in order to develop their class consciousness, which the League argued would eventually lead to the overthrow of capitalism and the committees then taking over the administration of the newly-established communist society. As its official organ, the League began publishing a newspaper, The Communist, in which George Rose remarked that: The organization quickly expanded over the subsequent months, forming a number of branches mostly in London and Scotland. A South Wales branch was also established by coal miners in Treherbert, led by the Welsh trade unionist William Mainwaring, who registered his disagreement with one particularly section of the League's constitution, stating that: "to say [the parliamentary vote] is obsolete will lead many to suppose that it once was useful." The League later entered into negotiations with the aim of merging with other anti-parliamentary communist groups such as the Workers' Socialist Federation (WSF), but this proposal was rejected by the WSF's leader Sylvia Pankhurst. Attempts by Aldred to open discussions with the ILP, the SLP and the BSP did not prove fruitful either. Although Aldred had expressed in an October 1919 article that the revolutionary moment was "drawing closer and closer together on a platform of practical revolutionary effort", divisions still existed over the question of parliamentary elections. In an attempt to find a "tactical compromise" between the parliamentary position of electoral participation and the anti-parliamentary position of the election boycott, the Communist League decided to imitate Sinn Féin's abstentionist tactic of using elections as a platform for their propaganda, while pledging not to take their seats if elected. When a by-election was called in Paisley, the Communist League attempted to put this proposal into action, offering to support an SLP candidate that stood on an abstentionist platform. However, the local SLP leader William Paul ended up declining the offer to stand entirely and took on the hardline anti-parliamentary position. Declaring that "every vote withheld is a vote for socialism", Paul called for an election boycott that particularly targeted the Labour Co-op candidate John Biggar, resulting in the victory of the Liberal candidate and former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. Tensions between the anarchists and the Marxists within the League had also heightened during the latter half of 1919, with fierce debates breaking out over the theoretical differences that had been present in the organization since the founding conference. By the turn of 1920 these tensions completely boiled over, leading to