William Morris and News From Nowhere
This is intended to be the first in a series of articles about the nature of socialism. Please add your
understanding in future editions
William Morris and “News From Nowhere”
What is socialism all about. There seem to be as many answers as there are socialists. For me, the most
compelling comes in this classic text. This article is no substitute for the book itself. Much of the pleasure of
book itself is lost here. Despite that there are some key things that come out.
The story starts with something that members of small socialist groups know well. We sometimes seem like
people who feud over trivial differences. It was in 1890 that poor William Guest, after such a meeting, goes
home and to bed. He goes to sleep and wakes in the same place, Hammersmith, in the distant future. The
world is different and Morris explores the differences. Instead of a smelly polluted Thames he sees a
sparklingly clean river. In place of stressed out miserable and poverty-stricken people he chats to happy,
prosperous people. Confusion reigns as he negotiates this new world. A major confusion is about money.
Everything is free, what kind of world is that? A trip in a boat: no charge. Breakfast in a guest house no
bill, no one thinks of money and everywhere and everything the same. Poor William tries to pay and people
are confused. Morris was making a point – socialism is about abundance. Production for need not profit
means that there is plenty. But a premise of this is that people have long stepped off the treadmill of the
consumer society. The accumulation of pointless stuff seems stupid to these people.
Kids working in a shop open up discussion education. Shouldn’t they all be sat in ranks learning up “useful”
stuff? No! Morris’s hostility to Victorian education jumps off the page. An informal mixture of activities
helps children develop and grow. A lot of time spent outside following their own tastes is the way. Children
are natural learners and pick up all sorts of stuff.
Who owns all the places where work is done? Nobody and everybody. The community democratically
organises what should be made and where.
A key Morris theme is freedom. In his new life he asks about Parliament – very useful place for storing
dung (it sometimes seems like that now). Morris sees that administration has to be done but not politics.
The fierce (and largely phoney) battles between parties are long forgotten. Conflicts are largely individual
and mostly easily solved.
This time, when everybody is free and they co-operate to get the best for everybody, works. The division
between town and country is overcome as part of the ending of the real division of labour. People can have
a go at a lot of things and they are not stuck in one job for life.
A world like this seems like a dream. Nice but impossible. Can’t be? To grasp Morris’s vision, we need an
imaginative leap. The resources are available – it is not that we could not afford to run things like this. In
reality it would be much easier now than it was in 1890. The imagination is needed to see beyond the way
things are organised now. We have profit mania; it is so imbued in us that it is difficult to escape that
mindset. But once we think about getting rid of the billionaire parasites that cling to us and ask how most
people would run things, we can see the possibilities.
The action takes place in London and then on a boat trip up the Thames. The trick is that it all moves
between Morris’s place in Hammersmith to his Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire. Sadly, he wakes from his
dream into the squalor of capitalist London.
A brief introduction to William Morris. (1834 -96)
Morris was a brilliant Victorian all-rounder. We probably best know Morris today as a designer. In his time,
he was a famous poet. His business didn’t just do wallpaper and cloth. It made stained glass and a variety of
textiles. In his late 40s Morris turned to socialism and became a leading figure in the early socialist
movement. News from Nowhere was written in this period.
Further resources:
William Morris, News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest : Being Some Chapters from a Utopian
Romance
MacCarthy, Fiona, (1994,) William Morris: A Life for Our Time, London, Faber & Faber..
E.P. Thompson, (1955, 1977), William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary, New York, Pantheon Books
The William Morris society: https://williammorrissociety.org/