Charlotte Wilson
Charlotte M. Wilson | |
|---|---|
Freedom newspaper | |
| Notable work | What socialism is (Fabian Tract 4) Women and Prisons (Fabian Tract 163) |
Charlotte Mary Wilson (6 May 1854,
Life and work
Born Charlotte Mary Martin, she was the daughter of a well-to-do physician, Robert Spencer Martin. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge. She married Arthur Wilson, a stockbroker, and the couple moved to London. Charlotte Wilson joined the Fabian Society in 1884 and soon joined its executive committee.
At the same time she founded an informal political study group for 'advanced' thinkers, known as the
The club first turned its attention to studying
Another visitor to the house was
An active campaigner she spoke at socialist rallies, including that in Trafalgar Square on 13 November 1887, known as Bloody Sunday, which police broke up violently.
In 1886, parliamentarians within the Fabian Society proposed that it organize as a political party; William Morris and Wilson opposed the motion, but were defeated. She subsequently resigned from the society in April 1887, continuing her association with the anarchists from the society.[8]
She wrote extensively to Karl Pearson about Anarchism, the Fabians, the Karl Marx Society and about her "Russian Society" from 1884 to 1896.[9][10]
In 1886, Wilson and Kropotkin co-founded
Anarchists work towards a society of
mutual aid and voluntary co-operation. We reject all government and economic repression. This newspaper, published continuously since 1936, exists to explain anarchism more widely and show that only in an anarchist society can human freedom thrive.
Her publication Work (1888) was mistakenly attributed to Kropotkin for many years.[12]
In 2000 Freedom Press released a book consisting of a collection of her essays, edited by Nicolas Walter.
Although never disavowing the Anarchist ideology she distanced herself from the movement in the early years of the twentieth century. She rejoined the Fabian Society in 1907, and founded its Women's Group in 1908 joining the campaign for female suffrage. She remained a very prominent member of the Fabian Women's Group in its early years as she served as its General Secretary (1908–1913) and Secretary of the Studies Subcommittee (1908–1913) where she heavily influenced the direction of the group's studies into working conditions for women.[13][14] She would also rejoin the Fabian Executive between 1911 and 1914.[15]
Citations
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45776. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ British Library Archive ADD MS 50511 f143, Emma Brooke to G.B. Shaw, 26 November 1885
- ^ "Wyldes A New History. Philip Venning. London 1977"
- Transactions of the Hampstead Antiquarian and Historical Society.1902-3"
- ISBN 978-0670805433"
- ^ Hampstead and Highgate Express. 1 June 1907.
- ISBN 978-0510045012"
- ^ "Our First Centenary: Charlotte Wilson 1854-1944" (PDF). libcom.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 June 2019.
- ISBN 0-691-11445-5.
- ^ See the Pearson Papers (ref. 900) at UCL
- ISBN 978-0-900384-35-6
- ^ "Book Review: Charlotte M. Wilson's Anarchist Essays", NEFAC, 2 December 2002.
- ^ London School of Economics Archive FABIAN SOCIETY/H30
- ^ London School of Economics Archive FABIAN SOCIETY/H20
- ISBN 978-0704332515"
References
- Charlotte Wilson, Nicholas Walter (Ed.) (2000). Anarchist Essays. ISBN 0-900384-99-9
- John Quail (1978). The Slow Burning Fuse: The Lost History of the British Anarchists. Flamingo. ISBN 0-586-08225-5
- Parish Records, Kemerton, Gloucestershire.
- Edward R.Pease (1916). "The History of the Fabian Society". A.C.Fifield.
External links
