Weekly suffragette and later left-wing communist newspaper founded by Sylvia Pankhurst, first appearing as the Woman's Dreadnought in March 1914 and then as the Workers' Dreadnought in July 1917. Among other major historical events, the Dreadnought captured the outbreak of revolution in Russia and briefly supported the Bolsheviks/Russian Communist Party before the anti-working-class nature of the latter became more apparent to Pankhurst. Over time, the paper then took a more critical stance towards Lenin and the so-called "workers' state" in Russia, as evidenced by Pankhurst's open letter to Lenin published in November 1922.
The Workers' Dreadnought
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 18 - 28 July 1917)
The 28 July 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 18).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 19 - 4 August 1917)
The 4 August 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 19).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 20 - 11 August 1917)
The 11 August 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 20).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 21 - 18 August 1917)
The 18 August 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 21).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 22 - 25 August 1917)
The 25 August 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 22).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 23 - 1 September 1917)
The 1 September 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 23).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 24 - 8 September 1917)
The 8 September 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 24).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 25 - 15 September 1917)
The 15 September 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 25).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 26 - 22 September 1917)
The 22 September 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 26).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 27 - 29 September 1917)
The 29 September 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 27).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 29 - 13 October 1917)
The 13 October 1917 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 29).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 30 - 20 October 1917)
Including: WW1, soldiers ask what they are fighting for, cost of living increases, federation notes, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 31 - 27 October 1917)
Including: Sylvia Pankhurst on the Labour Party, Parliament as we see it, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 32 - 3 November 1917)
Including: Dreadnought police raid discussed in Parliament, Sylvia Pankhurst on WWI soldiers, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 33 - 10 November 1917)
Including: food price increases and food control, women in Dublin, peace talks in parliament, Ceylon, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 34 - 17 November 1917)
Including: a military prisoner writes, Dreadnought raided again, Sylvia Pankhurst on the Bolshevik revolution, etc.
The Lenin revolution: what it means to democracy - Sylvia Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst announces the Russian Revolution and discusses its relevance to the situation in Britain.
'Anarchy in Russia', say the newsagents' placards. The capitalist newspapers denounce the latest Russian Revolution in unmeasured terms, and even the working men and women in the street too often echo their angry denunciations. Yet the latest revolt of the Russian Revolution, the revolt with which the name of Lenin is associated, has been brought about in order that the workers of Russia may no longer be disinherited and oppressed. This revolt is the happening which definitely makes the Russian Revolution of the twentieth century the first of its kind. (...) We can look with confidence to the votes of the Russian people which, as yet, we cannot feel towards the votes of our own countrymen and women, because the Russian people have lately proved themselves. In the Moscow Municipal elections in the summer 72 per cent of the votes were cast for Socialist candidates. In Petrograd also the Socialists secured the majority of the votes. Compare the recent British Trade Union Congress and Labour Party manifestos with this of the Russian Soviet. Compare the general outlook of such working-class bodies in the two countries! Why are the British organisations so far behind the Russian?
War hardships, greater in Russia than in any other belligerent country, have contributed to make Russia riper for revolution than the others and to increase the need of her people for Socialism; but this is not the sole reason why the Russian workers are politically ahead of ours. In Russia the politics of advanced politicians have long been more definite and scientific, and, above all, more democratic, than the politics of those who are held to be advanced politicians in this country. The British Labour Party has hitherto existed without a programme; the programme which its Executive now proposes for it is so vaguely drawn that Mr Sidney Webb, a member at its Executive, is able to describe it as embodying: 'A Socialism which is no more specific than a definite repudiation of the individualism that characterises all the political parties of the past generation.'
Our Labour Conferences deal chiefly with fugitive partial reforms of the moment, in a spirit rather of opportunism than of adventure and research; and, to a lesser extent, the same thing may be said even of our Socialist Conferences. In the political field we believe we are right in saying that neither a Labour Party, Trade Union nor ILP Conference has discussed, at any rate within recent years, such essential democratic institutions as the Initiative Referendum and Recall, institutions which are all actually in being in the Western States of USA, and which are partially established elsewhere. A Russian Socialist woman said to us: 'People here are actually discussing whether the Referendum is democratic; why, I realised the democratic importance of the Referendum when I was fifteen years of age!' The following evening we heard Mr Bernard Shaw assuming, in addressing a Fabian audience, that our populace is too ignorant to be trusted to use the Referendum, and declaring that if it were established in this country, legislation would be held up altogether. The Lettish Social-Democratic Workers' Party was formed in 1904; at its second Congress in June, 1905, it placed the following political reforms on its programme:-
(1) Government by the people, i.e. the supreme power of the State, to be placed in the hands of a Legislative Assembly consisting of representatives elected by the whole population of Russia.
(2) Adult Suffrage, i.e., the right to an equal, secret and direct vote in all elections, local and national - for all citizens, men and women, who have reached the age of 20, according to the proportional representation system. Biennial elections.
But this was a long time ago; the Russian Socialists are now heading straight for Socialism, and for years past have been busily hammering out the programme and learning confidence in themselves and in it.
The educational value of a programme, which every new recruit to the Party must consider and accept, and every critic must discuss, is very great, and the Russian Socialist parties have not overlooked it. They have insisted that their members shall make up their minds as to what they believe and what they want.
In this country we have in the workers' movement a very large very cautious body of people which always shrinks from taking any step that appears adventurous or new and which always seems to be looking out of the corner of its eye to find out what the capitalist Press and public is saying and thinking of what it does. There are also, both inside and outside the Labour movement, large masses of people who are vaguely revolutionary in their tendencies and always ready to criticise those in power, but who have never mastered any economic or political theory. Their criticism is purely personal; they believe that if only Mr Asquith, Mr Lloyd George, or Mr Bonar Law can be turned out of office all will be well. Successive Ministries pass and re-pass; they are opposed to all of them but never learn that their quarrel is not with the individual Minister, but with the system which he upholds. Whilst our people are largely divided into one or other of these two categories we shall not make much progress. A great educational work is necessary to open the people's eyes to induce them to study Socialism, and to compare it with the capitalist system, the evils of which they now endure. Without the knowledge that such study will bring them, revolution would only mean a change of master, however successfully it might be accomplished; with that knowledge the people can do without delay all that they will.
