Justice (newspaper)

The Justice was the central organ of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), the first socialist party in Britain, or their successors. It was published from 1884 to 1925.

history

Justice appeared as a weekly newspaper and, as the central organ of the SDF, was subtitled "Organ of the Social Democracy". Over the years of its publication, it has varied in length from four to twelve pages; most editions have eight pages.

The newspaper's editors were primarily well-known members and officials of the SDF. The first editor in chief was CL Fitzgerald . He was followed by SDF chairman Henry Hyndman , who brought the paper to its controversial line. Others were Ernest Belfort Bax , who wrote numerous articles under Hyndman, Henry Hyde Champion , Harry Quelch and Henry W. Lee as the last editor-in-chief. Hyndman in particular dominated the paper for years. In almost every issue he published columns that were published with wider line spacing than other articles. Hyndman's milestone birthdays were prominently announced in the newspaper and the death of his first wife, who had little political significance, was covered on several pages.
The column Topical Tattle , which appeared in every issue for decades, was quite popular , in which an author under the pseudonym Tattler summarized and commented on political and social events in an entertaining way. Compared to other papers of the British labor movement, Justice had a very high proportion of articles on foreign policy issues.

In the course of the First World War , Justice also split. The paper turned away from the SDF successor organization British Socialist Party and became the central organ of the National Socialist Party . In 1925 the weekly newspaper was renamed Social Democrat and appeared as a monthly until 1933.

Web links

Selected articles from Justice at the Marxists Internet Archive .