The Socialist League was an early revolutionary socialist organisation in the United Kingdom. The organisation began as a dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

 offshoot of the Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

 of Henry Hyndman at the end of 1884. Never an ideologically

Ideology

An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...

 harmonious group, by the 1890s the group had turned from socialism to anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

. The group was finally disbanded in 1901.

Origins

Until March 1884, the members of the Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

, forerunner of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) worked together in harmony. The new organization had expected to make rapid headway with existing radical

Political radicalism

The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...

 workingmen's organisations, but few had chosen to join with the SDF and early enthusiasm gave away to disappointment and introspection. Personal relationships began to loom large among the small group's leading members, with the personal vanity and domineering attitude of organizational founder Henry Hyndman and his nationalism fixation on parliamentary politics the leading causes of the internal acrimony.

The personal distaste of many prominent members of the SDF for Hyndman was palpable. William Morris wrote:

"Hyndman can accept only one position in such a body as the SDF, that of master.... [He] has been acting throughout...as a politician determined to push his own advantage,... always on the look out for anything which could advertise the party he is supposed to lead: his aim has been to make the movement seem big; to frighten the powers that be with a turnip bogie... [A]ll that insane talk of immediate forcible revolution, when we know that the workers of England are not even touched by the movement."

By the end of 1884, the a group of members of the SDF sought to remove Hyndman from his position as party leader. The decisive meeting of the SDF Executive Council was held 16 December 1884, followed by additional meetings on the 23rd and 27th of that month. Finally, a vote was taken on a resolution of censure of Hyndman, which passed by a vote of 10 to 8.

Immediately after winning their victory in the SDF Executive, the anti-Hyndman dissidents handed in their prepared letter of resignation, which declared:

"Since discord has arisen in this Council owing to the attempt to substitute arbitrary rule therein for fraternal co-operation contrary to the principles of Socialism, and since it seems to us impossible to heal this discord, we the undersigned think it better in the interests of Socialism to cease to belong to this Council and accordingly hand in our resignation."

The anti-Hyndman members of the Executive Council chose to leave the SDF altogether, abandoning Justice to Hyndman and his allies. Those departing included such leading lights of the SDF organisation as William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

, Eleanor Marx

Eleanor Marx

Jenny Julia Eleanor "Tussy" Marx , also known as Eleanor Marx Aveling, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist, who sometimes worked as a literary translator...

, Ernest Belfort Bax

Ernest Belfort Bax

Ernest Belfort Bax was a British socialist journalist and philosopher, associated with the Social Democratic Federation ....

, Sam Mainwaring

Sam Mainwaring

Samuel "Sam" Mainwaring was a Welsh machinist and socialist political activist who was a founding member and key leader of the Socialist League, one of the first Marxist political parties in Britain. In his later years he turned from Marxist socialism to the libertarian socialist doctrine of...

, and Edward Aveling

Edward Aveling

Edward Bibbins Aveling was a prominent English biology instructor and popular spokesman for Darwinian evolution and atheism. He later met and moved in with Eleanor Marx, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx and became a socialist activist...

.

Eleanor Marx explained the thinking of the anti-Hyndman forces in a letter to her sister Laura written 1 January 1885:

"I am sorry the crisis in the Social D[emocratic] Federation could not be retarded a little longer; Hyndman would have got deeper into the mud, and the personal element would have been thrown into the background. However it could not be helped. The reason why the majority, instead of following up their victory, resigned, and [started] a new organisation was this chiefly, as Morris said to me: the old organisation was not worth having. The London branches are about 300 strong in all and those they hope mostly to get, and as to the provinces, it's all bosh and bogus."

Friedrich Engels, co-worker of the recently-deceased Karl Marx and a personal enemy of Hyndman, was jubilant about the split of the SDF. In a letter dated 29 December 1884 to Eduard Bernstein, Engels declared: "I have the satisfaction of having seen through the whole racket from the outset, correctly sized up all the people concerned, and foretold what the end would be..."

The 10 seceding members of the old SDF Executive Council issued a statement To Socialists on 13 January 1885 explaining their anti-parliamentary perspective:

"We, the members of the Council of the Social-Democratic Federation, who, although a majority, resigned on December 27th, wish to explain our reasons for that retirement, and on our forming a body independent of the Social-Democratic Federation. * * *


"Our view is that such a body [as the SDF] in the present state of things has no function but to educate the people in the principles of Socialism, and to organise such as it can get hold of to take their due places, when the crises shall come which will force action upon us. We believe that to hold out as baits hopes of amelioration of the condition of the workers, to be wrung out of the necessities of the rival factions of our privileged rulers is delusive and mischievous. For carrying out our aims of education and organisation no over-shadowing and indispensable leader is required, but only a band of instructed men, each of whom can learn to fulfill, as occasion requires it, the simple functions of the leader of a party of principle.


