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02 - Well-Being for All - The Conquest of Bread · Sacred Texts Archive

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Chapter two, Well Being for All, Part one. Well Being for all
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is not a dream. It is possible, realizable, owing to all that
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our ancestors have done to increase our powers of production. We know, indeed,
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that the producers, although they constitute hardly one third of the inhabitants of
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civilized countries, even now produce such quantities of goods that a certain degree of
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comfort could be brought to every hearth. We know further that if all those
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who squandered today the fruits of others toil were forced to employ their leisure and
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useful work, our wealth would increase in proportion to the number of producers.
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And more finally, we know that, contrary to the theory enunciated by Malthus,
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the oracle of middle class economics, the productive powers of the human race
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increase at a much more rapid ratio than its powers of reproduction. The more
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thickly men are crowded on the soil, the more rapid is the growth of
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their wealth creating power. Thus, although the population of England has only increased
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from eighteen forty four to eighteen ninety by sixty two percent, its production has
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grown, to say the least, at double that rate. To wit by
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one hundred and thirty percent. In France, where the population has grown more
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slowly, the increase in production is nevertheless very rapid, notwithstanding the crises through
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which agriculture is frequently passing, notwithstanding state interference, the blood tax, conscription,
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and speculative commerce and finance, the production of wheat in France has increased
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fourfold, an industrial production more than tenfold in the course of the last eighty
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years. In the United States, the progress is still more striking. In
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spite of immigration, or rather precisely because of the influx of surplus European labor,
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the United States have multiplied their wealth tenfold. However, these figures give
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yet a very faint idea of what our wealth might become under better conditions.
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For alongside of the rapid development of our wealth producing powers, we have an
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overwhelming increase in the ranks of the idlers and middlemen. Instead of capital gradually
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concentrating itself in a few hands, so that it would only be necessary for
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the community to dispossess a few more millionaires and enter upon its lawful heritage.
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Instead of this socialist forecast proving true, the exact reverse is coming to pass.
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The swarm of parasites is ever increasing. In France, there are not
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ten actual producers to every thirty inhabitants. The whole agricultural wealth of the country
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is the work of less than seven millions of men. And in the two
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great industries mining, in the textile trade, you will find that the workers
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number less than two and one half millions. But the exploiters of labor,
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how many are they? In England, exclusive of Scotland and Ireland, only
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one million workers men, women and children are employed in all the textile trades.
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Rather more than half a million work the mines, rather less than half
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a million till the ground. And the statisticians have to exaggerate all the figures
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in order to establish a maximum of eight million producers to twenty six million inhabitants.
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Strictly speaking, the creators of the goods exported from Britain to all the
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ends of the earth comprise only from six to seven million workers. And what
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is the sum of the shareholders and middlemen who levy the first fruits of labor
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from far and near, and heap up unearned gains by thrusting themselves between the
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producer and the consumer, paying the former not a fifth, nay not a
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twentieth of the price they exact from the latter. Nor is this all.
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Those who withhold capital constantly reduce the output by restraining production. We need not
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speak of the cartloads of oysters thrown into the sea to prevent a dainty hitherto
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reserved for the rich, from becoming a food for the people. We need
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not speak of the thousand and one luxuries, stuffs, foods, et cetera,
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et cetera, treated it after the same fashion as the oysters. It
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is enough to remember the way in which the production of the most necessary things
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is limited. Legions of miners are ready and willing to dig out coal every
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day and send it to those who are shivering with cold, but too often
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a third or even two thirds of their number are forbidden to work more than
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three days a week, because forsooth the price of coal must be kept up.
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Thousands of weavers are forbidden to work the looms, though their wives and
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children go in rags, and though three quarters of the population of Europe have
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no clothing worthy the name. Hundreds of blast furnaces, thousands of factories periodically
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stand idle. Others only work halftime and in every civilized nation there is a
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permanent population of about two million individuals who ask only for work, but to
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whom work is denied. How gladly would these millions of men set to work
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to reclaim wastelands or to transform ill cultivated land into fertile fields rich in harvests.
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A year of well directed toil would suffice to multiply five fold the produce
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of dry lands in the south of France, which now yield only about eight
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bushels of wheat per acre. But these men, who would be happy to
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become hardy pioneers in so many branches of wealth producing activity, must stay their
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hands, because the owners of the soil, the mines, and the factories
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prefer to invest their capital stolen in the first place from the community in Turkish
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or Egyptian bonds, or in Patagonian gold mines, and so make Egyptian fellaws,
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Italian exiles and Chinese coolies their wage slaves. So much for the direct
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and deliberate limitation of production, but there is also limitation indirect and not a
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set purpose, which consists in spending human toil on objects absolutely useless or destined
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only to satisfy the dull vanity of the rich. It is impossible to reckon
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in figures the extent to which wealth is restricted, indirectly, the extent to
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which energy is squandered that might have served to produce, and above all,
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to prepare the machinery necessary to production. It is enough to cite the immense
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sums spent by Europe in armaments for the sole purpose of acquiring control of the
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markets, and so forcing her own commercial standards on neighboring territories and making exploitation
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easier at home. The millions paid every year to officials of all sorts,
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whose function is to maintain the rights of minorities, the right, that is,
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of a few rich men to manipulate the economic activities of the nation.
