Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU, Frenchman, 1712-1778. A writer and philosopher, a vigorous defender of liberty and of civil rights; a believer in the inherent goodness of humankind. He viciously condemned injustice, and wrote tracts exposing the evils of inequality. Rousseau was a big influence on the French Revolution.

William GODWIN, Englishman, 1756-1836. Politically radical, an anti-monarchist and a religious sceptic. He has been described as "philosophically anarchist", and was in many ways iconoclastic - but he was committed to non-violence. Although his books were subversive, he was not prosecuted for them, since they were regarded as too hard or obscure for the ordinary reader. He married Mary Wollstonecraft, a passionate Anglo-Irish feminist, a great defender of the French Revolution, and a firm believer in the value of education. Their daughter, a feminist, also called Mary, wrote 'Frankenstein'. She married Percy Shelley, a poet, a revolutionary, an anti-imperialist and a great advocate of religious freedom, with a lifelong hatred of injustice.

François Noel BABEUF, Frenchman, 1760-1797. Because of his extremism and advocacy of revolution, Babeuf is usually referred to as a communist. He wanted to overthrow the Directory (the Executive council of the French Republic) and establish a completely equal society based on the abolition of private property. He was eventually executed. As far as I know he made no significant contribution to leftist theory.

Claude SAINT-SIMON, French aristocrat, 1760-1825. Fought on behalf of the USA in the War of Independence, and drew up a scheme for a canal at Panama. He was an advocate of a re-organization of society and of the economy, and thought women should have the right to vote. He wanted capable industrial chiefs to supersede feudal aristocrats, and men of science to supersede churchmen in giving the nation its spiritual direction. He linked socialism - or social harmony - with the advance of science and the promotion of the most able - a sort of technocratic, meritocratic principle, stressing a connection between social reform and technological progress. He influenced the thinking of Auguste Comte (d. 1857), who is seen as the founder of "positivist" philosophy (whose principles are contained in David Hume's work, and were developed by Wittgenstein and Russell in the form of "logical positivism") - and also as a key founder of sociology. Comte wanted to develop a "science of society" as a basis for social planning and regeneration; in Comte's vision, humanity itself would become the object of religious reverence and love.

William WORDSWORTH, Englishman, 1770-1850. Famous poet. In his early life he was enthusiastic about the French Revolution and its ideals of social justice, of liberty, equality and fraternity. He was friends with Robert Southey and Samuel Colerige, fellow writers who in their youth plotted to establish a utopian socialist community in the USA. However, all three grew more conservative as they got older.

Robert OWEN, Welshman, 1771-1858. Pioneer of the co-operative movement, and advocate of model 'co-operative' communities. He founded the world's first ever day-care centre along with schools for infants. Many of his improvements of working conditions, which he was passionate about, were later made mandatory by legislation in Britain's Factory Act of 1819. Unfortunately his declaration of religious scepticism put off some potential supporters. His Scottish-born son, who went by the same name and who died in 1877, was a legislator in Indiana, USA, a member of the U.S. Congress, and a vocal opponent of slavery, who wrote several books on the subject.

Charles FOURIER, Frenchman, 1772-1837. Repelled by the excesses of industrial capitalism, a key figure in the so-called "utopian socialist" movement. He "advocated a re-organization of society into self-sufficient units, or phalanstères ('phalanxes')" (Chambers). The members of the phalanxes would share a communal dwelling and divide work according to their natural inclinations. The communities would be planned to offer a maximum of both co-operation and self-fulfilment by their members. His "scheme for community production would nourish individuality rather than repress it" (Wright). Every member of the community (including those unable to work) would get a subsistence allowance, and after that profits would be distributed according to work, effort, and talent, and to pay interest on the members' capital, which would not be confiscated. His key disciple, Victor Considérant, fled France, accused of treason, and briefly tried to establish a utopian community in Texas.

William THOMPSON, 1785-1833, Irishman. A feminist and Owenite socialist. A wealthy man, his theories about wealth as the product of labour were an influence on Marx. In his books, he called for the redistribution of wealth, the ending of unearned income, reduction in private property rights, and sexual equality. In his will he left most of his estate to aid the poor.

Etienne CABET, Frenchman, 1788-1856, and sometime member of the French Assembly. Cabet was strongly influenced by the ideas of Robert Owen, and wrote a novel depicting an ideal community in which the means of production were communally owned. He also wrote a history of the French Revolution. Though described as a communist in some books, it is clear that Cabet was a utopian socialist, and not a revolutionary.

