Robert Tressell's book The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a major socialist novel that has influenced thousands of its readers since it was published in 1914, three years after Tressell's death, 100 years ago today.

Tressell, whose real name was Noonan, devoted his book to a series of discussions between Frank Owen and his fellow workers about their plight in capitalist society. It explores the nature of a system in which Frank identifies their role as people whose task it was to make their employers wealthy, which made them philanthropists.

The discussions in the novel all took place in a town, Mugsborough – really Hastings, where Tressell lived – where a group of workers were engaged in working on a house that was under repair.

Despite Frank's arguments, his companions seemed to remain convinced that they were part of a settled system which they had no capacity – or even desire – to change, and it was in these discussions that some of the basic problems of social and political change which confront the working class emerge most clearly.

Frank became very frustrated with his colleagues and opened up the very issues which many socialists have faced as they argue their case with those who seem to be both contented and dissatisfied with their role in the world.

At the time the book was published, the Labour party had only just been founded and no serious political alternative was available to the general public. This led to despair and cynicism by those who might have benefited from new policies and this paralysed the political process.

Thinking about the developments in the last century that led to the winning of the welfare state, the NHS and many other public services, it is obvious to anybody reading this book today that that pessimism and cynicism slowed down the processes of reform because it denied people the necessary hope that made them possible later.

The book is not about such reforms alone but about the far more fundamental need to replace the whole capitalist system with a new and more radical socialist society, and even today those who argue for that are still facing some deep pessimism among those who would benefit from such a change.

The recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have shown that the key ingredient in all major progressive change is the confidence of those demanding it that it can be done, and that enough people are prepared to make the effort necessary to bring it about.

I have given this book to many, many people in the course of my life and all the recipients have been as inspired by it as I have been. Every generation has to fight the same battles again and again, and in each case it is the confidence of the campaigners that determines the speed of their success.

The campaign against the poll tax in the 14th century was led by such people, and it inspired those of us who fought against Mrs Thatcher's version in the early 1990s. Similarly, it was the Chartists who inspired the suffragettes, and the courage of the Tolpuddle martyrs which underpins the morale of those who are now fighting the cuts.

That is why The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists remains so important today and the voice of Frank Owen can still come across with such contemporary power to speak to those who have not yet realised that pessimism and despair make us collaborators in our own fate.

The media still tends to warn us not to get carried away by those who campaign for peace and justice, and to spread the idea that such changes cannot be achieved because we should distrust all those who advocate them.

Robert Tressell, through the voice of Frank Owen, is addressing us with arguments that are just as relevant now as they were when he first used them a century ago. If we want to make progress we have to do it ourselves and believe it can be done. That is why this book should be read and studied by this generation if we are to make progress, for there is no other way.

We do it ourselves or it will never be done.