There were renegade members of Parliament, but the blackest and
most dangerous foe they had to face was the man who told them,
when they went forth to battle, to leave their weapons at home. And the most powerful weapon the workers had was the weapon of political action. The speech worked the delegates up to a fever heat.
After the excitement had cooled down a little, Dan. Hennessey.of London Plasterers, moved to omit the words “independent of all bourgeois political parties. ” He sent the Congress into fits by referring to the bourgeois as ” bur-go-jee. ” This was seconded by Will Steadman, L. С. С., who said he saw no difference between a middle-class T. L. P. man and a middle class Liberal. The closure was then moved, opposed by Tom Mann, and rejected.
British Socialists. He would rather, he
said, have a middle-class Socialist than a renegade working man—a
sentiment which drew a volley of ” Hochs” and “Bravos” when translated. But first and foremost he wanted an Independent Labour
Party, and he thought we ought to be ashamed of ourselves when we looked at the French and German delegation.

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