Big stick in Poplar, By Sylvia Pankhurst, 1923

Introduction, 1990

The following article about the events in Poplar, a district in the East End of London, was published in the Workers’ Dreadnought in October 6, 1923. In publishing this article it not only gives us the opportunity to re-open a part of the history of the actions of the Labour leaders (especially this one as a mythology about “Poplarism”, the struggle for municipal “socialism”, has been peddled about) but also to make some comments on the tendency around the author, Sylvia Pankhurst. There is still some confusion about the history of the Communist Left in the English speaking world as often only the “German” Left of the KAPD (a confused and disorientating movement associated with Gorter and Pannakoek) is known, whilst the history of the “Italian” Left – our own school of thought – tends to be obscured (and often falsified by our detractors) or dismissed with the wave of a hand.

The pointing to lessons of history can be regarded by some as a truism but this is an attitude which we do not share. In fact those who dismiss the lessons of history are precisely those who are doomed to repeat it! The opportunists, and especially their apologists, have been doing it over and over again.

The nature of the Labour Party has long been debated, sore often as a justification for being in it rather than outside. It is sometimes characterised as the political expression of the working class because it was founded by and is affiliated to by the Trade Unions. The extension of this argument is that people should be in it seeking to either change it or to somehow provide “better leaders”. The politics and class nature of the organisation is ignored, which covers their own opportunism. Even Lenin’s “Left-wing Communism” is used, and a discrete silence is drawn over Lenin’s characterisation of the Labour Party as a bourgeois party (because of its programme) and “the worst one in the entire Second International”. As an extension of the misuse of Lenin’s work, those outside the Labour Party are denounced as being “sectarian” – well, Lenin could be just as “sectarian” by abandoning the Second International to its fate, and even at times advocate abstention from Parliament. We were never Abstentionists in principle – Lenin was never for participation in Parliament as a principle – we had our disagreements and it is no doubt unfortunate that we were not able to resolve the matter within Lenin’s own life-time.

The Labour Party very quickly turned on the working class, showing early on which side it was on. This was merely because it was an extension of the trade union bureaucracy which had already joined with the bourgeoisie in defending the existing society and its state. Nothing at all mysterious about this fact. A reading of works of the revolutionary Left from 1914 onwards (and even before) will show which side the opportunists are on. But some people still cling to illusions that the ’socialists’ of the Second Internationalists, with the Stalinists after them, are somehow representative of the working class. Why blame the workers for the appalling actions of the opportunists and the defenders of bourgeois society?

Lenin’s position in favour of the affiliation to the Labour Party by the Communist Party being formed in Britain requires a more detailed study than an introduction such as this. Suffice it to say that he was not only trying to educate a new generation of young communists but also looking for a way to reach the masses. He is quite clear on what he is looking for and points to an independent existence similar to the one which had previously existed in Russia where there were separate factions (tendencies), i.e. the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Such a situation could have existed (in theory) in Britain prior to the First World War, but was closed irrevocably from 1918 onwards. This date is important as the federal structure of the Labour Party, when organisations had a fair amount of independence of action, was replaced with one of domination by the social- chauvinists. The inclusion of the famous (or more correctly infamous) Clause Four calling for the return of the fruits of the labour, by hand and by brain, to the workers concerned is sometimes pointed to as the basis of socialism, but is in reality the victory of the Fabian liberal “state socialism” and doesn’t represent a step towards socialism at all.

Pankhurst had waged a long fight over the war and the new constitution during this period 1917-18 WITHIN the Labour Party. Opposition to the membership of the Labour Party wasn’t some idle sectarianism, a distain to become involved in other organisations, but a recognition that the fight had been fought inside and must now be fought OUTSIDE the Labour Party. This was precisely one of the reasons that the new Communist International had been set up to fight for, and Pankhurst and her organisation, the Workers Socialist Federation, was the first in Britain to declare unreservedly and enthusiastically for it. The break-down in the Unity negotiations led to the formation of the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) by the W.S.F and a number of other groups and individuals. Although small in number, it was very active and achieved more than the British Socialist Party, who was more concerned about its membership to the Labour Party.

