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SOCIALISM MILITANT
WE have now come to the point at which we must leave our account of what has taken place in the development of society, and must give our views as to how the inevitable transformation of Civilisation into Socialism is most likely to happen; what is going on at present that tends towards this; and what the tactics of those should be who desire the change and are working for it.
We are driven to consider these matters from the point of view of our own British population, as it is through these that the British socialist must work directly, although with the assured hope that in so doing he is furthering the 269 cause of social transformation throughout all modern civilisation.
As above hinted, things have much changed since scientific Socialism has been definitely promulgated in this country.
Ten years ago, from the time at which we are writing, the British working classes knew nothing of Socialism, and, except for a few who had been directly influenced by the continental movement, were, on the surface and by habit, hostile to it. A Socialist lecturer in those days almost invariably found himself in opposition, not only to the members of the middle classes who might be present, but also to the working men amongst his audience; who, not being able even to conceive of the ideas which he was putting forward, at the best took refuge in the Radicalism to which they were accustomed.