteen decades after the event,

Collective hopes remain unrealised,

So many parties, despite their intent,

Have left capital’s spirit unexorcised.

Yet potential power is marked by May Day,

Of workers turning history their way.

 D.A.

SPGB April Events (2025)

Party News from the April 2025 issue of the Socialist Standard

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May Day Demonstration (1939)

Party News from the June 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

We thank comrades for their co-operation in making the May Day Demonstration such a magnificent success, and are pleased to announce that literature was sold to the value of £15 0s. 3d., while donations amounted to £2 13s. 1d.

Central Circulating Committee.

Branch News (1963)

Party News from the June 1963 issue of the Socialist Standard

With the usual optimism of Socialists, last month was an extra special one, with a larger supply of the special edition of the Socialist Standard—20 pages dealing mainly with the subject of Housing. The weather on May Day was not helpful, but despite this much was done.

On May 1st an indoor meeting was held at Caxton Hall, London. The audience numbered over 100 and a large percentage of the audience were non-members. Literature sales amounted to nearly £3 and a collection of £13 4s. was made.

On May 5th, Sunday, there was the usual meeting in Hyde Park. It was a modest success. Members rallied well to the meeting despite the very cold winds. Next year the Propaganda Committee will ensure a better speaking position. This year we were restricted by the rebuilding that has been going on at Hyde Park.

Many literature sellers met during the morning and despite heavy competition from other organisations sold over 300 Socialist Standards and many pamphlets throughout the day.

Nottingham. Two London speakers held meetings during the week-end. The meetings were well supported by Nottingham members and six dozen Standards were sold.

Glasgow. Comrade Baldwin from London joined the Branch activity and although the Saturday arrangements for an outdoor meeting had to be called off due to heavy rain, fifteen or so Comrades descended on the City Square to sell Socialist literature.

During the Sunday afternoon procession 4 dozen S.S. were sold, and at the outdoor meeting afterwards a collection of 27/6 was taken and 3 dozen Standards disposed of. The evening indoor meeting drew an audience of 65 including 20 Party members. A collection of £4 was taken and much literature sold.

The May Day propaganda meetings were part of the great work that Glasgow members have been carrying on since they decided to contest the Municipal election, held in May. Our comrades are most enthusiastic and energetic and are constantly seeking ways and means of furthering the Socialist case. Their immediate aim is to contest Municipal elections in every Ward in the city, this apart from their wish to contest Parliamentary elections.

Lewisham Branch report that from October 1962 to March 1963 they held a total of 21 lectures and 6 meetings. These were held at the Co-op. Hall (their branch meeting place) and the Lewisham Town Hall. Literature sales amounted to £5 and collections £35. The meetings were most successful and much experience in organising successful propaganda has been gained. Four applications for membership of the Party have been made. The Branch is hoping to organise regular outdoor meetings during the summer at Blackheath and Ladywell Fields. In addition to this work, the Branch members have been helping the Bromley Group which is also holding meetings from time to time among other activities.

World Socialist Party of Ireland. From this month the Standard will be the official journal of both Socialist Parties. As soon as it can be arranged, regular articles and news items will be sent from Ireland and incorporated each month. The Belfast Branch held May Day meetings on Sunday, May 5th and it is hoped to have a full report of these next month.

A comrade living in Cornwall is spending much time in travelling the county selling Party literature. The results are astounding and anyone visiting Cornwall, or living there, should have no difficulty in purchasing Socialist Standards and Party pamphlets. It is hoped to give a list of the towns visited by this Comrade next month when a full report of his activities is available.

The third of the inter-branch (Bloomsbury, Ealing, Paddington) "Any Questions” meetings was held at Conway Hall on May 13th. These meetings have proved most successful They give a good opportunity for members and visitors to ask questions on matters that concern them. The questions have ranged widely and have been most stimulating to all. The atmosphere is, or certainly appears to be, less formal than normal propaganda meetings and in addition to a panel of three members answering points, ample scope for discussion is also given. It is hoped to continue these meetings and it would seem that for Party Groups the idea is a very good one and should be given serious consideration by organisers of these.

Phyllis Howard

Party News Briefs (1955)

Party News from the June 1955 issue of the Socialist Standard

Ealing Branch. The special May campaign to increase the sales of the S.S. has got off to an exceptionally fine start. At the time of writing (the middle of the month) over 35 dozen copies have been sold, and everybody is confident that the target of 50 dozen will be more than realised before the end of the month. The regular canvassers have been heartened by the support of members new to this form of activity, who in turn have been agreeably surprised by the results obtained. The Branch Literature Committee are confident that there is no reason why these figures should not be further increased; all that is required is a steadily increasing number of members prepared to canvass. It is as easy for the Committee to organise a canvass with a dozen members, as it is to organise a party of six—and even more stimulating!

