A Forecast of the Coming Revolution: Interview with Paul Lafargue. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Amongst the best known leaders of Socialist thought is our comrade Paul Lafargue, author of "The Evolution of Property", "Socialism and the Intellectuals", and many other volumes and pamphlets of great value to International Socialism. A visit to Paris brought us in touch with a French comrade, through whose kindly offices we received an invitation to visit the veteran debater at his pleasant retreat in a little village some dozen miles from the French capital. Lafargue and his wife (once known personally to English Socialists as Laura Marx) received us with the true comradeship, which in palpable form made it plain that “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, is no empty phrase amongst Socialists.

Mindful of the interests of the Party, we secured from our comrade the following interesting expression of his views upon some vital topics of moment:

“The two countries which will benefit from the Russo-Japanese War”, said Lafargue, in answer to a query, “are America and England. Though the Japs succeed in expelling Russia from Manchuria, they are at the same time weakening themselves for a long period, and thus limiting their capacity for industrial competition. Again, the financiers of England and America—principally the former—will draw from Japan a great deal even of such profit as may accrue to her in return for their present assistance. Japan has for years been developing extraordinarily, but the War hinders this. The resources she is squandering in war are lost to industry.”

“And the results of all this upon our policy in the Far East, comrade?”

“The most important thing is the appearance of Japan upon the scene as the strong power of the East, so strong that no European country can compete with it. The rise of Japan marks the conclusion of European piracy in the Far East. Nobody expected such an extraordinary power. Further, Japan will organise China, industrially and politically.”

“What is your view, comrade, of the industrial position in Japan?”

“The rise of Japan industrially has been so rapid that the horrors of child and female labour in the England of the early nineteenth century have been reproduced—with the great difference that the intermediate stages from the England of the fifteenth century were totally absent in Japan. The psychological difference is enormous, and must produce a revolt, but the form we cannot forecast. In England and France the revolt was against the machine, and whilst this may not prove so in Japan, this we know—the Japs start with a Socialist movement such as was not, and could not be, in England and France in the initial stages of Capitalism. Just as the Japs adopt and adapt the ready-made science of Europe, so the Social science of the New Age finds there a ready soil. We may expect the Japanese people, who have shown such extraordinary courage on the battlefield, to show in the Social struggle the same indomitable energy and enterprise.”

“Now, as to the War again, comrade, what are its results upon Europe?”

“This war has shown that Russia has made a fool of Europe with a show of power. Particularly has Czarism befooled France. That show has enabled her to draw from France about eleven milliards of francs (some £400,000,000) by State loans and financial companies for the industrial exploitation of Russia. The latter investments have been chiefly for coal-mining and metal works. These found prosperity as long as the Russian State was a huge customer for railway construction, &c, but even before the War this fell off; and now, in so far as they have a revival, it is only the artificial stimulus of war time, which will have its due reaction. Even now the lack of money is strangling this revival. Either victory or defeat for Russia now means revolution—a bourgeois or constitutional revolution. The first thing that the new power will have to do will be to proclaim the bankruptcy of Russia—as the best means to obtain credit. You will recollect a similar process in the French Revolution. The new rulers of Russia will be the more ready to declare this bankruptcy, in that the losers will be, not the Russians but the French. The international effects will be felt primarily in France, where the chief debt of Russia is held. The fall of the present Russian political system will shake the whole fabric of European society.”

“What is the likely effect upon Socialism in France of the loss of all this capital through the fraud and folly of the bourgeois politicians and the financial magnates who dominate them?”

“Ah, that is the question. Remember the fuss about Panama involving only 1½ milliards of francs. You will see why I anticipate great results from the loss of some eight times as much. Only the Socialist Party of France has opposed itself to the Franco-Russian Alliances and denounced it as a fraud upon the French people. The discrediting of all the bourgeois parties must mean the immense growth of the party of the Proletariat. Only the Socialist Party of France, the Revolutionists of France, had the courage and insight to oppose the alliance with despotism.”

“Very good, comrade; so much for the economic factors. What of other forces?”

“Russia is a compound of different nationalities. In the centre the Slavs, surrounded by Poles, Finns, Caucasians, Armenians, &c, held down by main force. These will spring into position again on the occasion of the Revolution, and Poland principally (the Ireland of Russia), which has never lost the sense of nationality, despite the tyranny of centuries, will make her influence felt. She will want to reconstitute her nationality with the Austrian and the German Poles. Thus I believe that the next few years will bring us the European revolution, which, if Socialists are sufficiently bold and well organised, will mean also the Social Revolution.”

This concluded, as far as the War is concerned, one of the most instructive conversations in which 1 ever had the pleasure of participating. In a future issue I hope to reproduce some expressions of our comrade upon trade unionism, but with which it would be a pity to complicate this article. The difference between the Socialists and the pseudo-Socialists can easily be seen by a comparison of the large-mindedness and grip of the situation disclosed by our comrade, with the puny reflection of Capitalist sentimentality exhibited by Jaurès in dealing with this same position. The attitude of the Reformists in France sufficiently indicates the absurdity of the claim of such superficial politicians to in any sense represent Socialism either in France or elsewhere. Jaurès and his school are straining every nerve in a “Stop the War” agitation, on the surface in the interests of peace, but in reality designed to, if possible, stave off the evil day of capitalist collapse. It was not for nothing that our comrades of the Socialist Party of France moved the resolution at the recent International Congress, which declared against compromise and intrigue with capitalist parties. The Socialists of France have fought and are fighting the same battle against treachery and folly of opportunism, which we of The Socialist Party of Great Britain are waging in this country.

I am sure every Socialist in England joins with us in reciprocating the fraternal greetings extended by Paul and Laura Lafargue to the unofficial representatives of British Socialism to whom this interview was accorded.

H. J. Hawkins.

(Socialist Standard, November 1904)

Correspondence

Our comrade Hawkins forwards a copy of the following letter which he has received:

“Draviel, 15.11.04

Dear Comrade,—I have just received No. 3 of THE SOCIALIST STANDARD, containing your interview, and I am glad to find that you have given a very full and faithful account thereof.

Trusting that the paper will be successful and with my best wishes and our kind regards to Mrs Hawkins and yourself.

Yours fraternally

Paul Lafargue." LAFARGUE.

(Socialist Standard, December 1904)

Labour Parties. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

To a Socialist the spectacle of the Labour Parties at home and in the colonies affords a very interesting study of the relations of labour politics to Socialism. To one who, in forming opinions on the tendencies manifested in society to-day, is accustomed to look merely on the surface of things, the formation of these labour parties in various parts of the British Empire may appear to be the forerunner of a great revolutionary movement on the part of organised labour. This view will be all the more strongly held if he should belong to one or the other of the alleged Socialist bodies whose business meetings consist of talking about the Labour Representation Committee, the “Labour” movement, the “Labour” party and, more important than all, the “Labour” leaders. To a member of The Socialist Party, however, that is to a person drilled in the methods of scientific analysis, the innocent economics and puerile politics which form the foundation and superstructure of “Labour parties” at home and abroad, are more often sources of regret than satisfaction.

At the present moment, therefore, it is more than ever advantageous to survey the political field within the Empire and the disposition of the forces of labour. There is the old established Labour Party of Australia, the more recent L.R.C. at home, and now the Canadian Trades and Labour Congress is going to inaugurate an Independent Labour Party. Thus organised labour is going to make itself felt, and the capitalists ? Enough, let us examine them and see if their political efforts, continued on the lines pursued at present, are likely to eventuate in any permanent good to the working class of the various countries.

