In 1883 the Democratic Federation, which had been established two years
before to promote measures of Radical reform, including, among other
things, the nationalization of the land, adopted the socialistic
principles of Karl Marx, and changed its name to the Social Democratic
Federation. Its programme is long, and includes, besides the
nationalization of land and all means of production, direct legislation
by the people, direct election of all functionaries by adult suffrage,
gratuitous justice, gratuitous, compulsory, and equal education,
abolition of standing armies, Home Rule for Ireland, an eight hours day,
State erection of workmen's dwellings, to be let at bare cost,
progressive income tax, proportional representation, abolition of House
of Lords, separation of Church and State, etc. Its principal founders
were Mr. William Morris, an artist, a great poet, and a manufacturer
exceptionally excellent in his arrangements with his workpeople; Mr. H.
M. Hyndman, a journalist of standing and ability; Mr. J. Stuart Glennie,
and Mr. Belfort Bax, both authors of repute; Dr. Aveling, a popular
lecturer on science, and son-in-law of Karl Marx; Miss Helen Taylor,
step-daughter of John Stuart Mill; and the Rev. Stewart Headlam. In
January, 1884, they started a weekly newspaper, _Justice_, and a monthly
magazine, _To-Day_, both of which still appear, and began the active
work of lecturing and founding branches. But before the year was out,
the old enemy of socialists, the spirit of division, entered among them,
and Mr. Morris, with Dr. Aveling and Mr. Bax, seceded and set up an
independent organization called the Socialist League, with a separate
weekly organ, _The Commonweal_. The difference seems to have arisen out
of the common socialist trouble about the propriety of mixing in current
politics. The same disruptive tendency has persisted in the two parts,
and in the end of 1890, Mr. William Morris seceded from the Socialist
League with his local following at Hammersmith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account