How often have we not been warned by friends and
sympathisers, "Keep aloof from party politics!" And they were perfectly
right, as far as present English party politics are concerned. A labour
organ must be neither Whig nor Tory, neither Conservative nor Liberal,
or even Radical, in the actual party sense of that word. Conservatives,
Liberals, Radicals, all of them represent but the interests of the ruling
classes, and various shades of opinion predominating amongst landlords,
capitalists, and retail tradesmen. If they do represent the working class,
they most decidedly misrepresent it. The working class has interests of
its own, political as well as social. How it has stood up for what it considers
its social interests, the history of the Trades Unions and the Short Time
movement shows. But its political interests it leaves almost entirely in
the hands of Tories, Whigs, and Radicals, men of the upper class, and for
nearly a quarter of a century the working class of England has contented
itself with forming, as it were, the tail of the "Great Liberal Party".

This is a political position unworthy of the best organised working
class of Europe. In other countries the working men have been far more
active. Germany has had for more than ten years a Working Men's party (the
Social-Democrats), which owns ten seats in Parliament, and whose growth
has frightened Bismarck into those infamous measures of repression of which
we give an account in another column. Yet in spite of Bismarck, the Working
Men's party progresses steadily; only last week it carried sixteen elections
for the Mannheim Town Council and one for the Saxon Parliament. In Belgium,
Holland, and Italy the example of the Germans has been imitated; in every
one of these countries a Working Men's party exists, [1]
though the voter's qualification there is too high to give them a chance
of sending members to the Legislature at present. In France the Working
Men's party is just now in full process of organisation; it has obtained
the majority in several Municipal Councils at the last elections, and will
undoubtedly carry several seats at the general election for the Chamber
next October. Even in America where the passage of the working class to
that of farmer, trader, or capitalist, is still comparatively easy, the
working men find it necessary to organise themselves as an independent
party. [2] Everywhere the labourer struggles for political
power, for direct representation of his class in the Legislature -- everywhere
but in Great Britain.

And yet there never was a more widespread feeling in England than
now, that the old parties are doomed, that the old shibboleths have become
meaningless, that the old watchwords are exploded, that the old panaceas
will not act any longer. Thinking men of all classes begin to see that
a new line must be struck out, and that this line can only be in the direction
of democracy. But in England, where the industrial and agricultural working
class forms the immense majority of the people, democracy means the dominion
of the working class, neither more nor less. Let, then, that working class
prepare itself for the task in store for it, -- the ruling of this great
empire; let them understand the responsibilities which inevitably will
fall to their share. And the best way to do this is to use the power already
in their hands, the actual majority they possess in every large town in
the kingdom, to send to Parliament men of their own order. With the present
household suffrage, [3] forty or fifty working men might
easily be sent to St. Stephen's, [4] where such an infusion
of entirely new blood is very much wanted indeed. With only that number
of working men in Parliament, it would be impossible to let the Irish Land
Bill [5] become, as is the case at present, more and
more an Irish Land Bull, namely, an Irish Landlords' Compensation Act;
it would be impossible to resist the demand for a redistribution of seats,
for making bribery really punishable, for throwing election expenses, as
is the case everywhere but in England, on the public purse, etc.

Moreover, in England a real democratic party is impossible unless
it be a working men's party. Enlightened men of other classes (where they
are not so plentiful as people would make us believe) might join that party
and even represent it in Parliament after having given pledges of their
sincerity. Such is the case everywhere. In Germany, for instance, the working-men
representatives are not in every case actual working men. But no democratic
party in England, as well as elsewhere, will be effectively successful
unless it has a distinct working-class character. Abandon that, and you
have nothing but sects and shams.

And this is even truer in England than abroad. Of Radical shams
there has been unfortunately enough since the break-up of the first working
men's party which the world ever produced -- the Chartist party. Yes, but
the Chartists were broken up and attained nothing. Did they, indeed? Of
the six points of the People's Charter, [6] two, vote
by ballot and no property qualification, are now the law of the land. A
third, universal suffrage, is at least approximately carried in the shape
of household suffrage; a fourth, equal electoral districts, is distinctly
in sight, a promised reform of the present Government. So that the break-down
of the Chartist movement has resulted in the realisation of fully one-half
of the Chartist programme. And if the mere recollection of a past political
organisation of the working class could effect these political reforms,
and a series of social reforms besides, what will the actual presence of
a working men's political party do, backed by forty or fifty representatives
in Parliament? We live in a world where everybody is bound to take care
of himself. Yet the English working class allows the landlord, capitalist,
and retail trading classes, with their tail of lawyers, newspaper writers,
etc., to take care of its interests. No wonder reforms in the interest
of the workman come so slow and in such miserable dribbles. The workpeople
of England have but to will, and they are the masters to carry every reform,
social and political, which their situation requires. Then why not make
that effort?