Not only so, but out of the several sorts and varieties of political
socialism, only one has revived in any strength, and that is the
extremest and most revolutionary. It is the democratic communism of the
Young Hegelians, and it scouts the very suggestion of State-help, and
will content itself with nothing short of State-transformation. Schemes
such as were popular and noisy thirty years ago--schemes, involving
indeed organic changes, but organic changes of only a partial
character--have gone to their rest. Louis Blanc, for example, was then a
name of some power; but, remarkably enough, though Louis Blanc was but
the other year buried with great honour, his Organization of Labour
seems to be as completely forgotten as the Circulus of Leroux. M. G. de
Molinari writes an interesting account of the debates that took place in
the working men's clubs of Paris in the year 1868-9--the first year they
were granted liberty of meeting after the establishment of the Second
Empire--and he states that while Fourier and Cabet were still quoted by
old disciples, though without any idea of their systems being of
practical moment, Louis Blanc's name was not even mentioned. Proudhon's
gospel of a State bank of mutual credit for furnishing labourers with
capital, by issuing inconvertible notes without money and without price,
has still a sprinkling of faithful believers, who call themselves
Mutualists; but they are extremely few, and, as a rule, the socialists
of France at the present day, like those of Germany, put their faith in
iron rather than paper. What they want is a democracy of labour, to use
one of their own phrases--that is, a State in which power and property
shall be based on labour; where citizenship shall depend on a labour
qualification, instead of a qualification of birth or of property; where
there shall be no citizen who enjoys without labouring, and no citizen
who labours without enjoying; where every one who is able to work shall
have employment, and every one who has wrought shall retain the whole
produce of his labour; and where accordingly, as the indispensable
prerequisite of the whole scheme, the land of the country and all other
instruments of production shall be made the joint property of the
community, and the conduct of all industrial operations be placed under
the direct administration of the State. Furthermore, all this is
contended for as a matter of simple right and justice to the labouring
classes, on the ground that the wealth of the nation belongs to the
hands that made it; it is contended for as an obligation of the State,
because the State is held to be merely the organized will of the people,
and the people is the labouring class; and it is contended for as an
object of immediate accomplishment--if possible, by ordinary
constitutional means; but, if not, by revolution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account