Social Democratic Federation
Leader	Henry Hyndman
Founded	1881 (1881)
Dissolved	1911 (1911)
Preceded by	Manhood Suffrage League
Succeeded by	British Socialist Party Socialist Party of Great Britain
Headquarters	London
Newspaper	Justice
Ideology	Socialism Marxism[1] Lassallism (After 1880s)[2]
Political position	Left-wing[3]
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

TheSocial Democratic Federation (SDF) was a Britishsocialistpolitical party. The first socialist party in Britain, it was founded byH. M. Hyndman in 1881. Its members includedWilliam Morris,George Lansbury,James Connolly andEleanor Marx. Many of its early leading members had previously been active in theManhood Suffrage League.^[4]

The SDF battled through defections of its right and left wings to other organisations in the first decade of the twentieth century before uniting with other radical groups in the MarxistBritish Socialist Party from 1911 until 1920.

The BritishMarxist movement effectively began in 1880 when a businessman namedHenry M. Hyndman readKarl Marx'sCommunist Manifesto in French translation while crossing to America. Upon his return toLondon, Hyndman sought out Marx, then an exile living not far from his home.^[5] Hyndman, who had run for parliament earlier that year, decided to start a new political organization which he called theDemocratic Federation and in June called its foundation convention, consisting of an assortment ofradical grouplets and individuals.^[6]

In preparation for the convention, Hyndman circulated among the delegates his bookEngland for All, which paraphrased Marx'sCapital without crediting the original author. Marx took great offence and broke off personal relations with his English epigone.^[7] Marx's distaste for Hyndman was shared byFriedrich Engels, who succeeded his close friend as his literary executor at Marx's death on 14 March 1883.^[8]

In 1884 the Democratic Federation was transformed into the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) when the group adopted an explicitlysocialistplatform.^[9] The Federation was strongly opposed to theLiberal Party which then claimed to represent the labour movement in parliament.^[10] The programme of the SDF was strongly progressive, calling for (amongst other measures) a 48-hour workweek, the abolition of child labour, compulsory and free and secular education, equality for women, and the nationalisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange by a democratic state.^[11]

The party attracted to its banner a number of Britain's leading radicals, includingWilliam Morris,Edward Aveling and his partnerEleanor Marx, Karl's youngest daughter.

Henry Hyndman dominated the SDF from the beginning. One key to his personal authority lay in his purse, which paid the bulk of its administrative expenses,^[12] and its weekly newspaper,Justice, lost money despite a healthy circulation of about 3,500.^[13] Some in the Federation were unhappy, regarding Hyndman as domineering in personal relations andsectarian in political thinking.^[14] Hyndman's detractors considered him politically ambitious and lacking in principle, and their ill will and personal antipathy came to a climax at Christmas 1884.

On 23 December 1884, a meeting of the Executive Council of the SDF was held at which Hyndman was attacked for several alleged offences: defaming a comrade inEdinburgh by calling him an "anarchist" without cause, corresponding in the name of the organisation without authority and in defiance of the Council's decisions, and withholding correspondence meant for the organisation as a whole. Hyndman was additionally accused of stirring up strife between members of the Council and fabricating a provincial branch from thin air so as to ready himself to wield undeserved voting authority at a future convention of the organisation.

Hyndman gathered his factional supporters for his defence, while his opponents, who included William Morris,Belfort Bax, Eleanor Marx, and Edward Aveling, mustered their own forces. After protracted debate, on 27 December a motion of censure on Hyndman was adopted, after which the majority of the Council, freshly victorious, promptly resigned from the SDF.^[15][16]

The individuals leaving the party formed a new organisation called theSocialist League, supported financially by William Morris, who particularly objected to Hyndman's rigid control of the party press and what he considered his excessive personal influence. They considered Hyndmanopportunistic and obsessed with parliamentary politics to the detriment of trade union organisation.^[17] Hyndman retained the party publicationsJustice andTo-Day and the 500 or so members of the SDF chose sides as one small organisation became two smaller ones.^[18] Friedrich Engels was jubilant about the split, declaring toEduard Bernstein: "I have the satisfaction of having seen through the whole racket from the outset, correctly sized up all the people concerned, and foretold what the end would be."^[19]

Unfortunately for Engels' best laid plans, it was the Socialist League that wound up "shipwrecked" by the split, while the SDF emerged from the factional strife with Hyndman and his followers in tighter control than before.^[20]

