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
Mr. Blatchford suggests the following: "The public maintenance and the
public education of children. The public provision of work for all.
The taxation of the land and of all large incomes. The confiscation of
unearned increment. Old-age pensions. The minimum wage. Compulsory
land cultivation. Universal adult suffrage. The second ballot. The
payment of election expenses. The nationalisation of the railways and
of the land. The nationalisation or municipalisation of trams, gas,
water, bread, liquor, milk, coal, and many other things. The abolition
of hereditary titles and of the House of Lords."[333]
The general policy which the Socialists should follow was summed up by
Marx in the following way. "The Communists everywhere support every
revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order
of things."[334] "Socialism is the only hope of the workers. All else
is illusion. Workers of all lands, unite! You have nothing to lose but
your chains. You have a world to win."[335]
"This is the final struggle. The extinction of classes must follow the
overthrow of the last form of class domination and the emancipation of
the last class to be set free. Rally then, fellow workers, to the
standard of the international class-conscious proletariat, the Red
Flag of Social-Democracy. 'Workers of all countries, unite! You have
nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to win!'"[336] "The
land of England is no mean heritage."[337]
"What has hitherto prevented the workers from combining for
the overthrow of the capitalist system? A. Ignorance and
disorganisation.--Q. What has left them in ignorance? A. The system
itself, by compelling them to spend all their lives upon monotonous toil
and leaving them no time for education.--Q. What account have they been
given of the system which oppresses them? A. The priest has explained
that the perpetual presence of the poor is necessitated by a law of God;
the economist has proved its necessity by a law of Nature; and between
them they have succeeded in convincing the labourers of the hopelessness
of any opposition to the capitalist system.--Q. How is it that the
labourers cannot see for themselves that they are legally robbed? A.
Because the present method of extracting their surplus value is one of
fraud rather than of force, and has grown gradually."[338]
The philosopher of British Socialism well sums up the aims and policy
of the Socialists. He says: "What is vital in Socialism? In the first
line, I take it, come
"1. The collectivisation of _all_ the instruments of production by
_any_ effective means;
"2. The doctrine of the Class War as the general historical method of
realising the new form of society;
"3. The principle of internationalism, the recognition, _i.e._ that
distinction of nationality sinks into nothingness before the idea of
the union of all progressive races in the effort to realise the ideal
of true society as understood by the Social-Democratic Party;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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