"We say, that on the other hand there has been in the ranks of the Social-Democratic Federation a tendency of political opportunism

Opportunism

-General definition:Opportunism is the conscious policy and practice of taking selfish advantage of circumstances, with little regard for principles. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term can be applied to individuals, groups,...

, which if developed would have involved us in alliances, however temporary, with one or other of the political factions, and would have weakened our propagandist force by driving us into electioneering..."

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 End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

, Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

, and Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, joined the new group. In Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 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

Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist....

 and artist Walter Crane

Walter Crane

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...

 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.

William Morris was disappointed by the slow growth of the organisation. After six months, the Socialist League only had eight branches and 230 members. Morris wrote to a friend: "I am in low spirits about the prospects of our party, if I can dignify a little knot of men by such a word. You see we are such a few, and hard as we work we don't seem to pick up people."

Development of the organisation

The Socialist League was a heterogeneous organisation, including Fabians

Fabian Society

The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...

, Christian Socialists

Christian socialism

Christian socialism generally refers to those on the Christian left whose politics are both Christian and socialist and who see these two philosophies as being interrelated. This category can include Liberation theology and the doctrine of the social gospel...

, and anarchists

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, in addition to Marxist revolutionary socialists. While the Marxists were tolerant of the earnest ethical socialists, the anarchists were cause for concern from the earliest days, memories of the role of the anarchists in the First International still fresh in the collective memory. Eleanor Marx was one of the Socialist League leaders who was particularly concerned about the place of the anarchists in the new party:

"[T]here is a small group of them here, mainly Germans, French, etc. but very few English. Unfortunately in our movement there are many people who do not understand the foundations and the theoretical questions of Socialism, good people who see that the world is out of joint, and who imagine that they know what should be done in order that evil should be turned to good. They do not understand what Communism or Anarchism is, and think that whoever spoke last is right. Among these friends the Anarchists try to carry on propaganda..."

Frederick Engels was even more pessimistic than was the daughter of his former co-worker. In a letter of 20 March 1886 to the late Marx's son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, he wrote:

"Fortunately the Socialist League is dormant for the time being. Our good Bax and Morris, craving to do something (if only they knew what?), are restrained only by the fact that there is absolutely nothing to do. Moreover they have far more truck with the anarchists than is desirable.... All this will pass, if only because there is absolutely nothing to be done over here [in England] just now. But with Hyndman, who is well versed in political imposture and capable of all sorts of folly when his self-advancement is at stake...on the one hand and our two political babes in arms on the other, prospects are no means bright. Yet now we have socialist papers abroad proclaiming at the top of their voices that socialism in England is marching forward with gigantic strides! I am very glad to say that what passes for socialism here in England is not on the march — far from it."

One field in which the Socialist League did have practical work to do involved the fight for the right of free speech in London during 1885 and 1886. Whereas religious organisations such as the Salvation Army

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....

 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.

Britain's economic problems in the 1880s helped to develop some interest in the Socialist League, but the group nevertheless remained minuscule. By January 1887 the membership of the party stood at just 550. Moreover, many members were unemployed and too poor to pay their dues; the treasurer reported that only 280 members were able to contribute to party funds. Furthermore, even this tiny membership was ideologically divided into three factions

Political faction

A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...

: anarchists (who sought destruction of the state and its replacement with a free association of producers

Free association (communism and anarchism)

In the anarchist, Marxist and socialist sense, free association is a kind of relation between individuals where there is no state, social class or authority, in a society that had abolished the private property of means of production...

 via revolutionary uprising), parliamentary-oriented socialists (who sought establishment of an egalitarian

Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...

 state through electoral means), and anti-parliamentary socialists (who sought establishment of an egalitarian

Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...

 state through a revolutionary overturn by the mobilized working class).

The divided organization was minuscule and impotent.

Anarchist control

Around the middle of this same year, 1887, anarchists

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

 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 the role of William Morris as decisive. He recounted the events of the 3rd Conference to his friend Friedrich Sorge in a 4 June 1887 letter:

"The anarchist elements which had gained admission to [the conference of the Socialist League] were victorious, being supported by Morris, who has a mortal hatred of all things parliamentary... Resolution — in itself quite innocuous as there can after all be no question of parliamentary action here and now — adopted by 17 votes to 11...