The Russian problem is our problem: it is simply whether the people understand Socialism and whether they desire it.
Meanwhile, our eager hopes are for the speedy success of the Bolsheviks of Russia: may they open the door which leads to freedom for the people of all lands!
Published in Workers' Dreadnought, 17 November 1917. Taken from the Antagonism website.
Comments
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 35 - 24 November 1917)
Including: IWW member jailed in Australia, women win the vote in New York state, Sylvia Pankhurst on WW1 weariness, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 36 - 1 December 1917)
Including: conditions in Wormwood Scrubs prison, Labour Party conference, Sylvia Pankhurst on poverty and food, advert for Workers Suffrage Federation "Old Cockney Fair", etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 37 - 8 December 1917)
Including: political vs industrial action, Russia and WW1 by Sylvia Pankhurst, a miner's wife writes, "franchise bill" seeks removal of votes for conscientious objectors and impoverished women, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 39 - 22 December 1917)
Including: Replies to George Bernard Shaw's article on referendums, the franchise bill, the labour movement seeks continuation of war, old cockney fair review, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 40 - 29 December 1917)
Including: P.J. Dollan on life in prison, on not being a conscientious objector, Sylvia Pankhurst on imperialism, suggestions for 1918, Dr. Montessori and her educational principles, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 4 No. 48 - 23 February 1918)
Including: socialists and the war, National Labour Press raided, the schooling of the future by Sylvia Pankhurst, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 1 - 30 March 1918)
Including: Irish labour movement, workplace struggle notes, John Reed's account of the Russian revolution, deaths of conscientious objectors in prison, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 2 - 6 April 1918)
Including: engineers threaten to strike over conscription, Sinn Fein, Irish democracy, news, commentary etc.
Attachments
Comments
A short biography of May O'Callaghan, author of the Sinn Fein article enclosed within this Number:
Callaghan was born in Wexford. She studied Modern Languages at the University of Vienna and between 1901 and 1914 taught English and gave lectures on the Irish Literary Revival.
In 1916 she was writing letters on behalf of East London Federation of Suffragettes. This was a Socialist suffragette organisation that broke away from Women's Social and Political Union.
Along with Nellie Cohen (sister of Rose Cohen), between 1919 and 1921 she ran the office of the People's Russian Information Bureau (established by Sylvia Pankhurst). She was also working as the sub-editor of the Workers' Dreadnought at this time. In 1919 the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) was founded in the flat that she shared with Nellie Cohen and Daisy Lansbury.
In 1924 she travelled to Moscow where she stayed until 1928 and worked in the Translation Section of the Comintern Press Department.
In other words, she stood firmly in the authoritarian camp.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 3 - 13 April 1918)
Including: Montessori education principles, shop steward movement in France, Sylvia Pankhurst on socialists and the war, oppositon to anti- sex worker legislation, Ireland, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 4 - 20 April 1918)
Including: "the longer the war drags on the greater is the danger that it may end with a capitalist peace", the betrayal of Ireland, National Workers' Committee Conference, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 5 - 27 April 1918)
Including: Serbian socialists and WW1, Sylvia Pankhurst on trade unions vs guild socialism, police seize issues of Dreadnought, news, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 6 - 4 May 1918)
Marx centenary issue, including: Marx in Fleet Street by Silvio Corio, abolition of the House of Lords by Sylvia Pankhurst, intellectual unionism, French working women, the Society of Nations by Charles Rappoport, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 7 - 11 May 1918)
Including: Marx in Fleet Street continued, Sylvia Pankhurst on Ireland & WW1, popular kitchens in Milan, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 8 - 18 May 1918)
Including: Thomas Mooney sentenced to death in San Francisco, Sylvia Pankhurst on evil and war, workshop notes, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 9 - 25 May 1918)
Including: dockers vs admiralty, Sylvia Pankhurst on Ireland and Russia, Stefan Zweig on the tower of Babel, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 10 - 1 June 1918)
Including: The Balkan states and the great powers, UK banking reform, Sylvia Pankhurst on empire and nationality (Ireland and Russia), Industrial Reconstruction Council, resolutions of WSF conference, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 11 - 8 June 1918)
Including: Russia, Sylvia Pankhurst on women and WW1, critique of Industrial Reconstruction Committee, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 12 - 15 June 1918)
Including: proletarian motherhood, Karl Marx and Daniel De Leon, Sylvia Pankhurst on WW1 and Russia, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 13 - 22 June 1918)
Including: Women's Co-Operative Guild congress in Bradford, international news, Sylvia Pankhurst and John Reed on revolutionary armies in Russia, workplace deathrates, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 14 - 29 June 1918)
Including: starvation in Finland, Bolshevik Russia, Japan and China, Sylvia Pankhurst on post-war industrial reconstruction, "And shall Tom Mooney Die?" song, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 15 - 6 July 1918)
Including: Labour Party conference (including a motion from Sylvia Pankhurst for Labour members to withdraw from government), rip off pricing for food in the East End, Tom Mooney sentenced to death, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 16 - 6 July 1918)
Including: report on aeroplane workers strike, telegrams from Russia, Sylvia Pankhurst on parliament and the elderly in the East End, international news, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 17 - 20 July 1918)
Including: Central European socialists correspond on WW1, Finnish socialists massacred, parliamentary updates, aeroplane workers strike ends, shop stewards vs the Industrial League, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 18 - 27 July 1918)
Including: Lenin speech, ill-treatment of conscientious objectors in Wakefield, Lansdowne Labour Committee critique by Sylvia Pankhurst, socialist education, international and UK news, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 19 - 3 August 1918)
Including: war munition workers strikes, Sylvia Pankhurst on socialism in Russia, socialist education and Montessori schooling, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 20 - 10 August 1918)
Including: Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, international news, Sylvia Pankhurst on land owners and the war, socialist education and The New School, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 21 - 17 August 1918)
Including: awful conditions in Belfast prison, Sylvia Pankhurst on the Brest Litovsk Treaty, women munition workers, socialist education: The New School continued from previous issue, etc.
