Henry
Hyndman,
the
son of a rich businessman, was born in London
on 7th March, 1842. After being educated at home, Hyndman entered
Trinity College, Cambridge. After achieving
his degree in 1861 he studied for the Bar for two years before deciding
to become a journalist.
In 1866 Hyndman reported on the Italian war with Austria for the Pall
Mall Gazette. Hyndman was horrified by the reality of war
and became violently ill after visiting the front-line. Hyndman met
the leaders of the Italian nationalist movement and was generally
sympathetic to their cause.
In 1869 Hyndman toured the world visiting the United States, Australia
and several European countries. He continued to write for the Pall
Mall Gazette, where he praised the merits of British imperialism
and criticised those advocating Home Rule
for Ireland, Hyndman was also very hostile to the experiments in democracy
that were taking place in America.
Hyndman decided on a career in politics but unable to find a party
that he could fully support, decided to stand as an Independent for
the constituency of Marylebone in the 1880 General
Election. Denounced as a Tory by William
Gladstone, Hyndman got very little support from the electorate
and facing certain defeat, withdrew from the contest.
Soon after the election Hyndman read a novel
based on the life of Ferdinand
Lassalle. Hyndman became
fascinated with Lassalle and decided to research this romantic hero
who had been killed in a duel in 1864. Hyndman discovered that Lassalle
had been a wealthy socialist who had financially supported the work
of Karl Marx. Hyndman decided to read The
Communist Manifesto
and although he had doubts about some of Marx's ideas, for example,
the inevitability of a socialist revolution, he was greatly impressed
by his analysis of capitalism.
Hyndman now decided to form Britain's first socialist political party.
The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) had
its first meeting on 7th June, 1881. Many socialists refused to join
the SDF because they were highly suspicious of a wealthy man funding
a radical political party. They were also aware that in the past Hyndman
had been opposed to socialist ideas such as universal suffrage. Hyndman
persuaded some socialists that he had genuinely changed his views,
and those who eventually joined the SDF included William
Morris, Ernest Bax, Henry
Hyde Champion, John Burns, Ben
Tillett, Tom Mann, Edward
Aveling George Lansbury and Karl
Marx's daughter, Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich
Engels, Marx's long-term collaborator, refused to support Hyndman's
venture.
To publicize the SDF, Hyndman wrote a book, England
for All
(1881), where he attempted to explain the ideas of Karl
Marx. This was followed by Socialism
Made Plain
(1883), where he provided details of the policies of the Social
Democratic Federation. This included a demand for universal suffrage
and the nationalization of the means of production and distribution.
The SDF also published Justice,
edited by the talented journalist, Henry
Hyde Champion.
Although Henry
Hyndman
was a talented writer and public speaker, many members of the SDF
questioned his leadership qualities. Hyndman was extremely authoritarian
and tried to restrict internal debate about party policy. At a SDF
meeting on 27th December, 1884, the executive voted by a majority
of two (10-8), that it had no confidence in Hyndman. When Hyndman
refused to resign, some members, including William
Morris, Edward Aveling and Eleanor
Marx left the party.
In the 1885 General Election, Hyndman and
Henry Hyde Champion, without consulting
their colleagues, accepted £340 from the Conservative
Party to run parliamentary candidates in Hampstead and Kensington.
The objective being to split the Liberal
vote and therefore enabling the Conservative
candidate to win. This strategy did not work and the two SDF's candidates
only won 59 votes between them. The story leaked out and the political
reputation of both men suffered from the idea that they were willing
to accept "Tory Gold".
On 13th November, 1887, he Social Democratic
Federation organised and participated in the demonstration in
Trafalgar Square that resulted in what became known as Bloody
Sunday. Friedrich Engels severely criticised
Hyndman for encouraging workers to take part in riots that he hoped
would lead to revolution. Engels believed that British workers were
not yet intellectually ready to take part in the uprising that would
overthrow capitalism.
In 1890 the SDF was once again involved in internal conflict. Some
members such as John Burns and Tom
Mann believed that the SDF should be more active in trade union
activities. Hyndman disagreed, as he wanted to concentrate on the
main objective, bringing about a socialist revolution. Although outnumbered,
Hyndman refused to change the strategy of the Social
Democratic Federation, and Burns and Mann left the party.
