In June 1889, the “Actionist” Anarchist faction assumed control of the Socialist League at its Fifth Annual Conference. In June 1890, William Morris was removed as Commonweal editor in favor of anarchist David Nicholls; Morris' Hammersmith Branch resigned from the main body on 21 November 1890 in protest against incendiary statements issued in Commonweal and elsewhere. In response to long prison sentences meted out in 1892 to four anarchists accused of preparing a bomb, Nicholls published an editorial advocating violence. (No evidence of bombs or the intent to use them was ever found, and it was later revealed that the charges had been brought by an agent provocateur.) Nicholls was arrested and sentenced to eighteen months in prison, and after his release in 1894 Commonweal was discontinued. Image: Cover of the Manifesto of the Socialist League, 1885. Published prior to 1923, public domain. Digital image from the Tim Davenport collection, no copyright claimed.

Articles

Florence Boos, “The Socialist League, founded 30 December 1884″