Foreword
A pamphlet with the same title was first published in 1932. In addition to reprints, new editions were issued in 1942, 1953 and 1969, some sections in the earlier editions being omitted and new ones added as fresh issues presented themselves. Four new sections have been added to this edition.
The purpose of the pamphlet is to give in handy form statements of the attitude of the Socialist Party of Great Britain towards important problems and happenings about which questions are put to us. It includes a section on the founding of the Socialist Party of Great Britain in order to show what were the reasons that led the founder-members to draw up the DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES (see below) that has remained unaltered as the basis of the Party, and of our Companion Parties in other countries.
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A socialist analysis of the events in Eastern Europe
“What justification is there, then, for terming the upheaval in Russia a socialist revolution? None whatever beyond the fact that the leaders of the November movement claim to be Marxian socialists”.
Quoted from an article entitled “The Revolution in Russia – Where it Fails” in the Socialist Standard, August 1918.
Introduction
The events in Eastern Europe in the winter of 1989/90 shattered many of the illusions of workers who had imagined that the political and economic system that existed in those countries had something to do with socialism.
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Preface
Wage and salary earners have endless problems to worry about – problems of wages and prices, rents and mortgages, and how to provide against sickness, unemployment and old age. The usual attitude is to regard these problems as ones that can be dealt with by the trade unions or by new Acts of Parliament, and at each General Election the Labour, Liberal and Tory Parties tell the voters about the new laws they will introduce if they become the Government.
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The Socialist Party States the Case
Preface
The Socialist Party of Great Britain, like a voice crying in the wilderness, has always maintained that capitalism and war are inseparable.
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Introduction
This pamphlet is not about how the miners should have conducted their strike or how it might have ended differently. There are plenty of individuals and organisations which, both during the strike and since, have appointed themselves as advisers to the strikers, either counselling ‘moderation’ or urging tactics of senselessly heroic adventurism. The 1984-85 miners’ strike is now part of working-class history – the experiences received from it are not going to disappear from the memories of those who took part. Lessons must now be learned, for if history is to be of any importance, it must be as a guide for what we do now in making the future.
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Preface
One of the issues raised at the General Election in July, 1945, and one that will be fought out in Parliament and at future elections, is the issue of State control over industry. Although it is not a new issue, various factors, including the growth of monopolies in many industries and the experience of extensive Governmental control during the war, have combined to give it increasing prominence. Above all is the advent to power of the Labour Party. The Labour Government is nationalising the Bank of England, the mines and railways (as well as other industries later on), and is actively pursuing a policy of intervening in industries, such as textiles, that are said to be in need of reorganisation if they are to be able to compete effectively with more modern and better equipped competitors abroad.
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INTRODUCTION by Adam Buick
______________________________________
This pamphlet was first published by the Socialist Party of Great Britain in London in 1910. It proved so popular that a new edition was brought out the following year. This was not surprising in that the pamphlet is well-written and well-argued but also because, at that time and for half-a-century afterwards, the main outlet for putting across the case for socialism was the outdoor platform.
It was here that new contacts were made and socialist pamphlets and journals sold. But who else was to be found speaking on the same street corners and in the same parks but open-air preachers urging workers to “Come to Jesus”? In other words, explaining and refuting religion wasn’t just a philosophical exercise; it was a practical necessity.
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S.P.G.B. LIBRARY, No. 7.
The Socialist Party versus The Liberal Party
Being a Report of a Debate Between J. FITZGERALD,
Representing the Socialist Party of Great Britain
And H. RICHARDSON, M.P. (Peckham)
AT THE Liberal Club, Elm Grove, Rye Lane, Peckham, S.E., on June 1st 1911
SUBJECT – “Should the Working Class support the Liberal Party?”
———————–
ONE PENNY
Should the Working Class support the Liberal Party?
A DEBATE
THE CHAIRMAN (Mr. J. E. Dobson)
Ladies and Gentlemen.
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Art, Labour & Socialism by William Morris
With a Modern Assessment
Foreword
An address that William Morris delivered at University College, Oxford, was reprinted by him in the magazine Today, in February 1884, under the title “Art Under Plutocracy”.
In 1907 the larger part of it was published by the Socialist Party of Great Britain in pamphlet form as Art, Labour and Socialism.
It has long been out of print and we are issuing it again because, in the words of our Foreword to our original edition:
“It is not often that an accepted master in the arts can express himself with lucid brevity in the language of the common people; and even less frequently is that master able to scientifically diagnose the conditions of his own craft”.
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Preface
In 1948 we published a pamphlet ‘Russia Since 1917: Socialist Views of Bolshevik Policy’, consisting of a reprint of articles from our journal THE SOCIALIST STANDARD during the years 1915-48. The following note appeared in the Preface:
“In the articles themselves, no attempt has been made to interfere with the original text. The articles stand just as they are written. We have nothing to fear from letting our original words stand. There are, it is true, passages in some of the earlier articles which, were we writing them today in the light of information now available, we would phrase differently; but these are points of detail. In essentials, the articles stand as overwhelmingly testimony to the soundness of the Marxist position – the position of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.”
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