William Morris, the great socialist and beard wearer was born on 24th March 1834.
Morris and the late nineteenth century socialist movement had to fight for the democratic right to protest, just as the left does now in the face of new Tory attempts to restrict it. He recognised that the rich always aimed to restrict the right to protest which could challenge their wealth and rule:
William Morris remarked on the impatience of ’the more luxurious part of society’ to ’clear the streets of costermongers, organs, processions, and lecturers of all kinds, and make them a sort of decent prison corridors, with people just trudging to and from their work’….
It seems unlikely that Priti Patel has ever heard of William Morris but over a century ago he had certainly heard of Tory politicians like her.
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