 In the 1880s, Fitzgerald was an early member of the Democratic Federation, serving as its assistant secretary, then after it became the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), he was appointed as the first editor of its newspaper, "Justice"; however, after a few weeks, party leader H. M. Hyndman replaced him.Fitzgerald also served briefly as secretary of the SDF, but after a scandal in which Hyndman secretly accepted money from a Conservative Party agent to stand candidates in the 1885 general election, he resigned from the group.Fitzgerald worked with James MacDonald to form the Socialist Union, but it made little impact and dissolved two years later.