The Australian Labour Party started out full of promise and was backed up by practically all the Socialists in the country, except the few, who, wiser than their generation, saw what must be the inevitable result of the development of such a party. In its initial stages it ran on a quasi-Socialist programme, i.e., the nationalisation of monopolies, etc. As, however, the Party had no clear conception of the working class position in politics, it split ten years ago over the tariff question, a matter which in the main had little to do with the working-class interest correctly understood. The Australian Labour Party, divided over the interests of the master class, has never really been united on the point since. To-day this same Party has formed an alliance with the Protectionist Liberals, and amongst some of the measures it now supports are anti-trust legislation, protection for coastal shipping and, above all, bonuses for the iron industry. Truly matters of vital importance to the working class ! The leaders of the Labour Party have agreed that if they, the Alliance, succeed in turning out the present Government they will go to the country as a National Progressive Party. Gone is even the mere vestage of their much vaunted independence!

Mr. Daglish, the new Labour Premier of Western Australia, in outlining his policy mentioned that there would be the most rigid financial economy, and that the “spirited” public works would be abandoned. This is the class of politics that the workers are asked to support.

The Australian Socialist League which first of all backed the “Labour” men, is now opposing them since the League was reconstructed some time back. The reason is not far to seek. The Socialists in Australia, like many of our friends here, thought that by pandering to the desires of those who were “coming our way” they would be in the end forced to embrace the Socialist position. Their expectations were not realised and now they are compelled to not only disassociate themselves from the “Labour” men but to actively oppose them. When King O’Malley, who recently complained about the smallness of his salary as M. P., some time ago was running for a constituency on the West Coast of Tasmania, he told one of his workers “it would not do to speak straight Socialism to people, you must bluff them.” He has acted consistently on this principle ever since, and his example has evidently been catching. The fact is the Australian Labour Party has become part and parcel of Australian master-class politics, of capitalism, where it will exist only as a disturbing factor until swept aside by the revolutionary current of scientific Socialism.

With regard to the Labour Representation Committee at home, it may seem unnecessary to criticise this, the most recent indication of the hopelessness of those who, in the name of labour, try to square the interests of the workers with those of their masters and secure justice for the working-class under capitalism. The programme, or what stands for a programme, of this body is of such a character that a good many loyal Liberals, without giving up in the slightest degree their faith in capitalism, would readily accept it. But in the eyes of the horny handed sons of toil who run the L.R.C., a party is more important than a programme, and if a “big” party can only be got together by a small programme, then the less of the latter the better for the needy politician.

If the L.R.C. is without a programme, at any rate, it will be said, it has a precious possession in the shape of Independence of both Liberal and Tory Parties. A slight examination, however, will reveal the fact that this policy of alleged independence is more of a shadow than substance. Arrangements between the “Independent” gentlemen of the L.R.C. and the Liberal Party, especially in double-barreled constituencies, are not by any means unknown. Messrs. Bell, Crooks, Henderson, Shackleton, have all, since being elected to the House of Commons, supported the Liberal Party and other brands of reactionary politics—always of course in the interests of labour !

This Labour Representation Committee was called into existence by the Trade Union Congress, and, as the child inherits some of the characteristics of the parent, the proceedings at the last meeting of the latter body will enlighten the workers as to what they may expect from the “Labour” Party of this country. At the Congress some of the delegates expressed the opinion that it would be a good thing if all the trade unionists were called off the L. R. C. They have issued manifestoes in favour of free trade, asked for old age pensions and an extension of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. At the same time some of their leaders tell us that this very “Compensation” Act is responsible for the older men being flung out of employment by the master-class who are unwilling to take the risks attendant upon the employment of workers over a certain age. One delegate pleaded earnestly for ”fair” rents. How wise ! Fair robbery !

The Canadian Labour Party will be like its British cousin in all its main features—the chief of which is, of course, the absence of any definite principle. Their “ideal,” according to Mr. John A. Flett, is to hold the “balance of power” at Ottawa like the Irish Home Rule Party at Westminster. It is only natural to expect that the tactics of the Irish middle-class party should appeal to the Canadian Labourites whose political vision is obscured by middle-class spectacles. Notwithstanding the latter, however, the Labour men have lately been grumbling because the capitalist legislators shelved some proposed labour measures while providing every facility to the big financial corporations. Sooner or later it will dawn on our fellow wage-slaves of Canada that economic development necessitates the concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands and that the political machine is but the tool of the dominant class. When the working-class realises this, the seizure of the machinery of government and its operation in the direction of the conversion into common property of the wealth producing instruments now held by the capitalists, will become the programme which will carry it to victory.

The work of the Socialist here at home or in the colonies is to build up a Socialist Party, clear in the knowledge of the irreconcilability of the interests of the wage worker and the master, ever warning the working-class of the pitfalls in the shape of “labour” parties strewing the path which leads to emancipation from wagedom, ever teaching the slaves of capitalism that only by the overthrow of the present system of Society and the establishment of the Socialist Republic can the various evils confronting the working-class be removed.

In this country The Socialist Party of Great Britain alone stands for the Revolution.

E. J. B. Allen

[The situation in West Ham] (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Our article in our last issue on the situation in West Ham has already had some effect on the S.D.F. Executive Council, hence the following paragraph in Justice for October 22nd:—

“In West Ham they are by no means asleep, but are putting forward a strong list of candidates, with which they hope to do much to reconquer the position they held before the unholy ‘Alliance ‘ gained the sway. When next our comrades are in the ascendant there they will take care not to be hampered by any half-hearted, fair-weather adherent.”

Will they ? As the articles in the last and in this issue show, they are doing exactly the same thing as they did before, and with their eyes open.

In West Ham friends and enemies alike recognise that the formation of the “labour group” was a great mistake. We Socialists often say that the working man will exhaust the possibilities of error before he tries the Socialist road ; but what can be said of men calling themselves Socialists who deliberately make the same error twice over ? Either they are knowingly and of set purpose trying to give Socialism a set back in favour of “labourism,” or they are a set of utter incompetents. The Clarion may have been right some years ago when they urged West Ham to “Fire out the fools” but in our opinion it would almost seem to be a case of “more knave than fool.”

Was this prophetic. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Quoth he, “I am resolved to be

Thy scholar in this mystery ;

And therefore first desire to know

Some principles on which you go—

What makes a knave a child of God

And one of us ? —”A livelihood.”

“What renders beating out of brains,

And murder, godliness ?”—”Great gains.”

“What makes you encroach upon our trade

And damn all others'” ?—”To be paid.”

“What makes all doctrines plain and clear?”—

“About two hundred pounds a year.”

“And that which was proved true before.

Prove false again?”—”two hundred more.”

“And what makes breaking of all oaths

A holy duty ?”—”Food and clothes.”

“What’s orthodox and true believing

Against a conscience?”—”A good living.”

From Hudibras by Samuel Butler, 1612-1680.

The S.D.F. and West Ham. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

“In the Social-Democratic movement organisation and discipline are absolutely essential to success.”

“Socialists, if once they begin to intrigue with the other factions, destroy their own enthusiasm and rot away the public confidence which they have as yet but partially gained.”

“We want our men elected as Social-Democrats, for the greater glory of Social-Democracy. If they cannot be elected as Social-Democrats, they had much better remain outside. We want our men elected as Social-Democrats, independent of all other factions.”

The above gems from back numbers of the official organ of the S.D.F., make interesting reading to-day.

Our notes in the last issue of the Socialist Standard, concerning the situation in West Ham have aroused considerable interest throughout the country, and we understand that some members of the S.D.F., in endeavouring to answer the question, “Can such things be?” have applied to Bolt Court for light and leading.

To their enquiries they have received a misleading reply, as might be expected from the man who destroyed for ever his reputation for truthfulness in connection with the Lansbury episode. But our readers may be assured that whatever appears in the Socialist Standard will be reliable. We shall tell the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” We believe that ” Honesty is the best policy “—even in electoral matters.

