The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 01 - 19 March 1921)

Including: a message from Moscow workers to Sylvia Pankhurst, unemployment, what are economics?, seven years of the Dreadnought, wages and class struggle, open letter to comrade Lenin by Herman Gorter (response to left-wing communism an infantile disorder), significance of the Paris Commune, etc.

We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.

Author

Herman Gorter

Attachments

VOL VIII. No. 1 SATURDAY MARCH 19th 1921.pdf (10.27 MB)

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Worth noting from Wildcat: …

Worth noting from Wildcat:

The original Russian text of Lenin's pamphlet was dated April- May 1920, and during the next few months it was published in various other languages. The chapter on '"Left-Wing" Communism in England', for example, appeared in the Workers Dreadnought, published in London, at the end of July 1920*. The Dreadnought, a weekly newspaper edited by Sylvia Pankhurst, was one of the principal mouthpieces of the "Left" or "Anti-Parliamentary" Communists in Britain, and was thus one of the main targets of Lenin's attack. Gorter wrote his reply to Lenin during July or August 1920, and two extracts from the opening sections of the resulting Open Letter to Comrade Lenin appeared in the Dreadnought in September and October*. It was not until the following year, however, that the Dreadnought published the whole of Gorter's reply, in eleven installments between 12 March and 11 June 1921.

*Unfortunately the 1920s issues referred to are not available on Libcom (or anywhere online as far as I can tell).

The first of the 11 instalments is in this issue of The Dreadnought. The full text (with the complete introduction by Wildcat) is here:

https://libcom.org/article/open-letter-comrade-lenin-herman-gorter

Also in March 1921 -…

Also in March 1921 - Kronstadt!

So, would this be the first…

So, would this be the first appearance in the English language / Britain of Gorter's complete text?

Fozzie wrote: Wildcat wrote:…

Fozzie wrote:

Wildcat wrote: The original Russian text of Lenin's pamphlet was dated April-May 1920, and during the next few months it was published in various other languages. The chapter on '"Left-Wing" Communism in England', for example, appeared in the Workers Dreadnought, published in London, at the end of July 1920*.

*Unfortunately the 1920s issues referred to are not available on Libcom (or anywhere online as far as I can tell).

I'm also interested to know whether the Dreadnought reprinted the section of Lenin's pamphlet dealing with England and Pankhurst... It would have been slightly strange when Pankhurst harshly criticized the pamphlet later on in August 1920 (see here). Then again, the Dreadnought also sort of contributed to the Lenin cult around the same time by advertising portraits of him, so it wouldn't surprise me if Pankhurst still published Lenin's pamphlet out of respect for him and his role in the Russian Revolution:

Dreadnought wrote:
Lenin's Portrait.
Splendid portraits of LENIN on card, 7 3/4 inches by 11 inches. Price 1s. 6d. each; 15s. 6d. a dozen.

Fozzie wrote: Also in March 1921 - Kronstadt!

I had searched a while back for Pankhurst's thoughts on the Kronstadt Uprising by looking at relevant issues and using keyword searches on the LSE site, but I never really found anything unfortunately. If I recall, there were actually some pretty dismissive writings on the whole ordeal that appeared in the Dreadnought. Among other factors, Pankhurst had yet to really break with Lenin and the Bolsheviks/Russian Communist Party when the Uprising occurred (she would only be expelled from the CPGB later in September of that year), so there wasn't really any condemnatory articles in the Dreadnought directed at the Soviet government.

adri wrote:If I recall,…

adri wrote: If I recall, there were actually some pretty dismissive writings on the whole ordeal that appeared in the Dreadnought. Among other factors, Pankhurst had yet to really break with Lenin and the Bolsheviks/Russian Communist Party when the Uprising occurred (she would only be expelled from the CPGB later in September of that year), so there wasn't really any condemnatory articles in the Dreadnought directed at the Soviet government.

Like this stuff from the 16 April 1921 issue of the Dreadnought (though it's worth pointing out that Jack O'Sullivan was the acting editor at the time, seeing as how Pankhurst was in prison)...

Dreadnought wrote:
Trial of the Kronstadt Mutineers.
The trial of the conspirators who did not succeed in escaping has begun before the Kronstadt Jury of the Revolutionary Tribunal of the district of Petrograd. Proceedings are taking place only against those actual leaders who refused to surrender and who spurned the proffered amnesty of the Soviet authorities. Everything has been forgiven and forgotten for their misled supporters.

Thanks adri - I was…

Thanks adri - I was wondering what the coverage would be like. Tumultuous times certainly....

And it seems that Pankhurst…

And it seems that Pankhurst did in fact print the part of Lenin's pamphlet dealing with England in late July 1920 (thanks to ZJW for pointing out the scans on the Internet Archive):

https://archive.org/details/per_workers-dreadnought_the-womans-dreadnought_1920-07-31_7_19/page/n1/mode/2up

It seems like Pankhurst added a critical introduction to it though.