Attachments
Comments
Ms Pankhurst's words on the betrayal of revolution by the Social Democrats of Russia are so blurred as to be unreadable.
The PDF is readable I think? For some reason the screenshots I take of the first pages are a bit blurry. Not sure what to do about that.
Opened it in a different Reader and it is clear now.
The words that resonate most today are those of Lloyd George:
The people who made the war for the purpose for which they made it are still there prosecuting the same sinister purpose.
No words to be read here from Comrade Pankhurst on the role of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty in betraying proletarian revolution worldwide.
Maybe this AI thing is useful after all:
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is often seen as a betrayal of the proletarian revolution worldwide because it forced the fledgling Soviet government to cede vast territories to Germany, essentially abandoning revolutionary movements in those regions and undermining the idea of international solidarity among working classes, ultimately fuelling scepticism about the Bolsheviks' commitment to global revolution.
The Thumbnail looks better, Fozzie.
OK good to know, thanks. It’s unnerving posting some of these with all the optimism about Russia…
For her saving grace, Sylvia at least saw the errors of her ways.
To Lenin, as representing the Russian Communist Party and the Russian Soviet Government.
We address you as representative of the Russian Soviet Government and the Russian Communist Party. With deep regret we have observed you hauling down the flag of Communism and abandoning the cause of the emancipation of the workers. With profound sorrow we have watched the development of your policy of making peace with Capitalism and reaction.
It’s unnerving posting some of these with all the optimism about Russia…
I had noticed that as well; the Dreadnought's position on Russia/Lenin certainly evolved over time. To be fair though, a lot of anarchists (e.g. Berkman and Goldman) were also initially optimistic about the Bolsheviks' coming to power. The Dreadnought captured events as they unfolded and contains a lot of useful primary sources that haven't been published elsewhere (e.g. the manifesto of the Unemployed Workers' Organisation), which is why the paper is worth a read.
Yes exactly adri, the discomfort is a salutory reminder that life and history is a messy business...
why the paper is worth a read.
As a contrast between the Marxist position and what Marx would have made of the takeover of bourgeois state power by the former Social Democratic Labour Party (excuse if that is not the correct title of the "Bolsheviks"), the paper is useful.
But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.
The centralised state power, with its ubiquitous organs of standing army, police, bureaucracy, clergy, and judicature—organs wrought after the plan of a systematic and hierarchic division of labour... serving nascent middle class society...
Thinking about the already bourgeois nature of Imperial Russia, the country was state capitalist a long time before the Marxists coined the phrase:
'The [pre-Revolutionary] Russian government also participated directly in the economy, buying almost two-thirds of the country's metallurgical production in 1899. The government also owned vast tracts of land, numerous mines and oil fields, and extensive forests.'
Thank you, adri, for directing us to the Unemployed Workers' Organisation's Manifesto. We should note, and contrast, the economistic plea of these Marxists, i.e. social-democrats, for "Abolition of the Wage System" as a means of addressing the Unemployment Problem, with the invariant position of the communist party, dictatorship by the proletariat for the abolition of wage labour itself.
Fozzie wrote: history is a messy business
In what sense is history messy? To the extent that history is written by the victor? That is why someone has to shine the light of truth, to be the mess of history solved. Presumably that is the role of libcom.org. Or is it just here to record the victors of history, thus far?
In short, to publish this Number with no critical disclaimer is tantamount to playing into the hands of our enemy.
Perhaps this is wrong? Perhaps this site is just a library for academics? If so, may we be so bold as to call it out as a degenerated workers' state? :-)
I remember looking at the original copies in the British Museum newspaper archives in Hendon in the late 1980s. Already 70+ yrs old by then and printed on cheap paper, they were fragile and some were disintegrating. I wonder if they managed to digitise them all.
I think adding a disclaimer to each issue is probably too much aggro personally, but others are welcome to assist with that - or we could add a general disclaimer to the main Dreadnoight index page?
I would personally just rework the main intro page to better express the evolution of the paper so that people know. I think it sort of goes without saying that hosting/archiving something doesn't at all mean that one agrees with all its contents.
Often, in the past, libcom have attached introductions citing disagreement with the content of the articles published on the site. The Brest-Litovsk Treaty is such a pivotal moment between proletarian revolution and the bourgeois reaction to it that this Number deserves particular note as demonstrating the failure to call out the capitulation on the part of the Bolshevik regime. Hopefully our comments have served this purpose.
I went ahead and modified the index-page intro, if that's ok with everyone.
Very good. Just made one minor alteration:
Capitalised Communist, in "left-wing Communist".
Communism as a peculiar, social-democratic, period of capitalism is capitalised in writing.
This other—"Communism as the positive transcendence of private property as human self-estrangement, and therefore as the real appropriation of the human essence by and for man; communism therefore as the complete return of man to himself as a social (i.e., human) being – a return accomplished consciously and embracing the entire wealth of previous development. This communism, as fully developed naturalism, equals humanism, and as fully developed humanism equals naturalism; it is the genuine resolution of the conflict between man and nature and between man and man – the true resolution of the strife between existence and essence, between objectification and self-confirmation, between freedom and necessity, between the individual and the species. Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows itself to be this solution"—is neither left, nor right.
