Social Democratic Federation

Henry Mayers Hyndman’s Democratic (later Social Democratic) Federation and began his tireless tours of industrial areas to spread the gospel of socialism. He was considerately treated by the authorities, even when leading a banned demonstration to London’s Trafalgar Square on “Bloody Sunday” (November 13, 1887), when the police, supported by…

…Democratic Federation was renamed the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). Within it many socialists, including William Morris, John Elliot Burns, and George Lansbury, were steered toward Marxism by Hyndman. With Engels’ assistance, however, Morris and others soon broke away to form the Socialist League. Although Hyndman’s control of British socialism was…