The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery: How it came into the world and how it shall be made to go outO'Brien, James Bronterre
History
The rise, progress, and phases of human slavery: How it came into the world and how it shall be made to go out
O'Brien, James Bronterre
Labor; Labor movement; Slavery; Social problems; Working class
Unjust Laws to enable the Few to deprive the Working Class
of their Earnings--Private Property in Land the Basis of
Wages-Slavery--Raw Materials of Wealth belong to all--Land and
Money Lords govern the World--Right of Working Class to the Use of
Credit--Surplus of Earnings of Working Class beyond Consumption
the Source of all Capital.
To provide a full, adequate, and permanent remedy for the manifold and
all-pervading ills that are the consequence of land-monopoly and usury,
the people must reclaim their right to the National Territory, which
has been gradually and surreptitiously usurped by private and sinister
interests; the enactment of laws to secure for all, co-ordinately
therewith, the mighty engine of Credit, which must be utilized for the
industrious orders of society, who are the strength and mainstay of the
nation, and therefore the most entitled to its benefits.
The fourth and fifth resolutions of the League run as follows:--
“The gradual resumption by the State (on the acknowledged principle
of equitable compensation to existing holders or their heirs) of its
ancient, undoubted, inalienable dominion and sole proprietorship
over all the lands, mines, turbaries, fisheries, &c., of the United
Kingdom and our Colonies, the same to be held by the State, as trustee
in perpetuity for the entire people, and rented out to them in such
quantities as the law and local circumstances may determine; because
the land, being the gift of the Creator to ALL, can never become the
exclusive property of individuals; because the monopoly of the land
in private hands is a palpable invasion of the rights of the excluded
parties, rendering them, more or less, the slaves of landlords and
capitalists, and tending to circumscribe or annul their other rights
and liberties; because a monopoly of the earth by a portion of mankind
is no more justifiable than would be the monopoly of the air, light,
heat, or water; and because the rental of the land (which justly
belongs to the whole people) would form a national fund adequate to
defray all charges of the public service, execute all needful public
works, and educate the population, without the necessity of any
taxation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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