Today in Labor History History May 25, 1895: The authorities imprisoned socialist author Oscar Wilde for two years for “indecency” for having sex with men. Many potential witnesses refused to testify against him. However, he was still convicted. The judge said “It is the worst case I have ever tried. I shall pass the severest sentence that the law allows. In my judgment it is totally inadequate for such a case as this. The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labor for two years.” The terrible prison conditions caused Wilde serious health problems and contributed to his early death.
The press often ridiculed him with racist, anti-Irish taunts, portraying him as a monkey, or in black-face. When he visited the U.S., the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "The city is divided into two camps, those who thought Wilde was an engaging speaker and an original thinker, and those who thought he was the most pretentious fraud ever perpetrated on a groaning public.” Yet, when he visited Leadville, Colorado, the miners loved him and drank whiskey with him. In 1886, George Bernard Shaw wrote a petition to get the Haymarket anarchists pardoned. Wilde was the only other literary figure to sign it. Wilde was a supporter of socialism. In his essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” he argued for the abolition of private property, and for cooperation to replace competition.
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