Labnet: Sheila Rowbotham talk at the Working Class Movement Library, Salford, UK, 17 February

[labnet at lists.labourhistory.net]

From: Bernadette & Michael [mailto:mossley at phonecoop.coop] 



Edward Carpenter - Love and the Labour Movement - 1880s and 1890s 

A talk   by Sheila Rowbotham 

Sunday 17th February 2008 at 2.00 pm. 

 

Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent SALFORD  M5 4WX 

www.wcml.org.uk <http://www.wcml.org.uk/> . 

Tel 0161-736-3601.

 

Sheila Rowbotham  is a British
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain>  socialist feminist
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_feminism>  theorist and writer.
Her political activism began with her involvement in the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_Nuclear_Disarmament>  and the
British Labour Party <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Labour_Party>
's youth wing, the Young Socialists. Disenchanted with the direction of
party politics she immersed herself in a variety of left-wing campaigns,
including writing for the radical
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radicalism_%28historical%29>  political
newspaper Black Dwarf
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Dwarf_%28Ali%29> . 

 

Towards the end of the 1960s she had become involved in the growing
Women's Liberation Movement (also known as Second-wave feminism
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-wave_feminism> ) and, in 1969
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969> , published her influential pamphlet
'Women's Liberation and the New Politics' which argued that Socialist
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist>  theory needed to consider the
oppression of women in cultural as well as economic terms. She was
heavily involved in the conference and book called Beyond the Fragments
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beyond_the_Fragments&action=e
dit> , which attempted to draw together democratic socialist
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialist>  and socialist
feminist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_feminist>  currents in
the UK.

 

Since then, Sheila  has produced numerous books
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book>  and articles
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay>  expanding upon her theory, which
argues that as women's oppression is a result of both economic and
cultural forces then a dualist perspective (socialist feminism
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_feminism> ), which examines both
the public and private sphere, is required to work towards liberation.

 

In 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004>  Sheila  was elected as a
fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society_of_Arts> . She is currently
Professor of Gender and Labour History, Sociology at the University of
Manchester <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Manchester> ,
England.

 

Edward Carpenter (29 August <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_29>
1844 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1844>  - 28 June
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_28>  1929
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929> ) was an English
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England>  socialist
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism>  poet
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet> , anthologist, early gay
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality>   activist, and socialist
philosopher. A leading figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century
Britain, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Fabian Society and
the Labour Party. A poet and writer, he was a close friend of Walt
Whitman <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman>  and Rabindranath
Tagore <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore> ,
corresponding with many famous figures such as Annie Besant
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Besant> , Isadora Duncan
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan> , Havelock Ellis
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelock_Ellis> , Roger Fry
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Fry> , Mahatma Gandhi
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi> , James Keir Hardie
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Keir_Hardie> , J K Kinney
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J_K_Kinney&action=edit> ,
Jack London <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_London> , George Merrill
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Merrill> , E D Morel
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_D_Morel> , William Morris
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris> , E R Pease
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Pease> , John Ruskin
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ruskin> , and Olive Schreiner
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Schreiner> . [1]
<http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/collections_az/Fab-Carp-1/hi
ghlights.aspx> .

 

As a philosopher <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher>  he is
particularly known for his publication of Civilisation, its Cause and
Cure in which he proposes that civilisation is a form of disease that
human societies pass through. Civilisations, he says, rarely last more
than a thousand years before collapsing, and no society has ever passed
through civilisation successfully. His 'cure' is a closer association
with the land and greater development of our inner nature. Although
derived from his experience of Hindu mysticism, and referred to as
'mystical socialism', his thoughts parallel those of several writers in
the field of psychology and sociology at the start of the twentieth
century, such as Boris Sidis <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Sidis>
, Sigmund Freud <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud> , and
Wilfred Trotter <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Trotter>  who all
recognised that society puts ever increasing pressure on the individual
that can result in mental and physical illnesses such as neurosis
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosis> , and the particular nervousness
which was then described as neurasthenia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurasthenia> .

A strong advocate of sexual freedom, living in a gay community near
Sheffield, he had a profound influence on both D H Lawrence and E M
Forster.

 

++++++++++

 

 


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