The personal vanity and domineering attitude of the organisation's founder, Henry Hyndman, along with his nationalism and fixation on parliamentary politics, were the leading causes of the internal acrimony.

[2] By the end of 1884, a group of SDF members sought to remove Hyndman from his position as party leader in December Executive Council meetings.

[3] The anti-Hyndman dissidents handed in their prepared letter of resignation, believing the federation's lack of fraternal cooperation to be irreconcilable.

[6] Several important individuals in the movement such as author Edward Carpenter and artist Walter Crane also chose to cast their lot with the fledgling Socialist League.

Whereas religious organisations such as the Salvation Army were allowed to preach in the streets, the London Metropolitan Police banned the Socialists from similar activities.

Members of the Socialist League and their rivals the SDF simply continued to speak and to incur fines, attracting public attention, until the authorities made the decision that their prosecution was counterproductive and stopped their interference.

The newspaper of the Socialist League, The Commonweal, provided the venue for first publication of a number of original writings, including the serialized novels of William Morris, Dream of John Ball and News from Nowhere.

"[14] Frederick Engels, living in London and a very interested observer in the League's affairs, saw William Morris' role as decisive.

Morris was left to foot the ongoing operating deficit of the publication, some £4 per week[13] — this at a time when £150 per year was the average annual family income in the kingdom.