It is claimed on behalf of the S.D.F. that W. Thorne (the man whom the S.D.F. has continually permitted to break its rules by supporting Liberal candidates) is running as the Socialist and Labour candidate for South West Ham. We deny it, and will substantiate our denial.

Thorne has published, through the T.C.P., what purports to be the correspondence between himself and the Secretary of the Labour Representation Committee respecting the endorsement of his candidature by that conglomeration. But Thorne has not published all the correspondence. It is evident from the context that certain letters of Thorne’s are omitted. Thorne knows best why. But note first the preface. He says:

“In consequence of the L.R.C. not agreeing to allow me to run as a Socialist and Labor candidate for South West Ham,” &c.

The publication contains the resolution passed by the Biennial Congress of the Gasworkers’ Union, held at Swansea, in May last, requesting Thorne to comply with the L.R.C. conditions and to run under the common title imposed on all candidates supported by the L.R.C. Thorne has complied.

He is, above all things, honest—”blunderingly honest.”

On Sunday, Sept. 18, a mass meeting in support of Thorne was held at The Greeugate, Plaistow. J. Gilbey, Secretary of West Ham Trades Council, presided, and said that many present would remember that the L.R.C. had decided to run their candidates as Labour only, but the Committee which was running Thorne wanted the public to understand that while Thorne was running under that title, he was still a Socialist, as he had always claimed to be. Thorne followed. He was glad that the position had been explained in respect to himself and the L.R.C. That Committee had decided that all candidates adopted by them should run as Labour candidates, and he had been obliged to toe the line, although he did not care a lot about it. To a certain extent it was a “backing down.” But although he would have to call himself “a Labour candidate,” he would still hold the same principles as before. After this, surely nobody will deny that Thorne, a member of the S.D.F., supposed by their rules to run as “a definitely-avowed Social-Democrat,” is in the field as simply a “‘Labour” candidate.

It is true that H. Quelch, the “Trades Unionist candidate” for Southampton, in speaking after Thorne, disagreed with his view of the situation. He did not consider it a “backing down.” It was merely a step backward in order to take a leap forward (“reculer our mieux sauter.”) There was no disgrace in a man calling himself a “Labour” candidate. Continental Socialists often did so ; called themselves “Labour” parties, and so on, using exactly those excuses which the I.L.P. made years ago in reply to S.D.F. criticism, when they adopted as their object the Socialist principles, but refused to call themselves Socialists.

Again, we re refer our readers to the extracts at the beginning of this article.

On another matter. “S.D.F. Notes,” supplied by the Secretary of that body, last month contained the following :

“The particulars I have received concerning our action in the forthcoming Municipal Elections are as follows :— “

Then appears a list of candidates. Against Baldock’s name is printed “I.L.P.,” so that, apparently, the remainder are “our” (S.D.F.) candidates. Amongst them is J. J. Terrett, for Broadway Ward of West Ham, a thrice-expelled member of the S.D.F. Upon his last expulsion H. W. Lee wrote in Justice:

“If the body had permitted Terrett to continue his vagaries, all organisation and discipline were at an end, and it would have been an encouragement to others to use the S.D.F. as a stepping-stone to public prominence, and then to fling it over when it suited them. Terrett has, to all intents and purposes, ceased to be a Socialist. This is proved by his recent letter to the South Essex Mail, and his conversation with members of the S.D.F. Personal ambition and want of judgment will be his curse.”

Recently Terrett entered upon a wild-cat Parliamentary candidature for North-West Ham, from which he has since withdrawn. He held a meeting at Stratford Town Hall, presided over by Anarchist Leggatt, and on the platform were McAllen, H. Quelch, Martin Judge and Hector Kirby, of the S.D.F., while J. Jones, of the S.D.F., moved the resolution in support of Terrett’s candidature. Now, either these members of the S.D.F. received the sanction of the Executive to support Terrett, in accordance with the rules of that body, or they were permitted by the Executive to break the rules. But in any case, the fact remains that they supported this able but erratic man. who has been, politically, everything by turns and nothing long, who has used the S.D.F. when it suited his own purposes to do so, and denounced them in Stratford Grove when so inclined.

The attitude of the leaders of that body and their official misrepresentations of the position in West Ham and elsewhere, would be ludicrous when considered in connection with the extracts appearing at the head of this article were it not that by such tactics the issue is confused. The S.D.F. no longer deserves the confidence of the workers. It must be exposed at home and abroad.

Jack Kent

[“Immorality” in South Africa] (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Bloemfontein Weekly Post complains that as native women are making a living by selling their bodies to the whites, they are becoming very impudent. “No wonder” says the Post, “it is nearly impossible to get servants.” The capitalist dislikes the “immorality,” not because it is “immoral,” but because it prevents him from getting servants. The article is headed “Immorality. The Native Pest.” Pretty cool, isn’t it ? Socialism will abolish immorality, but this will not appeal to the capitalist, as he will then be his own servant.

S. J. C. Russell

Answers to Correspondents. (1904)

Correspondence from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

J. H. (Coventry). — Thanks for article which we will use in next month’s issue. We are glad that you are pleased with The Socialist Standard and we shall try to improve it as opportunity affords.

T. K. (Luton). — We are sorry you can entertain no hope of forming a branch of our party for the present. The next best thing is the course you are adopting of selling Socialist literature, and thereby sow the seed which will ultimately blossom into a Socialist branch. Rely upon us for any assistance you may require. We are afraid that many of the branches of the organisation you name exist only on paper or in the imagination of its general secretary.

G. H. H. (Queen’s Park, W.).— Thanks, but we are unable to use it. We carefully scan the column you mention, but seldom see anything in it which is useful. But what can you expect from the organ of capitalist nonconformity.

D. O. (Treharris) and others. — We are extremely pleased with your appreciative remarks, and shall do our best to deserve them. We shall try to avoid compromising our principles on the one hand, and filling our paper with vulgar vituperation on the other.

S. J. C. R. (Hellingley). — We have used two extracts from your letter in the present issue

SPGB Battersea Branch (1904)

Party News from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

A Look Round. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

The article upon the "Futility of Reform," which occupied the leader columns of our last issue, has not met with the complete approval of all our readers, and several have expressed their disagreement with our contention that the capitalist class will introduce reforms when the exigencies of commercialism demand them. But we would recommend our critics to read the correspondence which has passed between Kenric B. Murray, writing on behalf of the manufacturers' section of the London Chamber of Commerce, and the Board of Education. If a word to the wise is sufficient, then those who possess the necessary wisdom will appreciate the position of The Socialist Party of Great Britain.

* * *

In his letter Mr. Murray states that the manufacturers have passed the following resolution :—

  "That, in order to retain our industrial position and to introduce into this country such further industries as may be profitably developed, this section is of opinion that it is absolutely necessary to raise the standard, and, if possible, cheapen the cost of technical and higher technical education, and that representations be made to the Board of Education in this sense."

Note, that the object in view is the "profitable" development of industries, not the education of workers for education's sake.

The letter further illustrates two points—the readiness when "profitable" to the capitalist class to invoke the aid of the State in industrial matters and the admission that British manufacturers have lost ground in the struggle for the World's Market, not simply because of fiscal conditions but because

  "up to the present time manufacturers in this country have not in many cases sufficiently realised that there is a scientific aspect to every branch of manufacture requiring study and attention in order to attain the highest results."

If for "highest results" is substituted "greatest profits," one can easily understand why

  "manufacturers, therefore, would welcome the support of the Board of Education and of the existing institutions engaged in teaching work in developing this valuable branch of education on lines which will place British manufacturers and their employees on an equality with their foreign competitors."

* * *

In the reply of the Board of Education present day capitalist methods are condemned :— 

  "The Board recognise the great advantage accruing from the concentration of interest, which is possible only when the student is in a position to make study his single aim —to devote his whole time to education."

