Max Beer

“ Therefore, the party saw no reason for departing from its old position that until socialist propaganda influenced public opinion and until socialists were chosen as representatives on public bodies, no secure foundation for the socialist State could be laid.
As to “direct action,” the party was of opinion that neither economic action nor parliamentary action alone could do the work which socialism demanded; both were necessary, and each must be given its proper place in a full attack all along the line by democracy upon capitalism. ”

“ Since 1918 the membership increased to a very considerable extent, the Party having become the refuge of all those men and women of influence, reputation, and learning, who had lost faith in the Liberal Party and who would like to see humanity and righteousness the foundation stones of government. ”

“ On the whole, the educational activities of the socialist, industrial unionists, and guildsmen immediately before the war and in 1918 and 1919, were on an unprecedented scale. More­over, they were able to reach the organised working classes. The formation of the Labour Party in 1900 by trade unionists and socialists rendered it possible for intellectuals to come in touch with the mass of trade unionists. Something like an alliance between Labour and social knowledge was estab­lished. ”

“ The Young Socialist, founded by Archibald Russell at Glasgow, was the special organ of the Socialist Sunday schools.
The youngest socialist organisation is the National Guilds League. It was founded in 1915, with William Mellor as secre­tary. It is mainly a propagandist body and looks less for numbers than for effective writers and speakers in sympathy with guild socialism. ”

“ The party was of opinion “that direct action for political purposes is essentially different in its nature from direct action for industrial purposes, and that the risks of failure of the former are so great that its political practic­ability is slight. The threats and fears of direct action, taken along with a general state of working class unsettlement such as exists to-day, do, however, contribute materially to the influ­ences which curb the policy of reactionary governments. ”

“ The S.L.P., well versed in Marx’s materialist conception of history, had no difficulty in recognising the economic motives of the last war and regarding it as the extreme expression of the industrial and maritime competition between Great Britain and Germany. Their members were all anti-war. ”