In this sense communism is always correctly written in the lower case. Whether this latter sense can be descried as libertarian communism is debatable. It is not unbounded freedom of the individual as individual freedom is relative to the necessity of the community of struggle to survive.
No idea what you're on about, as usual, so I reverted back to my revision and would appreciate it if you would not touch anything.
Who coined the phrase Left-Wing Communism?
“...The question arises: who is to exercise this dictatorship: the Communist Party or the proletarian class? ... Fundamentally, should we strive for a dictatorship of the Communist Party, or for a dictatorship by the proletarian class?...”
Excerpt from Vladimir Lenin’s, “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 22 - 24 August 1918)
Including: London bus girls strike, Australia anti-war movement, news from Russia, independent working class education, discharged soldiers demand land, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 23 - 31 August 1918)
Including: agitation against the embargo preventing employment of munitions workers without government approval, poison gas, international news, votes for women, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 24 - 7 September 1918)
Including: London police strike, international news, the co-operative movement by Sylvia Pankhurst, India supplement, socialist education in Austria, patriots attack socialist rally Woolwich, tube strike, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 25 - 14 September 1918)
Including: Extensive report by Sylvia Pankhurst on Trade Union Congress meeting in Derby, socialist education, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 26 - 21 September 1918)
Including: agricultural labour for discharged soldiers, shop stewards conference in Birmingham, Sylvia Pankhurst on prospects for peace, changes to legal system in Russia,
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 27 - 28 September 1918)
Including: report on inter-allied Labour and Socialist Conference in London, workshop notes, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 29 - 12 October 1918)
Including: news from Russia, Sylvia Pankhurst on WW1 peace negotiations, Walton Newbold on the German revolution, UK parliament and workplace news, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 30 - 19 October 1918)
Including: John Reed on Eugene Debs, "the lust of victory is postponing peace" by Sylvia Pankhurst, marxist industrial unionism, IWW in court in Chicago, women and industry after the war, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 31 - 26 October 1918)
Including: prospects for peace, French socialist congress, Sylvia Pankhurst on Alexander Kerensky and international news, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 32 - 2 November 1918)
Including: Sylvia Pankhurst in court for sedition in Derbyshire, Sylvia Pankhurst on parliament allowing women to be MPs, first Labour Women's Conference in London, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 33 - 9 November 1918)
Including: consternation at revolutionaries attending Labour Party rally at the Royal Albert Hall, rally in Derbyshire following Sylvia Pankhurst sedition trial, Feminism in Fiction book review, labour movement in Greece, revolution spreads to central Europe, Russia, Irish prisoners, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 34 - 16 November 1918)
The post-Armistice issue, including: government policy triggers unemployment and low pay, release political prisoners and conscientious objectors, Russia, war and revolution by J.T. Walton Newbold, Sylvia Pankhurst on Armistice, Doushan Popovitch obituary, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 35 - 23 November 1918)
Including: Labour Party conference, Russia, the need for a shop stewards co-ordinating body in London, etc.
NB: Pages 1127-1130 missing.
Attachments
Comments
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 36 - 30 November 1918)
Including: build up to UK election, women munitions workers protest, socialism in France, "Socialism our Goal" by Sylvia Pankhurst, Bolsheviks vs the press, Fritz Adler, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 37 - 7 December 1918)
Including: British soldiers vs Russians in the Arctic, Kropotkin arrested by the Bolsheviks, Socialist Labour Party and the election, "We did not stop it" - Sylvia Pankhurst on WWI, Russia, Lenin and Trotsky biographies, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 38 - 14 December 1918)
Including: general election, South Africa socialist conference, John Reed on intervention in Russia, etc.
The election - Sylvia Pankhurst
Anti-parliamentary article published in Workers' Dreadnought on the day of the 1918 British general election.
'No, I'm not going to vote', said a poor woman in a 'bus, 'the British Government would take the blood from your heart'. In those bitter words she summed up her attitude towards the empty political balderdash, which now issues in prolific streams from the mouths of Parliamentary candidates and their supporters, and all but fills the newspapers.
We hope nothing from this election, save that it may serve to spur the workers on to abolish Parliament, the product and instrument of the capitalist system, and to establish in its place Councils of Workers' Delegates, which shall be the executive instruments for creating and maintaining the Socialist community. The Parliament which is now being elected cannot possibly be fitted to cope with the great and important changes that are impending.
The Coalition is the Party of Capitalist reaction, the Liberal Party is but a weaker embodiment of the same thing. As for the Labour Party -- if all, and more than all, its candidates were elected, even if, by reason of their numbers, it could capture the reins of Government, it would give us nothing more than a wishy-washy Reformist Government, which, when all the big issues that really matter came to be decided, would be swept along in the wake of capitalist policy. The list of Labour Party candidates presents a curious medley of ex- Liberals, ex-Tories, Jingo Trade Unionists of narrow outlook, middle-class pacifists, with a small sprinkling of Socialists. It would be impossible to secure decisive action from such an assemblage on any really vital question.
Mr Sidney Webb, whose ideas, long discarded by the awakened rank and file in the workshops, still holds the executive in thrall, has foisted upon the Party the tame, middle-class reformism embodied in that document, ridiculous as coming from a workers' party, which is called 'Labour and the New Social Order.' The pettifogging reforms there laid down will change nothing; they will leave the poor still poor, the rich still rich. When every one of those resolutions has been enacted, still we shall have with us men and women dwarfed in every faculty by chronic want: the class that is lectured and patronised, written about and legislated for, and for whom charities are arranged, the parents, whose children it is said to be necessary to 'protect' from their 'ignorance'.
