Thomas Bell, born on this day in 1882, was a Scottish socialist politician, trade unionist, and a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He said: "The Communist Party is nothing if it is not a party of realism".

Bell also worked as an editor for the Communist Party's magazine "Communist Review" and co-founded the Socialist Labour Party.

Thomas Bell was born in Parkhead, Glasgow to an irregularly employed stonemason and a mother who worked at home spinning cotton and silk. While working at a bottling shop, Bell became interested in atheism and labor politics, reading rationalist works by Ernst Haeckel and Thomas Huxley, as well as texts on evolution by Charles Darwin.

Bell joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1900, but would participate in more radical parties as his politics matured, including the Marxist Social Democratic Party and, later, the Socialist Labour Party.

In 1919, Bell was elected President of the Associated Ironmoulders, Secretary of the SLP and editor of its newspaper, "The Socialist". He sat on a unity committee, intending to negotiate for a single communist party with leaders of the British Socialist Party, Workers Socialist Federation and other socialist groups, but their proposals were repudiated by the SLP.

Resigning as Secretary, Bell helped found the Communist Unity Group, which became an original constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).

"The theory of getting a Labour government in order to get communism is as stilted as the Kautskyan idea that Russia should go through period of capitalist development under the democratic bourgeois institutions in preference to the Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' dictatorship."

  • Thomas Bell

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  • MendingBenjamin [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    There’s a user on Reddit named u/VeganStruggleSession who’s posting some really reactionary stuff on r/ShitHexbearSays (to vladdy’s credit, some of it is cleaned up).

    Just wanted to point out that there is indeed a contingent of reactionaries agitating here and using the vegan struggle session as a wedge issue. It’s an important debate. I’d just withhold judgement on anyone who’s trying to frame things as “us vs them” in those struggles that keep happening

    • forcequit [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :silver-legion:

      pronouns were a wedge issue. downbears were a wedge issue. outdoor cats were a wedge issue.

      pumpkin spice lattes were the only thing that brought this community together.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        "And then the sixth, seventh, and eighth internationale split over the question of outdoor cats"

    • HimboVegan [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      People who get banned from the vegan sub for posting reactionary content sometimes make new accounts that pretend to be vegans for a day then start spamming slurs. Don't let them cloud your judgement on veganism.

      • MendingBenjamin [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I’m frankly baffled that anyone’s judgement on veganism has been swayed one way or the other by anything other than the theory posts

      • Joseph_Hillstrom [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        smdh imagine posting anything in the vegan sub other than things like "carnists get the wall"

        • HimboVegan [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          We take a lot of our inspiration from :john-brown: when it comes to animal rights. I'd go into it, but I think getting heated about veganism in the megathread is frowned upon.