Approval of the Branch’s scheme to distribute back copies of the S.S. has been given by the E.C., and several hundred have already been disposed of in this way. Members unable to canvass are asked to get in touch with the Branch Literature Secretary and offer their help in this form of literature activity.

The first of the Branch’s propaganda excursions takes place on Sunday, 5th June, when two cars will be taking members to Southsea. Other meetings will follow in the course of the season.

Finally, will all members note that outdoor meetings will be held, weather permitting, every Saturday afternoon, at Ealing Green. Please give your support, if you can.

* * *

Bradford Branch say that their canvassing drive at Dewsbury is still going strong. They report that they sell four to five dozen Standards each month (not three dozen as mentioned in April) and of the former, three dozen Standards are sold to regular readers.

* * *

May Day arrangements in London and the Provinces were hampered through the very bad weather. In London the Hyde Park meetings were cancelled but despite this, there was a good audience in the evening at Conway Hall, where Comrades May and Coster gave very interesting talks on May Day and aims and objects of die Party.

Reports are not in from Glasgow, but we understand that very good evening meetings were held there.

Nottingham Branch report that Comrades Keys and Warlow addressed about 250 workers on Market Square on the Saturday before May Day, the meeting lasted from 7 to 10 p.m. On the Sunday morning the “Nottingham Labour Day Demonstration” was held, although it was raining heavily. Our speakers attempted to hold a meeting but the rain forced them to abandon it. A good meeting, however, was held for about an hour, between heavy rain showers, in the afternoon. About 10s. worth of literature was sold during the two days. Branch members find that Market Square is a good station for propaganda meetings and they are aware of sympathetic interest from the audience.

* * *

Swansea Branch has not been in a position to hold any propaganda meetings during the last four months, but their activities have been directed in writing to the Press —letters stating the Party’s Object have appeared in the South Wales Evening Post, Llanelly Star, Neath Guardian, Western Mail and Swansea Voice. An attempt is also being made to advertise the Party’s literature in the Swansea Voice.

Phyllis Howard

Notes by the Way: Whose May Day? (1955)

The Notes by the Way Column from the June 1955 issue of the Socialist Standard

Whose May Day?

At one time May Day was an occasion on which workers demonstrated international solidarity and drew attention to current claims and grievances. Such May Day meetings were frowned upon by governments and employers, but things are different now. Many governments have taken over May Day and from the side of the workers the demonstrations are often nationalist not internationalist. The following are reports of May Day activities in various countries.

CELEBRATIONS IN MOSCOW 

“Moscow, May 1st.

“Four giant new cannon, which might be capable of firing atomic shells, took part to-day in Moscow's traditional May Day military parade. The emphasis in planning the parade was on air power but because of low cloud and steady rain there was no fly-past”—(Manchester Guardian, 2/5/55.)

“CHINA.—Buddhist monks and nuns in long, flowing saffron and red robes marched with long columns of workers past Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese Communist leaders.

“Mr. Harry Pollitt, Secretary-General of the British Communist Party, was among the foreign guests,

“The Mayor of Peking, Peng Chen, called for the strengthening of national defences and opposing of American occupation of our sacred territory of Formosa.' Balloons with 'Free Formosa’ slogans were carried.”—(Daily Mail, 2/5/55.)

“GERMANY.—East Germany’s growing armed forces were paraded in the Soviet sector of Berlin in a giant demonstration evidently designed to impress Berliners with the Communist capacity to counter West German rearmament.

“West German trade unionists at mass meetings issued a demand for a 40-hour week to replace the present 48-hour week.”—(Daily Mail, 2/5/55.)

“GREECE.— Free Cyprus was the theme of May Day in Athens, with prayers in churches calling for Divine blessing on the ‘liberation struggle '."—(Daily Mail, 2/5/55.)

THE POPE BLESSES WORKERS 

MAY DAY IN ROME 

From our Correspondent 

Rome, May 1st.

“Labour Day was celebrated with great pomp in Rome, where the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Italian Workers’ Catholic Association (A.C.LI.) was made to synchronise with it. Some 150,000 Catholic workers from all over Italy made a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s, where they were addressed this afternoon by the Pope.

"The Pope, who came down to St. Peter’s Square to bless the workers, announced the institution of a new feast that of St. Joseph the Workman, with which Labour Day will henceforth be celebrated by the Church. He said that he did this in order that May 1st might receive Christian baptism, so that, 'far from being a stimulus for discord, hate, and violence,’ it should be 'a recurring invitation to modern society to accomplish that which is still lacking for social peace.” —(Manchester Guardian, 2/5/55.)