The acceptance of Webb's new social order will neither empty the prisons, which are filled by poverty's crimes, nor deprive the rich Theosophists of the opportunity to develop the gentler side of their natures by visiting the slums. Webb and the majority of the Executive, the Parliamentary candidates, and the prominent personages in the Labour Party, are struggling hard against a philosophy, growing fast amongst the rank and file -- a philosophy which it is found convenient to call Bolshevism; but which, of course, is simply Socialism. Says Webb in The Daily News of December 10th:- "The essence of Bolshevism is a contempt for Parliamentary institutions; the loss of faith in Democracy as we understand it; reliance on 'direct action' by the wage-earners themselves; the supersession of the House of Commons by 'Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils,' from which all but the manual workers are excluded; and the dictatorship of the Proletariat.' This is the revolutionary epidemic which is now spreading westward over Europe. (...)"
Webb for a political generation has been called a Socialist. Was he really a Socialist in his youth? If he has ever had a glimmering of the vision of Socialism he must surely realise that, under Socialism, we shall all be the proletariat, that there will be but one class. In the transition stage, when people who employ others and live on incomes they have not earned still remain, surely it is but wise to concentrate the voting strength in the hands of those who are workers. It is right to do this, if only as a symbol that honour is due to the worker, not to those who live as parasites on the wealth produced by others. If in the transition stages the Webbs, as well as the Northcliffes and Rockefellers, should be deprived of votes surely their practice in wielding the pen still gives them more than their share of influence.
The tide of Socialism, bringing all power to the workers, is sweeping over Europe and waves of Socialist thought, of working-class longing, are rising to meet it in this country; Webb and those who are holding the reins of power in the Labour Party shrink from it, fearfully trembling. Unconscious lackeys of the capitalist system, instinctively they fear that system's fall. Is there no spirit in their souls to answer to the call of Socialist fraternity? It seems not.
Published in Workers' Dreadnought, 14 December 1918. Taken from the Antagonism website.
Comments
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 39 - 21 December 1918)
Including: modern war by Arthur Finch, poetry by Eva Gore Booth, WWI, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 40 - 28 December 1918)
Special Russian number, including: The structure of the Soviet state, the chief task of our times by Lenin, Soviet decrees, education and the Russian soviets, impressions of Russia by Albert Rhys Williams, etc. We do not agree with much of the contents of this issue, but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 41 - 4 January 1919)
Including: Against conscription, Russia, President Wilson visits London, stop the blockade of Germany and Austria, engineers and shipbuilders win 47 hour week, general election, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 42 - 11 January 1919)
Including: printing tram tickets in Russia, workers council in St Etienne, the Discharged Soldiers Federation, German Working Women in Wartime, Sylvia Pankhurst on revolution and housing, demobilisation muddle, women's movement in South Africa, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 43 - 18 January 1919)
Including: Maxim Gorki, dockworkers demand pay rise, Sylvia Pankhurst on the League of Nations, new UK government, Trotsky's speech on the Red Army, work and fatigue, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents but reproduce this issue for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 44 - 25 January 1919)
Including: Guy Aldred on conscription, globalisation and India + Burma, Sylvia Pankhurst on the deaths of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, protest outside Wandsworth prison for conscientious objector, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 45 - 1 February 1919)
Including: port of London strike, Irish parliament, Hands Off Russia conference, general strike in Belfast, Isle of Man internment camp, labour movement in India, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 46 - 8 February 1919)
Including: Clyde shipbuilders strike: police attack strikers, Lenin to American working men, how Liebknecht died, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference purposes.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 47 - 15 February 1919)
Including: "Ireland, Marx and Internationalism" by Captain White, Russia, London shop stewards meetings by Sylvia Pankhurst, International Labour Conference, strikes, a union for soldiers, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 48 - 22 February 1919)
Including: America and Mexico, Edward Garnett on European politics, The League of Nations by Sylvia Pankhurst, Russia, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 49 - 1 March 1919)
Including: the miners' demands, a soldier's account of WWI, Crossley Motors strike, David Ramsey trial, Lenin on the cause of famine, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 50 - 8 March 1919)
Including: death of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknect, a soldier's account of WWI part 2, London cooks and waiters strike, Dreadnought writer W.F. Watson on trial, Sylvia Pankhurst on recent workers' defeats, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 51 - 15 March 1919)
Including: Guy Aldred on the torture of conscientious objectors, a soldier's account of WWI part 3, Russia, David Ramsey found guity of sedition, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 5 No. 52 - 22 March 1919)
Including: Bolsheviks at the Berne conference, a soldier writes about WWI part 4, Lenin on the international revolution, the divide between German and Russian socialism, the possibilities for strikes, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but republish it here for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 1 - 29 March 1919)
Including: Moscow conference and the Third International, coal crisis in South Wales, Hungarian socialists, a soldier writes about WWI part 5, views on the Berne conference, working class life in Bethnal Green, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 2 - 5 April 1919)
Including: Egypt, compensation for murdered seamen, a soldier writes on WWI part 6, domestic service, Sylvia Pankhurst on Labour and the League of Nations, Daily Herald coverage of Russia, Bukharin article, South Wales miners, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 3 - 12 April 1919)
Including: South Wales miners and teachers disputes, National Industrial Conference, a conscientious objector on prison conditions, Bertrand Russel book review, Russia, Alexandra Kollontai, air pollution, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 4 - 19 April 1919)
Including: Russia, aliens bill in Britain, "Anarchy or Communism" by Bukharin, "You are called to the war" by Sylvia Pankhurst, Shipping Employers Federation, etc.
You are called to the war - Sylvia Pankhurst
Article in Workers' Dreadnought opposing the involvement of the Allied nations in the Russian Civil War.
Wake up! Wake up! Oh, sleepy British people! The new war is in full blast, and you are called to fight in it; you cannot escape; you must take part!
Out of the old inter-capitalist war between the Allies and the Central Empires, the war, the actual crude, cruel fighting between the workers and the capitalists has emerged. Soldiers who enlisted, or were conscripted for the old war have been quietly kept on to fight in the new war which began without any formal declaration. They have not been asked: 'Do you approve this war; do you understand it?' They have merely been detained and will now fight against their comrades.