The defection of assorted and sundry anti-parliamentary members from the Social Democratic Federation, including a fair number ofanarchists, to form the Socialist League in 1885 left the SDF a relatively more homogeneous unit than its new offshoot.^[21] While Hyndman and the SDF used scare tactics about some impending national catastrophe that would prove the catalyst for socialist revolution in the mid-1880s, his eyes remained on the parliamentary prize. In thegeneral election of 1885 the SDF stood three candidates for office—subsidised by a £340 campaign contribution obtained by SDF leader Henry Hyde Champion from aConservative Party agent namedMaltman Barry.^[22] Despite this somewhat shady attempt of theTories to split the opposition, the SDF fared extremely poorly, withJohn Burns receiving 598 votes inNottingham whileJack Williams inHampstead and John Fielding inKensington netted a mere 27 and 32 votes, respectively.^[23] The SDF's foray into electoral politics had proven to be both controversial and wholly ineffective. It led to another split in the SDF when a group aroundC. L. Fitzgerald formed theSocialist Union.

In the winter of 1885/86 the SDF made its first appreciable advance in the public eye. Witheconomic depression sweeping the country, a demonstration was planned to be held inTrafalgar Square in February 1886 to agitate againstfree trade and in favour ofprotectionist trade policies, a move which many believed would lessen theunemployment problem in Great Britain. The SDFagitated for the "Right to Work" and made demands for the establishment of state-directedco-operativecolonies on underutilised lands.^[24] The police forced the SDF-led demonstration out of the Square.John Burns led the protesters downPall Mall en route toHyde Park bearing a red flag. Along the way the marchers scuffled with jeering onlookers anda riot ensued, with smashed windows and fisticuffs. The party claimed a big boost in membership in the aftermath, with its official organ,Justice, selling 4,000 copies of each issue.^[25][26]

The next autumn a protest of socialists and radicals was called for Trafalgar Square for 13 November 1887. This time, still smarting from the riot of the previous January, political and police officials had committed a massive body of personnel to the Square, including some 4,000 constables, 300 mounted policemen, 300 soldiers from theGrenadier Guards, and 350 members of the Life Guards. This body of police and military forces used horses, batons, and rifle butts against an estimated 20,000 demonstrators out of the square, injuring hundreds and killing two in the process.^[27][28] Some 200 demonstrators were taken to the hospital, 150 of whom needed surgical treatment. Three hundred demonstrators were arrested and 112 police officers injured.^[29] This demonstration and its forcible suppression became known as "Bloody Sunday" to a generation.^[30]

The next week, 20 November 1887 the popular mood of protest continued to expand. Some 40,000 demonstrators turned out at Hyde Park to voice their outrage over the "Bloody Sunday" killings, while an additional large crowd gathered in Trafalgar Square. For a second straight week, mounted police charged the crowd, supported by volunteer "special constables. One demonstrator, Alfred Linnell, was crushed by the horses and died of his injuries 12 days later. A massive demonstration of 120,000 Londoners turned out for his funeral."^[31]

In the aftermath of these protests, the SDF assumed a place in the public imagination far beyond the role which the organisation's actual size and efficacy would ordinarily have merited.^[32] For some in the party itself, however, the futility ofmass action to achieve positive results seemed clear. A renewed effort for working-class representation in parliament began to show itself. This trend was led byKeir Hardie, a Scot adhering to the intellectual tradition of ethical socialism rather than Marxism. Together with labour leadersTom Mann, John Burns, and socialist activist Henry Hyde Champion, the movement to launch a Labour Party established outside of the existing two parties was begun in earnest.^[33]

When these ideas were rejected by the SDF at its 1888 Annual Conference in favour of a limitation of party support to candidates endorsing the notion of class war, these advocates of an ameliorative Labour Party set out on their own, abandoning the SDF to its own fate.

Many trade unionists who were members of the SDF felt that the Federation neglected trade union activities. This group believed that the SDF was obsessed withparliamentarian pursuits and should be instead more active in the industrial struggle. Hyndman disagreed, seeking a continued concentration on political activities. Hyndman's control of the party organisation and press proved pivotal and the SDF refused to change its politically-dominated strategy, causing Burns and Mann to leave the party in 1890.

