International Review, July 1889
Source: International Review, July 1889, p. 1;
Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
The need for a monthly review in which every shade of Socialist opinion and advanced views generally may find expression is widely felt. The International Review has therefore been established, and will be maintained to continue the work carried on by To -Day, as the monthly organ not only of Socialists but of all who can discuss with fearlessness and ability the many-sided problems of our existing society.
The factious political squabbling which at present degrades our public life must ere long be suppressed in view of the necessity of dealing thoroughly with social questions. In Great Britain, as in every other European country and in America, the truth is being slowly acknowledged that we are living in the midst of a relentless class war which prevents even the victors in the struggle from securing the full development of their faculties or the enjoyment of real happiness. This month, July 1889, will witness in Paris the international celebration of the centenary of the Fall of the Bastille. At the same time the foundations will be laid of an international agreement for common action among the workers of all countries that will eventually bring about their complete emancipation from the economical oppression and social tyranny under which they suffer to-day. The era which nominally commenced with the outbreak of the great French Political Revolution has ended: the period of the far greater International Social Revolution has already begun. At such a time The International Review has a wide field of usefulness before it.
I have received most gratifying promises of support from many quarters, and I certainly should not have suddenly added the editorship and management of this Review to my other arduous work if I had not been sure that, whatever differences of opinion may unhappily exist among us, my fellow Socialists will lighten my task – in itself a labour of love – by their cordial help and sympathy.
I intend to enlarge and improve the Review at an early late, without increasing its present price, and to add to it new features which will render its perusal indispensable for all who wish to keep abreast of the movements of the people throughout the civilised world.