Officially the British Government is not at war with Socialism in Europe, though in actual fact British and other Allied soldiers have been fighting it for a long time, and British money and munitions are keeping the soldiers of other governments in the field against it. There has been no official declaration of war, but the House of Commons, on April 9th, expressed its opinion in support of the war on Socialism in general, and on Russian Socialism in particular. This expression of opinion the Home Secretary claims to have been unanimous, and certainly when he challenged Members to express a contrary opinion no voice of dissent was audible enough to reach the columns of Hansard or the press. No Member of Parliament has written to the newspapers to make his protest.
Some Socialists tell us that the floor of the House of Commons is a splendid platform for propaganda; but the trouble is that when they get into the House, their courage seems to evaporate like a child's soap bubble. We have heard of Labour Members of Parliament being ready to do and say all sorts of heroic things to get themselves put out of the House, to arrest the world's attention on some appropriate occasion. That is not much, of course, as compared with running the risk of death in the horrible trenches or with being incarcerated for years in prison; but here was an opportunity, if ever there was one, for Members of Parliament to display all their pluck! Clem Edwards, the notorious anti-Socialist, moved the adjournment of the House, 'to draw attention to a definite matter of urgent public importance, namely, the alleged overtures from the Bolshevik regime in Russia to the Peace Conference in Paris.'
In the debate Brigadier-General Page Croft and Lieut. Col. Guinness suggested that some Members of Parliament support the Bolsheviki. Did any man cry out: 'Yes, we are proud to stand by our fellow workers in their fight for Socialism'? No, on the contrary, the Labour Members broke out into cries of protest against the suggestion that they had any such sympathies. Bottomley rewarded them by an assurance of 'the profoundest and most affectionate respect'. The Home Secretary hammered in the point, saying the debate had called forth 'from every quarter of the House an indignant repudiation that the House contained a single Bolshevik sympathiser.' He described the Soviet Government as 'a mere gang of bloodthirsty ruffians,' and said it would strengthen the hands of the Government to know there is no quarter' for any Soviet supporters, 'at any rate in the British House of Commons.'
Even then there was no protest! Where was the lead to the country, and especially to the lads who may mistakenly enlist in the counterrevolutionary armies, which our 'leaders' in Parliament might have given? Of what were the opponents of the resolution afraid? Either they are cravens, or their opposition to the new war is of a very lukewarm character. The real work for the Socialist revolution must be done outside Parliament.
On April 10th, the day after the House of Commons has thus expressed itself, the first contingent of volunteers set sail for Russia. (à)
The British men who are in the army of the Government are fighting against the Workers' Socialist Revolution just as are the men who are fighting in the armies of the capitalist Government of Germany, France, Italy, America, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and any other governments which are joining in the strife. In all these armies the truth that they are fighting Socialism has dawned on some of the soldiers, and many of them have deserted and joined the Red Armies of the working-class Socialism.
Many who are not actually in the fighting rank have nevertheless ranged themselves against the capitalist governments and on the side of the Soviets. Philips Price, who is editing a Bolshevik newspaper in Russia and many other British people are aiding the Soviets over there. In this country we can also help by working with might and main to establish the British Soviets, by telling the soldiers, sailors, and workers the issues that are at stake in the International Civil War.
That war has now spread far beyond the boundaries of Russia. General Smuts has left Hungary abruptly, finding that Soviet Hungary stood firm for Communism. Shall we presently see the armies of capitalism marching on Hungary? The Evening News reported that the Serbs had refused to obey the order of the Big Four to send their troops to attack Hungary, because the Allies has not yet recognised the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. But the Allies will presently secure a capitalist army from somewhere to carry on the fight. Paderewski is reported to have refused to send Polish troops to fight Communism, unless Dantzig and other territory is conceded to Poland. The Allies will bargain with Paderewski till they have bought his support or substituted a Polish ruler who is more amenable.
Churchill has revealed the fact that Germany is ordered, as one of the peace conditions, to fight Communism, and that the Germans may buy their way into the League of Nations by doing this efficiently. Indeed, the entire policy of the Paris Conference is dominated by the policy its members are pursuing in the war between the capitalists and the workers. Both false and foolish are the stories, so industriously circulated, that the British and American politicians at the Peace Conference are the pacifying influences and that they are working against a peace of annexation and oppression; whilst the French and Italian politicians are the greedy Jingoes, who, by demanding all sorts of advantages for themselves, are preventing the peace. The plain fact is that British and American capitalists have got what they set out to gain by the war with the Central Empires and the French and Italians have not. (...)
It is stated now that Germany is to pay the Allies between ten and twelve thousand million pounds and that the payments will be spread over fifty years, during which the Allies will occupy Germany, we suppose. Evidently it is thought that fifty years will not be too much for the crushing out of Bolshevism. Moreover, after such a period of occupation, history teaches us to anticipate that the occupying Powers will consider it inexpedient to withdraw. Ireland, Egypt, and India all stand as landmarks calling us to this conclusion.
To this pass has capitalism brought us. Europe, neutral and belligerent alike, is starving: not a household in our country, or any other, but mourns some of its members who lost their lives in the last war; and the world, in order to maintain the capitalist system, stands on the threshold of a time of still more extensive war.
British workers, which side are you on in the International Civil War?
Published in Workers' Dreadnought, 19 April 1919. Taken from the Antagonism website.