It is of course possible that the student could do this under capitalism, but very improbable, except for the privileged few. Under Socialism it will be the rule.

* * *

Conferences may come and conferences may go, but the unemployed stay on for ever—as long as competition prevails. It was not to be expected that Mr. Walter Long, who draws £40 a week as salary for the services he is supposed to render the people, with the right to claim a pension when he loses his job, would consider that things were sufficiently serious to demand serious measures. The hardy annuals of relief works, afforestation, emigration, labour bureaux, "back to the land" via small holdings, and the like are being discussed. One of our correspondents somewhat sarcastically writes :— 

  "If the unemployed want to get 'back to the land' here are acres and acres out of cultivation needing their labour—only the owner may object. From where I sit I look over a large farm and see nothing but grass fields, and poor ones at that. In the foreground is a cottage where, if the inhabitants wish to descend to the kitchen, they can drop through the holes in the ceiling, and so save the wear and tear of a staircase ! Yet the man ought to be contented. In a very good week he sometimes get 17s. ! Certainly often in winter he gets nothing, but he can save during the prosperity of summer ! Besides, he has only seven children, and two of these (boys of 14 and 16) leave home at 5 a.m. and return at about 8 p.m., and get 4s. and 6s. a week. He ought to be a drunkard, but instead of that he is a teetotaller and very industrious, working hard all day, and at night returning to slave in his bit of garden which supports them occasionally in nothing-a-week times. He's going to be kicked out soon, and there's no house for him to go to, save a model dwelling at 6s. a week, his average wage being 12s. And then he'll lose his garden, too, but no compensation for him. Oh ! the joys of a country life ! Come back, ray friends, to the land !"

* * *

When we go back it must be upon a basis not yet thought of by those who pose as "Social Reformers." Not to ''labour at a loss for the profit of a boss" but to produce for ourselves the things which we need. "Advanced" politicians like Mr. George Lansbury (who left the Radicals to join the Social Democratic Federation), W. Crooks, and others have sent to the Press a "Note of Warning," in which they urge that whatever work is provided by municipalities for the unemployed it should not

'' release workers from the stimulus of having to satisfy an employer." 

Send your victims to labour colonies, place over them some well-hardened taskmasters, credit them with 6d. per day, give them plenty of sermons and prayers, and all will be well.

* * *

The editor of Reynolds's Newspaper, who has for some months patted the S.D.F. on the back, because it has suited his purposes to do so, writes the following respecting that body's "demand" for an autumn session:

  "It is equally comical to hear suggestions about an autumn session of Parliament to consider the question coming, too, from Socialist organisations, who are always saying that Parliament is 'no good.' Such amateurish fooling makes one despair."

* * *

The annual report of the Asylums' Committee of the London County Council for the year ending 31st March last has just been issued and shews that there are 23,948 certified lunatics in London alone, an increase of 996 over last year. This is the largest annual increase ever recorded and, according to the report, the prospect of any diminution in the increase appears to be most problematical. The average weekly cost of each patient in London County Asylums is 11s. 4½d. If as much as that were spent each week in maintaining those out of asylums there would be less need to celebrate our "progress" periodically by providing further accommodation for our lunatics.

* * *

There exists in Holland a Union of Socialist Teachers, founded ten years ago. Its program

states:—

  "That the popular school, called into existence by the possessing class under the cry 'cultivation of the people by teaching the people,' has proved to be in their hands only the means of doling out to the children of the people that minimum of knowledge which has become necessary to supply the capitalist want of more or less educated labourers, besides being the means of impressing upon them so-called Christian and social virtues, which, in reality, are nothing but notions conducive to the maintenance of capitalism; that the non-possessing class, too, being insufficiently taught themselves, deprived of all influence on school education and therefore not inspired with genuine interest in it, see in the popular school only the way that enables their children to earn their bread afterwards ; that, moreover—partly in consequence of the causes given above all education which rises above the level of what capitalism demands, is doomed to sterility for the young proletarian because of the bad conditions."

That this is just as true of Britain as of Holland, or, for that matter, of every other country, is only another proof of the international character of the social problem. As the principles of the Union declare :

  "The social vocation of the popular school is to educate the growing generation in such a way as to develope body and mind harmoniously," but ''only the political and economic emancipation of the people will fully secure the emancipation of the mind." 

Those who really desire that economic emancipation must enrol in the Army of International Socialism, the British Section of which is The Socialist Party of Great Britain.

J. Kay

An Open Letter to Mr. George Lansbury (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Sir,

On Sept. 13th last at Toynbee Hall you delivered an address on the question of the unemployed. At the conclusion of your address I expressed my opposition to the proposals suggested by you, but the time at my disposal was not sufficient to enable me to fully demonstrate that not only were your suggestions worthless but that the policy advocated would ultimately result in effects disastrous from the point of view of the organisation of the working-class.

The whole tone of your address was pessimistic. You commented on the ignorance, apathy, and indifference of the working-class. You even went so far as to express a feeling of being tired of talking to them, attending conferences to discuss questions, while at the same time the people outside those conferences gave no thought to their own condition. Unfortunately, a good many others by adopting the process of reasoning employed by you have also been made tired, and the wonder is that more have not grown weary and fallen by the wayside, taking into consideration the fact that the working-class has never been taught to act consistently and logically in the political field in accordance with their industrial and social position in society.

I have not space enough to enter into all the inconsistencies and contradictions to which you gave utterance on that occasion; but certainly some of your observations if pursued to their logical conclusion, would place you in a position far different from that which you occupy at the present time. For instance, you stated in relation to the problem of working-class unemployment, that if anything is to be done only the workers themselves can do it. Assuming you mean that whatever action they take should be political, I cannot but agree with you. Where, however, you did not express yourself clearly, and where we differ is that any effort, either for the immediate alleviation of suffering and distress arising out of the present constitution of society, or in the direction of the total abolition of these evils, must be the conscious action of those who are suffering, viz., the working-class.

Posing as a Socialist as you do, you are of necessity forced to fall back on the Marxian explanation of the cause of unemployment. This you substantially did by showing that the application of science to production, the invention, development and speeding up of machinery, used for the sole purpose of creating profits for the possessing class, must inevitably result in the displacement of hand labour and the throwing on the labour market of increasing numbers of unemployed workers. You further pointed out that the evil of unemployment, arising as a consequence of this process, is growing to such an extent that thousands of workmen are forced to eke a precarious existence by either cadging or living on their friends, a condition in which they lose their manhood and drift into mental and moral degeneracy. In all this I am in agreement with you, and could, if space permitted, go further into this aspect of the Social question; but, Sir, what I wish to call your attention to is the fundamental constitution of society itself, and to indicate how all efforts at changing the effects of a system must be abortive as long as the system itself remains unaltered.

Throughout civilisation to-day, notwithstanding national and political differences, the basis of the social system in every country be it a republic or a limited or unlimited monarchy, is the ownership by a class of the means whereby the people live. As long as class ownership exists the people will be confronted not only with the unemployed problem but with the thousand-and-one evils that afflict the social existence of the working-class at the present time.

While the workers possess nothing but their physical and mental energy ; while that energy is bought and sold in the Labour Market, subject to laws which dominate alike the capitalist and the worker; while the operation of these laws involves a continual decline in wages, the price of labour power, so long will the working-class suffer from poverty accentuated at intervals by sickness and unemployment.

The Capitalist form of society, that is, Capitalism, does and can only exist to the detriment, degradation, and demoralisation of the working-class. The capitalist-class has its representatives in the Government, local and national, and uses the legislative and administrative boards as pliant tools for the protection and promotion of its class interests, for the maintenance and extension of class domination, and for the further robbery and enslavement of the working-class. If, then, this is the economic function and political role of the capitalist class, what have the workers to expect from the present-day rulers of society ?