At the turn of the century, the SDF optimistically claimed to have 96 branches with about 9,000 members.^[34] Many of these branches failed to pay their subscription to the organization, however, with the dues of a penny per member per month paid to the central office irregularly. One historian has estimated the actual strength of the organization in 1900 at approximately 50 functioning branches with an active membership of around 1,000.^[35]

Despite the weakness of its adult organisation, the SDF was instrumental in the development of the movement ofSocialist Sunday Schools for children, institutions which taught socialist ideas and ethical principles to youngsters in competition with various denominations'Sunday schools.

During this interval the SDF experienced the atrophy of its ultra-parliamentary right wing to theIndependent Labour Party (ILP). This party, led byKeir Hardie, was abig tent party of the left, more heavily influenced byChristian Socialism than by theatheistic Marxism of the SDF. The ILP also had the advantage of having Hardie as a member of theHouse of Commons after winning the West Ham South seat in the1892 General Election. This enabled the ILP to argue that it was a more effective vehicle for change than the SDF. Prominent figures such asHenry Hyde Champion,Ben Tillett,Jim Connell andGeorge Lansbury, all left the SDF for the ILP.

Initially, there was progress towards a unification of the SDF with its rivals of the parliamentarian left. On 27 February 1900 Hyndman and the SDF met with the ILP, theFabian Society and trade union leaders at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street,London. After a debate the 129 delegates decided to pass Hardie's motion to establish "a distinct Labour group in Parliament, who shall have their own whips, and agree upon their policy, which must embrace a readiness to cooperate with any party which for the time being may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interests of labour."

To make this possible the Conference established aLabour Representation Committee (LRC). This committee included two members from the Social Democratic Federation and the Independent Labour Party, one member of the Fabian Society, and seven trade unionists. The LRC eventually evolved into theLabour Party. Despite the formal unification of forces, many members of the party were uncomfortable with the Marxism of the SDF and Hyndman had very little influence over the development of this political group, eventually leaving the alliance in 1907.

In addition to the loss of the party's right wing, the SDF experienced defections of some of its most radical members for different reasons. Hyndman's personalistic leadership and the policies of the organisation generated proved to be an ongoing inspiration for a river of internal criticism. One major source of contention surrounded the attitude of Hyndman and other party leaders towards theBoer War of 1899–1902. While the party adopted an anti-war stance, the rhetoric of the leadership seemed to these members to be far removed from a principled socialist opposition to the conflict, with Hyndman going so far as to declare in July 1901 that further anti-war agitation was "a waste of time and money."^[36] Charges ofreformism andchauvinism were made by left wing members, who began publishing their oppositional criticism in the official organ of theSocialist Labor Party of America.

At the March 1902 annual conference of the SDF, held inBlackburn, the battle between the insurgent left wing and Hyndman's leadership group came to a head. A motion by the left wing to oppose continued unity negotiations with the ILP was roundly defeated, as were other motions to advance an explicitly radical programme, such as one proposal calling for establishment of socialistdual unions and another which would have banned SDF members from joining other political organisations.^[37] At the conclusion of the conference SDF editorHarry Quelch commented upon the acrimony which had ensued from the programmatic efforts of the left wing, threatening that the dissidents "must either fall into line or fall out altogether."^[38]

The 1903 annual conference, held 10–12 April atShoreditch Town Hall, marked the final showdown. Before the proceedings began, George Yates was informed that he was to be expelled from the party for purportedly obstructing left unity, failing to sellJustice, and writing an editorial forThe Socialist in which he declared that there was a "distinct tendency" of the SDF to alter their former revolutionary attitude in favour of "opportunist tactics of the worst kind."^[39] Delegates agreed to Yates' expulsion by a vote of 56 to 6, with the resolution further empowering the executive to expel, without the right of appeal, anybody endorsing Yates' views.^[40]

Those members of the left wing located inScotland, who controlled the SDF apparatus there, could see little sense in remaining in the SDF further and they shortly leften bloc to launch theSocialist Labour Party, inaugurated at a conference held 7 June 1903.^[41] Others, tending to be based in London, left to form theSocialist Party of Great Britain in 1904. The departing left wing particularly faulted the SDF's perceived failure to concentrate on work to radicalise the nation's trade unions, which was envisioned as being the key to the revolutionary transformation of society.

