I do not mean by this what the ideal of Socialism has to offer to us when we have
got people's heads turned in the right direction, but rather what our present
movement may reasonably expect to come across in its progress towards Socialism; it
is not prophecy that I am about to-night but a reasonable forecast of the few next
moves deduced from the experience of the last few. I consider this a dull job, a
dispiriting job because it must necessarily deal with failure and disappointment
and stupidity and causeless quarrels, and in short all the miseries that go to make
up the degrading game of politics. Still I think it has to be done, in order that
we may get on to the next step, and the... (From: Marxists.org.) The inaugural address in connection with the Oxford and District Socialistic
Union was delivered on Wednesday by Mr. William Morris, at the Central School,
Gloucester-green. There was a crowded attendance, which included many
undergraduates and ladies. Professor York Powell took the chair, and briefly
introduced the lecturer.
Mr. Morris chose for his subject the words "What we have to look for", and said
he did not mean by this what the ideal of Socialism had to offer to them when
they had got people's heads turned in the right direction, but rather what
their present movement might reasonably expect to come across in its progress
towards socialism. Within the last five years or so the movement which
represented the change from ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Where Are We Now?” Commonweal, Vol 6, No. 253, 15 November 1890, p.361-362; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. It is good from time to time for those who are engaged in a serious movement to look back and review the progress of the past few years; which involves looking around them and noting the way the movement is affecting other people. It is good to do so for this reason among others, that men absorbed in such a movement are apt to surround themselves with a kind of artificial atmosphere which distorts the proportions of things outside, and prevents them from seeing what is really going on, and consequently from taking due council as to what is best to do.
It is now some seven years since Socialism came to life again in... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Whigs Astray” [1]Commonweal, Vol 5, No. 158, 19 January 1889, p.18-19; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. A Dialogue Between Owen Marx Bakunin Jones, an architect (unsuccessful), and — the Rev. Swain Stride, a Nonconformist parson, and Mr Jeremiah Brown, a business man — advanced Radicals.
Scene — A comfortable batchelor-looking room in Mr Brown’s house, with tobacco and pipes and grog to the fore. Mr Stride and Mr Brown sitting on either side o f the fire, looking important and self-satisfied. Enter to them Mr Jones with an ill-concealed grin on his face; after the usual greetings he sits down and says:
Jones. Well, Mr Brown, here I am, ready to hear what you have to say to me, and eager to know wh... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Whigs Astray [2]” Commonweal, Vol 5, No. 159, 26 January 1889, p.26-27; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. A Dialogue Between Owen Marx Bakunin Jones, an architect (unsuccessful), and — the Rev. Swain Stride, a Nonconformist parson, and Mr Jeremiah Brown, a business man — advanced Radicals.
Scene — A comfortable batchelor-looking room in Mr Brown’s house, with tobacco and pipes and grog to the fore. Mr Stride and Mr Brown sitting on either side of the fire, looking important and self-satisfied. Between them Mr Jones with an occasional ill-concealed grin on his face.
S. ‘We are in favor of giving some relief by way of security of tenure to leaseholders who are exposed to enormous losses and rui... (From: Marxists.org.) Objection has been made to the use of the word “Communism” to
express fully-developed Socialism, on the ground that it has been used for the
Community-Building, which played so great a part in some of the phases of
Utopian Socialism, and is still heard of from time to time nowadays. Of
Communism in this sense I am not writing now; it may merely be said in passing
that such experiments are of their nature non-progressive; at their best they
are but another form of the Mediæval monastery, withdrawals from the Society of
the day, really implying hopelessness of a general change; which is only
attainable by the development of Society as it is; by the development of the
consequences of its faults and anomalies, as wel... (From: Marxists.org.) At a meeting of the Commons Preservation Society I heard it assumed by a clever speaker that our great cities, London in particular, were bound to go on increasing without any limit and those present accepted that assumption complacently, as I think people usually do. Now under the present Capitalist system it is difficult to see anything which might stop the growth of these horrible brick encampments; its tendency is undoubtedly to depopulate the country and small towns for the advantage of the great commercial and manufacturing centers; but this evil, and it is a monstrous one, will be no longer a necessary evil when we have got rid of land monopoly, manufacturing for the profit of individuals, and the stupid waste of competitive distribu... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Why We Celebrate the Commune of Paris Commonweal, Vol 3, No. 62, 19 March 1887, p. 89-90; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The ‘moons and the days’ have brought us round again to the anniversary of the greatest tragedy of modern times, the Commune of Paris of 1871, and with it the recurring duty for all Socialists of celebrating it both enthusiastically and intelligently. By this time the blatant slanders with which the temporarily unsuccessful cause was assailed when the event was yet fresh in men’s minds have sunk into the dull gulf of lies, hypocritical concealments, and false deductions, which is called bourgeois history, or have become a dim but deeply rooted superstition in the minds of those who have in... (From: Marxists.org.) William Morris's Socialist Diary
edited and annotated by Florence Boos
INTRODUCTION
Morris's achievements routinely exhaust the enumerative abilities of his biographers. When in 1883 William Morris joined the Social Democratic Federation, he had already been a writer of narrative poems and prose romances; pioneer in the decorative arts; translator of Icelandic sagas; designer of stained-glass windows, wallpapers, and tapestries; illuminator of manuscripts; vigorous man of business; founder of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB); and loyal personal friend and relation to an impressive range of people.
