About: Stratford Dialectical and Radical Club

The Stratford Dialectical and Radical Club was a late nineteenth-century radical club based in Stratford, East London. Founded in 1880 by disaffected members of the National Secular Society who wished their organisation would involve itself in the social and political issues of the day rather than merely argue against the existence of God, it became one of the first openly socialist societies in London. Although it only existed for a few years, the club attracted high-profile lecturers, including Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin, and is considered by scholars to illustrate a shift in popular perspective from religious dissent to socialist political theory.