Mass Action or Intelligent Organisation. (1923)

From the March 1923 issue of the Socialist Standard

They say that God is on the side of the big battalions. This contains an element of truth, but it is not true merely because the battalions are big. If they happen to be composed of raw recruits who don’t know the business end of a gun; don’t know why they are fighting, and wish they weren’t; and if the battalions are officered by men who not only think, like the Duke of Wellington, that their rank and file are “scum,” but are also hoping to be decorated by the enemy for services rendered, then God will have his work cut out, however big the battalions are.

Of course few people now believe that God has any say in the matter. Lord Devonport was not really disturbed when Ben Tillett invited God to strike him dead. He knew he had the dockers cornered and could starve them into surrender, and Tillett plus God was no more formidable than Tillett alone. Anyway, Ben never meant Devonport any harm.

Again, when during the war Lord Roberts saw that the Allied armies were not delivering the goods, and that the geniuses of the General Staff didn’t know what to do next, the country was placarded, with appeals for prayer signed by that old hypocrite. The prayer was, however, wisely accompanied by a campaign for increasing the output of shells, to strengthen God’s hands in the slaughter of His other children,

The consistent application of the God-idea would be fatal to any human activity, and what is almost as dangerous in working-class organisations is a notion that they will win because they are big in numbers. This takes a variety of, but its general result is a disregard of the actual facts of the present situation and of the necessity for solid preparatory work before the workers can take effective action.

The outstanding features of that situation are these: That the private ownership of the means of life by the capitalist class is the main cause, direct or indirect, of the remediable evils from which the workers suffer, and that as a consequence nothing but the abolition of that private ownership can be a solution. Further, that the capitalists maintain possession by their control of Parliament and its administrative, judicial, and executive machinery, including the armed forces; this control being buttressed by propaganda in the schools, the Church, and the Press.

Thirdly, that the overwhelming mass of the workers, although discontented with their condition, have not yet traced their suffering to its origin in the social structure itself, and are therefore not only unwilling to attack the capitalist system, but are prepared, as during the war, to fight for it, and, as shown at subsequent, elections, to vote for it. Now, we want Socialism and we want it immediately, but unfortunately the majority of the workers are opposed to us, and while they stand behind the State in defence of the capitalist system we are helpless. While, materially, society has long been ripe for Socialism, we are forced to recognise that we must work and wait until the majority see that fact as we see it.

However, among those who want to abolish capitalism, who call themselves revolutionary, there are many who are not convinced that the relatively slow process outlined above is necessary. It need hardly be said that if there could be found a method of reaching the same result in a shorter time we would be only too pleased to hear of it. There is no question of sentimental attachment to particular means; any means are good enough for us provided they will serve the purpose; I do not propose to discuss in detail whether, and to what extent, the means and the end can be separated, although it will readily be seen that granted the overcoming of preliminary obstacles such as the conquest of power, the attempt at building a new society will be a failure if it makes exacting demands which the people are unable to meet. Socialist society can only be run by Socialists, and it will not be the work of a mentally enslaved people who have merely exchanged the blinkers of the capitalist politician for those of the professional revolutionary.

Let us, however, deal with the question of the moment, the conquest of power.

We have seen that the capitalists (or their agents the politicians), depending immediately on the support of the House of Commons and ultimately on the backing of the mass of the people, are able to decide what shall be done in any problem which arises. The Cabinet decides on policies which, if approved by the House of Commons, become law and are enforced through the Legal machinery. Taxes are levied for the up-keep of the State and its various departments. And all the time the law, the police, the army and navy are at hand to protect the private property of the capitalist class. Although they talked of disarming Germany, it is significant that the allied Governments never prevented their German “enemy” from maintaining the forces without which private ownership by the German capitalists could not have been protected.

It follows that the ruling class do only those things which they think are in their immediate interest or which circumstances force them to do to guard the stability of their system. For an instance of the first kind of action, it is plainly in the interests of the capitalist class to keep down the expenses of the administration, because it is they who have to pay; as instances of the second kind, it is necessary that the capitalists should spend money on the technical education of the workers in order to promote the prosperity of their industries and to enable to compete with foreign rivals; and it is also necessary for the capitalists to spend millions of pounds, as they are now doing, on relief for the unemployed.

If the unemployed received no support at all they would in desperation make organised attacks on private property, and their unrelieved discontent would endanger capitalist candidates at elections. Obviously, to leave men in utter starvation would be to force on them proof that existing society had nothing to offer them and could not reasonably demand their allegiance. That could but lead to rioting and disorder, which would make normal trading and commercial activities impossible. The capitalists give doles because it pays them to do so; it is for them a form of insurance, and a cheap one.

Various impatient people observing this, but failing to appreciate it correctly, have conceived the notion that at certain times of “crisis,” when discontent is rife and feeling runs high, and when the minds of many workers are in a condition of ferment, it should be possible by concentrated propaganda, daring leadership, and inspiring example, for a comparatively few revolutionaries so to leaven the mass as to turn its energies to an attack on the system.

It is a plausible theory and an attractive one for those of us for whom the capitalist present is an intolerable burden in comparison with the possibilities of the Socialist future; but will it stand examination?

Is it true that at these moments of crisis the ruling class lose their grip on the situation? Is it, then, any more difficult for the politicians and the Press to keep the workers in hand as regards fundamentals? And have the revolutionaries greater hope of getting into the saddle than at ordinary times? To go no further back than 1914, were the workers any less ready to accept capitalism at war than to accept capitalism at peace? As Mrs. Asquith states in the second volume of her diary, one Cabinet Minister (apparently Lloyd George) was “intriguing with the pacifists” and would have led an anti-war campaign if he could have found support for it, but he saw that the war-makers had been fully successful and he discreetly decided to go with them (Manchester Guardian Weekly, Nov. 24, 1922).

There were strikes during the war, and the Government was able to depend on the great majority, including the Trade Union officials, when it threatened, and took, drastic measures. There was a railway strike in 1919, and troops were used to run the trains, again without any notable outcry from the workers in general. The Labour leaders called off the threatened “Triple Alliance” strike on “Black Friday,” and not only did the mass actionists fail in their agitation, but J. H. Thomas and others denounced as traitors are now as popular as ever with their members.

Why did the Communists fail to make use of these opportunities when they offered? It was not for lack of will, certainly not for lack of screaming headlines and stunt propaganda. They failed because they could not compete with the capitalist Press and because they never succeeded in getting the workers interested in vital questions outside the scope of the immediate movement: On any such occasion the workers may be induced, or forced, quietly to accept less than they ask, but is there ever any possibility of their standing out for something more?

The railwaymen returned to work after a short strike because they were promised a part of their demands. Could one expect anything else? ‘The workers are always robbed, but not understanding this they will not consciously fight the robbers. Why then, if they are driven to resist a reduction in wages, should they be expected to fight for larger aims against a condition of things they accept as inevitable?

As for the immediate aim, the capitalist class can, if they wish, yield and remove the ground of the dispute. In short, if the workers are only asking for some reform of the present system, the capitalists can always grant it or fight it, as they choose. In neither case do the minority get a chance worth mentioning. During the mining dispute some 60 or 70 Communists were jailed, yet no serious effort was made by the workers to get them out. They did not gain the leadership, and the miners did not get any concession.

If, on the other hand, we have to admit that the workers must want Socialism before they can be induced to fight for it, we are back where we started, considering how we can make the workers understand Socialism. But this is the method the minority revolutionaries have rejected.

During the last two years an old issue has been revived, in the agitation for the better treatment of the unemployed. Attempts have been made to organise the unemployed, and have been fairly successful on the whole, but the old futilities have again been practised. The organisers of the movement had to choose between organising a few revolutionaries for a revolutionary purpose or a mass of non-revolutionaries for a programme of minor reforms in the amount and method of unemployment relief. They took the latter, and have succeeded in winning some points from the Boards of Guardians. But have they achieved anything lasting commensurate with their efforts ? They have added to the difficulties of the authorities, which was all to the good, but to assert, as some people have, that they seriously upset the Government is absurd. A writer in the Worker (20th. Jan., 1923), signing himself “Hobo,” gives an interesting account of unemployed organisation in Liverpool, for instance.

It began in 1921 with a gathering of 20,000 strong, and a committee “comprised for the most part of Communists.” There was a baton charge in September, most of the committee were arrested, and the unemployed turned a picture gallery “into a shambles.” “From then onwards the number declined, due to the fact that a scale of relief had been granted and that the spineless ones had got the wind up and left. We managed to keep a crowd of 10,000.”

They again came into conflict with the police, and

  “this gave us another setback in point of numbers, and the people left began to show signs of class consciousness. . . . They began, to flock to the Communist Party. Very few stayed in, but those who left were inoculated with germs of the class struggle. Due to another agitation we were granted the use of another hall. Again, after another couple of months, we got notice to quit. From. then onwards until about April or May, 1922, the apathy became terrible. . .

   “‘The Guardians or the rich,’ seeing this, began to get brave by daring to cut the relief down. A few hundred returned and wanted to know what we were going to do . . . try as we would we could not get them. to kick. . . . In September (1922). they returned again; . . . The Guardians had brought in a system of test work. . .The agitation became strong . . . the test work suddenly stopped, so did the demonstrations of our organisation. The immediate wrongs of Henry being satisfied, he drifted away again.. Thus the movement has declined, and hardly exists today outside of a small committee.”

