Campbell case
The Campbell Case of 1924 involved charges against a British Communist newspaper editor for alleged "incitement to mutiny" caused by his publication of a provocative open letter to members of the military. The later decision of the government of Ramsay MacDonald to suspend prosecution of the case ostensibly due to pressure from backbenchers in his Labour Party proved instrumental in bringing down the short-lived first Labour government.
On 25 July 1924 there appeared a new issue of Workers Weekly, a newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) under the acting editorship of young activist J.R. Campbell. The paper contained a provocative article for the "Anti-War Week Campaign" being conducted by the CPGB, entitled "An Open Letter to the Fighting Forces." This article read in part:
Comrades:
You never joined the Army or Navy because you were in love with warfare, or because you were attracted to the glamour of the uniform. In nine cases out of ten you were compelled to join the services after a long fight against poverty and misery caused by prolonged unemployment....
Repressive regulations and irksome restrictions are intentionally imposed upon you. And when war is declared you are supposed to be filled with a longing to "beat the enemy." The enemy consists of working men like yourselves, living under the same slave conditions....
Soldiers, sailors, airmen, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, the Communist Party calls upon you to begin the task of not only organising passive resistance when war is declared, or when an industrial dispute involves you, but to definitely and categorically let it be known that, neither in the class war nor a military war, will you turn your guns on your fellow workers, but instead will line up with your fellow workers in an attack upon the exploiters and capitalists, and will use your arms on the side of your own class....
Refuse to shoot down your fellow workers!
Refuse to fight for profits!
On 6 August it was announced in the House of Commons that the Attorney General for England and Wales Sir Patrick Hastings had advised the prosecution of Campbell under the Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797; however, under pressure from a number of Labour backbenchers, the government forced the charges to be withdrawn on 13 August. Along with allegations of pro-Soviet activity, this allowed the Liberals and the Conservatives to brand Labour as under the control of radical left wing groups, and the two parties united to enable the passing in the House of Commons, by 304 to 191 votes, of a motion of no confidence in the minority government.
...
Wikipedia