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The millions spent on judges, prisons, policemen, and all the paraphernalia of
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so called justice spent to no purpose, because we know that every alleviation,
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however slight of the wretchedness of our great cities, is followed by a very
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considerable diminution of crime. Lastly, the millions spent on propagating pernicious doctrine by
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means of the press and news cooked in the interest of this or that party,
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of this politician, or of that company of exploiters. But over and
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above this we must take into account all the labor that goes to sheer waste
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in keeping up the stables, the kennels, and the retinue of the rich,
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for instance, in pandering to the caprices of society and to the depraved
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taste of the fashionable mob. In forcing the consumer, on the one hand,
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to buy what he does not need, or foisting an inferior article upon
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him by means of puffery, and in producing, on the other hand,
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wares which are absolutely injurious but profitable to the manufacturer. What is squandered in
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this manner would be enough to double our real wealth, or so to plenish
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our mills and factories with machinery that they would soon flood the shops with all
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that is now lacking to two thirds of the nation. Under our present system,
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a full quarter of the producers in every nation are forced to be idle
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for three or four months in the year, and the labor for another quarter,
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if not of the half, has no better results than the amusement of
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the rich or the exploitation of the public. Thus, if we consider,
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on the one hand, the rapidity with which civilized nations augment their powers of
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production, and on the other hand, the limits set to that production,
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be it directly or indirectly, by existing conditions. One cannot but conclude that
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an economic system a trifle more enlightened would permit them to heap up in a
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few years so many useful products that they would be constrained to cry. Enough.
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We have enough coal and bread and raiment. Let us rest and consider
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how best to use our powers, how best to employ our leisure. No
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Plenty for all is not a dream, though it was a dream indeed in
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those old days, when man, for all his pains, could hardly win
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a bushel of wheat from an acre of land, and had to fashion by
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hand all the implements he used in agriculture and industry. Now it is no
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longer a dream, because man has invented a motor, which, with a
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little iron and a few pounds of coal, gives him the mastery of a
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creature, strong and docile as a horse, and capable of setting the most
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complicated machinery in motion. But if plenty for all is to become a reality,
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this immense capital, cities, houses, pastures, arable lands, factories,
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highways, education must cease to be regarded as private property for the monopolists
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to dispose of at his pleasure. This rich endowment, painfully won, builded,
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fashioned, or invented by our ancestors, must become common property, so
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that the collective interests of men may gain from it the greatest good for all.
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There must be expropriation, the well being of all. The end expropriation
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the means Part two expropriation. Such, then, is the problem which history
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is put before the men of the twentieth century, the return to communism in
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all that ministers to the well being of man. But this problem cannot be
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solved by means of legislation. No one imagines that the poor, no less
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than the rich, understand that neither the existing governments nor any which might arise
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out of the possible political changes, would be capable of finding a solution.
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We feel the necessity of a social revves. Rich and poor alike recognize that
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this revolution is imminent, that it may break out in a very few years.
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A great change in thought has been accomplished during the last half of the
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nineteenth century, but suppressed as it was, by the property classes and denied
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its natural development. This new spirit must break now its bonds by violence and
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realize itself in a revolution. Whence comes the revolution? And how will it
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announce its coming? None can answer these questions. The future is hidden,
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but those who watch and think do not misinterpret the signs. Workers and exploiters,
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revolutionists and conservatives, thinkers and men of action, all feel that the
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revolution is at our doors. Well, what are we to do when the
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thunderbolt has fallen? We have all been studying the dramatic side of revolution so
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much, and the practical work of revolution so little, that we are apt
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to see only the stage effects, so to speak, of these great movements,
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the fight of the first days, the barricades. But this fight,
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this first skirmish, is soon ended, and it is only after the overthrow
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of the old concent institution, that the real work of revolution can be said
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to begin. A feat and powerless, attacked on all sides, the old
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rulers are soon swept away by the breath of insurrection. In a few days,
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the middle class monarchy of eighteen forty eight was no more, And while
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Louis Philippe was making good his escape in a cab, Paris had already forgotten
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her citizen king. The government of Tierre disappeared on the eighteenth of March eighteen
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seventy one in a few hours, leaving Paris mistress of her destinies. Yet
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eighteen forty eight and eighteen seventy one were only insurrections. Before a popular revolution,
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the masters of the old order disappear with a surprising rapidity. Its upholders
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fly the country to plot in safety elsewhere and to devise measures for their return.
