three candidates for Glasgow at the last general election; but the three
only got 2,222 votes between them, out of a total of 23,800 polled in
the three divisions they contested. The ideas of the League have a
certain vogue among the Highland crofters, where they blend very readily
with the universal peasant doctrines that the earth is the Lord's, and
that all other lords should be abolished.
In Scotland there are a good many branches of the two regular socialist
organizations. The Scottish Emancipation League joined the Social
Democratic Federation, and the Scottish Land and Labour League joined
the Socialist League; but it is remarkable that there is no socialism in
Ireland, except in a small branch of the Socialist League in Dublin,
called the Dublin Socialist Club, although it seems a miracle for a
country seething for centuries with political and economic discontent to
escape such a visitation. Probably, as with the Poles, the minds of the
discontented are already too much pre-occupied with other political and
social solutions. The land nationalization views of Mr. George are, of
course, spread widely through the influence of Mr. Michael Davitt in the
agrarian movement of Ireland.
But while the recent wave of socialism has passed over discontented
Ireland, and left it, like Gideon's fleece, quite dry, much more
susceptibility has been shown by those parts of the Empire where the lot
of labour is, perhaps in all the world, the happiest--the Australian
colonies. Here, too, the susceptibility has been created to some extent
by the land questions of the country. Mr. George, in his recent
lecturing tour through these colonies, met with a warm welcome in almost
all the towns he visited, made many converts to his ideas, and gave rise
to a considerable agitation. In South Australia three of his disciples
were returned to the Legislature in 1887, and their views are supported
by several newspapers in Adelaide. In a new colony the argument for
keeping the land in the hands of the State has in some respects more
point and force than in an old. Mr. George's disciples in Sydney publish
a paper called the _Land Nationalizer_, and his views are advocated by
one of the most influential papers in the colony, the _Bulletin_ of
Sydney. In New Zealand a bill has actually been brought in for the
purpose of nationalizing the land. But apart from Mr. George altogether,
there is a flourishing Australian Socialist League in Sydney,
established in 1887, and with a membership of 7,000 in 1888. It has a
journal called the _Radical_, and keeps up a busy agitation with
lectures and discussions. As a method of temporary policy it promotes
associations of labourers for the purpose of undertaking Government and
municipal contracts. In Melbourne, again, people are more advanced. They
have no socialist organization, but they have an anarchist club,
established in 1886 for the purpose of aiding social reform on the lines
of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
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