Charlotte Wilson (1854-1944) - Jeff Shantz

Charlotte Wilson was born Charlotte May Martin, in 1854 in Kemerton, Gloucestershire. The daughter of a wealthy physician, Robert Spencer Martin, she studied at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1884, after moving to London with her husband Arthur Wilson, she joined the Fabian Society, a group of artists and writers who espoused a predominantly social democratic and reformist view of socialism. When the parliamentary faction of the Fabians advocated in 1886 that the Society form a political party Wilson and William Morris stood as the primary opposition to such a move.

Following the defeat of the anti-parliamentary opposition Wilson finally resigned from the Society in 1887. By then she had already developed a productive relationship with anarchists based in London, including Peter Kropotkin. In 1886, Wilson and Kropotkin had founded the anarchist newspaper Freedom, the longest running anarchist publication, which continues to publish on a fortnightly basis. Wilson worked as editor of Freedom from its inception until 1895 and provided most of the funding to publish the paper during that period. Wilson and Kropotkin maintained a productive working relationship until Kropotkin broke with his Freedom comrades over his support of the allies during World War One.

Wilson held what might be called an evolutionary approach to anarchism. She emphasized the development of mutual aid and voluntary co-operation throughout society such that the state and capitalist economic institutions might be rendered obsolete. Anarchists needed to work to educate people about the central role of mutual aid within human social development and the intrinsic connection between anarchy, liberty and human freedom. Her views on the transformation of work as central to the development of anarchist social relations is detailed in her book Work (1888).

Charlotte Wilson died in 1944.

Further Reading

Charlotte Wilson. 1893. Anarchism and Outrage. Freedom. https://libcom.org/article/anarchism-and-outrage-charlotte-wilson

Charlotte Wilson. 2000. Anarchist Essays, Nicolas Walter (ed.). Freedom.