Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation
Social Democratic Federation
Leader	Henry Hyndman
Founded	1881
Dissolved	1911
Preceded by	Manhood Suffrage League; Scottish Socialist Federation
Succeeded by	British Socialist Party; Socialist Party of Great Britain
Headquarters	London
Newspaper	Justice
Ideology	Socialism
	Politics of the United Kingdom; Political parties; Elections;

The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Connolly and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term collaborator, refused to support Hyndman's venture. Many of its early leading members had previously been active in the Manhood Suffrage League.^[1]

The SDF battled through defections of its right and left wings to other organisations in the first decade of the twentieth century before uniting with other radical groups in the Marxist British Socialist Party from 1911 until 1920.

^ Martin Crick, The History of the Social-Democratic Federation, pp. 20–21.

[1] Martin Crick, The History of the Social-Democratic Federation, pp. 20–21.

[1]