A Plea for Social Justice - Extracts from the Speeches of J. S. Woodsworth, M.P. , in the House of Commons, 1930-33 (Part II)

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: A Plea for Social Justice - Extracts from the Speeches of J. S. Woodsworth, M.P. , in the House of Commons, 1930-33 (Part II) 

This booklet published in 1933 (selected by Grace MacInnis) has nearly 80 pages of extracts from the speeches of Canadian Socialist icon J. S. Woodsworth. Woodsworth, a critical figure in the history of the Canadian left, was the first leader of the CCF, the precursor to the NDP.


As the booklet is quite lengthy we will be breaking up these posts into 3 parts.

To see the first part, click here. 

The second part today shows the sections "Safeguards for Individual Freedom", "Militarism" and "The International Situation".

The booklet is a fascinating and remarkable piece of and look at Canadian leftist and social history.

The second part is notable for, among other things, Woodsworth's defense of the rights of Communists and protesting in parliament the imprisonment of several Communist leaders (which would have included Tim Buck) in Kingston, as well as his very positive impressions of the Soviet Union after his trip to it. The fifth section should also be read through the lens of his pacifism.

(Click on images to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com