Communism and Christianism: Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of ViewBrown, William Montgomery
Religion
Communism and Christianism: Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View
Brown, William Montgomery
Christian socialism; Communism; Communism and Christianity
"Slavery is not abolished. It is merely a change in the struggle
which throws itself hither and thither like the waves of the seas.
In ancient times chattel slavery existed. Feudalism then took its
place. Feudalism in its turn was overthrown by capitalism which at
present reigns supreme. As the immortal Tolstoy explained, 'The
abolition of the old slavery is similar to that which Tartars did
to their captives. After they had cut up their heels they placed
stones and sand in the wounds and then took the chains off. The
Tartars were sure that when the feet of their prisoners were
swollen, that they could not run away and would have to work even
without chains. Such is the slavery of wages'.
Of this slavery does revolutionary unionism speak in the name of
the revolutionary worker. It analyzes the present society and shows
that it is divided into two economic classes. One class, the
capitalist class, is the master class which controls all the
factories, mills, mines, railroads, lands and fields and all the
finished and raw materials. This class possesses all the natural
riches of the world and this economic supremacy gives it control of
the state, of the church, and of all educational institutions. In
short, this class owns everything and controls the whole social and
political life of each country. The other class, the working class,
owns nothing. It produces all and enjoys little. It uses the
machines and tools but does not possess them, and is therefore
forced to sell its only possession, its labor power, to the master
class. And the latter uses the opportunity to buy that wonderful
power like any raw material or some other commodity (some of the
representatives of craft unionism wish to deny this but
unsuccessfully). For the commodity which the worker is compelled to
sell in order that he might live, he receives a wage which is
determined as is the price of every other commodity. The price is
always smaller than the value of the product which the worker
produces for the capitalist.
Between these two classes there must, naturally, exist a
tremendous struggle which often has the character of actual war. No
one urges the workers to this war--not the terrible I. W. W.'s nor
the political socialist, neither the Bolsheviks nor the Anarchists,
but the war naturally and inevitably arises from existing
conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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