The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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166 the socialism of to-day. tutions, based though they are on family ties and immemorial traditions. When what we call progress comes to shake this patriarchal life from its torpor, and new wants come into being, the associates no longer care to labour for the common weal ; they demand a partition. Little by little the spirit of individualism is destroying the Slavic zadruga, as^ before, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it brought about the disappearance of the communities of ancient France. hen isolated, are the families happier ? Far from it. Often they have to sell their properties and lapse into poverty. Still they wish for freedom and independence, even at the price of the responsibilities and disappointments thereby engendered. Before another half-century, when railways and modern in dustry shall have developed the wealth of Southern Slavonia, the ancient equality will have given way to the opposition between capitalism and wage-earning, as in our western countries. We may regret the fact, but it cannot be denied j existing tendencies seem fatal to rural communities. They endure only when they rest on a religious sentiment of a perfervid type, as at Oneida or among the T rappists. During the year 1869 the International spread with extraordinary rapidity. There was a great ferment among the working classes throughout Europe, and particularly in France, where, after the May elections, the Government, doubtless with the object of rallying the middle classes to its side, had given complete liberty to the violent language of the clubs. Strikes took place all over Europe, and in many parts, notably at Seraing in Belgium, and at Creusot in France, they ended in skirmishes and bloodshed. All these strikes brought recruits to the International in the hope of getting aid. Usually they did not succeed, for the great association was not rich ; but in the early days of excitement it was supposed to be powerful, and it caused employers to make concessions, just as if it were really so. How adhesions to the International were made may be clearly seen from the answer of the prisoner Bastin, at the time of the trial of May, 1870. “ I am accused,” he said to the president, “ of having joined a secret society. I deny it expressly. 1 rue,

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