Workers' Liberty

The opinions of William Morris on what we now call ecology are important in any assessment of him as a political thinker in his own time. His views indicate a degree of originality and creativity that mark him out even among the best of his Marxist contemporaries, such as Paul Lafargue, Eleanor Marx, Georgi Plekhanov, Karl Kautsky, August Bebel, Edward Aveling, Ernest Belfort Bax and Eduard Bernstein. As such they establish a socialist tradition on ecology after the death of Marx that informed both the Second and Third Internationals. It is no surprise that Wilhelm Liebknecht translated News from Nowhere into German, or that Lenin possessed a copy of the book in Russian. (Meier 1978 p.577)

Morris did not add anything that was not at least latent – and often explicit - within Marx and Engels. But Morris did not have the benefit of reading much of their ecological oeuvre – for example the third volume of Capital or the Dialectics of Nature. Nevertheless Morris did draw a number of conclusions that mark him above most ecological thinkers even in our own time. Morris understood that it was capitalism, defined in terms of the exploitation of waged labour by capital, which was the root cause of environmental degradation. But he drew from this understanding not some vague and generic anti-capitalism, but a clearly defined conception of socialist democracy and a clearly defined social agent - the working class – to carry through the necessary social and ecological transformation. From 1882 he was committed to the idea that communism was the only mode of production compatible with social and ecological harmony.

Morris did not fully answer the main ecological questions of his own time, and it would be foolish to think that he prefigured all of the key issues in our own. However there is enough in his responses to everyday events as well as his more profound reflections to demarcate him from the individual lifestyle reformism that passes for much of the green movement. Above all Morris was a revolutionary socialist who saw the need for working class politics, both in theory and in practice. He was a pioneer and an inspiration to his contemporaries; he should remain so for us.

References

Many of Morris’ works are available on the Marxist Internet Archive

Boos, Florence. ‘An Aesthetic Eco-communist: Morris the Red and Morris the Green’, in William Morris: Centenary Essays, eds. Peter Faulkner and Peter Preston. University of Exeter Press, 1999
Briggs, Asa ed, William Morris: Selected Writings and Designs, Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1962
Coleman, Stephen ed, Reform and Revolution: Three Early Socialists on the Way Ahead: William Morris, John Carruthers, Fred Henderson, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1996
Ennis, Jane William Morris; the first Green socialist?
http://leonora.fortunecity.co.uk/WilliamMorris.html
Lemire. Eugene, ed The unpublished lectures of William Morris, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1969.
Meier, Paul, William Morris: The Marxist Dreamer, Atlantic Highlands: Harvester Press, 1978
Morton, AL ed, The Political Writings of William Morris, New York: International Press, 1973
Morton, AL ed, William Morris, New York: International Press, 1968
O'Sullivan, Paddy, ‘The Ending of the Journey: William Morris, News from Nowhere and Ecology’, in Coleman, Stephen and Paddy O'Sullivan eds, William Morris and News from Nowhere: A Vision for Our Time. Bideford, Devon: Green Books, 1990
Salmon, Nicholas ed, William Morris: Political Writings, Contributions to Justice and Commonweal 1883-1890, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1994
Salmon, Nicholas ed, William Morris: Journalism, Contributions to Commonweal, 1885-1890. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1996
Thompson, Edward, William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary. London, 1955
Thompson, Paul, The Work of William Morris, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991
Thompson, Paul, Why William Morris Matters Today: Human Creativity and the Future World Environment, London: William Morris Society, 1991

----------
Back to 1) William Morris – a Marxist for our time