WORKERS' FRONT

First edition, first printing. Signed by the author along with 12 other members of the Independent Labour Party. Publisher's original red cloth with titles in gilt to the spine, without dustwrapper. A near fine copy, the binding square and tight. The contents with a little toning are otherwise in excellent order and clean throughout.

Signed by the author in black ink to the front endpaper, along with James Maxton, Frederick William Jowett, Percy Williams, Sam Leckie, John McGovern, John Aplin, Kate Spurrell (signs twice), John McNair (signs twice), Tom Reed, Campbell Stephen, James Carmichael and M. Winifred Evans. Here, Fenner Brockway (1888-1988), the prominent socialist politician and anti-war activist, presents his stinging critique of a lacklustre and rudderless contemporary Labour Party, arguing for greater bravery of vision and a programme for more fundamental societal change, as well as asserting the need for a united, international labour movement, strong enough to defeat both capitalism and the growing menace of fascism. Brockway was chairman, then general secretary, of the Independent Labour Party between 1933-1939, and the work also reflects the party's broad agenda following its disaffiliation from the Labour Party in 1932 - i.e. to articulate a socialism distinct from both the watered-down pragmatism of Labour and the Stalinism of the Communist Party. Although ultimately faced with dwindling support, it contained many notable members, including George Orwell and Sylvia Pankhurst. Indeed, John McNair, who has signed the present copy, had, along with John McGovern, travelled to Spain in the early days of the Spanish Civil War, running the ILP's political office, and making arrangements for the arrival of British volunteers to fight with the POUM, including Orwell himself, as the latter relates in Homage to Catalonia. Amongst the others to have signed the present volume is James Maxton, the ILP leader and one of the key figures of the Red Clydeside era, as well as numerous other leading figures in the party, several of whom are likewise linked to Scottish socialism.