So much for mass action. Are these the big battalions that will strike fear into the hearts of the ruling class? We are often reminded that Socialist propaganda makes but slow progress. True, but that is the nature of things; and is the method illustrated above any quicker? If it produces anything  useful at all, could the same or a greater result not have been achieved by a better direction of the energies that were thus largely wasted?

W. Hannington, Organising Secretary of the National Unemployed Movement, admits the actual impotence of that organisation outside of a strictly limited sphere, when he says in reply to a question as to the possibility of disturbances this winter : “The Government is straining the patience of these men, and they must not be surprised if there are outbreaks and disorders.” (Manchester Guardian Weekly, 12th Jan.) I suggest that the Government won’t be surprised. The people who will be surprised are the unemployed when they learn how amazingly easy it is for a few police, or if need be, soldiers, to deal effectively with large masses of ill-disciplined and unarmed men. They will get cracked heads for their pains, some of them will possibly, in the words of “Hobo,” be infected with “germs of class consciousness.” But when it is all done, are we any nearer Socialism? When the long delayed trade recovery arrives, short though it may be, will anything be left to show for all the time spent on organising the unemployed? Might these efforts not have been more fruitfully devoted to giving them a real understanding of their class position?

It is true the Socialist Party has not succeeded in organising large numbers, but have the actionists done any better? We have at least assisted materially in giving a correct understanding of Socialism to a by no means insignificant body of workers, and we are still awaiting from our numerous critics information as to the means whereby men who have been brought together to “demand the use of the Town Hall” or for any other fiddling question of the moment, can be induced to fight for Socialism without understanding it. If they could show that they had succeeded or were likely to succeed, something might be said for the idea; but according to a Communist Committee’s report, a copy of which fell into the hands of the Morning Post and was quoted by the Star (2nd Jan., 1923) the Party during the two years of its existence “has made no real progress, either numerically or in terms of influence. . . We are still only scattered individuals straggling up and down the country without a responsible hold on the working class movement.” (I must apologise for quoting from the Morning Post, but I, like the members of the Communist Party, have no other means of learning what new piece of buffoonery has been devised from time to time by the Communist dictators to disguise from their members the Party’s futility.)

Again, the Communists who have been responsible for misleading the workers by the blind-alley policy of the unemployed organisations now confess, after the harm has been done, that it was all a waste of effort.

   “The unemployed have done all they can, and the Government know it. They have tramped through the rain in endless processions. They have gone in mass deputations to the Guardians. They have attended innumerable meetings and have been told to be ‘solid’ They have marched to London, enduring terrible hardships. . . All this has led nowhere. None of the marchers believe that seeing Bonar Law in the flesh will make any difference. Willing for any sacrifice, there seems no outlet, no next step. In weariness and bitter disillusionment the unemployed movement is turning in upon itself. There is sporadic action, local rioting, but not central direction. The Government has signified its exact appreciation of the confusion by arresting Hannington.

   “The plain truth is that the unemployed can only be organised for agitation, not for action. Effective action is the job of the working-class as a whole. The Government is not afraid of starving men so long as the mass of the workers look on and keep the ring. —(Workers’ Weekly, C.P.G.B., 10th February, 1923.)

Brought up against one plain truth at home the Communists turn to agitation about another side-tracking question abroad with similar failure.

While they and the other mass actionists, the Labour Parties, are both opposing the French invasion of the Ruhr and issuing clarion calls to the workers to occupy themselves in the purely Capitalists’ dispute over the ownership of that territory, they both admit their inability to interfere effectively to stop it.

  “Edo Fimmen, Secretary of the International Federation of Trade Unions, in a speech to the old Confederation of Labour Congress in Paris . . . confessed . . . the impotence of the international working class in regard to the Ruhr invasion. It must be recognised that we have not been able to do what we said we would do.” —(Daily Herald, 3rd February, 1923.) 

   “The duty of the Communists is proportionately heavier. We are the minority of the working class. Alone we shall perhaps not be able to prevent war. But we must do everything in our power, so that when the masses are dragged into the war, they will have a rallying centre in the Communist Party . . . ” —(R. Fuchs, International Press Correspondence, 1st February, 1923, an official Communist publication.)

There is another aspect, too. These people always end by calling the workers apathetic. It is pertinent to ask who have done more to make them so than those, whether right-wing privy councillors, or left wing mass actionists, who make the accusation. They bring members into an organisation under false pretences, add nothing to their knowledge, take their contributions, and then abuse them because they leave in disgust when they find that their leaders cannot fulfil the promises which were the bait dangled to catch them.

It is not that the leaders necessarily intend to harm their victims. Usually, at the outset at least, they are sincerely of the opinion that the end having been achieved the means will be thereby justified. Our reply is that the end never is achieved. A little knowledge of the history of the workers’ movement might save many such mistakes, it might also save some enthusiasts from wasting valuable energies trying “to get Socialism quickly” by this method. They should remember that the S.D.F., the Clarion Scouts, the I.L.P., the B.S.P. have each in turn beaten this particular big drum with varying degrees of failure before their present counterparts took it up.

They might also remember that apathy for the rank and file mean apathy for the leaders, and that with the passing of the conditions which temporarily gave the illusion of rapid progress the men who used to bellow blood and fire from the platforms of those organisations recovered from their intoxication. They became cynical and quite a number can now be found talking with their tongues in their cheeks, for the Conservative Party.

Edgar Hardcastle

Thoughts of a scientist. (1923)

From the March 1923 issue of the Socialist Standard

   “I am not afraid of the priests in the long run. Scientific method is the white ant which will slowly but surely destroy their fortifications. And the importance of scientific method in modern practical life—always growing and increasing—is the guarantee for the gradual emancipation of the ignorant upper and lower classes, the former of whom especially are the strength; of the priests.”

T. H. Huxley.

(“Life and Letters,” Vol. III., Page 330).

“I have not the slightest doubt about the magnitude of the evils which accrue from the steady increase of European armaments ; but I think that this regrettable fact is merely the superficial expression of social forces, the operations of which cannot be sensibly affected by agreements between Governments.

   In my opinion it is a delusion to attribute the growth of armaments to the “exactions of militarism.” The “exactions of industrialism,” generated by international commercial competition, may, I believe, claim a much larger share in prompting that growth. Add to this the French thirst for revenge, the most just determination of the German and Italian peoples to assert their national duty; the Russian Pan-slavonic fanaticism and desire for free access to the ‘western seas’; the Papacy steadily fishing in the troubled waters for the means of recovering its lost (I hope for ever lost) temporal possessions and spiritual supremacy; the “sick man,” kept alive only because each of his doctors is afraid of the other becoming his heir.

  When I think of the intensity of the perturbing agencies which arise out of these and other conditions of modern European society, I confess that the attempt to counteract them by asking Governments to agree to a maximum military expenditure, does not appear to me to be worth making ; indeed, I think it might do harm by leading people to suppose that the desires of Governments are the chief agents in determining whether peace or war shall obtain in Europe.”

T. H. Huxley. (Page 323)

Anti-dotes for doped notes. (1923)

From the March 1923 issue of the Socialist Standard

  “I am perfectly certain that there is a good deal of unnecessary unemployment. People won’t work at a wage that makes it remunerative for anyone to employ them.”—(Judge Crawford, Edmonton County Court), “Evening News,” January 22nd, 1923.)

Yea ! learned judge, but you are so vague and ambiguous, and in your brevity you omit any evidence for the above statements, a shortcoming with all enemies of the working class. They invariably make assertions as if they were undisputed facts which required no proof to support them. What, in your wisdom, fixes the limits of necessary and unnecessary unemployment? And in what category might we include those who “employ them,” and for whom you whine? Undoubtedly in the former, in order to provide “them,” the workers, with plenty of wor-r-rk, when profitable of course. How nice ! How kind ! And yet ! despite such philanthropic sacrifice there are ungrateful wretches whose exorbitant demands make it unremunerative to employ them. At least, that is what you would have us believe. But console yourself. An enormous surplus of wealth awaits a market without the “increased production” of the unemployed. There is another section of workless, however, the master class, whose wealth increases despite their idleness and their riotous dissipation in every luxurious form possible. Hearken !

  “We are supposed to be crushed with taxation, and to be labouring in the trough of a great trade depression, yet all accounts agree that there has never been such a winter holiday season as during the last six weeks. The Riviera has been thronged with English visitors, there has been a positive rush to the Alpine resorts ; at one moment the Continental trains were running in five parts, and it needed nearly a fortnight’s notice to get a sleeping berth on any of the through trains to Switzerland or to the south of France . . . money is spent lavishly, and whether at Cannes, Monte Carlo, or St. Moritz, the cheerful crowd of winter holiday-seekers seems to stint itself for nothing.”—(“World’s Work,” p. 213, February.)

Only an isolated illustration, but everywhere it is the same story, an ever-increasing abundance of wealth and a panorama of pleasure made passible by the workers, who, through ignorance, fail to see that the cause of their want, insecurity, and monotony of life, is the capitalist ownership of society’s means of living. The capitalists only allow these means of living to be operated when profitable to themselves, at best only returning on the average sufficient for a bare existence to the wealth producers. Nevertheless, whilst through lack of understanding the workers sanction their own enslavement, the knowledge they exhibit in carrying on the work of society, extended to their material interests as a class, will win them through to freedom.

* * * *

  “It is our duty to make people fit to live in the world, and not to try to make the world fit for people to live in.”—(Mr. H. Pike Pease, “Reynolds,” February 4th, 1923.)

