The Impossibilists: A Brief Profile of the Socialist Party of Canada

Formed in January 1905, the Socialist Party of Canada's anti- reformist, anti-statist revolutionary platform led to ideological disputes with rival socialist groups and even arguments within the Party itself over what it stood for. Peter E Newell's absorbing and thorough account of the life and times of the Socialist Party of Canada charts the Party's pre-history in the 1890s, when the availability of translations of the works of Marx and Engels fuelled the radicalism of such figures as Daniel De Leon. It also covers the early years of the twentieth century when, with the merger of like-minded Provincial socialist parties, the SPC was founded. In the present day the party remains a beacon for socialists worldwide for its refusal to compromise its passions and beliefs. --Publisher's description