During this period Pankhurst was in contact with the most revolutionary tendencies throughout Europe. On her way to a secret conference in Germany she attended the Bologna Congress of the Italian Socialist Party in late 1919. Her report published in the Dreadnought on 1st and 8th November in that year shows a clear identification with the “Abstentionist” Left of Italy and mentions her having long conversations with Bordiga. These conversations also led to an interview with Pankhurst being published in the edition of the re-named “Il Soviet” (formerly known as Il Socialist published from Naples. This interview elaborated how Pankhurst saw the way the various tendencies in Britain as well as the labour and trade union bureaucrats were developing. It is clear that even though the “abstentionism” of the British and the Italian movements were not in principle (both were prepared to drop it if agreement on general positions could be reached) a convergence of political positions do not mean that they were identical at that time.

The CP(BSTI) stood to one side while the B.S.P., along with some small groups a handful of individuals constituted the Communist Party of Great Britain. After the Second Congress of the Comintern and obeying the instructions of the Moscow leadership the majority of the members of the CP(BSTI) joined the CPGB early in 1921. However, the desire for unity is one thing, the converging of strategies and perspectives is another. Very quickly the issues which had divided the tendencies during the Unity negotiations emerged within the new CPGB. Although the Labour Party refused admission to the CPGB, it had no desire to voluntarily place its neck in the famous noose mentioned by Lenin, but that did not stop the CPGB continuing to try. And more than that, the whole issue of what constitutes revolutionary action and practice caused dissension.

Pankhurst and others criticised the actions of communist councillors and Guardians on the Poor Law Boards, Education Boards, etc. It became apparent that the membership that came with the B.S.P. thought they could continue in the same old reformist way they had been conducting themselves for years. Militant sounding rhetoric in their journals while reformist actions of their councillors (sometimes under a labour ticket anyway). The issue of actions of Communist Party members led to protests by Pankhurst and her expulsion late in 1921. The actions of the two Communist Party members who were Guardian Board members should not be seen as an incidental happening, as one of then, A. A. Watts, was not only a long standing member of the B.S.P., but also the Treasurer of the recently formed C.P.G.B. No disclaimer for his actions was ever made, nor was he disciplined for his actions! This is stalinism before Stalin! Those who protest against the cutting of the poor relief are expelled while those who carry out the attacks on the working class can remain members. Some “Communist Party”. It is not for nothing that the C.P.G.B. could quite easily fit into the stalinised Comintern without any large-scale purges, expulsions, etc. They were already on the outside.

We must acknowledge that Sylvia Pankhurst was no theoretician, and even though a tremendous fighter this did not prevent her going over-board after her expulsion from the C.P.G.B. Trying to rekindle a fighting spirit amongst the working class, Sylvia threw herself into whirlwinds of activity, forming all sorts of organisations such as new revolutionary unitary organisations as advocated by the German ’left’. More often than not they existed only on paper. However, the Unemployed Workers Organisation was different, in the sense that it did express the physical organisation of militant workers who fought to defend the conditions and interests of masses of the unemployed. It has been noted that many of the militant workers of the first world war became the organisers of the unemployed in the 1920s. Therefore not all of Sylvia’s work during this period was wasted, especially her pointing to the terrible events in Ireland during these same years.

Some make disparaging comments about Pankhurst because of the issues she finally took up, particularly her concern for the people of Abyssinia with its brutal invasion by Italian fascist forces. In a sense she was also a victim of the counter-revolution as much as so many others who could not hold to the narrow path of revolutionary principles like those defended by the “Italian” Left in exile, as shown by publications such as Bilan.

Editorial Note: The information in the following article has been reproduced from the above-mentioned copy the Workers’ Dreadnought. We have excluded some of the sub-headings only to save space.