MAY 1, “LOYALTY DAY” 

Washington, April 28th.

“President Eisenhower to-day proclaimed May 1st as loyalty day and called on citizens to observe it 'by reaffirming their loyalty to our beloved country'." Reuter.—(Manchester Guardian, 29/4/55.)

More Prisoners, In Worse Prisons

There are more people in prison today than there were before the war and more than at the beginning of the century. In the debate on Prisoners in the House of Lords on 4th May, 1955, Lord Pakenham commented on the decline of the number of people in prisons and Borstal institutions from 24,000 in 1953 to 21,000 at the present time, but added: “There is still nearly twice the pre-war figure of about 11,000.”

His figures related to England and Wales only. The total for the United Kingdom, after adding Scottish and Northern Ireland prisons, was 13,005 in 1938 and 26,224 in 1952. (See “Annual Abstract of Statistics, 1954, pages 58-68).

A corresponding figure representing the daily average prison population for the years 1900-1904 was 18,775, and the number in 1913-14 was 17,056. (“English Prisons Today” Brockway, p. 28).

In the House of Lords debate Lord Templewood, who has long been active as a prison reformer, regretted that our “Welfare State” has not dealt with this problem “in a common sense and urgent manner.” He said that though “over the last generation we have had a series of great prison reformers . . . in certain respects, particularly in the matter of accommodation and work, so far from making any progress in a world in which a great deal of progress has been made in other walks of life, we have actually fallen back, I would almost say 50 or 60 years.” (Col. 758.)

He went on:—

“To-day there exists a thing unheard of in the days when I or my predecessors were connected with the Home Office. No fewer than 4,595 prisoners are confined three in a cell; they are shut up in that cell about tea-time in the afternoon, and left there with nothing to do until the following morning. A state of affairs like that would have horrified the great penal reformers of the past, who made our system one of the best in the world.”

Lord Huntingdon thought that something should be done, “not only from the humanitarian or Christian standpoint,” but also from the economic point of view—the cost of prisons is nearly £10 million a year and this could be reduced if the prisoners did more useful work.

He described appalling sanitary conditions which would be a “ disgrace to a Hottentot village.”

Lord Chorley said:—

“There are still in existence jails which were condemned long before the First World War and which are not fit to house swine, let alone human beings.”

Taxing the Rich out of Existence ?

For half a century the Labour Party has been lamenting the existence of the very rich and promising to do something to end, or at least to diminish, inequality of property ownership. The rich themselves and the Tory Party joined with the Labour Party in agreeing that as a fact, whether desirable or not, the rich were disappearing. From time to time, however students of the subject intervene to point out that extermination by taxation had plainly failed and the rich were still with us, not noticeably reduced or inconvenienced.

It is a fact that the concentration of property ownership in the hands of a very small minority has not been materially altered by the ups and downs, war and crises of the past half century.

A special correspondent of the “Times Review of Industry” (April 1955, page 109) has bean analysing the report of the Inland Revenue Department and has drawn some interesting conclusions.

Dealing with duties levied on properties left at death he remarks on the very large proportion of the total payments that came from the small number of large estates: “ This year 97 per cent. of the total duty was paid by 16,514 estates (those over £10,000), and 5,205 estates (those over £25,000) paid 87 per cent.”

The year in question was 1953-4, in which there were in all 71,510 estates that paid duty (estates under £2,000 are not included in these figures as they paid no duty in that year).

The writer of the article had forecast a year ago that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would receive less revenue from estate duties. This turned out to be wrong and the Chancellor actually received £10 million more than on the previous year. Part of this increase is attributed to the rise in share prices on the Stock Exchange— “no doubt the rise in stock market values has helped to swell the capital value of estates. . .”

The writer makes an estimate from the official figures of the income and property of the wealthiest group, those with income above £12,000 (before tax) and with estates above £250,000.

He finds that this group (at present numbering about 2,900) have investments worth £1,300 million. The net income of the group (after paying tax) is about £10 million a year whereas the same group are paying out on estate duty some £40 million a year. In spite of this, he writes, “the class is by no means declining in numbers. . .” and note his final comment:—

“No doubt in many instances the high taxation is offset by tax-free capital profits, but even so the steady increase of a class which, in theory, is being taxed out of existence shows the remarkable resilience of capital in a welfare State."

Crime in America

“The crime rate in the United States rose in 1954 for the seventh consecutive year, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reported to-day. Major crimes committed last year numbered 2,267,250.

