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Campbell Case
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Campbell Case
The Campbell Case of 1924 involved charges against a British communist newspaper editor, J. R. Campbell, for alleged "incitement to mutiny" caused by his publication of a provocative open letter to members of the military. The decision of the government of British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, who later suspended prosecution of the case ostensibly because of pressure from backbenchers in his Labour Party, proved to be instrumental in bringing down the short-lived first Labour government.
In October 1925, after a number of posters had appeared that advocated the formation of soldiers' and sailors' committees and denounced the use of troops against workers, further articles in issues of the Workers' Weekly, dated 7 and 14 August 1925, called for members of the military to resist orders ("If you must shoot, don't shoot the workers"). That caused the newly appointed Attorney General Douglas Hogg, with the overt encouragement of the Home Secretary, William Joynson Hicks, to authorise a fresh prosecution under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797. The new round of prosecutions embroiled not only Campbell but also eleven other members of the Communist Party, Willie Gallacher, Wal Hannington, Albert Inkpin, Harry Pollitt, William Rust, R. Page Arnot, Tom Bell, Ernest Cant, Arthur MacManus, J. T. Murphy and Tom Wintringham.
J. R. Campbell was the acting editor of Workers Weekly, a newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). In its 25 July 1924 edition, the paper contained a provocative article for the "Anti-War Week Campaign" being conducted by the party, "An Open Letter to the Fighting Forces." The article read in part:
Comrades:
You never joined the Army or Navy because you were in love with warfare, or because you were attracted to the glamour of the uniform. In nine cases out of ten you were compelled to join the services after a long fight against poverty and misery caused by prolonged unemployment…
Repressive regulations and irksome restrictions are intentionally imposed upon you. And when war is declared you are supposed to be filled with a longing to "beat the enemy." The enemy consists of working men like yourselves, living under the same slave conditions…
Soldiers, sailors, airmen, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, the Communist Party calls upon you to begin the task of not only organising passive resistance when war is declared, or when an industrial dispute involves you, but to definitely and categorically let it be known that, neither in the class war nor a military war, will you turn your guns on your fellow workers, but instead will line up with your fellow workers in an attack upon the exploiters and capitalists, and will use your arms on the side of your own class…
Refuse to shoot down your fellow workers!
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Campbell Case
The Campbell Case of 1924 involved charges against a British communist newspaper editor, J. R. Campbell, for alleged "incitement to mutiny" caused by his publication of a provocative open letter to members of the military. The decision of the government of British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, who later suspended prosecution of the case ostensibly because of pressure from backbenchers in his Labour Party, proved to be instrumental in bringing down the short-lived first Labour government.
In October 1925, after a number of posters had appeared that advocated the formation of soldiers' and sailors' committees and denounced the use of troops against workers, further articles in issues of the Workers' Weekly, dated 7 and 14 August 1925, called for members of the military to resist orders ("If you must shoot, don't shoot the workers"). That caused the newly appointed Attorney General Douglas Hogg, with the overt encouragement of the Home Secretary, William Joynson Hicks, to authorise a fresh prosecution under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797. The new round of prosecutions embroiled not only Campbell but also eleven other members of the Communist Party, Willie Gallacher, Wal Hannington, Albert Inkpin, Harry Pollitt, William Rust, R. Page Arnot, Tom Bell, Ernest Cant, Arthur MacManus, J. T. Murphy and Tom Wintringham.
J. R. Campbell was the acting editor of Workers Weekly, a newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). In its 25 July 1924 edition, the paper contained a provocative article for the "Anti-War Week Campaign" being conducted by the party, "An Open Letter to the Fighting Forces." The article read in part:
Comrades:
You never joined the Army or Navy because you were in love with warfare, or because you were attracted to the glamour of the uniform. In nine cases out of ten you were compelled to join the services after a long fight against poverty and misery caused by prolonged unemployment…
Repressive regulations and irksome restrictions are intentionally imposed upon you. And when war is declared you are supposed to be filled with a longing to "beat the enemy." The enemy consists of working men like yourselves, living under the same slave conditions…
Soldiers, sailors, airmen, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, the Communist Party calls upon you to begin the task of not only organising passive resistance when war is declared, or when an industrial dispute involves you, but to definitely and categorically let it be known that, neither in the class war nor a military war, will you turn your guns on your fellow workers, but instead will line up with your fellow workers in an attack upon the exploiters and capitalists, and will use your arms on the side of your own class…
Refuse to shoot down your fellow workers!