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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  • Gamer_time [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Denmark, I think, so Øresund or Kattegatt

    Edit: I went to read the wiki summary for the original H.C. Andersen story, and the last part is kinda wild ngl with becoming a earthbound air spirit and all.

    • eatmyass
      ·
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator

    • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Damn, I really wasn't far off. For the HC Andersen story Denmark makes sense, but the Disney movie definitely takes place in the Caribbean, right?

      Edit: Nope Disney is Baltic too. This makes no sense to me, my worldview is ruined. Also yeah the original is crazy, there are huge queer undertones to the story too.

      • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        There's a huge octopus monster specifically drawn after a drag queen who just wants a girls' voice, I feeling I know all too well lol

        • Dawn_Beveridge [she/her, comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Damn right Ursula did nothing wrong, helped Ariel with her transition tremendously while also sparing her from the trouble of voice training