Among the many indignities and miseries endured by the poor, none is so keenly felt or bitterly resented as those inflicted under the Poor Law. The poor rightly consider this as a heartless measure for the punishment and not the relief of their poverty and that this view is shared by the Poor Law officials themselves is shown by their brutal methods of administration. Scarcely a week passes but some poor wretch is done to death by the callous brutality of these minions of the brutal bourgeoisie, or some worn out worker commits suicide to avoid receiving the attention of the “Guardians of the Poor.”
We Socialists are engaged in a movement which regards both pauper and criminal as the products of an iniquitous system of robbery o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The growth of Socialism and the gradual breaking up of the competitive system, evidenced by masses of poverty-stricken unemployed, is calling into light some curious men with curious ideas as to how Society based upon robbery can be saved, and its human waste and social wreckage bestowed away from sight.
These would-be saviors of Society plus a slight percentage on salvage, are in short a literary police, as useful to the propertied classes as is Scotland Yard. Their work is to start discussions in press and on platform upon various panaceas for admitted social grievances. Trotting out their own pet hobbys, which generally ends in their being called before a Committee of M.P.‘s or outside rogues and faddists, to elaborate their bruta... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The persistent preaching of Socialist principles had leavened men’s minds with new ideas, and the old prejudices against the poorer inmates of our jails and convict establishments had given place to a feeling that they were more sinned against than sinning. Bad training amid filth, squalor, and manifold temptations, were held as (outside the judicial bench) excuses and condonation of offenses against property. There, on the contrary, as the feelings of the people became more liberal, the harshness of their decisions became more marked. Shameful sentences and gross partiality were the order of the day. Prison discipline bore the marks of the haters of the people, and the brutal tortures of the past were replaced with refined cruelties.... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) As the references to the starting of various associations in “Socialism from the Root-up “ are necessarily brief, I desire as one who took a part in bringing together English and foreign workers, to supplement them. If we select the period immediately subsequent to the death of Robert Owen, we look upon a gloomy phase of working-class history. Remnants of the great Chartist and Socialistic agitations were following upon divergent roads the lead of Bronterre O’Brien and Ernest Jones ; the former attacking the evils of landlordism, usury, and profit, and proposing what might be termed a mixture of Individualism and Socialism as a remedy, and the latter seeking through political Parliamentary means to alleviate social ills. A... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In utilizing the space at my disposal for this paper I do not concern myself with advocacy of the abstract principles of Socialism, but prefer to exhibit the foulness, discomfort and filth which capitalism inflicts upon us in our everyday lives, and thus negatively to make Socialism understood. The utility and justification of this gospel of discontent is found in the patience with which the people bear the evils which the gushing scribes of the press assure them are inseparable from “Our Civilization.”
One, and by no means the least weighty of the counts in the indictments by which Socialists arraign the present system of production for profit, is that wherein our health and lives are directly affected, viz., the construction ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The first proceeding after the verification of credentials was the calling over the list of delegates, most of whom answered the roll in French, German, and English. The only incident worthy of mention during this tedious process was the applause with which the names of Peter Lavroff (Russia), Cipriani (Italy), and that of Dr. Adler the Austrian delegate (now sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, to be undergone upon his return), and the Danish delegation, were greeted. These last had been sent at the last moment, the Danish Social-Democrats having altered their previous intention not to participate in the Congress. Several fresh adhesions during the sittings brought up the total of delegates to 407. The English representation, cons... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Chapter 1
Knowing that I was engaged in Socialist propaganda prior to the foundation of the existing Socialist organizations in this country, some comrades think that my personal recollections of events subsequent to the decline of the British Federation of the International and of the revival of Socialist agitation will be of interest to readers of Freedom. I do not profess to be a facile writer, nor do I lay claim to literary ability; but I will give as coherent a narrative as my memory will enable me to do.
In autobiographical sketches it is expected that a writer should give some account of his early life, and whilst I am reluctant to put my own personality in the forefront of a narration of events in which I was a humble and obscur... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Comrades, — It has been thought advisable at this period of agitation among the workers, to say a few words as to the attitude which we of the International Revolutionary Socialist Party should assume towards Strikes and the Labor Struggle generally. Some among us would seize every opportunity afforded by labor troubles to organize the hitherto unorganized portion of the workers, to wring even partial concessions in the hope of shorter hours and better pay from their masters, and justify this line of action on the ground that organization in itself is good and raises the mass; also that it will tend to lead to higher results after the first demands have been won. On the other hand, a number of our comrades are opposed to joining in a ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The title of this contribution refers to two widely different classes in society — one at the top ever seeking to escape labor, and one at the bottom ever engaged in a vain search for labor. The rich unemployed, falsely styled the upper classes, have called to their aid the French word ennui to describe the languor bred by sheer pampered idleness ; the poor unemployed find the word starvation expresses their condition. Not always the actual deprivation which gives occasion for those annual returns of death from starvation, which forms one of the strongest counts in an indictment against the present system, but the slow linger- ing stinting which, allied with anxiety for the morrow, brings strong men down to weakness and hurries the ol... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We have survived the Jubilee here. The local toadies got up their jubilation in secret, for fear that after what took place at the Drill Hall the dreaded Socialists would mar their plans. The Mitcham celebrators provided a tough dinner to persons over 68, mostly toothless; and their Merton congeners expressed their thankfulness to the Queen for being born by taking an extra dose of preaching and letting off some squibs. We Socialists enlivened Uie enforced tedium of the day by inundating the neighborhood with Socialist leaflets. In this wise we met a procession of schoolboys on jubilee parade, and before their teachers were aware of our purpose we had given to every lad a leaflet “Give them uo,” shouted the irate pedagogue, when... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)