THE CANTERBURY SOCIALIST SOCIETY IN 2019

The Canterbury Socialist Society is up and running in 2019...

THE CANTERBURY SOCIALIST SOCIETY kicked off 2019 with a special screening of the anti-capitalist dark comedy Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley.

CSS's next event will be a lecture on the pioneering English socialist William Morris at the Space Academy in Christchurch on Wednesday 13 February at 7.30pm.

William Morris was an artist, textile designer, craftsman, poet and novelist. His fiction helped establish fantasy as a genre, his artistic endeavours were an enormous contribution to the British “Arts and Crafts Movement”, and his political thought varied from grand revolutionary flair through to a deep concern with the day to day aspects of what a decent life for all would mean.

The lecture will be given by Martin Crick. Martin is the author of The History of the Social-Democratic Federation (1996), as well as many articles on British socialist history. Before emigrating to New Zealand Martin was a trustee and vice-chair for The William Morris Society.

Martin’s lecture will provide a brief sketch of Morris’ career as an artist, writer and business man, his revolt against the capitalist system and how he crossed his ‘river of fire’ to become a socialist. This will be followed by an account of his socialist theory and its ever increasing relevance today, particularly his ecological writings and theories of work.

Those interested in reading some of the work of William Morris can read his novel News from Nowhere (1890) and a short political essay 'Useless Work versus Useless Toil' (1884)

The Canterbury Socialist Society has also expanded its 2019 program to include a monthly reading group to be held on the last Sunday of every month. These will embrace a closer reading and discussion of specific texts including, in the first third of the year, Value, Price and Profit (Marx), The Civil War in France (Marx) and Critique of the Gotha Programme (Marx). For more details go here.