Society can be organized for the performance of this great industrial
function of production on the plan of mutualism—_all_ of the people
having Joint-ownership and joint-control of the _chief material means of
production_, all of the people of proper age and condition of health
performing useful, necessary social service,—there being no industrial
master class and no industrial dependent class,—the industrial
independence of all the members of society being due to the fact that
each is an owner, a joint owner, of the chief material means of
production. Every one is thus _commandingly related_ to the absolutely
necessary _means of life_. With equality in ownership and equality in
control of _the things used in getting a living_ the people become
_equals in opportunity_ to get a living,—that is, industrially free. The
dominant institution would be the institution of public property in the
dominant means used in performing the dominant social function. This
would render impossible the domination of society by a _group_ or
_class_ within society—ALL the members of society _would have their feet
firmly planted upon the foundations of life_, the means of life, the
means of production; and _could not be crowded off the foundations_ and
robbed by private owners of these foundations.
This form of society may properly be called an industrial democracy.
The _purpose_ of this form of society is the _welfare of all_ the
members of society.
Under this form of society there would be no industrial classes; and
therefore, class robbery would _not_ be and could _not_ be organized,
legalized and easy.
=Second Possible Form of Social Organization=: On the =Plan of
Antagonism=—that is, with a _Class_-Labor System—under which the
INDUSTRIAL FOUNDATIONS of society are PRIVATE PROPERTY,—privately owned
by one class and productively used by the other class.
Society can, indeed, be organized for the performance of this great
industrial function of production on the plan of a class-labor
system—one part of society being in the strategic position of industrial
masters, a ruling class, their mastery being due to the fact that they
own as private property the _chief material means of production_;—the
other part of society being in the helpless position of industrial
dependents, a working class,—their industrial dependence being due to
the fact that they have no effective share in the ownership and control
of the chief material means of production.
This form of society we may properly call an industrial despotism.
The _purpose_ of this form of society is the _special welfare of part_
of the members of society.
Under this class-labor form of society, class robbery is _organized,
legalized, and easy_.
The _foundation institution of all despotism_ is the institution of
private property in the economic foundations of society—that is, in the
means of production. This is the rock-bottom of organized, legalized and
easy robbery of the workers by the shirkers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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