But the world is fit to live in, and a place of splendour and gaiety, for those who can “live” in it, for the small privileged few whose ownership of it renders the “existence” of the large majority such a joyless and precarious one. “Our” duty forsooth ! duty between the conflicting interests of the robber and the robbed ! Rubbish ! While the workers look to their exploiters, with their agents, to alter the conditions under which they exist, they remain mentally in a condition to be deluded at every turn. But when a majority of them understand that society is not merely a jumble of unrelated incidents wherein a set of benevolent God ordained rulers permit them to exist, but an historically evolved stage in human enslavement that will pass like other stages have done, then, and then only can society be organised upon a co-operative basis that will allow the full and free opportunity for all to live. To talk of making people fit to live whilst retaining conditions that render life a hideous “struggle for millions from the cradle to the cemetery, is to put the cart before the horse, in other words, to talk rot.

* * * *

   “The more you try to get down to the idea of a Socialist State, the sooner you will get down to the idea of a first-class lunatic asylum.”—(Dr. Macnamara, “Reynolds,” February 4th, 1923.)

There now! the mighty hath spoken, just a bald meaningless string of words, the outcome of woeful ignorance or slimy hypocrisy. The State, like other social institutions, has not existed from all eternity, the long era of primitive man’s existence knew it not, only the advent of property with consequent class subjections makes the State a necessity.

  “The modern State is but an executive committee for administering the affairs of the whole bourgeois class.”—(Communist Manifesto.)

With the establishment of Socialism and the consequent abolition of classes and class oppression, the function of the State ceases, its need is ended. Socialism and the State are therefore incompatible. Dr. Macnamara is a supporter of capitalism, so he assumes the role of Nelson, failing to see the obvious, the chaos of the system he defends, and by a sinister inference, imputes to Socialism “the first-class lunatic asylum” he pretends not to see around him. Let us quote one capitalist statistician.

  “The great fact emerges that the enormous annual income of the United Kingdom is so badly distributed amongst us that, out of a population of 43,000,000, as many as 38,000,000 are poor.”— (C. Money, ”Riches and Poverty,” p. 43.)

But the Socialist offers evidence that wherever the present system prevails, it is productive of increasing poverty, perpetual war, prostitution, and liars who serve the ruling class by the dissemination of written and verbal matter calculated to stifle working class discontent. The toilers, not understanding the ease with which they could live under Socialism, and inclined to believe that which comes from “great” men, too often swallow such trash. Potential comrades, ”The great only appear great because you are kneeling. Arise!”

* * * *

    “As things are, nobody knows what is the real cost of unemployment, and in what proportions that cost is borne by different classes of the community. . . . Not only are the workers taxed for the maintenance of their unemployed fellows, but also the incomes out of which they must meet the charge are themselves heavily reduced by the very fact of unemployment.”—(“The Cost of Unemployment,” by Barbara Wooton, “Labour Magazine,” February.)

Well, if “nobody” knows, there appears to be a spontaneous generation of knowledge on the writer’s part within the confines of the same article, for the latter quotation contains a positive assertion as to whom she considers does pay. If by “different classes” is meant other than the working class and the non-working class, the capitalists, the only classes that can be discovered to-day, then her confusion is easily understood. Repeatedly in these columns we have pointed out, and demonstrated the fact, that the working class, being without property in the means of life, must sell their physical and mental energies for a subsistence wage, to those that own those means (the master class). They cannot pay for anything beyond what they have received their wages for, the food, clothing, shelter, and small pleasures necessary for the re-production of their labour powers. Even in regular employment, December 31st finds them as wealthy as January 1st, wages presuppose a bare living. If this were not so, wage adjustments, cost-of-living charts, sliding scales, would all be inexplicable. It is only in form that the slavery of the wage worker differs from the chattel slave, and that is the money or wage form; both receive their “keep,” and as with the slave owner, so with the capitalist, the wealth the workers produce is his. Despite the enormous proportionate increase of that wealth, the worker still continues his slave existence, and the expense of war, unemployment, pauperism and crime must be met by the owners of wealth, which is itself the proceeds of the robbery of the working class. Nobody who understands his or her position as a worker cares a damn about the cost of unemployment, it is the master’s cost, and only concerns him and the labour frauds who bleat for their paymasters in company with simpletons lacking understanding. Both assist in fogging the issue—the conflict between masters and slaves, the class war, only the full recognition of which can herald the coming of the day of working class triumph and the Social Revolution.

Mac.

The Commune of Paris, 1871. (1923)

From the March 1923 issue of the Socialist Standard

To all Socialists throughout the world, the 18th of March recalls to their minds the first organised attempt on the part of a section of the working class to administer the affairs of society in the workers’ interest. We speak of the Commune of Paris in 1871.

To convey a clear understanding of the Commune, it is necessary to give a brief outline of some of the events which led to the uprising of the Parisian workers on the 18th of March, 1871.

In 1849, an enterprising gentleman, named Louis Bonaparte, nephew of the first Napoleon, was elected President of the French Republic, and three years later he was proclaimed Emperor of the Second Empire.

For the events which enabled Bonaparte and his gang of hangers-on to become masters of France, readers are referred to Marx’s brilliant and profound monograph, “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.”

Of the establishment of the Second Empire, Engels says “that meant the appeal to French chauvinism, which implied the demand for the reacquisition of the frontier of the First Empire lost in 1814.” The existing frontier no longer satisfied the requirements of the Jingoes, in view of the fact that during the Bonapartist regime France had experienced a rapid industrial development. To the French ruling class the redeeming feature of the Bonapartist Government was its policy which favoured speculation and industrial activity, resulting for them in enrichment to a hitherto unheard of degree. Industrial expansion made necessary occasional wars and extensions of frontier, and the frontier which most interested the French Chauvinists was the left bank of the Rhine.

Gradually a growing section of the ruling class began more and more to express their dissatisfaction with the foreign and domestic policy of Bonaparte; whilst on the other hand, the discontent of the workers manifested itself in a way disturbing to the peace of mind, of not only the section of the ruling class opposed to Bonaparte, but to Bonaparte himself.

Among the workers, an organisation called the International Working Men’s Association, founded by Marx and Engels in 1864, was carrying on an agitation throughout Europe; and in France, the agitation was such, that Bonaparte had 60 of its most active members arrested.

Thus, confronted with the growing unpopularity among the ruling class, and fearing an uprising of the workers, Bonaparte sought refuge in satisfying the aspirations of the French Jingoes by declaring war on Prussia on the 15th of July, 1870. But the war proved disastrous for France. After various encounters, one French Army was driven into Sedan, where Bonaparte, with 80,000 men, surrendered. After this, battle after battle was lost by the French. Even the new Army under Marshal Bazaine, which had been raised to stave off the march of the Prussians on Paris, was surrounded at Metz, where Bazaine, with 180,000 men, surrendered.

As a consequence of the first great defeat at Sedan, an uprising occurred in Paris on the 4th of September, 1870, which sounded the death-knell of the Second Empire. The Republic was again proclaimed, and Thiers, who had been a statesman under the old Monarchy of Louis Phillipe, was appointed as its head.

During the war, the mass of the workers, like the great bulk of the workers during the late European war, were stupid enough to interest themselves in a quarrel which was entirely a quarrel between rival groups of the ruling class. Consequently, what was uppermost in the minds of the Parisians, was to organise a resistance against the Prussians, who were now on their way to besiege the city. The bulk of the Parisians believed in the possibility of successfully defending Paris, and the Thiers’ Government accepted a mandate from them to act as the “government of defence.” For the purpose of defending Paris all Parisians capable of bearing arms were armed and enrolled in the National Guard, which was composed mainly of working men.

Towards the end of September the Prussians began their siege of Paris, and it soon became evident to many that the Government was not treating seriously the question of defence. The fact is, that the matter of the defence of Paris was treated as a huge joke by the Thiers’ Government, and is described by Marx as “a well understood mockery of defence.” The evidence of this fact was left in the hands of the Commune when the Government made its wild flight to Versailles after the 18th of March.

As indicated above, we do not approve the action of the Parisians in demanding the continuance of the war; but even so, that in no way excuses the “government of defence” in not seriously acting in line with the mandate it had accepted to effectively defend Paris, which is one illustration of the contempt that all Capitalist Governments have for the views of the great bulk of those who elect them to power.

Of course, the Thiers’ Government had reasons of its own for disregarding the mandate. What Thiers and his gang were really desirous of defending Paris against was, not the Prussians, but the armed working men of Paris.

“Paris armed, was the revolution armed,” says Marx; and Thiers did not fail to note this significant fact.

The year 1871 opened with Paris still a besieged city, and finally on the 28th of January, it being no longer possible to carry on the farce of “defence,” the French Government capitulated to Bismark.

Engels, in his introduction to Marx’s “Civil War in France,” points out that when the Prussians entered Paris they found themselves surrounded by armed workmen, “who carefully watched lest any ‘Prussian’ should overstep the narrow limits of the quarter reserved for the foreign conqueror.”

How to disarm these workmen was the immediate problem set before Thiers. To accomplish this Thiers, with the flagrant lie on his lips that the arms of the National Guard were State property, called upon the National Guard to give up their artillery. Of course, Thiers knew well that the arms of the Guards were their own property ; they were bought by themselves by means of public subscriptions; moreover, they were officially recognised as their property in the terms of the capitulation of Paris. This move on the part of Thiers to get the National Guard to surrender their arms having failed, he next tried more forcible means.

