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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THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 186 its numbers diminishing on all sides. The void was coming. The famous Association was dying. To save it, it was resolved to convoke for next year, at Ghent, a universal congress of Socialism. It was hoped that in this way they might regain lost ground. In the report I find nothing worth mentioning except a discussion between the Belgian delegate, César de Paepe, who defended the State, and the Italian delegate, Malatesta, who in the name of the “ anarchists ” demanded its abolition. It is curious to observe how far the anarchist ideas resemble those of the rigid economists. “ Society,” says Malatesta, “is not an artificial aggregation brought about by force, or by the contact of individuals by nature mutually re pellent. It is a living organic body, of which men are the cellules, contributing individually and collectively to the life and growth of the whole. It is regulated by laws which are immanent, necessary, and immutable, as are all natural laws. There is no social pact, but there is certainly a social law. What, then, is the State ? An excrescence ”—the economists say a canker—“ which lives at the expense of the social body, and which has no other object and no other effect than to organize and keep up the exploitation of the workers. This is our reason for wishing to destroy the State. How, then, shall society be organized? We cannot know. We utterly distrust all Utopian solutions. Nor do we want any artificial, fantastic, anti-scientific Socialism, nor any “Socialism of the study,” and we shall oppose such Socialism as reactionary. Our single aim must be to destroy the State. It will then be for the free and fertile action of the natural laws of Society to accomplish the destinies of humanity.” This is an ex pression of the ideas which tend more and more to predominate among Socialists in France, Italy, and Spain. The influence of positivism and Herbert Spencer is manifest. Before attending the universal congress at Ghent the Anarchists assembled in Belgium, at Verviers, from the 5th to the 8th of September, 1877. To this assembly, which included in all about ten foreign delegates, the pompous name of the “ Ninth General Congress of the International Working Men’s Association ” was given. The questions discussed display a

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