You, Sir, and those who think with you, in directing the attention of the working-class to the political representatives of the master-class for relief from the misery which is crushing them, in holding out to them the prospect or possibility of amelioration through the good grace of the ruling faction, are incurring a serious responsibility. Promising the working-class something that must inevitably fail is the fruitful source of that apathy and indifference in which the workers are sunk to-day ; telling the workers they have gained victory when it is only a victory for the capitalist-class, entrenches the ignorance of which you complain; and calling upon the capitalist governments to undermine their own position, which must be the case if any measure of material value to the working-class is put into operation, creates that pessimism in the minds of the workers that you so much deplore.

Now, Sir, The Socialist Party, of which by the the way you are not a member although calling yourself a Socialist, exists to teach the workers their true position in society, and to create the political weapon whereby alone that position can be altered. The mission of The Socialist Party is to show the workers that Capitalism lives on their wretchedness and prostitution, and that, if their emancipation is to be accomplished, they must adopt a political attitude necessarily hostile to all other political parties. Outside The Socialist Party, the Party of unqualified Socialism, the Party of the Working-Class, all other political parties uphold and safeguard the interests of the capitalist-class and the continuance of the wage system which is responsible for not only the unemployed but the other evils that afflict society. The Socialist Party is the political expression of the material interests of the working-class for whom there can be only one policy and one programme, that is the control through public ownership of the tools and machinery for producing the necessaries and comforts of life, to be achieved by the political action of the working-class, cognisant of of the causes of its suffering and wretchedness and conscious of its material interest and historic mission.

The time is fast approaching when the working-class of Great Britain will recognise the value of the political machine as an instrument of offence and defence in class warfare, and when that time arrives the working-class will use that weapon conscious of its power and conscious of its use. The working-class will no longer be humbugged as The Socialist Party is spreading the enlightenment which will dispel the confusion existing in the minds of the workers, and its fearless advocacy of the cause of the disinherited will succeed in stimulating the intelligence and arousing the enthusiasm cf these who are apathetic and indifferent to-day. Any other policy, that, for instance, pursued by you, can have only one result, the division of the working-class into two sections, one of which,, like yourself, saturated with pessimism, is driven into the camp of Liberal reaction, and the other possessing only an inkling of the truth, gravitates in the direction of anarchism, a result in either case disastrous to the organisation of the working-class.

In conclusion, Sir, let me say that I give you credit for being honest, an opinion which I would hesitate to express regarding most men known as "Labour Leaders." But honesty without correct thinking, is of no use to the working-class, and if you can see no policy other than that which you are advocating at the present time, I say in all sincerity, lay down your arms, and acknowledge defeat, for in my humble opinion you will be doing more by remaining silent than by carrying on the conflicting and confusing propaganda your discourse of 13th September.

I am, Sir, 

William Woodhouse

East London.

Since writing the above I have seen the report of the conference held with Mr. Walter Long from which, as might be anticipated, it does not appear that the promise held out by the President of the Local Government Board is very encouraging to you and those who went with you. I see that Will Crooks, who in the House of Commons advocated reafforestation and reclamation of waste coast line to teach the unemployed a sort of agriculture and to fit them for subsequent deportation to Canada, could only express his gratitude to his capitalist masters by moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Walter Long for condescending to come and confer with the public bodies represented at the meeting. What occurred at this conference will occur at any others that take place, and the only result will be that you and others will get tired of attending them. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick"

 —W. W.

Women Workers in Japan. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

(From Le Socialiste. Translated by P. J. Tobin.)

It is quite a common thing to ask Socialists : "Are you for Russia or Japan?" To this question, as to many others which usually crop up when two cut-throat thieves attack each other under our modern social system, we have only one reply : "Above all, we are for the proletariat of every country." This does not, however, prevent us from stating objectively in the case of the Russo-Japanese war, that the victory of the Japanese forces would mean as an inevitable consequence the political emancipation of Russia: it's almost certain deliverance from the home enemy—we speak of Czarism, hangman, and knout-beater.

In the meantime, let us study the situation of those who interest us most in both countries— the proletariat. We begin with that of Japan, the least known and most exploited. Take, for instance, the Japanese working woman.

The development of the great industries has gone on increasing and aggravating the economic slavery of woman.

In modern Japan we find as many workwomen as workmen. The cotton spinning mills employ more women than men : in the mills of Kanegafendji, they number 2,700 as against 300 men; in those of Boseki, 3,000 against 500—that is, six, and even nine, women for every man. In the extensive Mourai tobacco factories of Kyoto, they are 2,500, forming five-sixths of the entire staff. The match industry employs almost exclusively women and children. Even in the Imperial Printing Works the women are much more numerous than the men.

Under the preceding social system they were put to work at the roughest employments. Today under the capitalist regime they are employed in the most trying industries.

In the linen spinning mills of Hokkaido they live during entire weeks at a time in a stuffy atmosphere. In the paper mills of Odji they carry heavy baskets, filled with stinking rags, into smoky rooms. At the mines of Muke they not only work at the surface, removing earth or dragging coal, but even in the very bottom : mothers often descending into the pits with children on their backs.

Capitalism in Japan gives a better example than another countries of the tendency to replace male labour by female and child labour; a tendency so well analysed in the first volume of "Capital" by Marx. The proportion of women employed in the great industries, according to the statements of Wenlersse, continues on the increase, and we find it stated in the official report presented at the Chicago Exhibition that in the little town of Souva there are more than 40 silk manufactories employing hundreds of women. The women earn more working in this manner than if they were employed as domestic servants. It is, moreover, very difficult to obtain them for domestic purposes anywhere in the neighbourhood of a factory.

In the cotton spinning mills the average proportion of women to men was in 1880 only two to one; in 1897 it had increased to more than three while to-day it has attained a figure of five, six, and even more.

The Japanese woman is considered much more able at certain work than the man. Wenlersse says that in the Imperial Printing Works women are employed in counting bank notes, in stippling sheets of stamps, and gumming the backs ; and with what rapidity do they not make their fingers travel; how they run from one machine to another, making their wooden sandals clatter on the stone flags—quite little people, like,white mice, in their great large linen robes !

The nimbleness of the tobacco factory girls is surprising. They wrap up as many as 100 packets of cigarettes in tin paper per hour—1,000 in a day. Those who fold up the large boxes are still more dexterous; the girls employed in the match factories paste 60 labels per minute on the little boxes, and continue thus for nine consecutive hours; while, in the spinning mills, they re-knot the broken threads with a rapidity and daintiness not to be equalled by a man.

The reasons for which the capitalist in Japan prefers female to male labour are the same as in Europe. In the first place, the woman is docile, and in order to get her better under his thumb, he has her brought from the most distant provinces.

The poor country-people make scarcely any opposition to delivering up their daughters to the recruiting agents of the great manufacturers. In order to get the children and parents to make up their minds these agents have recourse to falsehood. Here is what Saito Kashiro, an official employed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, says :—

"I have been speaking with an old workwoman in the cotton spinning mills of Kanegafendji at Tokio. She has told me that the company's agent said to her, before the engagement, that the work was very easy, the pay considerable, and that before settling down to her duties, she could visit all parts of Tokio, see the theatres, listen to the concerts, all that she wished ; eating and drinking the best to be had in the finest restaurants."

