Canadian Socialist League
|
Canadian Socialist League
|
|
|---|---|
| Founded | 1898 |
| Dissolved | 1905 |
| Succeeded by | Socialist Party of Canada |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Newspaper | Citizen and Country |
| Ideology | Socialism / communism |
The Canadian Socialist League (CSL) was the first nationwide socialist organization founded in Canada. It originated in Montreal in 1898, but was strongest in Ontario and British Columbia. The leaders espoused a moderate socialism based on Christian reform principles. Members of the League formed provincial socialist parties. In 1905 these parties merged into the Socialist Party of Canada (SPC).
The Canadian Socialist League (CSL) was formed in Montreal in 1898 by former members of the Socialist Labor Party. The founders rejected the Labor party leadership of Daniel De Leon. Support for the League appeared about the same time in the summer of 1899 in Montreal and Toronto. In Ontario the CSL was organized by George Weston Wrigley and Thomas Phillips Thompson, both former Knights of Labor, in an effort to pull together the reform forces that had become fragmented after the Patrons of Industry were defeated in the 1896 federal election. The CSL had a local in Port Moody, British Columbia by January 1900, which became the focus of its activities in that province. John M. Cameron, a former member of the Utopian Ruskin colony, was the organizer in British Columbia. A formal organizing convention for the Ontario Socialist League was held in Toronto in November 1901 to provide the base for the national organization.
Wrigley, editor of the CSL's organ Citizen and Country, dominated the League with his Christian socialism. The CSL leader said socialism was applied Christianity and "Christ was the first socialist." The League rejected the ideology of class struggle, and emphasized reform and public ownership. It has been described as a transitional group of Ruskinian romantics and moderate Christian socialists. Although Marxist-oriented socialists made the group more radical, the CSL was still wedded to reformist ideals. The CSL was broad and flexible, open to radicals, laborites, socialists and women's rights activists. Leadership was mostly male and English-speaking. Women who were active in the organization were typically married and did not work for a living.
...
Wikipedia