Louis Auguste BLANQUI, Frenchman, 1805-1881. Revolutionary and extremist, who advocated that a proletarian revolution must be led by a vanguard who take a dictatorial role: this elitist theory leads directly to the key precepts of Leninism.

Frederick MAURICE, Englishman, 1805-1872. A controversial Anglican theologian and brilliant scholar, Maurice was a founder of the Christian Socialist movement. He stated that he wanted to "christianize Socialists and socialize Christians". His key beliefs were in the importance of education, and in the moral primacy of co-operation over competition. He denounced as false any political economy founded, as free-market capitalism is, on selfishness. Instead he advocated that economics and politics must be based on moral values.

John Stuart MILL, British, 1806-1873. A famous and brilliant philosopher and humanitarian; he developed the theories of utilitarianism of which his father had been a key exponent before him. Mill is generally called a "liberal", but he also became very sympathetic to socialism. Passionately committed to individual freedom, laying especial emphasis on the need for free thought and free speech, Mill wrote extensively, most famously on human liberty and also on representative government and other topics. He insisted on the supreme importance of education as a cure for social ills. He was also committed to feminism, and, as a Member of Parliament, sought to attain votes for women; he married a knowledgeable woman, Harriet Taylor, who shared many of his views. Mill was an advocate of proportional representatation, and, as one of the foremost economists of his day, claimed that an end to economic growth was both inevitable and desirable. He advocated the extension of worker ownership as a means of reducing class divisions. The plight of the poor troubled him and he wrote with anger about how the rich were idle whilst the most hard-working ordinary people, doing the most disagreeable jobs, scarcely had enough to live on.

Pierre PROUDHON, Frenchman, 1809-1865. Like Fourier, born in Besançon. A sometime member of France's Constituent Assembly. Alternatively seen as a socialist or as an anarchist (the different socialist traditions were not yet distinct). An advocate of "mutualism" - decentralized producer democracy - libertarian socialism. He was opposed to violence, and believed in peaceful change by ethical means. He also advocated the issue of interest-free loans to the public, to widen access to capital; he saw profit, rent, and above all, interest, as forms of theft. His ideals were perfect freedom, equality, and justice. He strongly believed that time should be the criterion of the value of work - with all workers, both handworkers and brainworkers, being remunerated on the same scale. To him, private property of the means of production amounted, like slavery, to the murder of individual freedom. He believed that once humans were morally mature, government would be dispensed with.

Louis BLANC, Frenchman, 1811-1882. A socialist, author, and journalist, a member of the government of the French Second Republic (prior to the June insurrection) and, much later, a member of the French National Assembly. He was an advocate of workers' rights and of greater co-operation rather than competition. A believer in the superiority of the welfare of the community as a whole to sectional interests, he advocated a democratic republic, state-subsidized producer co-operatives, equalization of incomes, and a guarantee of a job for every citizen.

Mikhail BAKUNIN, Russian aristocrat, 1814-1856. A revolutionary anarchist, advocating free associations of individuals. He believed in the inherent goodness of human nature; and he feared, many might say rightly, the authoritarian potential of Marxism (which was unintended by Marx). But from any democratic (e.g. democratic socialist) perspective, Bakunin's ideas were deeply flawed, since (unlike Proudhon) he refused to commit himself to peaceful and democratic means of change. He was expelled from the First Socialist International in 1872.

Karl MARX, German, 1818-1883. An academic who mixed with radical Hegelians, and edited a liberal newspaper, which was suppressed for its anti-government views. Later he was converted to socialism, by reading Proudhon. Marx believed that the proletariat, or working classes, must be the agent of revolutionary social change. He usually referred to himself as a "communist", to distinguish his views from those of Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Proudhon, and their followers, whom he called "utopians". Marx saw capitalism and industrialization as a distinct improvement on feudalism, but believed that socialism would inevitably follow in their stead. His work was motivated by humanitarianism and a belief in social justice, and his best-known work, the Manifesto by him and Engels, appeared in 1848, the year at which the suffering of working people under the brutality of unrestrained capitalism was virtually at its apex. Marx analysed society in terms of class struggle, and advocated sweeping public ownership of industry, with socialism seen as the remedy for the recurring crises and class conflict of capitalism, and as the means to the emancipation of ordinary people. His friend, Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), a fellow German, also wrote extensively, most famously in a book exposing the appalling poverty among the working-classes of England.

