Jack Fitzgerald

Who was Jack Fitzgerald?

Jack Fitzgerald was a founder member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

“Fitz”, as he was known, was a very well known indoor and outdoor speaker for Party—two of his debates were issued as pamphlets: The Socialist Party and the Liberal Party and Socialism and Tariff Reform —and was a prolific writer for the Socialist Standard. He was an SPGB Executive Committee member continuously from 1905 until his death in 1929 and was also on the Editorial Committee for most of that time. He was also secretary of Clerkenwell branch from 1905 to 1906.

By trade he was a bricklayer and after 1913 was on the teaching staff at the LCC School of Building at Brixton. He was an active trade unionist and a cyclist, designing and building his own bicycles. Fitzgerald had been active in the Social Democratic Federation from around the turn of the century, being a public speaker and a delegate to SDF Conferences in 1901 and 1902. Along with Horace Hawkins he was expelled by the SDF at its 1904 Conference at Burnley, an action which led to the formation of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. This was chiefly as a result of his unauthorised economics classes, which were continued under SPGB auspices. He was a member of the Provisional Committee of May 1904.