Socialist Labour Press

The publishing arm of the British Socialist Labour Party, founded on 7 June 1903 on the model of Daniel De Leon's American party, which likewise insisted that its central press be owned directly by the party. It was based at 50 Renfrew Street, Glasgow; the party's earliest branches were in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Falkirk, and no separate founding date for the press has been found. From about 1905 to 1920 it was one of Britain's most prolific socialist publishers, issuing — among much else — the first new English translation of the Communist Manifesto since the authorised version of 1888, as a penny pamphlet. Its publications are almost always undated. In 1919–21 most of the party's leaders, including J. T. Murphy, Tom Bell, William Paul and Arthur MacManus, left to help found the Communist Party of Great Britain, but the press survived with the small remaining party. The University of Warwick's Modern Records Centre holds its pamphlets up to Socialism and the State (1942). It continued, on a much smaller scale, as the press of the dwindling party until 1980.

Years

1903–1980

Location

Glasgow, United Kingdom

Affiliation

Party-owned press of the Socialist Labour Party (Britain)

Languages

English

Sources

University of Warwick, Modern Records Centre — Socialist Labour Party and Socialist Labour Press pamphlets, 1919–1942

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