Bad Marx

Staying with this week's Staggers, Roy Hattersley has a thorough demolition of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, rightly pointing out that it expresses the view of "the Social Democratic Federation, the one Marxist element in the origins of the Labour Party", and that therefore this book:

"so long the bible of sentimental socialists, exhibits attitudes towards the working class which come very near to contempt. It explains why the SDF rejected the notion that the world could be changed through the decisions of a truly democratic parliament or that trade unions could materially improve the lot of their members. Its message is that, until the revolution overthrows the system, the debasement of the poor - no less than the greed and corruption of the rich - makes improvement impossible."

Hattersley identifies Robert Tressell's arguments as "so crudely simplistic that they are likely to appeal only to readers who share the author's beliefs before they open the book." As Hattersley concludes, "The importance of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is the emphasis it places on the need to change the whole system. Its weakness is its assumption that the working class is too craven and corrupt to work gradually towards achieving that end."