Article

Thomas Phillips Thompson

Published Online January 24, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Thomas Phillips Thompson, journalist, socialist intellectual (b at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Eng 25 Nov 1843; d at Oakville, Ont 20 May 1933). Under the pseudonym "Jimuel Briggs," Thompson wrote political satire for the St
Thompson, Phillips
During the 1880s, Thompson promoted radical challenges to the industrial capitalist society and became a spokesman for the Knights of Labor (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-38581).

Thompson, Thomas Phillips

 Thomas Phillips Thompson, journalist, socialist intellectual (b at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Eng 25 Nov 1843; d at Oakville, Ont 20 May 1933). Under the pseudonym "Jimuel Briggs," Thompson wrote political satire for the St Catharines and Toronto press, and in 1874 he launched The National, a weekly paper of political commentary. After some years in the US, he returned in 1879 to editorial work on Toronto newspapers, notably the lively News. During the 1880s, he promoted radical challenges to the emergent industrial capitalist society and became a spokesman for the KNIGHTS OF LABOR. In 1887 he produced the labour movement's most articulate critique, The Politics of Labor (repr 1975). The short life of his new radical weekly, Labor Advocate (1890-91), did not discourage this pioneering voice of Canadian socialism; he continued to speak and write for the new socialist movement until the 1920s.