New SPGB Pamphlets. (1907)

Party News from the October 1907 issue of the Socialist Standard

Blogger's Note:

To be exact, the 'new' SPGB pamphlet was the William Morris pamphlet. Both the Kautsky pamphlet and the second edition of the Party Manifesto had been out for a few months. 

What's interesting about the Morris pamphlet is that after this early approval of Morris in pamphlet form (and the earlier serialisations of the text in the Socialist Standard), there was little or no mention of Morris in the pages of the Socialist Standard for the next two decades. It's sometimes implied that the Party always claimed Morris as 'one of us' - some opponents have made that charge in the past - but the boosting of Morris in the Standard ebbs and flows depending on the mood (and writers) in the pages of the journal.

What's further interesting is that, arguably, the first substantive article on the politics of Morris in the pages of the Standard, by Stella Jackson ('Stella Stewart' in the Standard) in 1934, was much more critical of the political legacy of Morris.

Sadly, there isn't a copy of the 1907 edition of the Morris pamphlet in the SPGB Head Office library, but there is a copy of the 1911 reprint. The pamphlet was further reprinted in 1962, and more recently in the 21st century.