The Socialist League was an early

revolutionary socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolu ...

organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

offshoot of the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James ...

of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from socialism to

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, and disbanded in 1901.

Organizational history

Origins

Until March 1884, the members of the Democratic Federation, forerunner of the

(SDF), worked together in harmony. The new organisation had expected to make rapid headway with existing radical workingmen's organisations but few chose to join the SDF. Early enthusiasm gave way to disappointment and introspection. Personal relationships began to loom large among the small group's leading members. The personal vanity and domineering attitude of the organisation's founder, Henry Hyndman, along with his nationalism and fixation on parliamentary politics, were the leading causes of the internal acrimony. By the end of 1884, a group of SDF members sought to remove Hyndman from his position as party leader in December Executive Council meetings. A resolution to censure Hyndman passed by a vote of 10 to 8. The anti-Hyndman dissidents handed in their prepared letter of resignation, believing the federation's lack of fraternal cooperation to be irreconcilable. The 10 seceding members of the old SDF Executive Council issued a statement ''To Socialists'' in January 1885 explaining their perspective. Early in 1885, the secessionists established themselves in a new organisation called the Socialist League. Several SDF branches, such as those in

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, joined the new group. In

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

the Scottish Land and Labour League severed its connection with the SDF to join the new organisation. Several important individuals in the movement such as author

Edward Carpenter Edward Carpenter (29 August 1844 – 28 June 1929) was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rights and prison reform whilst advocating vegetarianism and taking a stance against vivise ...

and artist

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

also chose to cast their lot with the fledgling Socialist League.

In February 1885 the new party established its official journal, a newspaper called '' Commonweal''. This publication was initially published monthly but was soon converted into a weekly. Editor of the publication was William Morris, who paid the paper's operating deficit out of pocket.

Development

The Socialist League was a heterogeneous organisation, including Fabians, Christian Socialists,

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

, and Marxist revolutionary socialists. While the Marxists tolerated the earnest ethical socialists, the anarchists concerned them, with memories of the role of the anarchist schism in the

First International The International Workingmen's Association (IWA; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist ...

still fresh in their memory.

Eleanor Marx Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a Socialism, socialist activist who sometimes ...

was one of the Socialist League leaders who was particularly concerned about the place of the largely non-English anarchists in the new party. The Socialist League was involved in the fight for the right of

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

in London during 1885 and 1886. Whereas religious organisations such as the

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

were allowed to preach in the streets, the London Metropolitan Police banned the Socialists from similar activities. Members of the Socialist League and their rivals the SDF simply continued to speak and to incur fines, attracting public attention, until the authorities made the decision that their prosecution was counterproductive and stopped their interference. Thereafter, public interest in the street meetings rapidly evaporated. While the political contributions of the tiny Socialist League were not measurable, it did have a lasting literary impact. The newspaper of the Socialist League, ''The Commonweal,'' provided the venue for first publication of a number of original writings, including the serialized novels of William Morris, ''Dream of John Ball'' and ''

News from Nowhere ''News from Nowhere'' is an 1890 classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. It was first published in serial form in the ''Commonweal (UK), Commonwea ...

''. In 1887, the League's membership split ideologically into three factions: anarchists, parliamentary-oriented socialists, and anti-parliamentary socialists.

Anarchist control

Around the middle of this same year, 1887, anarchists began to outnumber socialists in the Socialist League. The 3rd Annual Conference, held in London on 29 May 1887 marked the change, with a majority of the 24 delegates voting in favor of an anarchist-sponsored resolution declaring that "This conference endorses the policy of abstention from parliamentary action, hitherto pursued by the League, and sees no sufficient reason for altering it." Frederick Engels, living in London and a very interested observer in the League's affairs, saw William Morris' role as decisive. Morris, a benefactor of the ''Commonweal'', declared on principle that he would quit if the League took any parliamentary action. Many of the group's international socialists began to leave. In August 1888, the London branch of the Socialist League, which included Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling, seceded in favor of establishing itself as an independent organization, the Bloomsbury Socialist Society. By the end of 1888 many other parliamentary-oriented individuals had exited the Socialist League to return to the SDF, with others who remained hostile to the SDF's parliamentary emphasis choosing to involve themselves in the burgeoning movement for so-called " New Unionism." As the socialist factions left, the anarchist faction solidified its hold on the organisation. By 1889, the anarchist wing had completely captured the organisation. William Morris was stripped of the editorship of ''Commonweal'' in favor of Frank Kitz, an anarchist workman. Morris was left to foot the ongoing operating deficit of the publication, some £4 per week — this at a time when £150 per year was the average annual family income in the kingdom. By the autumn of 1890, Morris had had enough and he, too, withdrew from the Socialist League.

Disestablishment

The anarchist movement had newspapers of its own, including the journals ''Liberty'' and ''Freedom.'' The William Morris Society "reformed" the Hammersmith branch for one day on the TUC March for the Alternative on 26 March 2011. The banner was paraded again on 20 October 2012.

Notable members

Secretaries

:1885: John Lincoln Mahon :1885: Henry Halliday Sparling :1886: Henry Alfred Barker :1888: Fred Charles :1888: Frank Kitz :1890: Woolf Wess

Other members

* Edward Aveling * Eleanor Marx Aveling *

Ernest Belfort Bax Ernest Belfort Bax (; 23 July 1854 – 26 November 1926) was an English people, English barrister, journalism, journalist, philosophy, philosopher, Men's rights movement, men's rights advocate, Socialism, socialist, and historian. Biography Er ...

Bruce Glasier John Bruce Glasier (25 March 1859 – 4 June 1920) was a Scottish socialist politician, associated mainly with the Independent Labour Party. He was opposed to the First World War. Biography Glasier was born in Glasgow as John Bruce, but grew u ...

* Bill Holmes *

Tom Maguire Tom Maguire (28 March 1892 – 5 July 1993) was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican who held the rank of commandant-general in the Western Command of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and led the South County Mayo, Mayo flying column. Earl ...

* Sam Mainwaring *

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

* Andreas Scheu *

Raymond Unwin Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing. Early years Raymond Unwin was born in Rotherham, Yor ...

Conferences of the Socialist League

:: Data from International Institute of Social History, "Finding Aid for the Socialist League Archive," supplemented by Kapp, ''Eleanor Marx: Volume 2, passim'' and ''Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48, passim.''

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Manifesto of the Socialist League
''Commonweal,'' February 1885. William Morris Internet Archive,

Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive, also known as MIA or Marxists.org, is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Enge ...

. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
Socialist League (UK) Archives
at the

International Institute of Social History International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

. Retrieved 19 May 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Socialist League (Uk, 1885) 1885 establishments in the United Kingdom 1901 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1885 Political parties disestablished in 1901 Anarchist organisations in the United Kingdom Second International parties