The big stick in Poplar
Who called in police to beat unemployed ?

Upwards of forty people badly hurt, hundreds of slightly wounded cases

Much has been said and written of love and hate and violence in Poplar. One thing stands out clearly: it is that the result of working-class representatives taking part in the administration of capitalist machinery, is that the working-class representatives become responsible for maintaining capitalist law and order and for enforcing the regulations of the capitalist system itself. The Labour Guardians, who hold all the seats of the Board save two, have deducted the 1s.6d. a week coal allowance, and are contemplating a reduction in the scale of relief, though the winter is approaching and the cost of living rising and wages falling.

On Wednesday, September 26th, a deputation of the Unemployed Workers’ Organisation waited upon the Guardians to ask for the restoration of the coal allowance and an increase in the scale of relief to single men and women.

Relief to be reduced

The Guardians refused both requests, and Mr, Edgar Lansbury, Chairman of the Board, told the deputation that a reduction in the scale of relief is being considered in order to reduce the call on the ratepayers by £85,000.

Guardians looked in

Thereupon the Unemployed locked the main doors of the building and told the Guardians that they must remain for the night unless they would reverse their decision.

This is not the first time the Unemployed have taken such action. Guardians have been locked in many times before in Poplar and in other Boroughs. The Unemployed officials declare the Mr. George Lansbury and other members of the Board have in the past expressed approval of such tactics; but if that is so it was no doubt in the shape of platform perorations not intended to be taken too literally. Certainly the Board resented the locking in on this occasion, and, though some of them are members of Parliament, accustomed to all-night sittings at Westminster, and others hope to be, they were not willing to make this sacrifice of comfort to oblige the Unemployed.

Some two hundred Unemployed were in the building, and about twenty were inside the Board-room with the Guardians. A few were in the public gallery. The rest of the two hundred were downstairs in the entrance hall of the Guardians’ offices.

A crowd of men, women, and children were outside.

At this time it seems that the Board meeting came to an end and that it was decided there should be no further business done by the Board that night. The Labour members, who form the great majority of the Board, remained wrangling with the Unemployed.

Police refuse to enter

The Unemployed assert that Mr. George Lansbury went downstairs and broke a fanlight, saying that this would be the signal for the police to break in. The “Daily Herald” and the rest of the press assert that the police refused to enter without a written order of the Guardians.

Comrades Bellamy, Johns and Gape spoke to the crowd outside from the Board-room window. Presently a London County Council Ambulance drove up. The summoning of the Ambulance was a gruesome act, whoever was responsible for it. It proves that the local authorities expected and also intended – that people should be wounded. This is a borough “where Labour rules!” Noske and his tactics are undoubtedly to have their counterpart also in this country. It is strange that the lesson should first be given in Poplar. Seeing the ambulance, Comrade Bellamy said, “We don’t want that yet”; but the police began to beat the crowd of men, women and children with their truncheons.

Who sent for the police !

Meanwhile certain Labour Guardians were clamouring for the police to be sent for to break into the building, release the Guardians, and clear out the Unemployed.

As to what happened then there are different versions. The “Daily Herald” says:

“When the police arrived, in response to a telephone call, they declined to force an entry to the building, without written authority, and some time elapsed before the Guardians decided to give this”.

The “Daily Telegraph” report agrees with that of several other papers. It states that Alderman John Scurr, Mayor of Poplar, a magistrate, and a Guardian, took the chair, “and it was decided to give the policy requisite authority”.

