The Socialist Ten Commandments
October 2018
The other day I took a trip to the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow. It was a workhouse and later a police station and has many interesting artefacts in its collection. I was pleasantly surprised to come across the Socialist Ten Commandments which were taught in a Socialist Sunday School in a local hall dedicated to William Morris.
The photo shows the actual board the Commandments are inscribed upon and they are:
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Love your schoolfellows, they will become your fellow workers and companions in life.
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Love learning, which is the food of the mind; be as grateful to your teacher as to your parents.
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Make every day holy by good and useful deeds and kindly actions.
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Honour good people, be courteous and respect all, bow down to none.
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Do not hate or offend anyone. Do not seek revenge, but stand up for your rights and resist tyranny.
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Be not cowardly, protect the feeble and love justice.
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Remember that all good things of the earth are the result of labour. Whoever enjoys them without working for them is stealing the bread of the worker.
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Observe and think in order to discover the truth. Do not believe what is contrary to reason and never deceive yourself or others.
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Do not think that he who loves his own country must hate and despise other nations, or wish for war, which is a remnant of barbarism.
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Help to bring about the day when all nations shall live fraternally together in peace and prosperity.
And the declaration reads:
"We desire to be just and loving to all our fellow men and women, to work together as brothers and sisters, to be kind to every living creature, and so help to form a New Society, with Justice as its foundation and Love its law.
People often say that the true or only source of ethical or moral behaviour must derive from religious teaching.
This simple and beautiful declaration of how to treat and relate to other people does not rely upon or refer to any religion or deity.
I have sometimes wondered whether the world would be a better place without any religious beliefs or at least without the need that people feel to impose their religious views on others. Who knows how many wars and horrible crimes might never have occurred if people had not either misinterpreted religious views, abused them for their own ends or tried to force their “divine messages of love” on others by inhumane acts?
Instead of appealing to a religious belief this list appeals to the common humanity that I believe exists in all of us. It is a humanist statement that accepts and recognises the worth of every human being and lays out the guidelines on how we can all coexist and create a better world together.