As the greater part of these women are peasants, completely ignorant of the world and its ways, they easily consent to any proposals which will give them the pleasure of seeing the many novelties abounding in the great city. So off goes our little peasant girl without more ado. However, the day following her departure with the agent, she is limited to a plate of vegetables and rice both for breakfast and dinner ; and all such expenses are put down to her, as also the cost of travelling. On arriving at Tokio she was certainly conducted to the principal places of interest in the town, not forgetting the restaurants, as had been promised, but everything was duly chalked down to her account. Not having sufficient money to defray those outlays, a certain proportion was each month deducted from her wages. Now, the work was hard and the wage small: 6d. per day. Consequently, she could not support this intolerable condition and left the factory one fine day on the pretext of taking a walk—such a trick being possible only in the most exceptional cases, while the swindle just recounted is quite the rule.

Women allow themselves to be very easily exploited by the employers ; they are the complete dupes and victims of the capitalist system. Their most elementary interests demand that they should wake up to this fact and organise— in Japan as well as in Europe.

Moreover, female labour is preferred above all, for the reason that it is more profitable. Eleven hours of solid work per day is exacted and obtained from the Japanese workwomen— sometimes even eleven and a half. If an hour is granted to them during the day for eating, it is on condition that the machines are kept going; they must make an arrangement among themselves whereby they go to meals in such order that the factory always has its complement of workers. Sunday is unheard of; two days' rest only are allowed each month, and even such "days" consist of but a few hours. During the entire year they have scarcely five holidays, and those for the purpose of repairing—the machines, more precious to the capitalist than that other human machine which can always be readily replaced in the event of a breakdown !

No law has so far been passed on the limitation of the women's working hours ; just as the men, they work night and day indifferently. Their wage is beneath contempt. In Japan we are still in the stages of "primitive accumulation" thus styled by Karl Marx, the Dante of the regime under which we live. 

The more dexterous weavers of Osaka earn only about 10d. daily, which is the maximum, the minimum amounting to but 4 1/2d. The women who gum the labels on matchboxes receive 3 1/2d. in a working day. In the cotton spinning mills the adult women get from 6 1/2d. to 1s., while where men and women are employed at the same work, the latter are paid from a third to a half less than the men.

How do those "galley slaves" of the Japanese factory bear such conditions of labour? It opens sometimes with an idyll such as would make the aesthetic Pierre Loti (author of "Madame Chrysanthemum") and his fair readers rub their hands with joy, but it closes in quite another fashion—here is a picture :

  "The spectacle give a in the port of Nagasaki is still more singular and interesting. There you see the women coalporters with their sugar loaf hats of brown straw adorned with white and blue cambric, below which peeps out bunches of jet black hair. To see their sparkling eyes, their cheeks all rosy and tanned from the sun's rays, that air of sweetness spread over their features, is quite a pleasure. With what an unembarrassed step, without the impediment of skirts and not fearing to allow their legs to be seen, do they not carry the large bamboo cane to which are attached heavy black baskets . . . .
  They laugh, push, and tickle one another as they pass, and offer no objection whatever to being encircled round the waist by some young men working in the same gang . . . But these pretty white legs soon waver, and on the planks which stretch trembling from the quay to the ship, a little fright and very much fatigue close those lips in pain, which, but a short time since, expanded in a dazzling smile . . ." 

And all this for a few pence a day! Among every eight Japanese workwomen we find one prostitute. Under the conditions which she lives her "erring sister " is not the least intelligent nor the most to complain. She is but a rebel anyhow, an escaped slave of the capitalist compound.

And this they call "Civilisation !"

Quotes (1904)

Quotes from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Early issues of the Socialist Standard would be peppered with brief quotes which would serve as inspirational, informative and, most importantly, as space fillers. Here are the quotes from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard:

And we too love peace, but not the peace of slavery. Marat.

They shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat. — Isaiah. LXV. 21, 22.

What sort of society is this that has, to the extent that ours has, inequality and injustice for a basis? Such a society is fit only to be kicked out through the windows — its banquet tables, its orgies, its debaucheries, its scoundrelism, together with all those who are seated leaning on both elbows and enjoying it on the backs of others whom they keep down on all fours. The hell of the poor is the paradise the rich love to solace themselves in. Victor Hugo.

The human race is gradually learning the simple lesson, that the people as a whole are wiser for the public good and the public prosperity, than any privileged class of men, however refined and cultivated, have ever been, or, by any possibility, can ever become. — Lewis H. Morgan. Ancient Society.

The artisan who is demanding at this time an eight hours day in the building trades is simply striving to recover what his ancestor worked by four or five centuries ago.  — Thorold Rogers.

Wage-Workers of the World, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains — you have the World to win.  — Karl Marx

The great appear great to us because we are on our knees: let us rise!  — Theroigne.

The modern state, whatever its form, is essentially a capitalist machine; it is the state of the capitalist; the ideal total capitalist.  — Frederick Engels.

The punishment good citizens get for neglecting their politics is to be governed by bad men.  — Plato.

The abolition of poverty and the abolition of capitalism shall be accomplished at one and the same time.

Room! For the men of mind make way!
  Ye robber Rulers, pause no longer;
Ye cannot stay the opening day:
  The world rolls on, the light grows stronger.
The People's Advent's coming!
— Gerald Massey.

Political economists see nothing but the past; hence future generations will represent the civilization of political economists by a head reversed and looking backward. — Fourier. 

The Commercialisation of Literature. (1904)

From the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

The awful ignorance of the middle-class re-acts on Society at large, yet the ignorance is not due to lack of information but incapacity of thought. This observation was forced upon me the other day as I was reading in The Guardian an article entitled “The Next Literary Epoch.” Miss G. Hill, the writer, began by showing how books are now treated as manufactured articles, and are "advertised and sold much as a new line in dress material.” This is due to the gradual disappearance of the personal relation between publisher and author. Huge amalgamations have made the link solely a monetary one. The manager of the company dares not deal with ought but "certainties.” The literary element in the governance of publishing is diminishing since the directors had no more knowledge of literature than the directors of a chemical company have of chemistry. Science has also created a thirst for facts; literature, as a mental refreshment and enjoyment, has ceased to be sought after.

Miss Hill continues: "We must take into account the fact that literature is chiefly in the hands of the middle classes, and will therefore be modified by the conditions of life and habits of thought prevailing among these classes. It is they who furnish the bulk of both writers and readers. The democracy, as a rule, use their leisure for the study of science. It might be supposed that what the upper classes lack in point of numbers they would make up in point of opinion; but they are not originators; they do not create new movements of thought or control the stream of intellectual tendency.” Further the writer of this interesting article show that specialising has become a rule, but that it is useless if the basis of education is not broad enough to specialise upon. People are acquiring knowledge without thereby acquiring "power.” The facts obtained sufficed without deductions being made from these facts. "This is the way to train up learners but not thinkers.”

S. J. C. Russell

Party Notes (1904)

Party Notes from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

A member whose first name is Sydney, now rusticating in Hellingly, has been good enough to draw my attention to the discrepancy between the announcement, contained in the report of the Executive Committee published in the  October issue, relating to the number of the Party speakers and the number actually contained in the Lecture List.

The report stated “The Party has at its disposal over 15 speakers,” whereas my informant states he has counted the names appearing in Lecture List for October, and finds we have twenty-two "special speakers.” Our comrade is nearly right. I have looked through the list in question, but can only discover 20 speakers.

In any case the number is “over 15,” and the statement contained in the E.C. report absolutely correct. Were we to place on the list every member capable of holding forth from the platform we might perhaps muster 30or 40 speakers, but it is better to under-estimate than to over state our strength. We have no desire to “bluff” anybody by presenting a magnified view of our forces. The Social Revolution cannot be accomplished in a day, and neither can the instrument of that revolution, The Socialist Party, be built up in a few mouths. Our speakers to-day are counted by tens and our supporters by hundreds, but to-morrow these numbers will be increased ten and a thousand fold.

