socialism

Socialism and Anarchism

Socialism and Anarchism was first printed as a letter in Commonweal, May 5th, 1889.

"By this time the Anarchist faction had secured a majority in the Socialist League and the position of Morris was becoming impossible. This letter, a contribution to a discussion then taking place in Commonweal, illustrates his firmness in principle but also the courtesy and the comradely spirit with which he conducted a polemic which for him was always a most disagreeable necessity. It shows the falsity of the claims sometimes made that he was really an Anarchist. A little later he remarked in a letter to Bruce Glasier, "in good truth I would almost as soon join a White Rose Society as an Anarchist one; such nonsense as I deem the latter."" - A. L. Morton.

How We Live and How We Might Live - William Morris

How We Live and How We Might Live was a lecture delivered to the Hammersmith Branch of the Socialist Democratic Federation (S.D.F.) at Kelmscott House, on November 30th, 1884. It was first printed in Commonweal, 1887.

"Morris sees capitalist society as based on war - between nations, between rival capitalists, against colonial peoples and between classes. Only the victory of Socialist revolution can end all these wars." - A. L. Morton.

Art and Socialism

Art and Socialism was delivered, as a lecture, to the Leicester Secular Society on January 23rd, 1884.

"Art and Socialism's outstanding feature is perhaps the stress laid on work as a necessity of human life, not merely as a means of obtaining a livelihood. Morris insists that only Socialism can restore work to its proper, central position." - A. L. Morton.