British Socialism Part 13

"A legislative eight-hour working day or forty-eight hours per week to be the maximum for all trades and industries. Imprisonment to be inflicted on employers for any infringement of the law. Absolute freedom of combination for all workers, with legal guarantee against any action, private or public, which tends to curtail or infringe it.

No child to be employed in any trade or occupation until sixteen years of age, and imprisonment to be inflicted on employers, parents, and guardians who infringe this law. Public provision of useful work at not less than trade-union rates of wages for the unemployed. Free State insurance against sickness and accident, and free and adequate State pensions or provision for aged and disabled workers. Public a.s.sistance not to entail any forfeiture of political rights. The legislative enactment of a minimum wage of _30s._ for all workers.

Equal pay for both s.e.xes for the performance of equal work.

"Abolition of the present workhouse system, and reformed administration of the Poor Law on a basis of national co-operation.

Compulsory construction by public bodies of healthy dwellings for the people, such dwellings to be let at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone, and not to cover the cost of the land. The administration of justice to be free to all; the establishment of public offices where legal advice can be obtained free of charge."[332]

Mr. Blatchford suggests the following: "The public maintenance and the public education of children. The public provision of work for all.

The taxation of the land and of all large incomes. The confiscation of unearned increment. Old-age pensions. The minimum wage. Compulsory land cultivation. Universal adult suffrage. The second ballot. The payment of election expenses. The nationalisation of the railways and of the land. The nationalisation or munic.i.p.alisation of trams, gas, water, bread, liquor, milk, coal, and many other things. The abolition of hereditary t.i.tles and of the House of Lords."[333]

The general policy which the Socialists should follow was summed up by Marx in the following way. "The Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things."[334] "Socialism is the only hope of the workers. All else is illusion. Workers of all lands, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to win."[335]

"This is the final struggle. The extinction of cla.s.ses must follow the overthrow of the last form of cla.s.s domination and the emanc.i.p.ation of the last cla.s.s to be set free. Rally then, fellow workers, to the standard of the international cla.s.s-conscious proletariat, the Red Flag of Social-Democracy. 'Workers of all countries, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to win!'"[336] "The land of England is no mean heritage."[337]

"What has. .h.i.therto prevented the workers from combining for the overthrow of the capitalist system? A. Ignorance and disorganisation.--Q. What has left them in ignorance? A. The system itself, by compelling them to spend all their lives upon monotonous toil and leaving them no time for education.--Q. What account have they been given of the system which oppresses them? A. The priest has explained that the perpetual presence of the poor is necessitated by a law of G.o.d; the economist has proved its necessity by a law of Nature; and between them they have succeeded in convincing the labourers of the hopelessness of any opposition to the capitalist system.--Q. How is it that the labourers cannot see for themselves that they are legally robbed? A.

Because the present method of extracting their surplus value is one of fraud rather than of force, and has grown gradually."[338]

The philosopher of British Socialism well sums up the aims and policy of the Socialists. He says: "What is vital in Socialism? In the first line, I take it, come

"1. The collectivisation of _all_ the instruments of production by _any_ effective means;

"2. The doctrine of the Cla.s.s War as the general historical method of realising the new form of society;

"3. The principle of internationalism, the recognition, _i.e._ that distinction of nationality sinks into nothingness before the idea of the union of all progressive races in the effort to realise the ideal of true society as understood by the Social-Democratic Party;

"4. The utmost freedom of physical, moral, and intellectual development for each and all consistent with the necessities of an organised social State.

"The Socialist's adhesion to the doctrine of the Cla.s.s War involves his opposition to all measures subserving the interest of any section of capitalism. This coupled with his 'Internationalism' leaves him no choice but to be the enemy of 'his country' and the friend of his country's enemies whenever 'his country' (which means of course the dominant cla.s.ses of his country, who always are for that matter his enemies) plays the game of the capitalist. Let us have no humbug! The man who cannot on occasion be (if needs be) the declared and active enemy of that doubtful ent.i.ty, 'his country,' is no Social Democrat."[339]

"Justice being henceforth identified with confiscation, and injustice with the right of property, there remains only the question of 'ways and means.' Our bourgeois apologist, admitting as he must that the present possessors of land and capital hold possession of them simply by right of superior force, can hardly refuse to admit the right of the proletariat organised to that end to take possession of them by right of superior force. The only question remaining is, How? And the only answer is, How you can."[340]

FOOTNOTES:

[279] Page 17.

[280] Blatchford, _Merrie England_, p. 100.

[281] _Clarion_, October 11, 1907.

[282] Sidney Webb, _The Difficulties of Individualism_, p. 10.

[283] _Fabian Essays in Socialism_, pp. 26, 27.

[284] Blatchford, _Merrie England_, p. 99.

[285] Blatchford, _What is this Socialism?_ p. 1.

[286] _Socialist Annual_, 1907, p. 39.

[287] Kirtlan, _Socialism for Christians_, p. 15.

[288] Tillett, _Trades Unionism and Socialism_, p. 12.

[289] _Manifesto of the Socialist Party of Great Britain_, p. 9.

[290] _Basis of the Fabian Society._

[291] Blatchford, _Real Socialism_, p. 10.

[292] Macdonald, _Socialism_, p. 103.

[293] Keir Hardie, _From Serfdom to Socialism_, p. 11.

[294] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 3.

[295] Sorge, _Socialism and the Worker_, p. 9.

[296] Blatchford, _Real Socialism_, p. 3.

[297] Macdonald, _Socialism_, p. 103.

[298] Blatchford, _What is this Socialism?_ p. 2.

[299] _Socialism made Plain_, p. 10.

[300] Blatchford, _The Pope's Socialism_, p. 3.

[301] Hobart, _Social-Democracy_, p. 7.

[302] Gronlund, _Co-operative Commonwealth_, p. 94.

[303] Jaures, _Practical Socialism_, p. 3.

[304] _Socialism Made Plain_, p. 8.

[305] Gronlund, _Co-operative Commonwealth_, p. 105.

[306] Jaures, _Practical Socialism_, p. 5.

[307] Kautsky, _The Social Revolution_, p. 10.

[308] Sidney Webb, _The Difficulties of Individualism_, p. 10.

[309] Bax, _The Ethics of Socialism_, pp. 75, 76.

[310] _Ibid._ p. 83.

[311] Blatchford, _The Pope's Socialism_, p. 6.