Comments
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 5 - 26 April 1919)
Including: Repressive colonial laws in India, a message from Lenin, conditions in prisoner of war camps in England, Russia, Paris Peace Conference, Clara Zetkin on the Bolsheviks, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 6 - 3 May 1919)
Including: Hungarian revolution, "how the rulers of England are strangling the Russian revolution", Karl Radek on the dictatorship of the proletariat, UK news, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 7 - 10 May 1919)
Including: Harry Pollitt appeals to dockers to assist Russia, May Day in London and Glasgow, spycops, "Action" by Sylvia Pankhurst, French control of the Saar Valley, Bolsheviks on India, etc. We do not agree of the contents of this issue, but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 8 - 17 May 1919)
Including: Rally at the Dail in Ireland, Russian news, nationalisation of mines in South Wales, Sylvia Pankhurst on prospects for Germany post-war, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue, but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 9 - 24 May 1919)
Including: Anton Pannekoek on the German revolution, training for newcomers, a protestor's account of her picket of Wandsworth prison. government spying on soldiers, European peace treaty, child welfare in the UK and Russia, May Day in Ireland, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 10 - 31 May 1919)
Including: wives of interned foreigners protest, Bukharin on establishing communism, Sylvia Pankhurst on the Labour party and peace terms, Limerick general strike, financial organisation of Russia, South Wales notes, etc. We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 11 - 7 June 1919)
Including: League of Nations vs workers, mining and unemployment in South Wales, Sylvia Pankhurst on the police and a potential general strike, Labour Party and Russia, Royal Air Force union recognition dispute, racism in London docks, Helen Keller on revolution, etc.
We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 12 - 14 June 1919)
Including: Russia, the Third International, Ramsey MacDonald and the Italian Socialist Party, Indian reform bill, programme of the German Spartacists, Workers Socialist Federation becomes the Communist Party, etc.
We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue, but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 13 - 21 June 1919)
Including: Ramsay MacDonald vs the Bolsheviks. Eugene Debs' speech on imprisonment, work in Russia, building workers union against dismissal of member, Australia, Ireland, China, London Workers' Committee conference, etc.
We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 14 - 28 June 1919)
Including: Annie Besant on India and Bolshevism, Russia, Ireland, miners, etc.
We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 15 - 5 July 1919)
Including: Labour Party conference declares solidarity with Russia and Hungary, Russia, Ireland, peace declared but class war continues, South Wales miners, etc.
We do not agree with all of the contents of this issue but reproduce it for reference.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 6 No. 16 - 12 July 1919)
Including: Hungary, state troopers raid Russian embassy in NYC, anti-Bolshevik bill in South Africa, dockers support for Russia, international and UK news, etc.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 37 - 26 November 1921)
The 26 November 1921 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 37).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 38 - 3 December 1921)
The 3 December 1921 issue of the Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 38).
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 39 - 10 December 1921)
Contains part three of the first version of Pankhurst's "Communism and its Tactics", extracts from bourgeois economist Fredrick Bastiat's "Economic Sophisms" on the conflicting interests between producers and consumers (serving here as an indictment of capitalist production), part four of a text by Charles Brower on the historic background of the Communist Manifesto, and other content.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 41 - 24 December 1921)
Contains part four of version one of Pankhurst's "Communism and its Tactics", the sixth part of a text by Charles Brower on the background of the Communist Manifesto, part four of an older text by Kropotkin on revolution, and more.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 46 - 28 January 1921)
Contains part five of Pankhurst's "Communism and its Tactics," a critique of British-capitalist imperialism against then PM Lloyd George's calls for peace, and other content.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 47 - 4 February 1922)
Contains part six of Pankhurst's "Communism and its Tactics", a short story by socialist writer Anatole France, part eight of an older text by Kropotkin on revolution, and other content.
The Workers' Dreadnought (Vol. 8 No. 52 - 11 March 1922)
Contains the seventh and final part of the first version of Pankhurst's "Communism and its Tactics," part three of Kropotkin's "The Wage System," and other content.
Comments
Quit scabbing Fozzie; I'm on…
Quit scabbing Fozzie; I'm on strike until Steve retracts what he said about me being a "colonialist chauvinist" (i.e. for opposing Native American nationalism—which shouldn't be a controversial position among anarchists and other socialists) who is also supposedly spreading "Russian propaganda" by opposing Ukraine's ambitions to recapture Russophilic regions like Crimea (just like I oppose the military endeavors of Russia and all other capitalist states).
Hello Adri. Maybe explain in…
Hello Adri. Maybe explain in clear terms what I have done that you think is bad?
Hello Adri. Maybe explain in…
Lessening the effectiveness of our strike by scabbing! Once we win the retraction, and maybe also an actual wage of sorts (along with arrears), then we will go back to adding stuff to the archive. Until then, show some solidarity!
Once we win the retraction …
As a gesture of good faith, I've restored all of my submissions back to their original revisions. I will also refrain from posting a satirical list of demands from the fictional Libcom Workers' Union (a rank-and-file union of libcom contributors), in addition to a photo of the libcom penguin sitting on top of King Charles II's throne ordering libcom's volunteer-peasants to return to work. I do this in a spirit of reconciliation and out of a desire to end this strike amicably.
I can also resist anything…
I can also resist anything but temptation...
Thanks for the week-long…
Thanks for the week-long show of solidarity at least, but it seems that Steve is ignoring the LWU's legitimate grievances—not because he's clever or has read any Pope,[1] but because the libcomonarch is a bit of an ignorant snob. If you're wondering why I hadn't finished this already, it's partly because there are around 308 issues of the Workers' Dreadnought, not including the Woman's Dreadnought, and I wasn't sure if the site could handle all of that. When I was originally working on this, there also weren't any downloadable issues from the LSE like there are now; they only had images of each issue that one had to individually download and compile into a pdf.
1. 'Tis best sometimes your censure to restrain, / And charitably let the dull be vain: / Your silence there is better than your spite, / For who can rail so long as they can write?
westartfromhere wrote: Very…
Just so everyone knows, the…
Just so everyone knows, the LWU's strike against Steve is more or less over, so an admin can remove all the above comments if they want; they don't really have much to do with the Dreadnought.