Accordingly, Thiers dispatched a few regiments of the line to Montmartre to steal the artillery. With the usual display of “directive ability,” those responsible for the organisation to take the guns had failed to provide adequate means of transport. When the troops secured the guns the lack of transport prevented them from proceeding far, before the move became known. It is said that the women were the first to act, calling upon the troops to leave the guns alone. Meanwhile, the news having spread, some of the National Guard: appeared on the scene accompanied by women and children. Several times did General Lecomte give the order for his men to fire upon the defenceless women and children, but each time his order was disregarded. The few stragglers of the National Guard, with the women and children seeing this, pushed forward, and fraternised with the troops. The attempt to steal the guns had failed.

In vain did Thiers appeal to the Parisians to stand by “law and order,” for out of 300,000 National Guards only a few hundred could be found to rally to his support. Small wonder that they did not do so, for in addition to enduring the hardships of the 131 days siege of Paris, the Thiers’ Government had stopped the pay of the National Guard. Thus, were they and their dependents faced with starvation.

From the time that Thiers had failed to disarm the National Guard on the 18th of March, the workers had assumed control of Paris. The Thiers’ Government in the meantime had fled to Versailles.

On the 26th of March, the Paris Commune was elected and proclaimed on the 28th.

The workers had thereby committed a “crime”—the worst of all possible crimes in the eyes of the ruling class—”the violation of the sacred rights of private property.”

It cannot be said that the revolt of the Parisian workers was a Socialist Revolution, as only a few of those who took part in the movement had any Socialist knowledge. But considering the suddenness with which they were called upon to act, it must be ungrudgingly granted that the workers of Paris acquitted themselves wonderfully. Mistakes they made, of course, as they were sure to do, considering the circumstances which surrounded the movement.

The Commune accomplished many fine acts of legislation. It abolished the conscription and standing army, the only force recognised being the National Guard. All rents of dwellings from October, 1870, to April, 1871, were remitted, such rent as had been paid to be deducted from future payments. Its labour department brought about the abolition of night work for bakers, and declared all fines and stoppages from wages illegal. The fact that “foreigners” were elected to the Commune, shows the international outlook of many of the Communards. The “superior officials” who had acted under the Thiers and Napoleonic Governments having made off to Versailles, the control of nearly all the public services was in the hands of workmen administrators, placed there by the Commune.

What was Paris like during the short period of the workers’ control of affairs? Belfort Bax, in his admirable “Short History of the Commune,” tells us that the city was quiet, peaceful, and wholly free from crime. Even many middle-class Englishmen, who had no sympathy with the Commune reluctantly testified to the orderly and peaceful manner in which the Communards carried out the duties of citizenship. While the Versailles publications were demanding the wholesale slaughter of the Parisians, one could look in vain through the revolutionary journals for any blood-thirsty suggestion.

The people’s Paris of 1871 was a model against which no city throughout capitalist civilisation could compare. The wants of the populace were attended to, as best they could in the circumstances. For the “crime” of having attacked the private property institution, Thiers and his blood-thirsty gang at Versailles were planning to deluge Paris in a sea of blood.

We have said that the Commune made many mistakes, and one important mistake was its treatment of the military side of its administration. Of all the departments controlled by the Commune, the department of war was the worst conducted. Having made the initial blunder of allowing the Thiers’ Government to escape from Paris, one would imagine that they would have prepared for an attack from Thiers later. Instead, the Commune spent its time in futile attempts to negotiate with Thiers, which the latter gladly protracted till he had made arrangements with Bismark for the delivery of the French troops, taken as prisoners during the war. Thiers would hear of no compromise with the Commune, nothing but the unconstitutional surrender of Paris would meet his requirements.

Accordingly, on the 1st of April, without any warning, the Versaillese opened fire on Paris. It was then that the lack of military preparation on the part of the Commune came into prominence. The requisites of war were at places other than where they should have been. Important points of defence were discovered to be undefended. It seems that some of the leaders of the Commune thought that the Versaillese would refuse to fire upon the Parisians as had happened on the 18th of March. On this point Belfort Bax well says, they forgot

  “that insubordination in the interior of a fortress is a very different thing from insubordination in the open street under the moral pressure of a sympathetic crowd ready to protect the insubordinate from the vengeance of their superior officers.”

The time for the Commune to organise an effective defence of Paris had now gone. Strenuous efforts were made, but all was in vain. We could go on to tell of the wonderful acts of heroism. Men, women, and even children, took their part in the fight to defend the Commune. But space does not permit.

Finally, on the 21st of May, the forces of Thiers entered Paris. He had demanded the blood of the Parisians, and the time had now arrived for he and his gang to execute their evil designs of butchery in which they were ably assisted by the much “hated” Prussian, Bismark.

  “Twenty-five thousand men, women and children killed during the battle and after ; three thousand at least dead in the prisons, the pontoons, the forts, or in consequence of maladies contracted during their captivity; thirteen thousand seven hundred condemned, most of them for life; seventy thousand women, children and old men deprived of their natural supporters, or thrown out of France; one hundred and eleven thousand victims at least—that is the balance-sheet of the bourgeois vengeance for the solitary insurrection of the 18th of March.”

So writes M. Lissagaray, the author of the “History of the Commune,” who himself took part in the struggle.

Lest it be said that we are taking the evidence of a partial witness, we will give one quotation from the capitalist press of the time.

  “As many as one thousand Communists were shot after their capture (June 1st). Human life has become so cheap that a man is shot more readily than a dog. Summary executions are still (long after the fighting had ceased) going on wholesale.”—”Times,” May-June, 1871.

Such was the fury of the bourgeois butchers under the leadership of Thiers. No deed was too foul for them to perpetrate upon their defenceless victims.

As Socialists, we are pleased to commemorate the Commune of Paris; it demonstrated to the world, in spite of its many blunders that the workers can, when given a favourable opportunity, control the affairs of society, not only without the aid of the ruling class, but the better for its absence; a fact which unquestionably added to the fury of the French ruling class.

The great value the Commune has for the workers to-day is the lesson they can draw therefrom. The Commune served to bring out the reality of the class struggle, and the ruthlessness of the ruling class when their system, the private property institution, is attacked.

Far too much of that abstraction “Humanity” seemed to characterise the Communards, they treated their bourgeois enemies far too lightly, and too kindly; every act of kindness shown by the Communards, being treated by Thiers as an act of weakness, serving to encourage him in his foul treatment of the Parisians.

If heroism and devotion to the ideal of human solidarity could accomplish anything in themselves, a different tale of the Commune would have to be told, but without sound organisation these will achieve but little.

Not the least of the factors which aided the destruction of the Commune was the mixed elements which composed it.

The Commune, like many other attempts on the part of the workers, demonstrates the absolute necessity for a sound, well-disciplined organisation, understanding, and ready to meet the requirements of the situation. The Socialist Party of Great Britain fulfils the requirement. We steadily point out to the workers the cause of their troubles, and the futility of their many attempts to remove them. The workers must cease to trust in “leaders,” particularly those of the “intellectual minority” type, for this same type of “leader” was known to the Commune.

In conclusion, let us hope that the time is not far distant when the workers sound in their understanding and strong in their determination will arise to avenge their fellows of the Commune, by overthrowing capitalist society and inaugurating the Socialist Commonwealth.

Robert Reynolds

£1000 Fund. (1923)

Party News from the March 1923 issue of the Socialist Standard 

Has Christianity a Solution for Social Problems? (1939)

From the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

Capitalism is its own grave-digger. That is to say it provides and develops the means by which the capitalist social order will be brought to an end. Before historical processes mature thus far capitalism will have virtually buried many of the philosophies and religious ideas which in its day it nurtured. It is almost self-evident that where capitalism is the more developed there religion has the least influence over the minds of the workers. The explanation lies in the material conditions peculiar to capitalism.

Religion had its origin in the childhood of the human race. The farther man’s history is traced back, the cruder his religious superstitions. Each group had its god, which primitive man invested with the miraculous powers of being able to influence tribal fortunes in the struggle for existence. In the workings of nature he saw manifestations of the god’s pleasure and displeasure, of his power to deprive him of his sustenance. Crudely, therefore, he supplicated the gods with offerings and sacrifices. Refined examples of these rituals are practised among Christians to-day.

Tribal man’s god-ideas were related to his material conditions of life and to his degree of understanding of those conditions. As the material conditions changed, so his god-ideas changed. With the growth of larger tribes and confederacies of tribes, the tribal gods disappeared and new ones took their place, which reached maturity in the slave civilisations. Thus the way was prepared for a new conception of the god-idea—the abstract God of Christianity. The slave empires had reached the civilised stage where man’s knowledge of the world, his philosophic speculations upon life, demanded a conception of God which the older religious superstitions did not meet. In the Roman Empire Christianity arose to meet that need. It did not introduce the god-idea, but a particular conception of it, which was a modification of the God-ideas evolved from savagery.

