Keir Hardie

This article by Sylvia Pankhurst, written in 1921 is a rejoinder to an appreciation by long-standing British Marxist and early member of the Communist Party, John B Askew. Sylvia argues that Hardie was always a class struggle politician and more influenced by Marx than many would have credited. Certainly her view is supported by a recent biography by Fred Reid (Keir Hardie: the Making of a Socialist) who shows that Hardie's early battles as an organiser for the Scottish miners convinced him of the centrality of class struggle and made him receptive to Marxist ideas.