SOCIALIST REVIVAL
After 1830s (end Owenism) socialism survives through Chartism BUT it was a minority position in the 1840-50s. Marx arrives and remains in GB until his death in 1883 but occupies a marginal position: small influence, cf The Capital was written in 1867 but translation 20 years after his death (not well-known in Brit until after 20th c). Ppl calling themselves socialists in 1830s = euro refugees from the failed European revolution, utopian socialists, anarchists… Socialism existed in Brit during period of collab between socialism and NMU (but end with Paris Commune), after that some ppl still called themselves socialists: mostly republicans against the monarchy, some in favour of collective ownership (just the land or both land and industry).
BUT in 1881: Henry Hyndman founded the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) to bring all the socialists together. This group survives until 1914, but in 1908 becomes the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and in 1911 the British Socialist Party (BSP). Hyndman was a businessman who invested his money in socialist propaganda, funded his own newspaper called Justice. His socialism was broadly inspired by Karl Marx but both Marx and Engels hated him bc he was very authoritarian inside his own party, and his vision for transition to socialism did not include participation in working class struggles. He used propaganda to convert ppl to socialist ideas (reformist vision of the road to socialism). SDF had some working-class members, played an influence on a number of working class activists who would be leaders in New Unionism.
BUT bc Hyndman was such an autocrat, a number of ppl left that org in 1885 to create another org à Socialist League (SL) founded by Eleanor Marx + her husband Edward Aveling + William Morris. Those three leaders formed their own group, supported by Engels, but remained marginal. By 1901 it had disappeared, but they had their newspaper called Commonweal (another word for Commonwealth) as in putting wealth in common (socialism, not the imperialist meaning).
1884: the Fabians (The Fabian Society), another socialist org à no roots in working class, run by economists & intellectuals… A reformist socialism, workers played no part in the transition to socialism for them. They saw themselves as a think tank needing to urge pol parties to produce change, famous for their pamphlets. The Fabians did not organise public protest or demonstrations but sometimes participated.
1891: Newspaper called The Clarion, a weekly founded by Robert Blatchford (a retired soldier) à this weekly was how millions of brit ppl had access to ideas of socialism. He was in favour of collectivisation, but not an international vision, cf book Britain for the British: a nationalist socialist. During the Boer war he was on the side of GB (an imperialist). He gathered supporters, the Clarion Federation formed around the newspaper: groups of (often young) ppl organised in cycling/singing/sporting clubs, and used those activities for socialist propaganda à protesting/fighting for social change and having fun at the same time + mixed (men and women).
1889: SDF à the Second International, a congress both in Paris and London, socialists got together to build a network (date = to celebrate the French revolution), decided every country should have a branch.