"What really clinched the matter was Morris' declaration that he would quit the moment any parliamentary action was accepted in principle. And since Morris makes good the Commonweal's deficit to the tune of £4 a week, this was for many the decisive factor.


"Our people now intend to get the provinces organised, which they are at present well on the way to doing, and to call an extraordinary conference in about three or four months' time with a view to quashing the above. But it's unlikely to succeed; in the fabrication of voting sections, the anarchists are vastly superior to ourselves and can make eight enfranchised sections out of seven men.... The anarchists, by the way, may shortly throw our people out, and that might be all to the good."

As the tenor of the organisation became increasingly clear, a steady attrition of many of the group's international socialists began to take place. In August 1888, the London branch of the Socialist League to which Tussy Marx and Edward Aveling belonged 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 chosing 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.

Despite the loss of its leading socialist intellectual

Intellectual

An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...

s, the Socialist League went forward. In 1895 the organisation somewhat dubiously claimed a membership of over 10,700.

Disestablishment

The party remained active until it was disbanded in 1901, at which point it still claimed over 6,000 members.

The anarchist movement had newspapers of its own, including the journals Liberty and Freedom.

Hammersmith branch reformed for one day on March 26, 2011.

Notable members

• Edward Aveling
  Edward Aveling
  Edward Bibbins Aveling was a prominent English biology instructor and popular spokesman for Darwinian evolution and atheism. He later met and moved in with Eleanor Marx, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx and became a socialist activist...
  
  
• Eleanor Marx Aveling
  Eleanor Marx
  Jenny Julia Eleanor "Tussy" Marx , also known as Eleanor Marx Aveling, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx. She was herself a socialist activist, who sometimes worked as a literary translator...
  
  
• Ernest Belfort Bax
  Ernest Belfort Bax
  Ernest Belfort Bax was a British socialist journalist and philosopher, associated with the Social Democratic Federation ....
  
  
• Edward Carpenter
  Edward Carpenter
  Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet, socialist philosopher, anthologist, and early gay activist....
  
  

• Walter Crane
  Walter Crane
  Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...
  
  
• Bruce Glasier
  John Bruce Glasier
  John Bruce Glasier was a Scottish socialist politician.Glasier was born in Glasgow as John Bruce, but grew up near Newton Ayr. Following the death of his father in 1870, he returned to Glasgow and followed his mother in adding the additional name of "Glasier", thereafter using Bruce as his middle...
  
  
• Bill Holmes
• Tom Maguire

• Sam Mainwaring
  Sam Mainwaring
  Samuel "Sam" Mainwaring was a Welsh machinist and socialist political activist who was a founding member and key leader of the Socialist League, one of the first Marxist political parties in Britain. In his later years he turned from Marxist socialism to the libertarian socialist doctrine of...
  
  
• William Morris
  William Morris
  William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
  
  
• Andreas Scheu
• Raymond Unwin
  Raymond Unwin
  Sir Raymond Unwin was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing.-Early years:...
  
  

Conferences of the Socialist League

{| class="wikitable"

|-
! Year
! Name
! Location
! Dates
! Delegates
|-
! 1885
| align="center" | 1st Annual Conference
| align="center" | Farringdon Hall, London
| align="center" | 5 July
| align="center" |
|-
! 1886
| align="center" | Semi-Annual Conference
| align="center" |
| align="center" | 25 January
| align="center" |
|-
! 1886
| align="center" | 2nd Annual Conference
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
|-
! 1887
| align="center" | 3rd Annual Conference
| align="center" | London
| align="center" | 29 May
| align="center" | 24
|-
! 1888
| align="center" | 4th Annual Conference
| align="center" |
| align="center" | 20 May
| align="center" |
|-
! 1889
| align="center" | 5th Annual Conference
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
|-
! 1890
| align="center" | 6th Annual Conference
| align="center" |
| align="center" |
| align="center" | 14
|-
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.
|}

External links

• Manifesto of the Socialist League, Commonweal, February 1885. William Morris Internet Archive, Marxists Internet Archive
  Marxists Internet Archive
  Marxists Internet Archive is a volunteer based non-profit organization that maintains a multi-lingual Internet archive of Marxist writers and other similar authors...
  
  . Retrieved September 14, 2009.
• Finding Aid for the Socialist League Archive, International Institute of Social History
  International Institute of Social History
  The International Institute of Social History is a historical research institute in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1935 by Nicolaas Posthumus. The IISG is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences....
  
  , Amsterdam. Retrieved September 14, 2009.