Can we put that to a vote?…
Should not the introduction to these journals above distinguish between proletarian revolution (strikes, demonstrations, desertion, mutiny, sabotage, free association...) and the seizure of political power under the guise of social-democracy? To ignore this distinction is akin to conflating the spontaneous uprisings of the working class with the bourgeois Peace Treaties that conclude these battles between the classes. Is it fair to apply Lenin's derogatory term, "Left-Wing" Communist, at all? The newspaper proclaimed itself for "International Socialism". Let's take it at its words.
We suggest the following:
Weekly suffragette and later newspaper of "International Socialism" founded by Sylvia Pankhurst, first appearing as the Woman's Dreadnought in March 1914 and then as the Workers' Dreadnought in July 1917. Amongst other major historical events covered, the Dreadnought captured and supported the seizure of state power by the majority ("bolshevik") faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (renamed by itself as the All-Russian Communist Party after the seizure of power) before the anti-working-class nature of the regime became apparent to some observers. Over time, the paper then took a limited critical stance towards Lenin and the so-called "workers' state" in Russia, as evidenced by the open letters of Herman Gorter and Sylvia Pankhurst to Lenin published in 1921 and 1922, respectively.
Stop editing the page…
Stop editing the page westartfromhere... Nobody knows what you're talking about. I mean really, can we not get some admin attention here??
What's not to understand?…
What's not to understand?
Weekly suffragette and later newspaper of "International Socialism" founded by Sylvia Pankhurst, first appearing as the Woman's Dreadnought in March 1914 and then as the Workers' Dreadnought in July 1917. Amongst other major historical events covered, the Dreadnought captured and supported the seizure of state power by the majority ("bolshevik") faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (renamed by itself as the All-Russian Communist Party after the seizure of power) before the anti-working-class nature of the regime became apparent to some observers. Over time, the paper then took a limited critical stance towards Lenin and the so-called "workers' state" in Russia, as evidenced by the open letters of Herman Gorter and Sylvia Pankhurst to Lenin published in 1921 and 1922, respectively.
Well first you've littered…
Well first you've littered this site with your strange and offensive posts (e.g. calling the people who did the redesign for this site bourgeois essentially) and are now going around editing other people's articles without conferring with them. And second your reason for editing the above intro, after I've repeatedly told you not to, makes absolutely no sense. The term "left-wing communist" is an entirely appropriate choice of words to describe Pankhurst, seeing as how she favored worker councils (similar to other left-wing/council communists of the time) and opposed the party rule of the so-called "workers' state" in Russia.
The question posed was, What…
The question posed was, What is not understandable about the draft of the introduction below?
Weekly suffragette and later newspaper of "International Socialism" founded by Sylvia Pankhurst, first appearing as the Woman's Dreadnought in March 1914 and then as the Workers' Dreadnought in July 1917. Amongst other major historical events covered, the Dreadnought captured and supported the seizure of state power by the majority ("bolshevik") faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (renamed by itself as the All-Russian Communist Party after the seizure of power) before the anti-working-class nature of the regime became apparent to some observers. Over time, the paper then took a limited critical stance towards Lenin and the so-called "workers' state" in Russia, as evidenced by the open letters of Herman Gorter and Sylvia Pankhurst to Lenin published in 1921 and 1922, respectively.
Why would I change "left…
Why would I change "left-wing communist" to "newspaper of International Socialism"? You make absolutely no sense.
adri wrote: Why would I…
You wouldn't. Others may, however, prefer to use the journal's own self-description, rather than its detractor's — Lenin's — description of ' "Left-wing" Communism'.
Perhaps you would like to answer why you wish to omit a reference to Herman Gorter's open letter to Lenin that predated Pankhurst's? Again, why you wish to omit mention of the seizure of state power by 'the majority ("bolshevik") faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party'?
And, once again, what in the following paragraph makes absolutely no sense to you?
Weekly suffragette and later newspaper of "International Socialism" founded by Sylvia Pankhurst, first appearing as the Woman's Dreadnought in March 1914 and then as the Workers' Dreadnought in July 1917. Amongst other major historical events covered, the Dreadnought captured and supported the seizure of state power by the majority ("bolshevik") faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (renamed by itself as the All-Russian Communist Party after the seizure of power) before the anti-working-class nature of the regime became apparent to some observers. Over time, the paper then took a limited critical stance towards Lenin and the so-called "workers' state" in Russia, as evidenced by the open letters of Herman Gorter and Sylvia Pankhurst to Lenin published in 1921 and 1922, respectively.
westartfromhere wrote: You…
There's nothing inherently disparaging about the term "left-wing/left" communist. In fact Pankhurst approvingly used the term herself and reprinted tons of writings by various groups and people who employed the label (e.g. Herman Gorter, the Group of Revolutionary Left-Wing Communists of Russia, German left-communists, and others):
westartfromhere wrote:…
I'm not "omitting" anything; there's just no point in mentioning Gorter's open letter when Pankhurst's open letter sufficiently illustrates the point I was making. Why on earth would I also write the more verbose "the majority ('bolshevik') faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (renamed by itself as the All-Russian Communist Party after the seizure of power)" instead of just the "Bolsheviks/Russian Communist Party"??
I am also in the faction…
I am also in the faction which feels it's better if introductions can be brief and to the point.
Yes agreed with Fozzie. The…
Yes agreed with Fozzie. The introduction is fine. Lots of people use the term left communist or left wing communist to refer to themselves. Adding obscure nitpicking to introductions just makes them unintelligible even to people who might use this site regularly, let alone people just trying to learn about Pankhurst without a lot of backgroun.
If all here are happy to…
If all here are happy to exclude mention of "the seizure of state power by the majority ("bolshevik") faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party"—and Dreadnought's reaction—in the intro, leave it so.
There were so many different political parties in the period subsequent to that seizure of power but by the time that reaction had finished its bloody work there remained only one, the All-Russian Communist Party.