IWEC members

[NotBlamedForNothing]

The foundation for questioning the integrity of the information given by some club sources is that they were well aware that the general consensus by the authorities before Fanny's posh bag man is introduced was that the killer they sought was a poor immigrant Jew in the neighbourhood, the neighbours and police described this as an Anarchist, not Socialist club....which is why William Morris backed out of speaking there that night, and that no witness before Israel came in saw anyone else on that street after 12:35. The club men were the only men within striking distance of that passageway, and they could do so unseen from the street. So, they realized suspicions would be on them, at least initially.

Mortimer: ...I heard a commotion outside, and immediately ran out thinking that there was another row at the Socialists' club close by.

Herschburg: I suppose it is a Socialist club, and there are generally rows there.

What neighbours and police did you have in mind?

Regarding William Morris, I've read you make the claim about him backing out of a speaking appointment, several times. I can't find anything in the press reports to support this. I presume your source for this claim is the letter from Morris to Wess that you refer to in the following post.

Yes, the meeting topic was "Why Jews should be Socialists", and its one that Eagle had used on previous occasions there. William Morris was originally scheduled to speak that night at the club, and he was unabashedly Socialist vs Anarchist. I believe a recently discovered letter from him to Wess speaks to that very point, (revealed on a 2019 espisode of Antiques Roadshow in fact, although it might have been a relay of an earlier date),.. when Morris suggests that the Anarchist tone of the Berner St Club made him hesitant to be representative of it. Being a Socialist does not require activism, Anarchists seek to force their beliefs upon their environment. The club was viewed as an Anarchist club at the very same time as Strides murder, perhaps an ongoing tide and not fully realized, but the law enforcement in the area categorized it as such in the press during this investigation nonetheless. The Arbeter Fraint skirts around those competing ideals during that period too, Lynn Cates had a few issues translated a while back and they were quite revealing. Seems to me Socialists require Anarchists to some extent, a fringe element that is actively seeking to create a new Socialist state. The issue immediately following this murder is interesting too. Cant recall what folder here that it would be in at the moment.

And supporting a militant wave in that club is the fact that its steward and other members are arrested that next spring/summer for attacking police with clubs in that same yard.

DJA responds with some interesting info, in #497. DJA does not agree with your claim re Morris...

Eagle actually chaired the discussion that Saturday night.

William Morris was not advertised or listed to give a speech on "Why Jews Should Be Socialists".
In fact there is no known speech of his under that title.

There were no known problems eight nights previous when Morris actually spoke.

Ironically,there was a serious riot earlier that month on the Day of Atonement.

[NotBlamedForNothing]

Regarding William Morris, I've read you make the claim about him backing out of a speaking appointment, several times. I can't find anything in the press reports to support this. I presume your source for this claim is the letter from Morris to Wess that you refer to in the following post.

While awaiting Michael's response, I came across this...

The Berners Street club served as a hub for socialists of diverse nationalities, including Russian, Jewish, British, French, Italian and Polish, to debate the most appropriate strategies for the realization of a socialist society. Harold Kaplansky, a Jewish socialist who attended the fifth anniversary event of the Berners Street club in June 1890, recalled:

William Morris opened the meeting with a brief but informative speech … He praised the club for its endless dedication and observed that the English comrades could take an example from it. The Jewish immigrants had not come to England for fun, but were driven here by despotism and discrimination, with the tragic experience of leaving their homeland and arriving with the hope of finding a quieter and humane life. Instead, they found the terrible sweating system. New troubles began for them, and they sank in to further depths of despair until the International Working Men's Club brought renewed hope to the hearts of Jewish workers—the holy message of Socialism.

Ref: Full article: Socialist antisemitism and its discontents in England, 1884–98 (tandfonline.com)