The members of the Unemployed organisation say, as the “Telegraph” does, that Mr. Edgar Lansbury was willing that the police should break in the doors, but not that they should enter the building. The Board meeting, they say, came to an end, and Mr. Lansbury left the chair. Then the Labour member of the Board held a meeting. Mr. Scurr, Mayor of Poplar (I.L.P., Theosophist), took the chair. Mr. A. A. Watt (Communist Party of Great Britain) moved, and Mrs. Scurr seconded, that authority be given to the police to come in. The Unemployed say that this motion was carried. They add that Mr. Scurr then wrote a note to the police, which was thrown through the window by one of a group of Guardians: Mr. Watts, Mr. Partridge and Mrs. Scurr, who were standing at the window. The police inspector was seen to read the note.

Mr. Edgar Lansbury, questioned at a Bow Baths meeting the following Sunday, did not give a clear account of the facts. He did not know whether a vote was taken on the motion of Mr. Watts; he was speaking against it, he said, when the police came in. He would not deny that the police had had authority given to them by the Board, by Mr. Scurr, or someone else to enter the building, nor would he admit it.

Police break in

All other reports agree that the police were summoned by the Guardians. The police then broke the window and climbed into the waiting-room below the Board-room.

Mr.. George Lansbury had told Comrade Bellamy to go downstairs to the Unemployed and ask them whether they would open the doors and go quietly, or be batoned down by the police. He said that they would be given a quarter of an hour to make their decision. Mr. Lansbury said: “Someone has telephoned to the police.“ This was before the note was sent.

A terrible scene

Comrade Bellamy went down to deliver the message to the Unemployed, who were all unarmed, and had come to the Board meeting, expecting no violence would result. He had scarcely left the Board-room, when the police appeared.

A terrible scene ensued. The police fell upon the unarmed people in the building, beating them cruelly with their truncheons. Not only members of the Unemployed organisation were ill-treated, but also individuals who had come independently on their own special cases. Numbers of men were felled to the ground and lay bleeding.

Men rushed to Mr. George Lansbury, crying: “George, can’t you stop it?” Mr. Lansbury spurned them: “They have asked for it, and now they will get it. It will be a lesson to them”, he answered.

Mrs. Scurr shrieked at Comrade W. Gape, who is only about twenty years of age, and has lived in the borough about two years: “You go back to Hendon, Gape!” Mr. Lansbury also called to Gape to go away.

Comrade Bellamy stood arguing with the Guardians: “You have phoned for the police, now phone for the ambulance”, he said to Mr. George Lansbury. Mr. Lansbury answered, as though inciting the police to seize him: “You are one of the unemployed: go with them”. “I know”, replied Bellamy, “what I shall get when I go outside. I am ready to face it”.

Comrades Bellamy, Gape and Robinson, secretary of the Poplar Branch of the Unemployed Workers’ Organisation, and crippled by the war, went out together. The police fell upon them. Comrade Robinson now lies in hospital in a dangerous condition with injuries to head and back. Comrade Gape is also in hospital with injuries to head and legs. Yet it was Gape who had taken off his cap and respectfully begged Mr. Lansbury to intervene to stop the scene of brutality taking place downstairs.

“Sit quietly”

While the police were breaking in Mr. George Lansbury told the men in the Board-room that they should sit down quietly, and no harm would be done to then. The Unemployed relied on this assurance and, considering themselves overwhelmingly out-matched, they offered no opposition to the entry of the police. Had they foreseen what was to happen, they declare they would have used their position of vantage to prevent the police climbing in.

The terrible queue

Mr. Edgar Lansbury said at Bow Baths that he asked the police inspector to take the Unemployed who were in the Board-room out with hits and see that they were not hurt. The Unemployed in the Board-room were told to go out with the inspector, and Mr. Edgar Lansbury accused those men of hiding behind the inspector, but whatever they may have been intended by Mr. Edgar Lansbury, the men who followed the inspector were not spared the violence which befell their fellows. Freeman, who went out in the queue behind the inspector was seriously assaulted about the head, and is thought to have lost the sight of one eye.

Some Guardians have accused the Unemployed of hiding behind the chair amongst the Guardians. We do not think they did; but we do not know why an unarmed man should be blamed for trying to avoid a beating with a truncheon – let the Guardians try a taste of it !