The same correspondent makes a suggestion which may be found useful. This idea is that a good deal of expense would be saved if branch business meetings were, where possible, held in members' houses. Socialists at any time are not very great believers in rent, and with the approach of winter, branches having only a small membership could, with advantage, meet in a comrade's house.

The outdoor propaganda season is now over, but at the Party speaking stations operations will be continued as usual, as for as the weather will permit. During the winter of course many sources of income will be closed to the Branches, and consequently some of our comrades, particularly in the poorer districts of London, may experience some difficulty in maintaining their Branches in a sound condition, financially and otherwise.

These dangers will be minimised if our comrades everywhere make special efforts to push the Party literature. As a clean and clear exponent of Socialist Science, The Socialist Standard has no equal in Great Britain. The sale of our Organ during the winter months will keep alive the local interest, be a means of holding together and securing new members, a source of revenue to the Branches, and finally will prepare the ground for the opening of the spring campaign with renewed vigour.

Things are commencing to move down in Battersea, where our comrades have organised the sale of The Socialist Standard in a really creditable manner. The results achieved are of such an encouraging character that Peckham will soon have to look to its laurels. Hitherto, Peckham has been to the forefront as regards their supply of the Party Organ, but a stride or two more will give Battersea the lead.

In other directions, too, our Battersea comrades are giving evidence of their earnestness in the Cause, indicated in the announcement contained elsewhere in this issue. They have organised a series of indoor lectures, to be delivered in Sidney Hall at 7.30 p.m. every Sunday in November, when various aspects of the Movement will be treated by comrades Elrick, Kent, Watts, and Anderson. Comrades not on duty elsewhere will do well to attend these lectures.

Although our Paddington comrades appear to be quiescent, it would be a great mistake to suppose they are inactive. Since the General Meeting the Paddington Branch has enrolled more new members than any other Branch of the Party. What on earth is Islington doing? Day after day I am seized with great fear and trembling as I open the despatches from the “Vale” containing the signed Declarations of new members. I fear and I tremble because with each upward motion of the Paddington membership barometer recedes the Islington promise to be the best Branch. If our northern comrades do not bestir themselves their Branch will indeed be the “greatest thing on earth”--except Paddington.

Comrades, everywhere, let us be up and doing. Let us pull steadily together. Let there be no resting on oars till, having conquered the adverse winds and the deceptive currents of Capitalism,  our craft is safely anchored in the haven of the Socialist Republic. Comrades, everyone; pass the word along. Onward!

Con Lehane

Editorial: The Unemployed. (1904)

Editorial from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Fontenelle has said that mankind must exhaust the possibilities of error before he can reach the true path. This maxim seems to be fully borne out by the events which have transpired in the political world during the past month. It is true that the capitalist machine at Westminster has for the present completed its “deliberations." The talking shop with its mockery of democratic legislation hiding the rule of the non-producer has closed. But the great organised hypocrisy of which Parliament and Parliamentary government is the chief political symbol is ever with us. Outside Parliament the agents of the great capitalist class are ever at work and of these agents the most powerful workers in the capitalist interest are those who, consciously or unconsciously, seek to lead the workers along non-Socialist lines. Socialism, which is the organisation of the industry of the country on a basis of common ownership and equitable distribution of industrial products, is the only remedy for the evils of present-day Society and therefore any man or section of men who pretend to show .that something short of Socialism would prove a remedy thereby constitutes himself, consciously or unconsciously, an enemy of the working class.

The main question which has come prominently before the public during the past month has been the question of the unemployed. Now anyone who was unaccustomed to the practical politician and his powers of exhausting the possibilities of error would imagine that as a necessary preliminary to solving the problem of the unemployed must come an enquiry into the causes of unemployment. But not so the practical politician. He does not like exhaustive enquiries into causes. He likes to be practical, and being practical cannot search below the surface of the social phenomena immediately before his eyes. For him those causes which are obvious and on the surface are given forth as the real causes of unemployment. Our practical man knows someone who was discharged for his drinking habits, hence drunkenness must be the cause of unemployment. Another politician of the practical school sees cases of thriftlessness, of laziness among the working-class and knowing that the rich are never extravagant and never idle, predicates these characteristics also as causes of unemployment.

The political economist, the apologetic theorician of the capitalist regime rejecting those as true causes of unemployment, seeks them in the fact that we possess  a gold standard of circulation, or that we have a system of free imports under which we pay 15s. per head of the population in import duties as opposed to an average of 8s. per head in countries with protective tariffs, or, like Mr. William Stanley Jevons, he sees in the periodicity of sunspots a relation to the periodicity of magnetic storms in the earth and through this to the periodicity of bad harvests and trade depressions. We have a maximum of sunspots every eleven years, a recurrence of magnetic storms about every eleven years, and trade depressions every decade. Hence sunspots are the cause of unemployment!

The Socialist opposes both the practical politician and the orthodox political economist and seeks for the causes of unemployment, not among the moral characteristics of man nor among the physical configurations of the Solar System, but among the economic conditions of production and distribution. The Socialist first looks to the earth as the primal repository of all potential wealth and asks if the earth can furnish sufficient raw material to satisfy all the material needs of man. The answer of the Socialist may be given in the words of Kropotkin in the July “Nineteenth Century and After":

   “Mankind has reached a point where the means of satisfying its needs are in excess of the needs themselves. To impose, therefore, as has hitherto been done, the curse of misery and degradation upon vast divisions of mankind, in order to secure wellbeing for the few, is needed no more; well- . being can be secured for all, without overwork for any."

Nature with the aid of man’s labour is prolific in the supply of raw material which can be wrought into the means of satisfying man’s wants. Men there are in abundance capable of turning this raw material into finished products. Labour there is in plenty to produce sufficient to supply the “effective demand.” If this ‘‘effective demand" meant the sum total of the things required by human kind, existence of the unemployed would simply mean that man had limited demands and it only required the work of a limited number of people to produce the food, clothing, houses, &c. of all, and this could be dealt with by a reorganisation of industry, but the existence of the working-class unemployed means, however, under present conditions, the existence of hunger, of semi-starvation, of lack of the means of livelihood of the unemployed. In the midst of plenty they are devoid of the means of sustenance because they can find none to employ them.

We have then to seek in the process of converting raw material into manufactured products for the cause of the “industrial reserve army of the unemployed.’’ In some phase of this conversion, in some period of manufacture, we must find the main cause of the throwing of men out of work; and to the Socialist this main cause is the introduction of the machine as the dominant factor in production. We who are Socialists are, of course, fully aware that the introduction of machinery with its potentialities of reduced labour time for those employed is an important stage in Social and industrial evolution. Under the control of those who use it, who work with its aid, it would have been followed by a continually diminishing working day, but owned and controlled by a few, by a small section of the community, it has been used as a factor in the oppressing and enslaving of men and has proved a curse.

The machine, produced by machinery, is ever producing a greater and greater output with the aid of fewer and fewer men and, therefore, as we find has been the case in the textile industries, there is at the end off every decade a smaller number of workers employed, and the number displaced is greatly augmented by the displacement of men’s labour by that of women and children. We contend then, that so long as the machinery of production is owned by a class which uses the growing power, of the machine to throw men out of work rather than to reduce the duration of the day’s work, so long shall we have an unemployed problem.

It is true that many off those who have been displaced have been reabsorbed in the creation of luxuries and the satisfaction of the needs of the capitalist few. The production of luxuries has grown to an enormous extent during the last few decades, while the number of those who are engaged as domestic servants or who find a living in other ways, all having for their end the pleasures of the rich, has grown greatly. This process of the multiplication of workers performing comparatively useless functions has its limitations and when these limits have been reached there will exist no means of absorbing those thrown out of work by the development and speeding up of better machinery. We must, then, look forward in the near future to a constant increase in the number of the permanent unemployed.

