The Socialism of to-day

Bibliographic data

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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234 THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. which took place on the loth of February, 1873, tbe Anarchist party induced the labourers to enter into an alliance with the Radicals, in order to prepare for a new revolution. The report of the Spanish delegate, Garcia Vinas, to the Congress of Geneva, in September, 1873, informs us of the strength of the International at that time. It counted 270 regional federations, comprising 557 trade-sections and 117 sections of independent working men, making a total of 674 sections with about 300,000 associates. There were several Socialist journals, all of which advocated Bakunin’s programme. Anarchy or Communalism, that is to say, the absolute inde pendence of each commune. Their attacks on religion were of extraordinary violence.* Most of them spoke of rekindling the flames of Paris, as may be seen in the following peroration taken from an article in the Petróleo :—“ And if force prevents us from attaining our object, which is to sit in our turn at the banquet of life, then the avenger, dreaded by the privileged classes. Petroleum, will come to our aid, not merely to accom plish the work of destruction, but at the same time to perform an act of holy and supreme justice. A levelling even with the ground, if need be by means of axe and fire, this is what the dignity of the proletariat, for so long trampled under foot, imperatively demands.” In Andalusia, in the Estremadura, and in the province of Badajoz the peasants made a partition of the lands. Canton- alist insurrections broke out. It was a counterfeit Commune of Paris. On the 13th of February, 1873, thirty thousand working men assembled at Barcelona, proclaimed the Federal Republic, and fixed, by authority, the duration of labour and the rate of wages. On the 8th of March there was a rising at Malaga, the * The following is an extract from the journal, Los Decamisados :— “ Deliver us at last from that phantom called God, who is good only for frightening little children. Religions are only trades intended to enable those mountebanks of priests, as Dupuis calls them, to grow fat at the people’s expense. That is our programme. Moreover, before putting ft into execution, there will be needed a good blood-letting, brief but copious. The rotten boughs must be lopped off the social tree in order that it may develop. Tremble, ye bourgeois who have fattened on our toil 1 Give place to the shirtless, the decamisados. Your tyranny is nearly done. Our black flag is unfurled, and it will lead us to victory.’’

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