The police continued beating the people as they went down to the door, and some of them would hold up the stairway till a man had been beaten enough.

Only one-half of the double doors into the street was open; the other half the police kept closed. It was not fastened, but, as it opens inward, it did not give before the Unemployed, who were being driven out.

Beaten at the back of the head

As the Unemployed moved towards the door, they were beaten in the back again and again. Heads were bleeding from the blows of the truncheons, and now and then someone was felled to the ground. A. Burles, of 4, Cording Street, Poplar, saw in front of him in the press a man, the back of whose head was streaming with blood, and who was attempting to staunch the flow by pressing his hands to it. As that man reached the door-step the police, who were striking every man as he passed, struck him again on the back of his head. He fell on his face down the steps, and Burles fell upon him. By falling, Burles missed the blows which were being dealt out to every man as he crossed the threshold.

An old man with a wounded head had fallen and sat on the floor by the door. Some of the Unemployed men tried to lift him, crying out to the police to let them stay to do so. “Where is he?” asked a policeman, and struck the old fellow another blow on the head with his truncheon.

Thomas Clasper, a rate-payer aged 83, is partially crippled with rupture. He is recently out of hospital and still attending as an out-patient. A policeman, respecting his great age, endeavoured to protect him; but another snatched him away, dragged his along the passage, and threw him to the ground. His arm was injured; he is obliged to wear a sling. A. E. Radley, of 57, Wellington Road, Bow, declares that the police knocked his cap off and then hit him on the head.

Beating the wounded and their bearers

Outside in the street the violence continued. Men and women were attempting to carry those who had been struck down to Poplar hospital, but the police were driving the people away from the hospital, beating with their truncheons both the bearers and the wounded. Two members of the Unemployed Workers’ Organisation raised up a man unknown to then, whom they found unconscious.

A policeman cried “Where are you going?” “To see Dr. O’Brien”, one of then answered. You want to sea Dr. O’Brien? Well, you shall see Dr. O’Brien!’ the policeman answered. At the same tint he struck the man who had spoke, who collapsed under the blow. His comrade was jostled away by the police, and neither of them saw the unconscious man again.

Rose Bowler, of 44, Bargrove Street, saw an unconscious man lying on the ground. She attempted to raise him, but a policeman struck her in the face with his hand and drove her away.

Numbers of wounded people were unable to reach the hospital, or afraid to attempt it. Many were taken in by neighboring residents who bathed and bandaged their wounds. They got home the best they could. Some of them, including the Secretary of the Poplar branch of the Unemployed Workers’ Organisation, who was seriously injured in the head, were obliged to go to hospital later.

One of the wounded was ordered an ex-ray examination at the hospital, and told that he must pay 1s. for it. Not having the money he went to Mr. Scurr, the Mayor, who had acted as Chairman of the Board of Guardians, and asked what the Guardians would do for him. Mr. Scurr gave the man a shilling and told him that as a peaceful citizen he had no business to have gone to the Guardians’ offices.

Hundreds of witnesses are forthcoming, eager to testify to the action of the police and the Guardians on this amazing occasion. We have quoted only those sayings in the Board-room which a number of witnesses have corroborated without being present when the same statements were made to us by others. We have recorded only a few of the acts of violence on the part of the police reported to us. We have only given names where these were specially offered, as we know that some of the Unemployed are afraid of having their relief cut down.

The Unemployed who were present declare that many of the policeman were drunk. We are not surprised if it be found necessary to fortify men with strong drink, in order to prepare then to attack defenceless, unresisting people whose physique has been reduced by poor living.

We are making no charges against the police: our complaint is not against them, but against those who called them in to punish the people for having locked the Guardians in: our charge is against the Guardians. The Unemployed declare that they were led into a trap by their confidence that they would not be subjected to violence with the sanction of one whom they bitterly call “Jesus Christ Lansbury”, who preaches of love and forbearance.