While the SDF stagnated and split during the first decade of the 20th century, the various failures of those who departed paved the way for new growth. Unhappiness with the Labour Party's performance in parliament, hampered as it was by electoral alliance with the Liberal Party, led to renewed calls for a reorganisation of socialist forces. In 1910,Victor Grayson named Hyndman,Robert Blatchford, and Keir Hardie as the political leaders most capable of forging a new alliance.^[42]

In 1911 this idea came to realisation when a Socialist Unity Conference was held, bringing together representatives of the SDF, the left wing of the ILP, the network of clubs associated withThe Clarion newspaper, and various local socialist societies.^[43] Together these groups formed a new organisation, theBritish Socialist Party.

Hyndman was a initially a leading figure in the early British Socialist Party, but a growing split over which position to take in theFirst World War saw him leave to form in 1916 the rivalNational Socialist Party (NSP). After 1919, the NSP would take the name of the old Social Democratic Federation. The group enjoyed some short-term success but gradually faded into the Labour Party, being wound up in 1939.

Year	Description	City	Dates	Chair	Delegates	Proceedings
1881	Annual Conference	London	8 June	H. M. Hyndman	N/A
1882	Annual Conference	London	31 May	H. M. Hyndman	150
1883	Annual Conference	London	16? May	H. M. Hyndman
1884	Annual Conference	London	4 August	H. M. Hyndman
1885	Annual Conference	London	3 August
1886	Annual Conference	London	2 August	James F. Murray
1887	Annual Conference	Manchester	1 August
1888	Annual Conference	London	6 August		26
1889	Annual Conference	Birmingham	10 August		20
1890	Annual Conference	London	4 August		26
1891	Annual Conference	Sheffield	3 August		23
1892	Annual Conference	London	1 August	Herbert Burrows	33
1893	Annual Conference	Burnley	6–7 August
1894	Annual Conference	London	5–6 August	H. M. Hyndman
1895	Annual Conference	Birmingham	4–5 August	Joseph Chatterton
1896	Annual Conference	London	2–3 August	George Lansbury	82
1897	17th Annual Conference	Northampton	1–2 August	Frederick George Jones	55	Report.
1898	18th Annual Conference	Edinburgh	31 July-1 August	John Leslie	54
1899	19th Annual Conference	Manchester	6–7 August	T. M. Purvis
1900	20th Annual Conference	London	5–6 August	Will Thorne	60	Report.
1901	21st Annual Conference	Birmingham	4–5 August	Dan Irving	59
1902	22nd Annual Conference	Blackburn	28–30 March	F. J. Jones	72
1903	23rd Annual Conference	London	11–12 April	Joseph Frederick Green	62	Report.
1904	24th Annual Conference	Burnley	1–3 April	Peter Walker	68	Report.
1905	25th Annual Conference	Northampton	21–23 April	James Gribble	56	Report.
1906	26th Annual Conference	Bradford	13–15 April	Edward Hartley	83
1907	27th Annual Conference	Carlisle	29–31 March	Ernest Lowthian	140
1908	29th Annual Conference	Manchester	17–19 August	John Moore	149	Report.
1909	30th Annual Conference	Bristol	9–11 April	Harry Jarvis	144
1910	31st Annual Conference	London	25–27 March	H. M. Hyndman	200
1911	32nd Annual Conference	Coventry	14–16 April	Arthur Charles Bannington	70

Data from Kendall,The Revolutionary Movement in Britain, pp. 310–311; supplemented by published report titles, per WorldCat.

Election	Seats won	±	Total votes	%	Position	Leader
1885	0 / 670		657 (#8)	0.0%	No Seats	Henry Hyndman
1892	0 / 670		659 (#7)	0.0%	No Seats	Henry Hyndman
1895	0 / 670		3,122 (#6)	0.1%	No Seats	Henry Hyndman
1906	0 / 670		18,446 (#5)	0.4%	No Seats	Henry Hyndman
1910	0 / 670		13,479 (#6)	0.2%	No Seats	Henry Hyndman
1910	0 / 670		5,733 (#6)	0.1%	No Seats	Henry Hyndman

• Social Democratic Federation election results
• Justice, official organ of the SDF

Wikimedia Commons has media related toSocial Democratic Federation.

• Justice Archive atMarxists Internet Archive. Links to a large number of articles fromJustice, 1884–1914. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
• Henry Hyndman Archive, Marxists Internet Archive
• Several documents of the Social Democratic Federation atarchive.org

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