The statistics, published in the bureau’s annual crime report, showed that the crime rate has increased by 26.7 per cent since 1950, while the population increased by seven per cent, in the same period. On an average day last year an estimated 34 persons were feloniously slain and 256 other felonious assaults were committed; 49 rapes occurred; 3,674 larcenies were committed; 592 cars were stolen; and there were 185 robberies and 1,422 burglaries.” (Manchester Guardian, 26.4.1955.)

Mental Illness Hits One in Twenty

The following is taken from a report in the Manchester Guardian (24 March, 1955) of an address given by Mr. Walter Maclay, of the Ministry of Health, at a Mental Health Research Fund Meeting at the Mansion House on the previous evening:—

“Nearly half of all the institutional beds available for all forms of illness, he said, were, in fact, required for patients suffering from mental illness. Anything from 10 to 30 per cent. of all patients seen in general practice were not suffering from physical illness at all, but from some form of psychotic or neurotic condition. One in 20 of all children born would spend some time in a mental hospital. It was most important in the national interest that more should be found out about the causes of such illness and how to cure and prevent it. Research was going on continuously, but it was not enough—it was the object of the Research Fund to provide more opportunities for such research in related fields and, if possible, to co-ordinate them."

Edgar Hardcastle

SPGB Meetings (1949)

Party News from the May 1949 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB Meetings (1946)

Party News from the May 1946 issue of the Socialist Standard

SPGB April Events (2024)

Party News from the April 2024 issue of the Socialist Standard

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From the WSPUS Radio Series: Labor Day (1973)

From issue number 5 (1973) of The Western Socialist

Labor Day is the occasion when capitalist America honors its wage slaves, those who produce all of the wealth in return for the price of the commodities they need to exist and work and raise families to continue the process. Traditionally, labor unions throughout the country organize parades for labor's holiday thus advertising via their placards, even though unwittingly, the slave status of their members and their particular masters' product. There is some sort of satisfaction, it seems, in the knowledge that one is exploited by rubber capitalists or clothing capitalists or auto capitalists.

The myth of a common interest between the workers and the capitalists is furthered on this day and labor unions vie with the owners of industry in flaunting their patriotism to the nation, the chief pillar of a society based upon the subjugation and exploitation of labor. This is particularly galling to socialists on Labor Day, because this holiday was originally established by the capitalists, with complete approval of labor's hierarchy, as an alternative or antidote to May Day and the revolutionary aspects which once symbolized the first of May were carefully excluded from this first Monday in September. And the fact that May Day has become the property of totalitarian nations of state capitalism makes it all the more galling.

The philosophy behind Labor Day, then, is not at all in tune with the object and principles of the scientific socialist movement. Socialists are dedicated to the establishment of a society in which a common interest among all of mankind will finally become possible. This could only mean the abolition of both working class and capitalist class because the very division into economic classes indicates irreconcilable conflicts of interest among the population. As long as some members of society own the means and instruments by which all must live and the rest of the population must work for them at wages or salaries, a common interest is not possible. Any labor holiday which does not base its philosophy on this truth is a sham and a delusion and labor's very own organizations, the labor unions, are actively contributing toward this sham and delusion.

But Labor Day is not devoid of significance for the membership of the World Socialist Party of the U. S. For many years we have held our national conference on the weekend of Labor Day. usually in Boston which is the site of our national headquarters. on occasion in other cities such as New York and Detroit. Once again we meet in Boston to review our accomplishments of the past year — whatever —, to plan for the year ahead, and to enjoy the opportunity for socialists from widely scattered areas to get together. And what exactly have we accomplished in the year since we last met? In terms of the job that remains to be done, little. The deep confusion that throttles society is apparently as rife as ever. And to add to the confusion there are the government scandals which pit capitalists against one another and provide a deeper smokescreen to hide from the working class the only real need, the need to end the wages, prices, profits system itself. The worst scandal is the continuing existence of world capitalism at this late date.

But we certainly have accomplished something worthwhile in the last year. We have kept the scientific socialist movement alive and this, we feel, is no slight achievement. For confusion even in the ranks of militant and rebellious workers remains. The unfortunate equating of socialism with state capitalism is at least as widespread as ever. The World Socialist Party and its companion Socialist Parties in other countries remain the only dispensers of scientific socialist knowledge in the world at the present time. We continue to insist that the only way out of the mess that envelops society today, that spreads poverty and war throughout the entire planet, is the immediate establishment of world socialism. But this does not imply working for governments rather than for private capitalists. This can only mean the abolition of the wages system, itself, including governments; and their conversion into administrations over the affairs of man rather than over man. This is our message for Labor Day and for every other day to come.