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Hyman Russell Smart (1858 – 12 November 1923) was a British
Hyman Russell Smart (1858 – 12 November 1923) was a British socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
activist.
Born in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, Smart attended Dulwich College before becoming an actor. However, he soon changed careers and instead became a sanitation engineer.Martin Crick, ''The History of the Social-Democratic Federation'', p.317
Smart became interested in socialism and joined 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 Con ...
(SDF) and Fabian Society, but he devoted most of his time to the Independent Labour Party (ILP). At the 1895 general election, he stood as the ILP candidate for Huddersfield
Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...
; he took 11.2% of the vote and was not elected. Despite this, he became increasingly prominent in the ILP, serving on its National Administrative Council
The National Administrative Council (NAC) was the executive council of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), a British socialist party which was active from 1893 until 1975.
Creation
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was founded at a conference in ...
.
In 1910, Smart was a signatory to Leonard Hall's ''Green Manifesto'', which called on the ILP to distance itself from the Labour Party's "revisionist" positions. He left the ILP in 1911, becoming a founding member of the British Socialist Party
The British Socialist Party (BSP) was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw t ...
(BSP), which was largely created by the SDF, and he served on its first executive. Disappointed at the BSP's rejection of syndicalism, he and Hall resigned in 1912. He subsequently became less prominent, although he did join a new SDF, successor to the National Socialist Party, in 1923. He died suddenly later that year, while playing chess."Mr. H. Russell Smart", ''Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 14 November 1923
References