Justice (newspaper)

Socialist postcard depicting Justice.

Not to be confused with Justice, the modern bimonthly newspaper of the CWI affiliated Socialist Alternative (US).

Justice was the weekly newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in the United Kingdom.

The SDF had been known until January 1884 as the Democratic Federation. With the change of name, the organisation launched the paper.[1] Many issues appeared with the by-line "Organ of the Social Democracy".[2]

The paper was initially edited by C. L. Fitzgerald, and later by H. M. Hyndman, Henry Hyde Champion, Ernest Belfort Bax, then Harry Quelch for many years, and finally Henry W. Lee. It attempted to present scientific ideas in a serious fashion, featuring work by Peter Kropotkin, Edward Aveling and Alfred Russel Wallace.

When the SDF formed the British Socialist Party, it became the official journal of that organisation, but in 1916, the group around Justice split away to form the National Socialist Party. The paper then became the organ of that party, which soon joined the Labour Party and renamed itself as the "Social Democratic Federation" again. In 1925, Justice was renamed the Social Democrat and became a monthly publication, which lasted until 1933, by which point it was edited by William Sampson Cluse.