Socialist teaching is not concerned with controversies which favour one god concept against another: it is concerned only with god-ideas in themselves and how they arose. This approach is in conformity with the Materialist Conception of History, which holds that, broadly speaking, the ideas of any particular epoch are related to, and can only be explained by the material conditions then prevailing. This approach religionists find devastating. To deny its fundamental correctness would seem like denying what appears to be self-evident. Yet its logic explodes the basis of Christian teaching. The Christian conception of the revealed God, eternal and unchanging, is destroyed by history’s revelations. The Christian god-idea is shown to be just one of the manifested forms through which the god-idea has evolved. The idea of an independent, all-powerful god, laying down laws and precepts which hold good for all time, is just a man-made myth. True, Christianity has persisted beyond the times which gave it birth, but only by adjusting its teaching to changing conditions. Protestantism appeared when Feudalism was breaking up and expressed in a religious form the antagonisms of the new capitalist class to the old regime. No theologian can explain why the Reformation arose in the fifteenth century and not the fifth. To simple minds the amours of Henry the Eighth might seem a sufficient explanation—but that cannot explain its rise in Germany, France and Holland. Nor, except by the material conditions, can it be explained why the Christian god-idea arose in the days of Rome and not in the period of savagery. God-ideas have changed and have become modified as society has evolved to higher forms and man’s knowledge has increased. Capitalism has brought into existence and has developed scientific knowledge of the workings of the world in which we live. Manifestations of nature, which man understands and can explain, are less attributed to the unseen activities of a god. Hence the modern tendency to the abstract and the impersonal in the god concept among many modern Christians. Yet modern Christianity and savage superstition are fundamentally alike: in both the god-idea has its basis in ignorance.

Socialism and Christianity, therefore, are opposites. The one arises from a knowledge and understanding of the material world and the other from ignorance of it. Socialism is based upon science, Christianity upon faith. It is the refined equivalent of savage superstition. Its ritual has features common to the Pagan and earlier savage practices with which they have a common origin. Christian-Socialism is a meaningless phrase. Yet capitalism has produced movements which claim adherence to both ideas. In the early nineteenth century, Charles Kingsley was a prominent advocate of Christian-Socialism. Kingsley’s “Socialism” expressed nothing more than a compassionate interest in the worst evils of working-class poverty. He gave no support for, and, indeed, had no conception of a social order in which class society did not exist. To the workers he was condescending, conventional and pious: he was as sincere as his Church training permitted him to be. Kingsley’s successors in the Christian-Socialist tradition conformed more or less to type. There is, however, one movement which claims deviation from the type. It is a movement within the Church of England which describes itself as the Catholic Crusade. They pose Christ as the militant and revolutionary agitator, opposed to the tyranny and oppression of his day. They claim that general acceptance of Christianity will end oppression and class society; would, in effect, bring about what Socialists are working to get: though they call it the “Kingdom of God on Earth.” It is a pretty theory and adds just one more to the countless |varieties of “true” Christianity.

But it does just not bear critical examination. The Crusaders have the usual Christian habit of giving Biblical extracts just that twist which suits their purpose. Thus they quote such excerpts from Christian writings as “He shall drag the mighty from their seat and shall exalt the humble and meek,” as though such exhortations were intended to have worldly significance. They can bear no such interpretation. To early Christians they meant nothing more than an adjustment in the next world of the inequalities and sufferings endured in the earthly life. It could not have meant adjustments in this world: for the very good reason that the world had not then reached the stage where it was ready for classless society. The idea of Socialism had not, and could not, have shaped itself in the mind of man. Any “dragging down of the mighty from their seats” might have clothed in religious form the antagonisms of the oppressed slaves of the Roman Empire for their particular ruling oppressors, but it had no connection with the idea of society organised without a ruling class. Society then could not have been organised in any other way than on a class basis. The Christian ethic was the opposite of what some of its modem unorthodox interpreters imply it to mean. It offered compensation in the “next world,” not in this one. It exalted poverty and submissiveness. The ruling class of the Roman Empire adopted it because it made the slaves more contented. With modifications it has been adopted by subsequent ruling classes. To the slave, compensation in another world was attractive, because the material conditions of this world did not show a way out of their miseries. It is different with the modern working class. The system of society in which they are the subject class, the wage-slaves, shows the material social forms through which their oppression and poverty can be ended. True working-class consciousness of its purpose is incomplete, but the unmistakable evidence that it is moulding itself is everywhere.

The duty of the Socialist is clear. The material world demands critical analysis in order that social problems are understood. The solution to those problems must be explained in unambiguous and practical fashion. Working-class problems are material; their solution, Socialism, consists of material proposals. To countenance the clothing of those proposals in the mystic garb of a dying superstition does not assist working-class understanding and would be a disservice to the Socialist movement.

Harry Waite

Christianity's Diminishing Returns (1939)

From the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

“Thy Kingdom Stands, nor Falls for ever.”—(Well-known hymn.)

Thirty-five years ago, when the S.P.G.B. was founded, religion was an issue in debate. To-day the churches are trying to recapture their failing interest, and preserve what is left. A year or two ago the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others, loudly announced a Recall to Religion. The promoters of a united faith have been busy. At the world conference on “Faith and Order,” in August, 1937, the Scottish Roman Catholic Archbishops departed from a long-established practice, and sent observers with a watching brief. On the one hand, growing scientific knowledge has lowered the Church’s stock. The pundits thought they could find refuge in the  writings of the oracles of modern physics. But they found none among recent discoveries in other fields, and especially in psychology. These latter were much more intelligible to most people, equally exciting, and widely read. On the other hand, week-end amusement, ready to hand in the shape of cheap transport, radio and cinema, has eclipsed the churches in their appeal. Even the cheap-jackery of advertisement fails to fill many a parson’s empty pews. God is on diminishing returns.

One of the attempts to weld together the faithful appeared in the form of a report on “Doctrine” last January. Ostensibly, the Committee was set up in 1922, by the late Dr. Davidson, then Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Lang, the Archbishop of York, to—

  Consider the nature and grounds of Christian doctrine with a view to demonstrating the extent of existing agreement within the Church of England, and with a view to investigating how far it is possible to remove or diminish existing differences.” —(Page 55, Manchester Guardian Weekly, January 21st, 1937.)

but it is patently an attempt (adapting the words of the Manchester Guardian at the time) “to make the acceptance of the traditional doctrine of the Church easier for men of modern ways of thinking.”

The Committee was prepared to modify what were once thought to be central tenets of the Anglican faith in order to make adherence less exacting. (For instance, they no longer demanded belief in the Virgin-Birth. Some were prepared to grant the “symbolism” of the creeds and the miracles. They were, likewise, not prepared to insist upon the historicity of the Gospel accounts, but were willing to accept a wide variation of opinion on the character of the Sacraments.) They practically omitted to deal with more fundamental matters, on the ground that these lay outside the terms of reference. As a matter of fact, to face the issue squarely in the light of modern knowledge, would be filing a petition of Christian bankruptcy.

True, as the report sometimes states, even members of the Commission were not always unanimous—a circumstance which they bore with greater composure than the history of the Church would have led one to expect.

But even though unification may be achieved, religion is rapidly losing its claim on the people. C. E. M. Joad wrote two articles in the New Statesman and Nation (January 22nd, January 29th, 1938), in which he analysed the losses on various flanks. Between 1906 and 1936 the Anglican and Free Church schools lost over three and a half million scholars—about fifty per cent. The number of clergymen active in the Church of England has also halved during the same period. An analysis carried on in churches and chapels shows a drop during this time of over seventy-five per cent, in attendances. This drew one resentful letter from a cleric, who tried unsuccessfully to discount the facts. There is also a shortage of candidates for Dedication. A memorial submitted to the Archbishops (December 13th, 1937) proposed to combat this by a number of simple devices. One of these was to urge celibacy as a less expensive mode of life, which would enable the ministers to live on a more meagre salary: —

   The memorial deals with the changes in the social aspects of country districts. Fewer sons of the wealthier classes are being ordained, it is stated; fewer ordinands have any private means. Filling country livings becomes increasingly difficult.

   The remedy at present sought is the amalgamation of benefices, very unpopular in the parishes. This, says the memorial, is surely wrong. The remedy is for the priest to live not in the big glebe house but in a cottage, like his humble parishioners.”—(Daily Telegraph, December 13th. 1937.)

The growth of the poorly-paid element in the Church has been partly responsible for a new outlook, especially in the great cities. In the words of the New Statesman and Nation (January 22nd, 1938): "The Church of England, once the backbone of Conservatism, has become increasingly sympathetic to the more moderate aspirations of Labour ” (p. 107).

But now that working-class demands and actions are a factor in the life of the nation, the Church has had to trim its sails accordingly. The working class will find little support, however, from the classical upholders of privilege and wealth. The Bishop of Durham's letter to The Times (September 24th, 1935) is quoted because, typically, it hides under a cloak of apparent devotion to the miner’s interest a deep antagonism:—

   As matters stand with us in England, I am fully persuaded that strikes and lock-outs are not only widely calamitous to those directly concerned, but unfair to the nation as a whole, and, in the true sense of the word, immoral. It has been my experience to live through two great strikes in this Diocese, and I am unable to see that any other result came from them than suffering, economic confusion, and lamentable social embitterment

   Therefore, in the interest of the whole community, and therein specially of the miners, the clergy cannot, in my judgment, rightly or wisely associate themselves with movements which contemplate, and logically result in, open conflict.

But, to confine ourselves to exposing the religious sham would be a sterile undertaking. Belfort Bax wrote in 1902, in ”The Religion of Socialism ”: —

  There is a party who think to overthrow the current theology by disputation and ridicule. They fail to see that the theology they detest is so closely entwined with the current mode of production that the two must stand or fall together . . .

