Read by Julian Fuller: Library Assistant

The Freedom of the Streets

Jack Common (1903-1968)

London, 1938

200.d.93.43

Originally published as articles in the Adelphi magazine before Common wrote Kiddar’s Luck, these essays present an explicit analysis of modern politics based on the same experiences and outlook from which he developed his novel. He eloquently rejects both communism and fascism as two forms of ‘intellectual socialism’, imposing collective social regimes from above. In Common’s view, any genuine socialism has to be rooted in the everyday life of the people, and in the local organisations they have already constructed themselves in order to survive in a hostile world: an adult meaning of ‘the freedom of the streets’.