British Socialism: An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical ProposalsBarker, J. Ellis
History
British Socialism: An Examination of Its Doctrines, Policy, Aims and Practical Proposals
Barker, J. Ellis
Socialism; Socialism -- Great Britain
needed, what an ass this would be to attempt to lead the men to
victory! Successful strikes are never made by the farcical tactics of a
Bell. Recognition, forsooth! They'll recognise you when you strike.
Workers, watch your leaders!"[1087]
In view of the connection existing between British Socialism and
Anarchism, it is but natural that Socialists have become the
apologists of Anarchism. "The vulgar notion that Anarchism is a
synonym for disorder is as nearly as possible the reverse of the
truth. It is Governments and Laws that do all the mischief. They
produce the very evils they pretend to remedy."[1088] "Verily the
State is the evil. Back to the land. Back to the simple life. Away
with Governments, palavers, Dumas, and Courts of Law. Long live the
Commune."[1089]
Anarchists contend that the "Social Revolution" for which most
Socialists strive will become an Anarchist revolution: "If the workers
succeed by revolt in destroying the mutual insurance society of
landlords, bankers, priests, judges, and soldiers; if the people
become masters of their destiny for a few months, and lay hands on the
riches they have created and which belong to them by right--will they
really begin to reconstitute that blood-sucker, the State[1090]?" "On
the day when ancient institutions splinter into fragments before the
axe of the proletariat, voices will be heard shouting: Bread for all!
Lodging for all! Right for all to the comforts of life! And these
voices will be heeded. The people will say to themselves: Let us
begin by satisfying our thirst for the life, the joy, the liberty we
have never known. And when all have tasted happiness we will set to
work; the work of demolishing the last vestiges of middle-class rule,
with its account-book morality, its philosophy of debit and credit,
its institutions of mine and thine. 'While we throw down we shall be
building' as Proudhon said, 'we shall build in the name of Communism
and of Anarchy."[1091] Anarchists are authorities on revolutions. Very
likely Prince Kropotkin's view is right.
There are two kinds of Anarchists: Philosophic Anarchists who
propagate their views by speech and pen, and Anarchists of action who
propagate their views by dynamite and dagger, and the former are
responsible for the crimes of the latter. Many British Socialists
defend not only philosophic Anarchism, but also that form of Anarchism
which finds its expression in murder.
Leading British Socialists refer, for instance, to the four
Anarchists, Spies, Fischer, Engel, and Parsons, the heroes of the
Chicago bomb outrage, who were responsible for the death of six
policemen and for the wounding of about sixty, and who were hanged in
November 1886 in Chicago, as "martyrs,"[1092] and British Socialists
are urged to follow the glorious footsteps of the Chicago Anarchists:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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