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Tom Mann: from syndicalist to communist
The fifth extract from PHIL KATZ’s book looks at the impact of Mann’s visits to Soviet Russia and the start of his advocacy for the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’
Tom Mann illustration

IN 1919, Mann said: “The workers of Russia have taken things into their own hands successfully. We must take our affairs into our own hands.”

Mann could see how syndicalism could be moved on by a more sophisticated theory of social change evidenced by the Russian Revolution.

In 1920, Mann began to work with the Labour Abstentionist Party, a halfway house between syndicalism and communism.

First visit to Russia

From syndicalism to communism

Mann on imperialism

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