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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^90 THE SOC/A Z/SM OF TO-DAY. of different nationalities, and influenced sometimes by divergent currents of ideas, to make use of publicity as the sole means of propaganda, and yet to escape the repressive laws of different States, was evidently no easy task. How could it possibly have lasted after the only man capable of directing it had been ostracized ? The cause of the failure was not accidental ; it was part of the very essence of the attempt. The proletariat will not follow middle-class radicals, because political liberties, republican institutions, and even universal suffrage, which the latter claim or are ready to decree, do not change the relations of capital and labour. On the other hand, the working man is evidently incapable of directing a revolutionary movement which IS to solve the thousand difficulties created by any complete change in the economic order. Revolutionary Socialism thus leads to an insoluble dilemma and to practical impotence. A further cause contributed to the rapid fall of the Inter national, namely, personal jealousies. As in the midst of the Commune of 1871, there were divisions of opinion, there were suspicions and hard words, and soon followed final secessions No authority was set over it; all understanding became im possible; the association fell to pieces in anarchy, and, to use a vulgar but expressive word, in a “mess.” There is yet another warning. What ! you want to abolish the State and suppress the industrial head, and you count upon order arising spontaneously from the free action of federal corporations? But if you, who constitute apparently the pick of the working class, if you were unable to come to a sufficient understanding with each other to keep going a society which demanded from you no sacrifice, and which had only one aim desired by all war against accursed capital,” how do you suppose that ordinary working men will remain united, when, in their daily life, they shall have to regulate constantly opposed interests and to take decisions touching each other’s remuneration? You were unwilling to submit to a general council which imposed no task upon you ; how, in the workshop, will you obey the orders of your chiefs who will have to determine your duties and direct your labour ? The International is dead, not through the severity of the

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