Hans Neumann (a.k.a. Hans Newman) (18??–1919(?)) was a founding member of the

Socialist Party of Great Britain The Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), it advocates using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes and oppo ...

. Neumann had previously been very active in the

Social Democratic Federation 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 Co ...

, being a public speaker for that party and secretary of its

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament con ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswor ...

branch in 1897. Neumann was a well-known early Impossibilist, being a victim of the expulsions of April 1904 which led to the foundation of the

in June. A notable indoor and outdoor speaker for the SPGB (billed as Newman), he was also an enthusiastic writer for the ''

Socialist Standard ''Socialist Standard'' is a monthly socialist magazine published without interruption since September 1904 by the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB). The magazine is written in a simple, direct style and focuses mainly on socialist advocacy a ...

'', translated foreign-language articles (including the pamphlets based on Kautsky’s ''

The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) (german: Das Erfurter Programm in seinem grundsätzlichen Theil erläutert von Karl Kautsky) is an 1892 book-length work by Karl Kautsky. It was first published in Stuttgart and was the official commentary of ...

'') and was the author of the Party song (“The World for the Workers”). From 1904 to 1909 he was on the Executive Committee and from 1909 to 1911 was Treasurer.

Herbert Morrison Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth, (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British politician who held a variety of senior positions in the UK Cabinet as member of the Labour Party. During the inter-war period, he was Mini ...

described his encounters with Neumann in his 1960 autobiography as follows:

Neumann often spoke at one corner of the small Kennington Triangle while I spoke at another. Often our addresses degenerated into slanging matches which did have the advantage of attracting small crowds which might otherwise have passed by. Neumann was not loath to pour contempt on the views of people like me with all the fervour at his command. The more excited he got the stronger became his German accent. His final words were always the same, the clarion call from the ''
Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'', originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (german: Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei), is a political pamphlet written by German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Commissioned by the Comm ...
'' of 1848: “Vurkers of the Vurld, unide! You haff a vurld to vin, and only your shains to loose!”

Neumann resigned on 12 September 1911. Along with Henry Martin, he had been a member of the Provisional Committee of 1911 which opposed notional Socialist MPs ever voting for reforms (the ‘ WB of Upton Park affair’) and probably resigned on that issue. He was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

because of his German origin during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

where he met Rudolf Frank, co-founder of the '' Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten'', the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populou ...

n counterpart to the SPGB. He was presumably repatriated to Germany at the end of the war and is reputed to have died in the

Spartacist uprising The Spartacist uprising (German: ), also known as the January uprising (), was a general strike and the accompanying armed struggles that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the November Revoluti ...

of January 1919.

References

* Lord Morrison of Lambeth, Herbert Morrison. ''An Autobiography'', 1960. *

1904–1913 membership register *''

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Hans 1919 deaths English people of German descent Social Democratic Federation members Socialist Party of Great Britain members Year of birth missing