More relevant to the Diary is Morris's identity as the most prominent Victorian artist to embrace the new ... (From: Marxists.org.) I shall presently have the pleasure of showing you in some kind of sequence a
number of illustrations taken from books of the fifteenth and first years of the
sixteenth centuries. But before I do so I wish to read to you a few remarks on the
genesis and the quality of the kind of art represented by these examples, and the
lessons which they teach us.
Since the earliest of those I have to show is probably not earlier in date than
about 1420, and almost all are more than fifty years later than that, it is clear
that they belong to the latest period of Medieval art, and one or two must formally
be referred to the earliest days of the Renaissance, though in spirit that are
... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Words of Forecast for 1887” Commonweal, Vol 3, No. 52, 8 January 1887, p. 9; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The war-rumors are solidifying and it cannot be denied that there is great probability of this year seeing the long-threatened war which will embrace all the nations of Europe. There have within the last few days been stories of alliance between Germany and Russia. This seems at first sight highly improbable, considering the strong race animosity between the Slav and the Teuton, and also the difficulties which dealing with Austria would offer to both the great reactionary states; because Austria, if not used as the tool of Germany against Russia, would probably in the case of a successful expedition of the two gre... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “The Worker’s Share of Art,” Commonweal, Vol I, No. 3, April 1885, pp. 18-19; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. I can imagine some of our comrades smiling bitterly at the above title, and wondering what a Socialist journal can have to do with art; so I begin by saying that I understand only too thoroughly how ‘unpractical’ the subject is while the present system of capital and wages last. Indeed that is my text.
What, however, is art? whence does it spring? Art is man’s embodied expression of interest in the life of man; it springs from man’s pleasure in his life; pleasure we must call it, taking all human life together, however much it may be broken by the grief and trouble of individuals; and... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “Workhouse Socialism” Commonweal, Vol 6, No. 251, 1 November 1890, p.345-346; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. ‘General’ Booth no doubt does deserve his title; his conduct of the ‘Army’ shows that he is a general of no mean order. But like other people, he has the ‘defects of his qualities’ as the French phrase it, and a good general is not likely to be a good citizen; for it is the business of a general to sacrifice everything to immediate success, and I cannot help thinking that the Salvation General does not fall behind others of his kind in this respect.
Anyhow, his ‘great scheme’ as it is called, seems on the face of it to be meant as a bait to catch those who are lookin... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “'Common-Sense Socialism'” (review) Commonweal, Vol 3, No. 75, 18 June 1887, p. 197; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The first word of the above title is usually a sort of danger signal to the wary reader to avoid boredom and confusion. ‘Common-sense’ as applied to knotty questions usually meaning the ignoring of the main issue, or the putting forward of a remedy difficult to apply and useless when applied. This is so well understood by persons with not more than the average amount of time for throwing away on futile and foolish literature, that the title of this book will probably prevent many people from looking into it at all. This is a pity, although before the end of the book the author justifies this well... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “The ‘Eight Hours’ and the Demonstration” Commonweal, Vol 6, No. 227, 17 May 1890, p.153; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. Now that the noise and clatter of the 4th of May demonstration are over, it may be profitable to consider what it was that that huge meeting was crying for, and whether it is likely to get it.
But first we must assume that the 4th of May demonstration did not aim at showing any expression of sympathy with labor generally throughout the civilized world. It was in fact an English trades-union meeting distinct from the meetings held on the Continent and in London on May Day, although it was only the agitation on the Continent that made it possible. The English workmen, if we may believe the St... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “'Looking Backward'” Commonweal, Vol 5, No. 180, 22 June 1889, p.194-195; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. We often hear it said that the signs of the spread of Socialism among English-speaking people are both abundant and striking. This is true; six or seven years ago the word Socialism was known in this country, but few even among the ‘educated’ classes knew more about its meaning than Mr Bradlaugh, Mr Gladstone, or Admiral Maxse know now — ie., nothing. Whereas at present it is fashionable for even West-end dinner-parties to affect an interest in and knowledge of it, which indicates a wide and deep public interest. This interest is more obvious in literature perhaps than in anything else, quite outside ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: “The Reward of ‘Genius'” Commonweal, Vol 2, No. 37, 25 September 1886, p.204-5-206; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. It is a very common incident at a debate on Socialism for an opponent or doubter to take up the cudgels on behalf of ‘brain-work’ as opposed to hand-work. Even before you avow yourself a Communist (as I have to do), such a questioner is anxious about the future of brain-work in the transitional stages of Socialism. Though this subject has been ably treated before in these columns, I will nevertheless venture on a few plain words in addition to what has been said; which I hesitate to do the less because I have had some small experience of hand-work, though not of the most laborious kind, and ... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: ‘The’ Law in Ireland” Commonweal, Vol 2, No. 50, 25 December 1886, p.305; Transcribed: by Ted Crawford. The Government has struck its stroke and we are to have another State trial on behalf of law and order. Unless a miracle of jury-packing is performed the accused will be acquitted, or at least the jury will not agree; so it is hard to see what the Government can gain unless they are prepared to go head over ears into coercion. Meantime not only are the Tory and other definitely reactionary papers jubilant at this exhibition of firmness, but all the Liberal Press approves with the single exception of the Pall Mall Gazette, to which must be added that Mr Labouchere at Birmingham spoke strongly and generously of Mr ... (From: Marxists.org.)