And that, indeed, is the truth. Religion has slavishly adapted itself to the needs of the hour, and can in these latter days even court the working class. The Kingdom of God has been proven a myth. The Church is no longer militant. Religion serves no ethical, moral or social purpose other than that which corresponds to the need of a privileged class, who take little further stock in it. And the sooner the workers get rid of both, the better; and so much the quicker find a more prosperous state than they are likely to get from the declining ministry upon earth.

C. J. Kilner.

What Do You Want From Life? (1939)

From the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

All men and women of the working class who think clearly, and feel deeply, must come to one conclusion when they consider the worker’s existence under capitalism. They cannot help seeing the great contrast existing between their own lives, as a class, and life as it might, and could, be.

To very many of the workers life seems one long round of economically-forced toil, with very little of the so-called “leisure” we read so much about, insufficient rest and sleep, impaired health, and precious few opportunities for real enjoyment. It is painfully evident that, in this country to-day, existence has its worst phases in the “distressed areas.” The conditions obtaining there are a disgrace to a country vaunting its " civilisation" and evince the callousness of capitalism.

We, as Socialists, are out to abolish, not only these conditions of poverty, privation and preventable misery, but the very system itself which causes them.

Being Socialists, we have an Ideal ever before us—an attainable Ideal. Socialism, we claim, is the only practicable solution for abolishing the many evils that are the product of the operations of capitalism. Socialism, we claim, is the only system that can effectually realise for the world’s multi-millions of toilers a real, true and full Life, such as should be theirs who are the wealth creators.

We want a world where peace reigns from Pole to Pole; a world where war and the very causes of war are abolished.

We desire a full, joyous and unfettered life for the peoples of all climes. And, for this purpose, we seek the complete emancipation of the world’s workers from their wage-slavery, so that all these desirable things should be theirs in complete fulness.

And, to obtain this, we must overthrow the capitalist system, and establish in its place the Socialist Commonwealth of the World.

The three primary essentials in the life of man are food, clothing and shelter. It is to obtain these basic things that the workers seek employment. To “make a living” is the chief concern of millions of people.

Socialism concerns itself with “making life worth living” for every human being: life in its fullest and finest sense—life that is Life indeed! Socialism, being based on the facts and experiences of working-class existence, is pre-eminently a practical social system.

Now, the social system of to-day does not assure or guarantee that the world’s inhabitants shall be amply fed, adequately clothed and properly housed to suit human needs. Based on the private ownership of the means of life, capitalism exists simply for the benefit of those who live on “Rent,” “Interest” and “Profit.”

Nothing is sacred to the capitalist class but their own capitalistic rights. Their ownership and control over the sources of wealth; their “right” to exploit human labour-power; and their ”right” to the surplus-value they appropriate (from which is derived rent, interest and profit)—these are, to them, sacred.

So long as we continue to tolerate this system of private ownership and production for profit, so long will the needs of humanity be disregarded. The starving poor want food, and they cannot buy it because of their poverty. They are ill-clad and poorly shod, yet there are immense quantities of clothing and footwear unsold. They live in hovels amid squalor and filth—while the race-horses of the wealthy are splendidly housed and cared for. “Man's inhumanity to man,” as Bums so aptly phrased it, is exemplified to the nth degree by the social system we know as capitalism. In time of ”peace” or war, human considerations are the last things the ruling-class think of.

Now, as Socialists, we want to make it very clear that we are not only concerned about the ”bread-and-butter” business of "making a living”; we know that is fundamental, and that we must have the three essentials: food, clothing and shelter. We consider our objective is such that these are but the basis of living. We desire that Life for mankind should be the freest and fullest possible, and that every part of his physical, mental and cultural nature should have the finest opportunity for splendid development. In spite of the sneers of anti-Socialists at our "materialistic outlook,” we claim that Socialism, alone, being based on a splendidly firm economic basis, can assure mankind of a perfect foundation on which humanity can build, ever upwards towards the ideals which are possible of attainment only through the Socialist Commonwealth.

We must have a goal to reach, a splendid purpose to fulfil far beyond the petty idea of working for wages in order to get a living; or the parochial ideas of reformers.

Socialism, alone, opens up an immense vista of boundless development for the individual and for the world’s multi-millions.

For Socialism will come to free Man from his age-long bondage.

Now, this bondage—this wage-slavery which holds the world’s workers in its grip—is, in spite of what unthinking or prejudiced non-Socialists say, a very real thing. It is the essential outcome of the means of life being in the hands of a small, but immensely powerful, ruling-class. Owning the means and instruments of wealth-production and distribution, and being in complete control of Political Power, they thus have the means to exercise their will and wish over the world’s toilers in any and every way they desire.

It is obvious that, having these powers and this control over our lives, they are the Master Class.

The capitalist system exists for their benefit as a class; it is operated to increase their wealth; and lives and thrives as a system of thievish gain by systematically robbing the wealth-producing working class.

Let us get rid of our intellectual blinkers, and look squarely in the face of the economic and political facts of our working-class existence.

The vast majority of youths at school-leaving age embark on the hazardous business of trying to “make a living” (if they can “get a job” !), little thinking that, perhaps for fifty years of their life, they will have to work as wage-slaves. They will have to create surplus-values for their employers, which they, as workers, will be robbed of, and will not benefit by. After being exploited and robbed for, say, fifty or sixty years, by the operations of a ruthless wage-system, they will be very little better off financially than when they started. What a prospect! 

Such is the economic life of the average working man. He has worked all through his working life, and his labours have been chiefly to enrich an idle, parasitic and thievish class who live on “Rent," “Interest” and "Profit." This is only one aspect of the case.

For the average working-man is, throughout his toiling years, like a harnessed horse that goes round and round a central mechanism which is kept in motion by his constant movement in a prescribed circle. Occasionally the horse is allowed to stop and feed or drink. Yet, outside his slavish circle, are the luscious fields of sweet sunlit grass— and Freedom!

Of those delights that real freedom would bring he has no opportunity.

And, ask yourself, what opportunity does the working class have to participate in the advantages and enjoyments that are appropriated by a leisured and privileged class?

Most of the things that we, as workers, desire, are unprocurable; for the life of most toilers is arid, cramped, and limited to a very great degree. It in no way approximates to the life that we, as Socialists, visualise and desire all men to have and enjoy.

We desire an equality of opportunity for every man and woman in the world—an opportunity to reach the very peaks of development for the individual’s sake, and for Mankind. Talent and ability should have every encouragement and scope; and self-expression in all that is worth while should be full and free.

To enjoy life to the full in their own way, whilst participating in the greatest freedom possible, should be each man’s right—so long as his actions were not anti-social or prejudicial to the interests of Mankind.

We have not yet reached such a splendid state of human society—but we visualise it! ! And we know that the Socialist Commonwealth, alone, can realise in full a social condition of equality and concord that is expressed by the phrase: “Each for all, and all for each!”

What, then, do you want from Life?

If you have the Ideal before you that we, as Socialists, have, you must be profoundly dissatisfied with capitalism; and if you chance to be a Socialist you will know that the things you desire you will not obtain under the present system—at any rate, not to a satisfactory degree.

Let us, briefly, summarise a few of the most important that, having, will make Life, for you, worth living.

You want good and sufficient food, adequate clothing, and a shelter which is really a home in the fullest sense. You want to feel that these things—the primaries—are assured to you.

You want a reasonable amount of work to do to usefully occupy your active brain and hands— work that is socially useful and productive of good to the community and yourself as an individual. That work should not be a drudgery, or a means of stunting the worker’s mind by its deadly monotony, or wearying by its duration. You want radiant physical and mental health, and every opportunity to sustain it at a splendid pitch of human efficiency for yourself and those around you. Freedom—economic, political and social—is as the breath of life to us. We must have Freedom!—as we Socialists understand it. Leisure, in abundance, in which to develop our many-sided natures, and cultivate the garden of our talents and abilities, so that their finest flowers shall blossom forth. Recreation, too, that shall be productive of splendidly healthy men, women and children, as well as a source of joy. Access, in full, to a knowledge of all the finest products in the field of Art and Science, Literature and Music. Opportunity to travel and enlarge one’s international sympathies and see the marvellous beauty that Nature so prodigally displays. You want an existence that is as productive of joy and happiness to yourself and others as it can possibly be. In one sentence: You want a useful, satisfying, free and happy life.

This, in the main, is probably what many of us desire.

Well, when the working class understand what slaves they really are to the master class, they will begin to start on their splendid wayfaring. When they realise that, if they desire to accomplish their emancipation, they must, as a class, emancipate themselves, they will really be on the move. And when they fully understand that Socialism is their only hope, they must, if they intend to achieve its triumph, study it, and find the way to the goal.

They will become convinced Socialists, and be bent on the one means that will realise a Socialist Commonwealth—the capture of Political Power by a majority of Socialists. Capitalism will thus be overthrown, and a Socialist administration will be ushered in. Nought else avails.

Do you want Life to yield you and your class joy and peace and freedom in all their fulness and splendour ?

You will get these only through your own wise and determined efforts—by establishing a worldwide Socialist Commonwealth !! 

Graham May.

Editorial: Peaceful Manifestations. (1939)

Editorial from the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

For many months, leading statesmen of various nations have made moving pleas for peace. If we were to take their statements seriously, we would be compelled to believe that England, France, Germany, Italy and America had but one object in their foreign policies—to secure a lasting peace.

But capitalism is a curious system and has strange ways of securing its ends.