Charles KINGSLEY, Englishman, 1819-1875. A clergyman, Kingsley virulently attacked the exploitation of workers and argued strongly for better working conditions. He advocated co-operative enterprise and a concern at all times for morality in the workplace and in society. He was also a sympathizer for the Chartists. However, in his later years, according to one source, he became less radical and more nationalistic, and is sometimes seen as an apologist for imperialism.

Thomas HUGHES, Englishman, 1822-1896. A founder of the Christian Socialist movement, a county court judge, and a Liberal MP. He was a strong supporter of trade unionism, and founded a college for working men. He was also interested in social studies. He wrote a famous semi-autobiographical novel, "Tom Brown's Schooldays".

Ferdinand LASSALLE, German, 1825-1864. A Hegelian philosopher and German patriot, Lassalle was a democratic socialist, influenced by Marx but retaining an independent mind and (after 1848) advocating democratic rather than revolutionary transformation. He personally tried to persuade Bismarck to introduce universal suffrage in Germany, which he believed would greatly advance the cause of labour, leading to a "social democracy"; and he believed the Prussian state would agree to subsidize worker co-operatives. He established the German Workers' Association (1863), which became the Social Democratic Party in 1875. He was killed in a duel over whether he, or his opponent (an aristocrat), should take the hand in marriage of Helene von Dönniges; this story is the theme of Meredith's play "Tragic Comedians", where Lassalle is "Dr Alvan".

William MORRIS, Englishman, 1834-1896. Morris is sometimes seen as the cultural heir to John Ruskin, a slightly earlier artist who had criticized both materialism and poverty, and who proposed educational reform, but whose overall political stance was uncertain. Morris was both a poet and an artist, but he was also a radical socialist. He called himself a communist because he advocated proletarian revolution, but he was by no means rigorously Marxist. Ruskin had attacked the ugliness and waste of industrialized capitalism, and this became one of Morris's big themes. Morris abhoored capitalism's "brutal disregard of beauty and the daily human happiness of doing fine work for its own sake" (Shaw). Other early influences on Morris were Charles Kingsley, a vigorous proponent of Christian Socialism, and Thomas Carlyle, a radical anti-materialist (who, however, was not a socialist, and was noted for his authoritarian tendencies). Notably Morris rejected state socialism and instead advocated decentralized, associational socialism.

August BEBEL, German, 1840-1913. A trade unionist and a founding member of the German Social Democratic Party. He was well known for his anti-war views and was imprisoned several times.

Pyotr Alekseyevich KROPOTKIN, Russian aristocrat, 1842-1921. An anarchist (and a noted geographer), he held above all else that co-operation was superior to competition. He was repeatedly imprisoned for his views. Kropotkin lived in France and England for many years. After the Russian Revolution he returned to his homeland, but the Bolsheviks' authoritarianism quickly disillusioned him and he made it clear that he condemned their dictatorship.

George Bernard SHAW, Englishman, 1846-1950. Best known as a playwright. Also a vegetarian, a feminist, a brilliant platform speaker and a committed socialist. As a member of the reformist and graudalist Fabian Society, he combined reformist methods (his unshakeable advocacy of democratic, gradualist, parliamentary means of progress) with revolutionary aims (his conviction that incomes must be equalized and that industry must be subjected to state ownership). His passion for equality, and his corresponding hatred of inequalities of wealth, which he saw as responsible for many social problems, were nonetheless marred by his authoritarian tendencies and his sympathy for the Italian Fascists. He was also very statist and insisted that neither worker ownership ("poor man's capitalism") nor trade unionism (in which unions would seek to grab larger shares of the capitalism spoils, rather than seeking to transform the economic system) could be reconciled with socialism. He insisted that socialism would never tolerate idleness; everyone, rich or poor, would contribute.

Georges SOREL, Frenchman, 1847-1922. An advocate of the violent overthrow of capitalism by workers. His writings on violence were used by Mussolini to justify brutality; he also influenced Lenin. Sorel is seen as the founder of the syndicalist movement, which attained significant influence in France and Italy, some influence in England, and also in America in the form of the Industrial Workers of the World, who were clearly syndicalist-influenced (the IWW advocated "permanent class warfare"). His political principles varied wildly and he was at times a royalist and an extreme rightwing nationalist. He welcomed both Fascism and Bolshevism. At this point I must be allowed an editorial comment: this man makes me sick, and if he was a socialist, then I'm a banana. Nonetheless, he must included on this page, in view of his influence over syndicalism.

