Justice (newspaper)

Not to be confused with Justice, the modern bimonthly newspaper of the CWI affiliated Socialist Alternative (US).

Socialist postcard depicting Justice.

Justice was the weekly newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in the United Kingdom.

The SDF was the Democratic Federation until January 1884. With the name change the organisation launched the newspaper.[1]

The paper was initially edited by C. L. Fitzgerald,[2] and later by H. M. Hyndman, Henry Hyde Champion, Ernest Belfort Bax, then Harry Quelch for many years, and finally Henry W. Lee. It attempted to present scholarly ideas in a serious fashion, featuring work by William Morris, Peter Kropotkin, Edward Aveling and Alfred Russel Wallace.

After the SDF became the British Socialist Party, in 1911, Justice continued as the weekly publication of that party, but in 1916, the group around Justice split away to form the National Socialist Party. The paper then became the organ of that party, which soon joined the Labour Party and renamed itself the Social Democratic Federation again. In 1925 Justice was renamed the Social Democrat and became a monthly. It was edited by William Sampson Cluse until its demise in 1933.

  1. ^ E. Belfort Bax: Early Days of the SDF (1923) Many issues appeared with the by-line "Organ of the Social Democracy".
  2. ^ G. D. H. Cole, British Working-Class Politics, 1832-1914, p.92