While, on the one hand, the newspapers have a great deal of space devoted to reports of these peaceful speeches, on the other hand they have pictures of the new gigantic battleships that are being launched for the strange purpose of securing this peace. The peace aimed at is peace among the European nations. Peace among the nations, each of which is building huge armaments, competing against each other in building faster and more destructive aeroplanes, tanks and other killing machines and methods.

The real facts, of course, are that capitalist spokesmen are following the honoured methods of using hypocritical phrases to cover their murderous designs. The basis of these designs is simply the securing of a more favourable position by which to obtain a larger share of the wealth wrung from wage workers.

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg (1939)

Pamphlet Review from the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg 53 pp; 25 cents. Three Arrows Press, New York.

So far as we know, this is the first English translation of Reform or Revolution. Originally, it appeared in German in 1899, its aim being to show the weakness of the case of Eduard Bernstein and Kondradt Schmidt, which stated that the German Social Democratic Party should abandon all idea of a revolutionary transformation of society and aim to improve the status of the working-class by means of the winning of reforms. Bernstein and Schmidt held the view that reforms themselves, if continuously enacted, would gradually make an inroad into capitalism, with the result that Socialism would slowly arrive.

Two groups formed themselves in the Social Democratic Party which hitherto had claimed to be Marxist; one group led by Rosa Luxemburg, Wilhelm Liebknecht and Karl Kautsky, which still called itself Marxist; the other which gathered around Bernstein and advocated gradualism or reformism.

The pamphlet under review, written in defence of scientific Socialism and to demonstrate the fallacies of gradualism, deserves to be widely read, and we recommend it especially to members of the Labour Party, trade unionists and Co-operators.

Before dealing with the pamphlet itself, there is one aspect of its history that is worthy of note. From it can be learned a lesson in party organisation.

The arguments of Reform or Revolution, though sound in the main, were not accepted by the majority of the German SDP. Bernstein’s reformism was preferred. The question arises, “Why did a party which claimed to be Marxist, reject Rosa Luxemburg’s teaching and adopt that of Bernstein?” The answer is that the SDP, while declaring Socialism to be its aim, entered the political arena from the first with a programme of demands for immediate reforms. Consequently, despite the wishes of many of the founders, adherents were gained who were interested in the reforms offered, rather than in the Socialist objective. Because of this unsound foundation, the party became overwhelmed with reformists. As Liebknecht said in his No Compromise, written in the same year as Reform or Revolution, “When once the thin end of the opportunist wedge has forced itself into the policy of the party, the thick end soon follow”. Readers of Liebknecht’s pamphlet will know that very soon the German capitalist class lost its terror of the SDP, many of them joined its ranks and the class basis of the party was gone. The unsound basis of the party was again revealed in 1914, when it supported its own national group of capitalists in the war, just as the British Labour Party supported the British capitalists. Rosa Luxemburg’s Reform or Revolution had been powerless against the strong waves of reformism within the SDP.

The lesson to be learned from the above facts is obvious: when organising for Socialism, the offering of reforms on the party programme spells ruin. Thousands may flock into the party, but they are mostly interested in the reform of capitalism, not in its abolition, and these members swamp the Socialist element. Here is a definite answer to those who urge Socialists to join the Labour Party. History has proved, in the case of the German Social Democratic Party, that Socialists inside a reformist organisation cannot convert it and bring it on to the Socialist path. The only logical thing they can do is to break with the reformists and organise on the clear-cut programme of Socialism. Says Liebknect: “Once . . . we have started upon the inclined plane of compromise, there is no stopping”.

And now let us turn to the pamphlet itself.

The argument put forward—and shown to be true—is that the working-class cannot hope for Socialism from trade unions, Co-operatives or from reform movements.

Trade unions, Rosa Luxemburg, shows, are a part of capitalism itself. They are the workers’ weapons of defence against the capitalist class which aims at increasing its profits. They are useful in that they enable the workers to sell their labour-power under more favourable conditions than would otherwise be the case. However, they are not able to take the offensive against capitalism, to overthrow it, because they are badly handicapped. They are handicapped because the continued increase in the use of machinery makes for a greater productivity of labour, and therefore enables the capitalist class to employ fewer hands for the production of a given quantity of goods. Furthermore, trade unions cannot increase the share of wealth going to the working class. Owing to the development of capitalism and the greater productivity of labour, this share is continually being reduced. When the workers produce more, their wages do not rise in the same proportion (pp. 16-18 and p. 37).

Co-operative Societies are no more able than trade unions to end capitalism. As Rosa Luxemburg points out (pp. 35-6) they can survive within the present system only if they become pure capitalist enterprises. They have to compete with capitalist firms, and to do so successfully they must adopt capitalist methods of production.

  “Labour is intensified. The work day is lengthened or shortened, according to the situation of the market. And, depending on the requirements of the market, labour is either employed or thrown back into the street. In other words, use is made of all the methods that enable an enterprise to stand up against its competitors in the market. The workers forming a co-operative in the field of production . . . are obliged to take toward themselves the role of the capitalist entrepreneur—a contradiction that accounts for the usual failure of production co-operatives, which either become pure capitalist enterprises or, if the workers’ interests continue to predominate, end by dissolving”.

How capitalist the co-operatives have become in England may be seen from the fact that their employees, like employees in any capitalist concern, have frequently had to strike against their conditions of work.

Those who hope to establish Socialism by means of a long series of reforms will find in this book an explanation of why they are doomed to disappointment.

A revolution and a legislative reform are two completely different factors in the development of society. “A social transformation and a legislative reform do not differ according to their duration but according to their content.” A revolution is the work of a class which has gained political power in order to transform society to suit its interests; a reform is carried out only within the framework of the social system created by the previous revolution. Hence reforms cannot end capitalism; they can modify it to some extent, but they leave its basis untouched. To establish socialism, a revolution—a complete transformation of private property into social property—is necessary.

  “That is why people who pronounce themselves in favour of the method of legislative reform in place of and in contradistinction to the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society they take a stand for surface modifications of the old society” (p; 43).

Furthermore, the State to-day is a class State, established by the capitalist class and carried on in its interests. It is the representative of capitalist society, wherein capitalist interests dominate. Any social reforms that are passed, therefore, will not be injurious to capitalism. Says Rosa Luxemburg (p. 21):

  “The present State is, first of all, an organisation of the ruling class. It assumes functions favouring social development specifically because, and in the measure that, these interests and social development coincide, in a general fashion, with the interests of the dominant class. Labour legislation is enacted as much in the immediate interest of the capitalist class as in the interest of society in general.”

Since the struggle for reforms cannot alter the slave position of the working class, it ends by bringing indifference and disillusionment to the workers who look to reforms for emancipation.

  “Since the social reforms can only offer an empty promise, the logical consequence of such a programme must necessarily be disillusionment” (p. 26).

If trade unions, Co-operatives and reform movements are unable to oust capitalism and usher in Socialism, what must we do to reach our goal? Rosa Luxemburg indicates the way.

“From the first appearance of class societies . . . the conquest of political power has been the aim of all rising classes” (p. 42). 

The workers, too, being an oppressed class, must aim at capturing political power. And they must make use of democracy for that end. Democracy is indispensable to the working-class “because it creates the political forms which will serve the proletariat as fulcrums in its task of transforming bourgeois society” (p. 45). Democracy the working-class needs, and this can be best preserved, not by compromise, but by struggling for Socialism. Lovers of democracy should ponder carefully the following:

  “Democracy does not acquire greater chances of life in the measure that the working-class renounces the struggle for its emancipation, but, on the contrary, democracy acquires greater chances of survival as the Socialist movement becomes sufficiently strong to struggle against the reactionary consequences of world politics, and the bourgeois desertion of democracy. He who would strengthen democracy should want to strengthen and not weaken the Socialist movement. He who renounces the struggle for Socialism renounces both the Labour movement and democracy” (p. 41).

Rosa Luxemburg puts forward certain points of view with which we do not agree. For example, we hold that she lays too much emphasis on the decline of capitalism and its collapse. Readers of Reform or Revolution would do well to study also our penny pamphlet Why Capitalism Will Not Collapse.

Clifford Allen

("Reform or Revolution" is obtainable from 42 Great Dover Street, S.E.1, at 1s, post free 1s. 1d.)

Learn about Leaders, Old and New. (1939)

From the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

There are many politically uninformed members of the working class who repeat “We can’t do without a leader.” Socialists know that the political circus meetings, staged alike by leaders of both the Fascists and Communists (or rightly Confusionists), are harmful to the real interests of the working class. These revivalist meetings, with their rampant emotionalism and the cult of “leadership," hinder the growth of a clear understanding of the nature of capitalist society. Unquestionably, the more astute of the propertied class are well aware of the value to them of these Confusionists, who turn the normal healthy discontent of the workers into the Reformist Maze. Very occasionally we see the capitalists clearly appreciating the real function of these careerist demagogues. Recently the capitalist Press mentioned the eightieth birthday of Mr. John Burns in the following headlines: “80th Birthday of the first Working Man to become a Cabinet Minister.” So, fellow workers of the younger generation, you may see that the Labour trio, MacDonald, Snowden, Thomas, were not the first to use a politically ignorant working class for their own political and personal advancement. Maybe the following paragraph, taken from The Socialist Standard, April 1st, 1908, will help you to appreciate the rôle played by the Pollitts, Citrines, Gallaghers and Morrisons of to-day: —

BOANERGES BELLIGERENT.

  In other words, John Burns rampant. In fact, he is overdoing it.

