Communism; Industrial Workers of the World; Socialism
"Having aroused the slaves to realize their status by saying in
substance: the rich unjustly possess the land; we want all that is
ours and are not willing that any man should possess that which is
not his--Zapata would lead his army into some rich valley and
simply dispossess the wealthy 'owners.' Then the peons on the land
would be given the use of the land. Not one man in the ninety
thousand square miles holds a title to one foot of land. After
getting the new territory, the land was cultivated and the district
organized.
"When strong enough the army--the propaganda branch of the
revolution--held another convention in some other fertile valley
and benevolently assimilated some other opulent set of
slave-driving usurpers of the land....
"Every citizen of each community is given a little brass
citizenship tag. It is necessary to show this only in strange
towns. It is his passport for whatever he needs for food, clothing
and shelter. Each person goes into the stores and gets what he
needs for the simple asking.
"We have heard endless discussions as to the nature of the future
medium of exchange. Many volumes have been written on the subject.
Zapata isn't worrying over these problems. He is leaving them where
they belong--to the philosophers. There isn't any medium of
exchange in Zapata's land. Why should there be on a free earth? If
a man wanted ten pairs of sandals or shoes he could have them, but
why would he want them? He can always go--in Zapata's country--to
any store and get a pair when he needs one. So with all other
provisions. In practice, in the few years the plan has been in
operation, the peons have not abused the privilege. They are
producers, and realize it. Why rob themselves? There is not one
idea of profit in all that 90,000 square miles, and human nature is
just as it was when Adam delved and Eve spun.
"Travelers are not being admitted freely just now, in these
unsettled times, because of the lying reports carried away by
spying emissaries of capitalism. But when one is given permission
to visit the country, his route is marked out and listed on the
passport given him. He pays the government and then is provided
freely on all the travels over the designated route.
"No women or children are to be found in any line of manual labor
in mill, field or factory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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