The Commonweal, The Official Journal of the Socialist League, Vol. 2, No. 12

First published in February 1885, ‘The Commonweal’ was a journal that aimed to spread the views and ideas of the Socialist League. William Morris was the journal’s first editor and wrote much of the content in the early volumes. Other members of the Socialist League also contributed articles including Eleanor Marx, Edward Aveling and Ernest Belfort Bax.

Morris met with other prominent socialists to discuss content for ‘The Commonweal’ including visiting Friedrich Engels, then in his 60s, at his home in Primrose Hill, London in 1885. Engels was not optimistic about the members of the Socialist League and described Morris, Bax and Aveling as ‘the only honest men among the intellectuals – but men as unpractical (two poets and one philosopher) as you could possibly find’.

Morris remained Editor of ‘The Commonweal’ until May 1890, when the Socialist League became divided and the paper fell into the hands of the group’s Anarchist faction. The journal continued sporadically as an Anarchist outlet until 1907, by this time almost all the writers were most likely police informants, unbeknownst to each other.