What are we to think, then, of those who, knowing these things, are yet to .be found in brotherly harmony with the capitalistic sections of the community seeking for means for dealing adequately with the unemployed problem and yet afraid to say that they think the only solution of the unemployed problem is to be found in the establishment of a Socialist system of society. This is what we find at the present moment. Men styling themselves Socialists, the members of a body claiming to be Socialist are found to-day hobnobbing with men whose interests are essentially bound up in the maintenance of the present system of society which produces the unemployed, and putting forward as means for solving the unemployed problem, farm colonies and such like nostrums.

We refuse utterly to accept these men as true exponents of Socialist principles. Prating of the class-war, in which they say they believe, they yet are found in alliances with middle-class parties, thus placing themselves in opposition to the class-war. Bound by the Dresden Resolution, for which they voted at the last International Socialist Congress at Amsterdam, and which protests against

  “the substitution, for the conquest of political power by an unceasing attack on the bourgeoisie, of a policy of concession to the established order of society," 

they are among the first to make concessions to the established order of society by virtually admitting the non-Socialist, non-class-war principle that the unemployed problem can be solved within that capitalist system of society of which it is really the outcome.

We of the Socialist Party of Great Britain remain firm in our conviction that nothing but uncompromising propaganda of our principles and the political organisation of the masses upon a basis of uncompromising Socialism can do aught to solve the unemployed problem, or any other of the Social problems, engendered by the capitalist system. End the capitalist system. Establish a Socialist system in its stead, and we shall have once and for all laid the foundation of a regime in which the labour of all men and all women can be usefully employed during such limited time as may be determined by our needs, and then having no unemployed problem, we shall not have any of the evils, the miseries, and the degradation which spring from unemployment.

From Our Branches (1904)

Party News from the November 1904 issue of the Socialist Standard

Reports from Branches for insertion under this heading must be in before the 20th of each month, otherwise they cannot appear.

BATTERSEA

Since our last report we have made good progress. More new members have been enrolled and our economic and history classes are doing splendid work by equipping them for a more effective fight against working-class ignorance and apathy. Our party organ The Socialist Standard, goes well, and of the first number we managed to dispose of 260 copies: a fine total, but one that the energy and enthusiasm of our members enabled us to pass on the second issue of which we have sold 386 copies. We may be relied upon to do our best to maintain and increase even this figure, believing that in our paper we have an excellent medium for the propagation of the principles of Socialism.

A Sunday School class for the children is held every Sunday afternoon, and is well-attended, and after the school a communal tea is provided to which all comrades are most heartily invited.—Press Committee.

EDMONTON

The Edmonton Branch of the Socialist Party of Great Britain is as active and successful as ever in its endeavour to build up a sound revolutionary party, and thereby justify its name. Despite the broken weather, we have held several good open-air meetings during the past month, and in order to further equip ourselves for the prosecution of that class struggle, the existence of which the pseudo reformers deny, we have formed a discussion class, which already is showing good results, so much so, that even our youngest recruit is now able and willing to take the chair and open our propaganda meetings.

Some somewhat sensational developments on our local District Council, and the very acute form of the unemployed problem manifesting itself in the district, has enabled our local Punch and Judy politicians to work overtime at the parish pump, but signs are not wanting that the unemployed already suspect the motives of those who would lead them. Already two relief committees exist and the formation of a third is contemplated.

The painfully pathetic spectacle of the deputation that waited upon the District Council begging, in the name of the working-class, that the master-class should forget its classhood showed clearly enough that it was neither relief nor yet work that was wanted for the unemployed, but merely popularity and self-advertisement for a few unprincipled political quacks who are misleading the unemployed. In new of i those things we are not idle. We are steadily at work clearing the political atmosphere, and even day brings nearer the time when those misleaders of the working.class shall find themselves alone, and an intelligent proletariat will know its true friends in The Socialist Party which will do its duty regardless of temporary and therefore, fleeting success.

In response to an invitation several of us j journeyed to Waltham Cross on Saturday, Oct. : 15th. A splendid meeting was held, during which over 30 copies of The Socialist Standard were sold and many intelligent questions about Socialism and the various working-class parties claiming to be more or less Socialist were put and answered to the evident satisfaction of all concerned.

The following Saturday, Oct. 22, we again visited Waltham, holding two fine meetings—one at the Cross, followed by one at the Abbey. Fifty-five copies of The Socialist Standard—the whole supply we had with us—were rapidly sold out.

The welcome given us and the eagerness displayed by the workers in Waltham will not soon be forgotten by those who had the privilege of carrying to them the seeds of Revolutionary Socialism. It was, many of them said, the first time the Socialists had come there and they urged us to come again. Needless to say, we readily promised to return, and it shall not be long before the men and women of Waltham step forward ioto the field of Socialist politics in line with The Socialist Party of Great Britain.— A. Anderson.

FULHAM.

Here we are doing all that a small branch placed in our position can do. Our literature sales have been fairly good, and our audiences though small at times, turn up regularly and consist mostly of men who will listen and reason, and are not led away by rhetoric, however brilliant. Solid educational work is being done and ere long we shall doubtless have our reward.

We have, of course, to combat the mischievous work of other bodies claiming to be Socialist, which finds expression in the mental confusion of those who take the floor against us. For example, it is a common thing to hear it urged against us that trade unionism is Socialism, and that trade unionists are Socialists!

However, the red flag is still flying, the knowledge of our principles is spreading, and the future is full of promise.—E. J. B. Allen.

WATFORD.

Past October—and all's well.

Excepting for special occasions, we have now closed down our open-air propaganda meetings, and are organising a scheme of winter work that we hope wilt keep the branch in evidence and Socialism clearly defined before the people of the town. Developments will be duly reported, and although we cannot—knowing the neighbourhood and its inhabitants passing well—anticipate that these will be of a startling nature, we are yet sanguine that before many moons we shall have a tale to tell of a growing class-conscious proletarian fighting force enrolled under the standard of the Socialist Party of Great Britain, pressing sturdily along an undeviating path to the overthrow of capitalism and the realisation of the Co-operative Commonwealth. We plough a hard and lonely furrow to-day and the field of our endeavours is weed-encumbered and all but choked with stubble. But what a few can do to clear the ground and keep it clear that do we, and to-morrow we reap the harvest—or if we do not, it will not be fault of ours.

To all in the fight—Greeting!—Alec Gray.

WEST HAM.

J. J. Terrett’s farcical candidature for N. West Ham collapsed at a very early stage, although presumably backed officially by the S.D.F. But the "great” Joe is never happy unless he has a finger in the political pie in this much plagued borough, and is never satisfied unless he is "raising Cain" all along the line, and so he is now introducing a Parliamentary candidate in the person of Mr. W. W. Crotch from Norwich, and has succeeded in resuscitating the some time dormant N. West Ham Branch of the I.L.P.—a branch containing a number of persons who have been pursuing tactics detrimental even to I.L.P’ism, and for that reason have been expelled from the S. West Ham branch of that party. This branch of "don’t-know-where-they-are’s" have apparently at "Joe's” behest adopted Mr. W. W. Crotch as Parliamentary : candidate for the northern division of the borough, so that for our sins we have now two labour candidates, one in each division of West Ham. This kind of thing makes our position extremely hard. Our work would be much easier if we had to sow Socialist seed on virgin soil; but before we can do that we have to root up all the labour tares. Nevertheless, we are doing fairly well. We are successfully continuing our propaganda, having only failed to hold one meeting during the past month, that being due to the weather.

We are doing very well with literature, both Standards and pamphlets; and as we have had a number of greatly interested listeners and some enquirers, we hope soon to be able to announce a further increase in membership. I can confidently say that we shall be able to keep the uncompromising red flag flying here.—G. J. Hodson.