Deputation to the councillors

On Thursday, September 27th, a deputation of the Unemployed waited upon the General Purposes Committee of the Poplar Borough Council to raise the question of Wednesday night’s happenings.

A strong force of police was present, and the Council informed the members of the deputation that the police were ready to give them more of the treatment that they had the night before. The Councillors who are, of course, the same individuals who form the Board of Guardians, adopted a railing tone.

The Unemployed complain that Mr. George Lansbury belittled Soderberg, a Swedish seaman, who is active in the Unemployed organisation, on the score of his being a foreigner. Many of Mr. Lansbury’s old fellow Socialists protested against that.

Hiding behind the chair

Mr. F. J. Isley, of 26, Lion Street, Poplar, an unemployed member of the Labour Party, complains that Mr. Lansbury called him a “coward and a sneak”, and accused him of hiding behind one of the big chairs whilst his comrades were being batoned, and of going out with the inspector in the end. Mr. Isley has written to the secretary of the Poplar Labour Party demanding that Mr. Lansbury’s attack upon his character be brought before the Party, in order that he may have an opportunity of defending himself. He declares that Mr. Lansbury refused to remain for him to give his answer at the time. He insists that no man is better than another, and that either the accusations must be proved, or Mr. Lansbury must apologise.

Mr.. Isley is but one of many who are bitterly assailing the Labour members of the Poplar local authorities.

Serious injuries

Several men are still in Poplar hospital and in the Sick Asylum suffering from injuries received on September 26th.

This is where participation in the administration of the capitalist system has brought the Labourists, Socialists, and even some who call themselves Communists, in Poplar.

“”But what could the Guardians have done?” someone asks. The answer is manifold: the Guardians have put themselves upon an inclined plane which he led them to their present disastrous pass; many and worse incidents than those of September 26th are certain to follow.

What could the Guardians have done

We will take the points in succession, beginning with the end of the series. How might the Poplar Board of Guardians have avoided the ignominy of having beaten their unarmed neighbours; their poor, unemployed working-class neighbours, whose cause they are supposed to champion? Do not forget that it was the will of the Guardians, though the arms of the police, which thus cruelly assaulted the people.

How might the Guardians have avoided the outrage? As they avoided it when the Unemployed locked them in a year ago, by making a virtue of necessity; by preserving an appearance, at least, of good nature; waiting quietly till the Unemployed themselves were tired of the siege.

Why did the Guardians submit on the last occasion, and call the police this time? Was it because on the previous occasion the Unemployed were more numerous and more militant in temper, and had made preparations for resisting attack from outside. Or did considerations of party or policy play their part? Suppose the well fed Guardians had spent a night on the not uncomfortable chairs of their Board-room, would that have been too large a price to pay to preserve the respect of their fellow workers in the proletarian movement of Poplar, to preserve some appearance of solidarity in spirit with the Unemployed?

Was it your dignity and your vanity, that were assailed, O Labour members of the Poplar Board of Guardians? Shall your dignity count when others are in need? Shall your dignity count when the class struggle is being fought? What would you say of the Liberals and the Tories had they thus preserved their dignity with the baton. So to our first question and last point in our series we say the Guardians could and should have avoided the banning by waiting quietly till the unemployed were tired of the siege. On this occasion, at least, it would not have been long – as the Guardians knew – for the police were outside and the Unemployed had no provisions – nothing more than an all-night sitting was contemplated by the Unemployed.

Belief versus wages

Now as to the second question: Can the Guardians restore the coal allowance and raise the relief to single people; can they refrain from further reducing the scale they intend? Mr. Edgar Lansbury answered the question at the Bow Baths meeting. He said the Guardians must reduce the scale of relief to the Unemployed because some who are working are getting lower wages than the relief scale. He said that men with large families who are in employment are coming to the Guardians asking that their low wages shall be made up to the relief level. Mr. Keyes, who spoke at the same meeting, said that to subsidise wages by Poor Law relief, would bring down wages in the long run.

