Socialist Sunday Schools were set up as an alternative to Christian Sunday Schools, first in Great Britain and then in the US. The first Socialist Sunday School in the US was established in New York in 1880 by the Socialist Labor Party of America. Other schools opened in Chicago at the end of the 80s. Classes were conducted in German, the predominant language of the immigrant families involved.
The schools arose in response to the perceived inadequacy of orthodox Sunday schools as a training ground for the children of socialists and the need for an organized, systematic presentation of the socialist point of view to teach its ideals and principles to children and young people.
This tea towel is based on a sign in the William Morris Hall in Walthamstow, London. The hall was opened in 1909 by artist and socialist Walter Crane. Workers had clubbed together to build the hall which they named in honour of William Morris, the British Arts and Crafts Movement leader and socialist dynamo who was born in the town.
Socialist Sunday Schools encountered a lot of opposition because they were 'seen as subversive and as poisoning the minds of the young people of the country with their political and anti-religious doctrines and teachings' and there were those who tried to discredit the schools by accusations of blasphemy and revolutionary teachings.
These days the word ‘socialist’ is rarely used except as a term of abuse or contempt. The Socialist 10 Commandments remind us that the movement embraced an admirable, enlightened and progressive vision. Who could possibly find fault with that?
