Workers’ Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain

Learning from the past: An historical perspective on indoctrination and citizenship

“…Michael Rosen (2018) has noted that during the period 1880-1920 socialist ideas were promoted in the pages of journals such as the Labour Leader, founded in Glasgow by Keir Hardie, Justice, the official publication of the Social Democratic Federation, and Clarion, closely connected to the Independent Labour Party. As well as political articles for adult readers, these publications contained literary material, some of it aimed at capturing the interest of children.…”

“…Hardie himself wrote several pieces of this kind in the 1890s (see Sumpter, 2006). His story 'Jack Clearhead: A Fairy Tale for Crusaders' (first published 1894, included in Rosen, 2018), designed to be read to children by their parents, was a 13-part Swiftian allegory featuring characters such as Sharpheads, Dullards, Common Sense and Good Will. Socialism is seen as the mechanism for saving Truth and Justice from the hands of Capital and Monopoly.…”

“…A few exhibited a militant stance. Tom Anderson's tale 'Mary Davis; or the Fate of a Proletarian Family' (first published 1912, included in Rosen, 2018), delivered to one of the Glasgow SSSs, urges rebellion, class consciousness and solidarity in its sad account of the travails of an honest miner's family. Capitalism is presented as a 'vulture' and organised religion, with its mission to save individual souls, as a distraction from the collective struggle in which the working class should be engaged.…”