What does that mean in essence? It means that if men can get lower wages made up in the Poor Law Guardians, they will not fight the employer for higher wages. Mr. Keyes and Mr. Lansbury surely must realise that to lower the scale of Unemployment relief will not tend to raise, but to lower the scale of wages. It is difficult to get men to work for lower wages than the relief scale; lower the relief scale and you bring pressure upon men and women to accept wages only a little higher. Mr. Keyes claimed credit for the Labour Party in Poplar on the score that they have assisted the workers to refuse work at sweated wages precisely by paying a high scale of relief. Mr. Edgar Lansbury said that to maintain the present relief might lean 3d. a week on somebody’s rent. Shall principles be sacrificed for 3d. a week, or is it a question of the Guardians being surcharged by the Government?

When the miners were fighting the lock-out to reduce their wages, which was the test struggle of the British working class at the beginning of the present wages slump, the Poplar Board of Guardians reduced the wages of its employees, and so lined up with the capitalist employers. The present reduction of relief in accord with falling wages merely assists in preparing the way for another fall in wages. What did the Poplar Labour leaders do to help the striking dockers to resist the last reduction in their wages?

The fighting ranks

But again, it is argued, the Guardians are reducing the relief because the Government insists upon it. Those of them who are Councillors have been to prison once for refusing to levy a rate, and they don’t mean to go to prison again.

If that were the view of the Poplar Guardians and Councillors, their place would be out of the fighting ranks. Those who are not prepared to stand by their principles at any cost should retire from the struggle. The Unemployed protest that the action which led the Councillors to prison did not benefit them, but the ratepayers, especially the big ship-builders and manufacturers. All the Guardians agree, we think, that the scale is already too low. They should refuse to make themselves responsible for reducing it. They should demonstrate with the Unemployed, not against them.

Reformist expedients

Most of the Poplar Guardians are reformists: they are fond of preaching social regeneration by taxation. They have not explored what they might do by a great raising of the rates in Poplar in order to mulct the big industrial concerns and a compensating Poor Law relief grant, or rebate on rates, to all the poorer part of the population. Such manipulations might be declared illegal, but if the Poplar Labourists went to prison again in support of their ideas they would do excellent propaganda for their views. We do not believe in the millennium via graduated rates and taxes, but those who do should seek every means of giving their views a trial.

Government versus workers

We have always declared that working-class representatives who become councillors and guardians assist in the maintenance of the capitalist system, and, sooner or later, must inevitably find themselves in conflict with the workers. When the great slump in employment loomed into view at the close of the war was emphatically the moment when all those who desire a change of system should have said: We refuse to accept responsibility for adjusting the difficulties which have been created by the system. We know that these difficulties cannot be solved, and we do not wish to assist in maintaining the system.

It was obvious that any attempt at adequate maintenance of the great unemployed army must challenge comparison with the poor wages of a large proportion of the employed workers, and with the small income of the struggling little shopkeepers.

Illogical position of communist Guardians

Two of the members of Poplar Board of Guardians, Messrs. A. A. Watts and Edgar Lansbury, are members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Third International). Their party preaches – or used to preach – that its members shall stand for publicly elected bodies, purely to use them as sounding-boards for propaganda against the present system and to disrupt their administration from within. Can it be that the Third International has now changed its policy, and that it now expects from its members the careful administration of the existing Government machinery, with every regard for finance, in order that Capitalism may continue as long as possible?

The Labour Party of Germany has again and again made itself the tool by which the shaken capitalist system has maintained itself in Germany. The Labour Party of Britain is following the same disastrous road. Its first lesson in the art of crushing the revolting masses was taken in Poplar on September 26th.

Let not party prejudices, personal antipathies, or disputes on points of detail, blind any one of us to that fact.

E. Sylvia Pankhurst