the complete overthrow of
existing economic and political conditions. We should organise and be
prepared for what might be described as a revolutionary outbreak. The
economic changes which are taking place, and the corresponding changes
in other conditions, are bringing about a revolutionary transformation
in human society, and what we have to do is to help on this
development, and to prepare the way for it."[1099] "We Socialists are
not reformers; we are revolutionists. We Socialists do not propose to
change forms. We care nothing for forms. We want a change of the
inside of the mechanism of society; let the form take care of
itself."[1100] British Socialism was founded by revolutionary
Communists. Marx was a revolutionary. "For a number of years the late
William Morris, the greatest man whom the Socialist movement has yet
claimed in this country, held and openly preached this doctrine of
cataclysmic upheaval and sudden overthrow of the ruling
classes."[1101] That idea has been revived by modern British
Socialists, many of whom believe that "The only effective way to
induce the ruling class to attempt to palliate the evils of their
system is to organise the workers for the overthrow of that
system."[1102] "In the International Socialist movement we are at last
in the presence of a force which is gathering unto itself the rebel
spirits of all lands and uniting them into a mighty host to do battle,
not for the triumph of a sect, or of a race, but for the overthrow of
a system which has filled the world with want and woe. 'Workers of the
world, unite!' wrote Karl Marx; 'you have a world to win and nothing
to lose but your chains.' And they are uniting under the crimson
banner of a world-embracing principle which knows nor sect, nor creed,
nor race, and which offers new life and hope to all created
beings--the glorious gospel of Socialism."[1103]

In many respects the French Revolution has served as a model to
British Socialists of the Anarchist-Revolutionary type. They have
adopted its outward emblems, its songs, and its most effective
catch-phrases: "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity was the brave and
splendid legend inscribed on the blood-red banners of the French
Revolutionists. And in strange ways the oppressed and hunger-maddened
people sought to realise their ideal. It is still the battle-cry of
the English Socialists--indeed, of the world-wide Socialist
movement."[1104] In the Socialist song-books a translation of