The first new English translation of the Communist Manifesto to appear after the authorised English version printed by the commercial publisher William Reeves in 1888 and translated by Samuel Moore and Engels himself.
The decision to produce an entirely new English translation so soon after the authorised English version is strange indeed and, as is so often the case with translations of the works of Marx and Engels, the motivation for doing so was principally political. The preface dated ‘September, 1909’ states:
“We offer the workers of Great Britain a new translation of the ‘Communist Manifesto’, not because we claim to have improved upon previous translation, but because these previous translations are the property of private firms and individuals. This new translation will not belong to any private individuals, but to the working class, through its political organisation, the Socialist Labour Party. We regard this work as the Charter of Freedom of the workers of the world, and we therefore think that it is the duty of the Party of the workers of Great Britain to issue its own translation thereof” (p. i).
The objection, then, was that by putting the Manifesto “into the hands of the publisher Reeves, Engels had erected a juridical bar against pirated and distorted editions, at least in Britain” (Draper, p. 91). But who was this group who had such lofty regard of their own status amongst the working class that they claimed to be “its political organisation” (p. i, emphasis added).
The Socialist Labour Party was founded in 1903 as a radical breakaway faction from Henry Mayer Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation under the influence of its namesake, the Socialist Labor Party of America, and the libertarian ‘Marxism’ of De Leonism. “Its membership [which would never exceed 1,000] lay mainly in the big cities of Scotland, long the heartland of British sectism. Like its American equivalent, its dogma was that it alone ‘represented’ the proletariat, all other alleged socialists being imposters and enemies of humanity” (Draper, p. 91). The first iteration of the group was active up until 1921, when the majority of its members merged with the newly-founded Communist Party of Great Britain. A second iteration of the group would re-emerge in 1939 and was active until 1950.
The translation was undertaken by Lily G. Aitken, of whom little appears to be known, and Frank C. Budgen (1882-1971), who served as General Secretary of the SLP between 1908 and 1910 but is best-remembered as a painter and friend of James Joyce. Their translation was based on the German edition of 1890, although according to Draper it does occasionally yield to the reformulations introduced by the authorised English version of 1888, and includes the prefaces of 1872, 1883 and 1890.
The Socialist Labour Party were one of the most prolific publishers of socialist literature in Britain at the start of the twentieth century. However, their publications are almost always undated and as such establishing precedence of the various editions can be of great difficulty.
The SLP translation of the Communist Manifesto was first published with an imprint of ‘Edinburgh, 28 Forth Street’ where the party was based from 1907/08 to 1912. Confusingly, the front wrapper bore the date ‘1908’, despite the preface being dated ‘September, 1909’. Both Andréas and Draper suggest that the date on the front cover is erroneous and that the preface denotes the correct publication date.
It was issued in pink wrappers printed in black with the titles and the Socialist Labour Party emblem (the letters SLP intertwined) within a simple border and priced at “One Penny”. The inside of the front and rear wrappers displayed advertisements for SLP publications, mostly comprising original works and translations by Daniel De Leon.
The SLP stereotyped the pages of this original edition and produced a number of undated reprints from the plates from 1909 to 1921 and again from 1942 to 1950. It is possible to establish some precedence amongst these various reprints based on factors such as the imprint address, the price and cover design.
The present edition differs in the following respects: it is undated and the imprint address has changed to 50 Renfrew Street in Glasow. The SLP moved from Edinburgh to Glasow in 1913 and occupied the address at 50 Renfrew Street from 1913 to 1932. The present edition was therefore published in 1913 or later.
However, it is likely to have appeared after 1913 as the SLP printed a number editions of the Manifesto with almost identical design to that of first edition, retaining the original cover design and differing only with the new imprint.
The present edition bears an entirely new design for the wrappers with a more sophisticated border to the front cover and without the SLP emblem. The imprint is also changed from ‘The Socialist Labour Party’ to the ‘The Socialist Labour Press’ and it has a new price of ‘Threepence’. The inside of the front and rear wrappers are also blank, without the advertisements of the earlier printings.
See: Hal Draper, Adventures of the Communist Manifesto, pp. 91-92; Stuart Macintyre, A Proletarian Science: Marxism in Britain, 1917-1933.
Andréas, 509a (see 486 for first printing).
