Neither of the political parties is of any use to the workers, because
both the political parties are paid, officered, and led by capitalists
whose interests are opposed to the interests of the workers. The
Socialist laughs at the pretended friendship of Liberal and Tory leaders
for the workers. These party politicians do not in the least understand
what the rights, the interests, or the desires of the workers are; if
they did understand, they would oppose them implacably. The demand of
the Socialist is a demand for the nationalisation of the land and all
other instruments of production and distribution. The party leaders will
not hear of such a thing. If you want to get an idea how utterly
destitute of sympathy with Labour the privileged classes really are,
read carefully the papers which express their views. Read the organs of
the landlords, the capitalists, and the employers; or read the Liberal
and the Tory papers during a big strike, or during some bye-election
when a Labour candidate is standing against a Tory and a Liberal.
It is a very common thing to hear a party leader deprecate the increase
of "class representation." What does that mean? It means Labour
representation. But the "class" concerned in Labour representation is
the working class, a "class" of thirty millions of people. Observe the
calm effrontery of this sneer at "class representation." The thirty
millions of workers are not represented by more than a dozen members.
The other classes--the landlords, the capitalists, the military, the
law, the brewers, and idle gentlemen--are represented by something like
six hundred members. This is class representation with a vengeance.
It is colossal _impudence_ for a party paper to talk against "class
representation." Every class is over-represented--except the great
working class. The mines, the railways, the drink trade, the land,
finance, the army (officers), the navy (officers), the church, the law,
and most of the big industries (employers), are represented largely in
the House of Commons.
And nearly thirty millions of the working classes are represented by
about a dozen men, most of whom are palsied by their allegiance to the
Liberal Party.
And, mind you, this disproportion exists not only in Parliament, but in
all County and Municipal institutions. How many working men are there on
the County Councils, the Boards of Guardians, the School Boards, and the
Town Councils?
The capitalists, and their hangers-on, not only make the laws--they
administer them. Is it any wonder, then, that laws are made and
administered in the interests of the capitalist? And does it not seem
reasonable to suppose that if the laws were made and administered by
workers, they would be made and administered to the advantage of Labour?
Well, my advice to working men is to return working men representatives,
with definite and imperative instructions, to Parliament and to all
other governing bodies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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