  His greatness, John Burns himself admits; but it is evident that it was not the “Great Man” himself, but the workers who followed him, who were sold to the Liberal Government for lucrative office.

  And the capitalist Press is at times cynically frank in discussing the merits of its faithful servants. Thus the Observer, doing the “candid friend," said (March 15, 1908)—

Mr. Burns may play a strong role in the national struggle against Socialism, and we like his unstooping courage. But he overdoes the part of Boanerges belligerent. We do not want him to lose his influence over the masses. We want him to retain it; but unless he modifies his later manner his words will carry less weight with the masses than those of any man in England. Once that is seen, his present popularity with plutocrats will fade. These are not pleasant things to say, but they must be said if the President of the Local Government Board is to be prevented from spoiling his career by excess of temperament.

 Clearly, if John is not careful, he will have nothing left to sell.

Vic.

Party Funds. (1939)

Party News from the March 1939 issue of the Socialist Standard

Comrades,

Last August an urgent appeal was made to every member and sympathiser to help reduce a debt of £125. The hope was expressed that the Party’s financial position would be in a sound state by Christmas.

The statement of the Party’s financial position in January’s “S.S.” revealed that the hope was well founded, because by the end of 1938, the income had considerably exceeded expectations.

I understand from the Treasurer that a good start has been made for 1939, and there seems reason to expect that progress will be maintained.

It seems almost certain that a General Election will not be delayed beyond Autumn of this year. Therefore, I want to urge all members to make every possible effort to strengthen the Parliamentary and General Funds.

We must not rest content with past achievements, because there is a steady drain on the Parliamentary Fund as a result of pre-election propaganda expenses. Whilst it is important to maintain the drive for donations, it is more important to increase literature sales and organise collections at meetings.

The Finance Committee is with me in this appeal to members, and it is our optimistic belief that every, comrade will co-operate.

H. G. Holt,

February, 1939. Party Funds Organiser.

Health Service under attack (1985)

From the March 1985 issue of the Socialist Standard

In a capitalist society there is. inevitably, a conflict between the health needs of the working population and the pursuit of profit. Workers are viewed predominantly as economic units to be exploited for their labour power. The cut-throat nature of capitalist competition obliges manufacturers to keep production costs as low as possible to maintain profits and avoid being undercut by rivals and forced out of business.

Conflicts occur because the unchecked efforts of manufacturers to produce goods as cheaply as possible lead to the impoverishment of the workers by the payment of low wages, longer working hours, hazardous working conditions, exploitation of child labour, environmental pollution, and stress from alienating, repetitive, boring work on factory production lines. But a considerable amount of ill-health is caused by the interplay of factors resulting from the exploitation of labour. Accidents are caused by fatigue and hazardous working conditions. occupational disorders are common; gross exploitation leads to poverty, bad housing and malnutrition. However, the provision of health care represents a cost against production to be avoided if possible. The workers try, with partial success, to mitigate exploitation through trade unions and parliamentary reforms by pressing for better working conditions, higher rates of pay and the provision of health and social services.

In the early days of the industrial revolution the large-scale migration of labour from rural to urban areas provided a plentiful supply of unskilled labour. Consequently, there was no incentive for the capitalists to conserve the workers' health. By the 1830s the misery endured by the working class led to labour agitation which found expression in syndicalism and Chartism and posed a threat to the stability of the state. At the same time cholera epidemics threatened the rich as well as the poor and led to the reform of sanitary facilities initiated by the 1848 Public Health Act. By contrast tuberculosis, a disease of poverty, which did not seriously threaten the affluent in large numbers, continued to be a major cause of death for the poor for nearly a century longer.

Iliffe (1983) has examined the political motives underlying the 1911 National Health Insurance Act. with its attempt to placate labour agitation and undermine the influence of the emergent Labour Party; provide a fitter fighting force for the impending war with Germany, and make the workers believe that substantial social change afterwards would make the war worth fighting. The position of workers as economic units under capitalism was exemplified by the exclusion of women and children from even the limited provisions of the Act.

The modern welfare state was drawn up by William Beveridge in 1942 with apparently more humane and far-reaching provisions for health care than previous legislation. Many absurd claims have been made that the creation of the welfare state was "revolutionary" or "socialism in action", but Kincaid (1973) states:

  In his plan Beveridge gave expression to a broad section of hardheaded opinion in the ruling class of his period. He was for social reform. so long as the existing structure of society remained fundamentally the same. In fact he was for social reform precisely because it would allow the existing order to continue essentially unchanged. It is not as a visionary that Beveridge deserves to be remembered. Rather his particular distinction lay in an ability to translate the general objectives of ruling class reformism into detailed and technically workable proposals.

The National Health Service of 1948 introduced a comprehensive system of health care "free at the point of use” for the first time. This principle has been undermined from the beginning and now, at a time of industrial recession, the very foundations of the welfare system are under attack. This is because there is now a surplus of labour and capital does not need to conserve the workers' health. Indeed, in terms of profitability — the motivation which drives capitalism — it is uneconomic to spend money on the health care of "non-producers" such as the unemployed or the elderly.

The class bias of mortality rates is often not fully appreciated for it is believed that illness strikes at random, that modern illnesses are diseases of affluence, and that progress is being made towards a better life (Mitchell. 1984). The facts show otherwise, for as Mitchell states:

  The National Morbidity Survey reveals a clear pattern among long-term and recurrent illnesses. Chronic bronchitis is a major cause of time off work and a persistent and disabling condition. Women with husbands in unskilled jobs go to see the doctor with it three times more often than women married to men in professional jobs. Among their husbands there is a four-fold difference. With bad backs, bones and joints, the picture is similar. Women in social class one go to see the doctor with arthritis half as frequently as women in social class five Doctors see men in unskilled jobs with slipped discs, back pain and sciatica three times more often than men in professional jobs. Ulcers, another so-called "businessman's disease", drive men at the bottom of society to the doctors twice as frequently as men at the top. Top men die of ulcers four times less frequently than men in unskilled jobs. Other common conditions for which there is the same kind of class pattern include varicose veins, phlebitis, chronic digestive problems, epilepsy and diabetes.

For middle-aged men in social class five the death rate has actually risen in the last thirty years compared with a fall in social class one (Black Report. 1982).

Although the "welfare state" was created to patch up the problems caused by poverty without damaging the wealth and privileges of the few it does, nevertheless, alleviate some of the misery and insecurity of the system and was not gained without considerable. if misguided, struggle on the part of the workers. But like all reforms it has been only partially successful and has shown how vulnerable to attack it can be. In the last two decades hospitals have closed all over Britain. By contrast, private insurance schemes increased by 25 per cent between 1971 and 1979 (Iliffe. 1980). For the poor, the old. the disabled, the chronic sick, mentally ill and mentally handicapped a move to insurance based medical services has frightening implications because of difficulty obtaining insurance as they lack profitable investment prospects. Iliffe has described how the closure of mental hospitals without adequate alternative provision causes mentally ill people to drift into the "homeless, workless population that sleeps in cardboard boxes and derelict buildings, rummages through litter bins and provides police, courts and prisons with an unpunishable stratum of hopeless recidivists".

Capitalism rewards its other large group of "non-producers" — the elderly — with incarceration in former workhouses when they fall ill. But with hospital places failing to keep pace with demand larger numbers of the elderly are looked after by relatives. Community care has become a euphemism for sacrificing families to care for incontinent or demented relatives at home — risking health, suffering financial hardship and marital stress. Most of this burden falls on women who are considered marginal to the workforce and. although permitted to work during a time of labour shortage are expected to care for the elderly, the sick and handicapped at home when public services are cut.

Private residential homes for the elderly have flourished in an attempt to profit from the lack of adequate public services and have been encouraged by the present government. However, Philipson (1985) has provided examples from several different countries to show that when profit is the dominating force the standards of care leave much to be desired. The privatisation of catering. laundry and domestic services threatens the job security of many hospital employees; breaks the strength of the trade unions; forces down wages to subsistence levels. All of these moves are more difficult to resist at a time of unemployment which damages the bargaining power of the unions.

Good health is best maintained by avoiding poverty, dirty, dangerous work, poor housing and polluted environments. The National Health Service, valuable though it is in times of illness, cannot remedy these problems.

The National Health Service represents the best and the worst aspects of reformism. It has undoubtedly ameliorated some of the more health damaging effects of capitalism without tackling the misery of the system itself. High technology medicine continues to flourish at the expense of psychiatric, geriatric and community care. But if private medicine replaces the National Health Service the poor will not be able to afford such treatment as heart transplants or micro-surgery. And if only insurance schemes are available then workers will pay to be at the back of the queue and it will cost even more to move to the front.

Carl Pinel

References

Iliffe. S. (1980) "Private medicine and the Tory government". Medicine in Society 6(1) 12-15. 

Iliffe. S. (1983) The NHS. A Picture of Health? Lawrence and Wishart. London, pp 17-19. 

Kincaid. J. C. (1973) Poverty and Equality in Britain. Penguin. Harmondsworth. pp 45-46. 

Mitchell. J. (1984) What Is To Be Done About Illness And Health? Crisis in the Eighties. Penguin. Harmondsworth.

Philipson. C. (1985) "Private care or no care at all? — a socialist dilemma" Medicine in Society 10 (4) 21-23.

Townsend. P. and Davidson. N. (1982) Inequalities in Health: The Black Report. Penguin. Harmondsworth. p 51.