Karl KAUTSKY, German, 1854-1938. A leading figure in the German Social Democratic Party, and a democratic Marxist, who criticized the revisionist socialism of Bernstein and also condemned the authoritarianism and dictatorship of Bolshevist communism.

Keir HARDIE, Scotsman, 1856-1915. Sometime Member of Parliament, founder of the Independent Labour Party and of the Scottish Labour Party, and first chairman of the Labour Party. Working-class, a champion of the miners, a socialist, a trade unionist, a journalist, and a strong pacifist. According to Tony Wright, Hardie was an ethical socialist who was non-Marxist but not anti-Marxist; he thought any state socialism would be a mere interlude before a "mutualist communism" was arrived at. (On the other hand, the non-Marxist William Morris was consistently associational or mutualist in outlook, while the Fabians, who saw themselves as post-Marxist, were state socialists.)

Sidney and Beatrice WEBB, English couple, 1859-1947 and 1858-1943. Sidney Webb was one of the founders of the Fabian Society (1884). He and his wife helped to establish the London School of Economics (LSE), a university still seen as leftish today, and they co-wrote several books. They founded the leftwing New Statesman magazine in 1913, and were actively in the Labour Party. They were state socialists who put their faith in bureaucracy and expressed interest in the USSR. In an early work, Sidney Webb set out the differences between individualist radicalism and socialist radicalism as follows. Individualist: "The best government is that which governs least." Socialist: "The best government is that which can safely and successfully administer most." Individualist: "The utmost possible scope should be allowed to individual enterprise in industry." Socialist: "Wherever possible, industries of widespread public service should be organized and controlled for the public benefit." Equality of opportunity would require the breaking up of private monopolies. The welfare of the people of a whole had to be pursued, not simply that of individuals.

Jean JAURÈS, Frenchman, 1859-1914. Philosophy lecturer, a founder of the French Socialist Party, a legislative Deputy, a champion of labour, and originator of a socialist newspaper (L'Humanité). Jaurès argued for world peace, and proposed on 16th July 1914 at a conference in Paris that workers should call a general strike rather than go to war. A fortnight later, he was assassinated by a conservative because of his anti-war views. Jaurès did not see Marxism as a scientifically proved system; instead, he drew freely on other socialist traditions, regarding socialism as essentially a product of humanitarian ethics. Jaurès believed that socialism should decentralize and diversify economic and political power, rather than bureaucratizing and centralizing it. He was also an indefatigable defender of Dreyfus. (Dreyfus, a Jew, was a French soldier convicted of treason. The radical author Emile Zola - who brought the case to general attention in January 1898 -, and other socialists and radicals, showed that Dreyfus's conviction was a result of the military's anti-Semitism. Conservatives heartily denied this. In the end, French public opinion was inflamed, Dreyfus was pardoned in 1906, after the evidence against him was proved to have been forged, and the angry anti-clericalism and anti-militarism of the French people resulted in the separation of church and state in France.)

H. G. WELLS, Englishman, 1866-1946. A novelist (he wrote 'The Time Machine', 'The War of the Worlds', 'The Invisible Man', among many others), a founding father of Science Fiction, and a member of the Fabian Society of gradualist socialists. An advocate of world government, human rights, feminism, and progressive education. He was fiercely independent in his views, and quarrelled with fellow Fabians. A prophet of progress, he linked science and socialism. Seeing socialism as a science of society, he advocated a planned economy. His initial enthusiasm for the Soviet Union evaporated. In 1933, he wrote 'The Shape of Things to Come', a heartfelt plea to confront Fascism before it was too late. For several years, he had an affair with Rebecca West, a well-known novelist, passionate feminist, and sometime journalist on a socialist newspaper. His books combine hope about the possibilities of scientific advancement with warnings about how science could be misused.

