Haywood vs. Hardie. Without a quorum, the S.P.’s national leadership decides to invite, at Party expense, Keir Hardie on a speaking tour of the U.S. William D. Haywood, then a member of the N.E.C., protests.

‘No Labor Party Representatives’ by William D. Haywood from International Socialist Review. Vol. 13 No. 2. August, 1912.

AT the recent joint meeting of the National Executive Committee and the Campaign Committee at which no quorum of the former was present, it was decided to bring J. Kier Hardies to this country for a lecture tour during the campaign. This can be done only at great expense, but aside from the question of the expense involved, Mr. J. Kier Hardie is not a member of the British Socialist Party. Whatever his past record may have been, he is now identified with the Independent Labor Party and as a member of Parliament was elected on the Labor Party ticket, which is generally recognized by the Socialists of Great Britain as the tail of the Liberal Party. Mr. Hardie’s position on the Conciliation Bill, a compromise measure, supported by him, is intended to give votes to women in Great Britain, but only to those who are property holders. He thus places himself in opposition to the general Socialist movement for unrestricted woman’s suffrage.

Mr. Hardie is the close associate of such men as Ramsey McDonald and Willie Anderson, who in a measure are responsible for the unfavorable result of the general strike of the coal miners, all of them having given their influence to the establishment of the Minimum Wage Bill, which acted as a mean of stampeding the miners who were standing as a unit for an increase of wages.

The Socialist party of the United States cannot afford to stand sponsor for anyone, especially any speaker, whose efforts and influence and very personality would tend toward the thought of establishing a Labor party in this country. If speakers are to be imported let it be those whose position on the class struggle is clear.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v13n02-aug-1912-ISR-gog-ocr.pdf