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The Christmas Putsch of 1883 and a Shift in Strategy
"Hyndman can accept only one position in such a body as the SDF, that of master...."


Despite the Social Democratic Association's initial success in establishing itself as a radical movement, it found its membership begin to chafe and fragment under the domineering leadership of Hyndman, who despite the checks on his power established by the autonomous general committee dominated the movement "as a personal fief." The tensions between Hyndman and the committee continued to fester, as Hyndman was a strong backer of the Pretoria Convention [1] which had seen the Boer Republics brought within the British sphere through the formation of the Federation of South Africa. [2] His support for British imperialism stood at odds with his commitment to the establishment of socialism as a viable force within British politics, and was one of the factors which turned the committee against him, though his own personal failings and general dictatorial approach to the party structure certainly contributed. In what later became known as the "Christmas Putsch" within some radical circles, the general committee accused Hyndman of the following:

  • Defamation of colleagues for attacking their anarchist convictions at a meeting in Edinburgh. [3]
  • Corresponding in the name of the organisation without prior authority and in defiance of the committee's wishes.
  • Refusal to allow the Manchester branch to elect its own committee chair, with Hyndman declaring that the branch as subordinate to the London committee.
  • Deliberate vetoing of committee proposals, such as plans to ally with trade unions.
Following extensive debate Hyndman was censured by a majority vote in favour of the committee, which pushed for his deposition. When this too was passed with a majority vote Hyndman resigned taking around a fifth of the membership (some hundred members or so) with him, though after his decision to switch his support to the Tory Democracy of Churchill in 1885, saw several of these members desert him and drift back into the SDA or join one of the other radical movements which had sprung up in the 1880s. The organisation elected William Morris as its new President and began shifting its programme to trade union organisation, looking to establish working relationships with the more radical unions. To break from the Hyndman years, the organisation rebranded itself as the Social Democratic Federation, with its newspaper rebranded Today's Justice with a "tripartite" editing committee of Ernest Belfort Bax, Eleanor Marx and William Morris. The movement's expulsion of Hyndman was welcomed by Engels who saw the development as necessary for the organisation's growth.



The logo of the Social Democratic Federation

The committee's policy of establishing links with trade unions saw the movement become active within the worker's rights movements of the major cities. The federation's decision to actively campaign for improvements in workers conditions brought into contact with some of the more reformist Christian Socialist elements as well as the London Labour League which represented the dockers and stevedores of London. The Manchester branch, which had been granted the right of committee following the leadership change, had begun to campaign for the improvement in sanitary conditions within worker's housing, as well as fairer rates of pay. It's agitation in both London and Manchester brought it to the attention of the authorities, who regarded it (along with the other socialist movements of the time) with healthy suspicion, with Morris, assistant secretary H.H. Champion and unionist delegate Tom Mann [4] arrested for "disturbing the peace" in early 1884 for giving a speech near Trafalgar Square.

Though the split in the movement between Hyndman and the committee had dented membership figures, the decision to prioritise the trade union's as a vehicle for socialism had begun to pay dividends with the membership gradually increasing to around 850 by the end of 1884, while the circulation of the newspaper remained around a healthy 2,500-3,000, while the increase in profile had seen the SDF begin to cooperate more broadly with other organisations in the pursuit of socialism.

BRIEF NOTES

[1] The Pretoria Convention, following the British victory over the Boer Republics, established the Federation of South Africa, a loosely affiliated federation of the Boer states and British territories which held self-governance (based on the Canadian model.) The convention granted the Boers significant autonomy, though they were now considered imperial subjects. The British decision to send further troops to quell the Boer resistance had come following the initial failure in the face of the Boer's guerrilla tactics. The British, under the command of General Roberts and utilising native knowledge eventually forced the Boers further and further back, occupying Pretoria by the end of 1881. It would be this that forced the Boer Republics to the negotiating table.
[2] The Federation was established with its capital in Cape Town, which was home to the federal parliament which was elected on a system of qualified franchise (which saw the Cape Franchise system extended to the federal elections, though it's qualifications were a minimum property ownership of £55, just over double that of the Cape.) The individual states were allowed to maintain their own franchise systems, while the indirectly elected senate (elected by state parliaments) was established as a counterbalance to the popularly elected House of Assembly.
[3] While the anarchists were a small, relatively insignificant faction of the SDA, the group's charter established that it was open to all of a radical persuasion and its absorption of the Manhood Suffrage League had seen several anarchists enter the organisation. Hyndman's attack on their views at a public convention was seen as sectarianism and "against the spirit of comradeship that we subscribe to."
[4] IOTL, Champion and Mann were founders of the Independent Labour Party, though before that they were active campaigners in the SDF.

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