Vladimir LENIN, Russian, 1870-1924. An authoritarian Marxist communist, whose main "contribution" (actually, more of a distortion) to Marx's work was Lenin's insistence that revolution must take place and must led by a small disciplined party of professional revolutionaries who would then establish an elitist dictatorship. The founder of Bolshevism, Lenin was not nearly as bad as Stalin, but essentially the USSR, even before Stalin, was an authoritarian dictatorship which all modern democratic socialists, and many or most at the time, would condemn. One of Lenin's key allies, Trotsky, had the same faults - essentially, authoritarian tendencies - but was highly critical of the extent of the brutality and bloodshed resorted to by Stalin (b.1879) after Lenin's death.

Rosa LUXEMBURG, Pole, German by marriage, 1871-1919. Revolutionary socialist since 1890; founder of the Polish Social Democratic Party (later the Polish Communists); a leftwing member of the German Social Democrats, and, in 1918, with Karl Liebknecht, founder of the Spartacus League (later the German Communist Party, KPD). She was imprisoned during most of WWI, for her anti-war views. She was strongly anti-authoritarian and warned Lenin that the revolution in Russia must be a democratic libertarian revolution if it was truly to serve the desires of the people.

Bertrand RUSSELL, Welshman, 1872-1970. Atheist, philosopher, and campaigner. Grandson of (Earl) John Russell, who had been a successful Liberal politician. Godson of John Stuart Mill. Russell was a peace activist, most of his life a pacifist (for which he lost a lectureship, was refused a passport to the USA, and was later imprisoned during the First World War), and a strong opponent of nuclear weapons, as a leading member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He visited the Soviet Union and lost enthusiasm for it as a consequence. He was also an advocate of progressive education. A successful academic, he was dismissed from his lectureship at City College, New York, for being "an enemy of religion"; later he won substantial damages for wrongful dismissal. He had liberal views on marriage, sex, adultery, and homosexuality. Along with the French socialist and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, Russell organized European opposition to the Vietnam War. Russell did not oppose wealth provided that it was earned; he strongly opposed inherited wealth. Somewhat like Mill, he was libertarian in outlook and believed in the extension of workers' ownership.

Otto BAUER, 1881-1938, Austrian. A doctor of law, a journalist, a government minister, and Austrian Socialist Party leader for many years. He left Austria in 1934 upon the downfall of the First Republic. Bauer was one of the founders of the briefly influential "Austro-Marxist" tradition. Austro-Marxism rejected both the reformist and Leninist camps, both the Second and Third Internationals. Bauer wanted to retain the radical image of the Austrian Socialists in order to prevent the defection of a rival communist party, which he predicted would be highly detrimental to socialist unity and to the prospects for the advancement of the Austrian working class. The strategy was of "slow revolution" - a gradual transition to capitalism and socialism, between which shades of grey were perceived, rather than a dichotomy. Bauer rejected revolution on the Soviet model, which he said would have led to a bloody civil war in Austria. The Austrian socialists made huge improvements to welfare in "Red Vienna" within the capitalist framework.

Antonio GRAMSCI, Italian, 1891-1937. Born in poverty; later a brilliant scholar and an activist in the Italian Socialist Party. Dissatisfied with reformism, he joined the Communists in 1921. But he stuck to his earlier advocacy of council communism (workers' councils), not the centralized sort of regime associated with the USSR. From 1926 until his death, Gramsci lived in prison, jailed by the Fascists. There he wrote, in a series of notebooks, numerous reflections and analyses which are now considered among the greatest Marxist works of this century, of interest to Marxists and non-Marxist intellectuals alike. Gramsci theorized that a revolution must occur in the beliefs of the populace prior to the possibility of a successful political revolution. His concept of a revolutionary party was not of a Leninist vanguard, but rather of a mass party aimed at converting ordinary people to their world-view. Gramsci fiercely criticized Stalin from his jail.

George ORWELL, Englishman, 1903-1950. Born as Eric Blair, to a middle-class Anglo-Indian family. Orwell worked for the British Imperial Police in Burma for a while, before quitting to write a book, "Burmese Days", expressing the anger and disgust he had come to feel towards imperialism. During the early 30s he wrote several powerful condemnations of poverty, culminating in "The Road to Wigan Pier" (1937). He also wrote in "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" (1936) about the tyranny of the "money-god" who ruled Western capitalism. Around the same time he became a socialist, and fought alongside socialist and anarchist militas against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, in which he was badly wounded. A crusader against censorship, propaganda, and authoritarianism, Orwell viciously satirized both totalitarian regimes and the totalitarian tendencies he perceived in Western democracies, in his "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949).