Socialists such as Henry Hyde Champion,
Ben Tillett, Tom
Mann, Philip Snowden, George
Lansbury and John Burns joined the Independent
Labour Party (ILP), which led by James
Keir Hardie, proposed a Christian Socialism,
rather than the atheistic Marxism of the SDF. The ILP also had the
advantage of having Hardie as a member of the House
of Commons after winning the West Ham South seat in the 1892
General Election.
On
27th February 1900, Hyndman and the SDF met with the Independent
Labour Party, the Fabian
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
a Labour 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 the Labour
Party. 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. Hyndman eventually left the Labour
Party and in 1911 established a new group, the British Socialist
Party (BSP). The BSP had little impact and like the SDF, failed to
win any of the parliamentary elections it contested.
Hyndman upset members of the BSP by supporting Britain's involvement
in the First World War. The party split in two
with Hyndman forming a new National Socialist Party. Henry Hyndman
remained as the leader of this party until his death on 20th November,
1921.
(1)
In a book published in 1927, Margaret McMillan
wrote about the different socialist leaders she met in her youth.
This included H. M. Hyndman.
H.
M. Hyndman, the great apostle of Karl Marx, was a rather corpulent,
long-bearded man of fifty-five. He had an astonishing gift of oratory
and was at once provocative and convincing. He spoke with the vehemence
of a great soul and the simplicity of a child. Above all, he had vision.
He saw the new society. His party, the Social Democratic Federation
stood for Adult Suffrage. It worked for the Nationalization of Land
and the instruments of production. These were to be administered for
the good of all the people, not for the profiteering or benefit of
a small class.
(2)
Ben Tillett published an account of H.
M. Hyndman in his book Memories and Reflections (1931)
H.
M. Hyndman was an arrogant intellectual possessing a mind, forensic,
exact and ruthless, with a patience and a capacity for details devastating
to an opponent. He was in many ways our chief intellectual prize.
He seemed to us a mental giant. He was a schoolmaster and teacher,
but he lacked the softer human quality which senses the needs as well
as the weakness of humanity. In debate, he brooked but little discussion
and no opposition at all. He failed specifically because of this intellectual
attitude.
(3)
Tom Mann, Memoirs (1923)
Hyndman's
essential bourgeois appearance attracted much attention. The tall
hat, the frock coat, and the long beard often drew the curious-minded
who would not have spent time listening to one in workman's attire.
At almost every meeting he addressed, Hyndman would cynically thank
the audience for so "generously supporting my class". Hyndman,
like many strong personalities, had very pronounced likes and dislikes.
To myself, he was ever kind and courteous. I am quite sure he did
much valuable work at the particular time when that special work was
needed.
(4)
Edward Carpenter, My Days and Dreams
(1916)
Hyndman
had an excellent command of statistics and finance, a good knowledge
of political conditions in Europe. On the platform, with his waving
beard and flowing frock-coat, his high and spacious forehead and head
somewhat low and weak behind, he gave one rather the impression of
a shop whose goods are all in the front window; and though a good
and incisive speaker his frequent gusts of invective seemed out of
keeping with the obvious natural kindliness of the man and rather
suggested the idea that he was lashing himself up with his own tail.
(5)
Bruce Glasier, diary entry on H. H. Hydmann
(1892)
Racy, argumentative, declamatory, bristling with topical allusions
and scathing raillery, it was a hustings masterpiece. But it was almost
wholly critical and destructive. The affirmative and regenerative
aims of Socialism hardly emerged from it. There was hardly a ray of
idealism in it. Capitalism was shown to be wasteful and wicked, but
Socialism was not made to appear more practicable or desirable.
(6)
Herbert
Morrison, An Autobiography
(1960)
I have to confess that my fidelity to the SDF was short-lived. While
a willing and interested student of Marx I was fed up with the excessive
adulation of the man and the attitude of the SDF leaders that he was
a prophet and his book akin to the Bible as regards the distillation
of truth in it. Hyndman's recurrent references to his friendship with
Marx were both boring and suspect.
Hyndman had talked to
Marx only once so far as anybody knew - in 1880. Twenty-six years
later he was still describing the master's conversation as if it had
happened yesterday. The suggestion that Marx liked and trusted Hyndman,
which the latter was never tired of explaining, was probably really
a confession that Hyndman had a childlike faith in, and unrequited
adoration for, Marx.
Marx was not the type
of man who liked anybody, least of all a rich and aristocratic young
man with the manners and accent bred into him at Eton and a high regard
for the genteel frock coat and top-hat without which Hyndman never
appeared in public.
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