Charlotte Wilson

Anarchism

While Wilson was in the Hamstead Historic Club, she particularly admired William Morris. However, she then changed her allegiance to anarchist Peter Kropotkin. Also, from 1884 to 1896, she wrote extensively to Karl Pearson about anarchism, the Fabians, the Karl Marx Society and about her hoped-for Russian Society. In particular, she asked his advice about reading Marx and tried to justify to him her view of human nature that "made anarchism the only moral system of politics." However, by 1885 Wilson had met Henry Seymour, a former secularist who had become converted to anarchism and who had decided to produce an anarchist paper, The Anarchist. When Wilson learnt of his intention, she promised to contribute articles to the paper, under the name of An English Anarchist. The first issue was published in March 1885. It contained "greetings from Éisée Reclus and the French-speaking International anarchist circle of London" and the article What's in a Name? (How an anarchist Might Put It) which was written by George Bernard Shaw at Wilson's request. The second issue in April included "a note on the exposure of Serreaux, the spy who had attended the 1881 congress, in the Souvenirs of his boss, the Paris police chief Andrieux, were also mentioned [in the previous issue] by Mrs Wilson." The third issue in May "announced that 'a circle of English Anarchists' was about to be formed in London." Quail (2019) observed: "By July the 'English Anarchists' were meeting more or less monthly" and that Wilson was probably a member.

In mid-January 1886, Peter Kropotkin, who was sick with malaria and scurvy, was finally released with his anarchist colleagues from Clairvaux Prison. During his imprisonment, Wilson had been in touch with his wife. On the 20th January, Kropotkin wrote to George Herzig, a friend of his in Geneva: "I am called to London to found an anarchist (English) paper; the means are existant and I will get to work busily". Woodock and Avakumoović (1971) commented: "It is not certain from whom the 'call' came, but it was very probably from Charlotte Wilson".

The March 1886 issue of The Anarchist 'announced that Kropotkin was now in London and that the paper had become the "recognised organ of the English Anarchist Party"'. However, Woodcock (1990) documented: "The founding of an anarchist periodical was one of Kropotkin's first concerns, and it seems certain that the original Freedom Group began in March, or at the latest in the first half of April. The first members seem to have been Kropotkin and his wife, Charlotte Wilson, Dr Burns Gibson, and one or two others." The July issue of The Anarchist "reported on a difference of opinion with Mrs Wilson, saying that at a Fabian conference which she could not attend because she was ill, she was to have represented a new group, 'The London Anarchist Group of Freedom'."

Woodcock (1990) observed: "Kropotkin and his friends decided to withdraw from The Anarchist, and in October 1886 the first issue of Freedom appeared in the form of a four-page sheet. Wilson became its editor and remained in the post until 1895. The newspaper's mission statement was stated in every issue, on page 2, and summarised the writers' view of anarchism:

"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."

Return to the Fabians

Wilson did not involve herself in left-wing politics for the remainder of the century, during which her father died in 1896, with the death of her mother following in 1903. Wilson resumed political activity in 1906. She did not disavow anarchist ideology. However, she aligned herself with the Fabian Society, and from 1908 to 1913, she served as its General Secretary, during which she joined the campaign for female suffrage.

Wilson was also the main founder of the Fabian Women's Group, which:

"originated in a drawing-room of fashionable South Kensington. At its first gathering in March 1908, fourteen ladies pledged to unite in the study of the relation between the two most vital movements of the day: socialism and feminism. Many distinguished and remarkable women were involved, including Beatrice Webb, novelist Edith Nesbitt, birthcontroller Annie Besant, shopworker and first woman cabinet minister Margaret Bondfield, and 1902s Labour MP Susan Lawrence."

Wilson hosted the meetings of the Group at her home in St John's Wood. She was also the Secretary of the Studies Subcommittee (1908–1913) of the Society in which she heavily influenced the direction of its studies into working conditions for women. In 1912 she co-wrote with Helen Blagg a tract for the Society entitled Women and prisons. In 1911, according to Walter (2007, p. 227) she described the activities of the Fabian Women's Group. And, until 1916, when she resigned because of illness; she was its most active member.