



Produced by Russell Bell









The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion

by

George Bernard Shaw

(1856-1950)




Writing as: JOHN TANNER, M.I.R.C.  (Member of the Idle Rich Class).




PREFACE TO THE REVOLUTIONIST'S HANDBOOK

"No one can contemplate the present condition of the masses of the
people without desiring something like a revolution for the better."
Sir Robert Giffen.  Essays in Finance, vol. ii. p. 393.



FOREWORD

A revolutionist is one who desires to discard the existing social order
and try another.

The constitution of England is revolutionary.  To a Russian or
Anglo-Indian bureaucrat, a general election is as much a revolution as a
referendum or plebiscite in which the people fight instead of voting.
The French Revolution overthrew one set of rulers and substituted
another with different interests and different views.  That is what a
general election enables the people to do in England every seven years
if they choose.  Revolution is therefore a nation