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The former government having disappeared, the army, hesitating before the tide of
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popular opinion, no longer obeys its commanders, who have also prudently decamped.
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The troops stand by without interfering or join the rebels. The police, standing
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at ease, are uncertain whether to belabour the crowd or to cry long live
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the Commune. While some retire to their quarters to await the pleasure of the
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new government. Wealthy citizens pack their trunks and betake themselves to places of safety.
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The people remain. This is how a revolution is ushered in. In
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several large towns, the commune is proclaimed. In the streets wander thousands of
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men, who, in the evening crowd into improvised clubs, asking what shall
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we do, and ardently discuss public affairs in which all take an interest.
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Those who yesterday were most indifferent are perhaps the most zealous. Everywhere there is
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plenty of good will and a keen desire to make victory certain. It is
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a time of supreme devotion. The people are ready to go forward. All
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this is splendid, sublime. But still it is not a revolution. Nay,
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it is only now that the work of the revolutionists begins. Doubtless the
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thirst for vengeance will be satisfied. The Watrans and the Thomises will pay the
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penalty of their unpopularity. But that is only an incident of the struggle,
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and not a revolution. Socialist politicians, radicals, neglected geniuses of journalism,
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stump orators, middle class citizens and workmen hurry to the town hall, to
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the government offices and take possession of the vacant seats. Some rejoice their hearts
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with galoon, admire themselves in ministerial mirrors, and study to give orders with
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an air of importance appropriate to their new position. They must have a red
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sash and embroidered cap, and magisterial gestures to impress their comrades of the office
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or the workshop. Others bury themselves in official papers, trying with the best
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of wills to make head or tail of them. They indict laws and issue
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high flown worded decrees that nobody takes the trouble to carry out. Because the
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revolution has come to give themselves an authority which is lacking, they seek the
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sanction of old forms of government. They take the names of provisional government,
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Committee of Public Safety, mayor governor of the town hall, Commissioner of public
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Will, and what not. Elected or acclaimed, they assemble in boards or
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in communal councils. These bodies include men of ten or twenty different schools,
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which, if not exactly private chapels, are at least so many sects which
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represent as many ways of regarding the scope, the bearing, and the goal
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of the revolution. Possibilists, collectivists, radicals, Jacobins, blanquists are thrust
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together and waste time in wordy warfare. Honest men come into contact with ambitious
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ones whose only dream is power and who spurn the crowd. Whence they sprung
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coming together with diametrically opposed views, they are forced to form arbitrary alliances in
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order to create majorities that can but last a day wrangling, calling each other
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reactionaries, authoritarians, and rascals, incapable of coming to an understanding on any
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serious measure, dragged into discussions about trifles, producing nothing better than bombastic proclamations,
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yet taking themselves seriously unwitting that the real strength of the movement is in
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the streets. All this may please those who like the theater, but it
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is not revolution. Nothing yet has been accomplished. Meanwhile, the people suffer.
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The factories are idle, the workshops closed. Industry is at a standstill.
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The worker does not even earn the meager wage which was his before food
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goes up in price. With that heroic devotion which has always characterized them,
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and which in great crises reaches the sublime, the people wait patiently. We
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place these three months of one at the service of the republic, they said
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in eighteen forty eight, while their representatives and the gentlemen of the new government,
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down to the meanest jack in office, received their salary regularly. The
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people suffer with the childlike faith, with the good humor of the masses who
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believe in their leaders. They think that yonder in the House, in the
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town Hall, in the Committee of Public Safety, their welfare is being considered,
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but yonder they are discussing everything under the sun, except the welfare of
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the people. In seventeen ninety three, while famine ravaged France and crippled the
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Revolution, whilst the people were reduced to the depths of misery, whilst the
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champ A lay Say were lying with luxurious carriages where women displayed their jewels and
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splendor, bros Pierre was urging the Jacobins to discuss his treatise on the English
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Constitution. While the worker was suffering in eighteen forty eight from the general stoppage
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of trade, the provisional government in the House were wrangling over military pensions in
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prison labor, without troubling how the people were to live during this crisis,
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And could one cast a reproach at the Paris Commune, which was born beneath
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the Prussian cannon and lasted only seventy days. It would be for this same
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error, this failure to understand that the revolution could not triumph unless those who
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fought on its side were fed that on fifteen pence a day, a man
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cannot fight on the ramparts and at the same time support a family. The
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people suffer, and say how to find the way out of these difficulties?
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Part three. It seems to us that there is only one answer to this
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question. We must recognize and loudly proclaim that everyone, whatever his grade,
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in the old society, whether strong or weak, capable or incapable, has
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been for everything the right to live, and that society is bound to share
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amongst all, without exception, the means of existence at its disposal. We
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must acknowledge this, and proclaim it aloud, and act up to it.
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It must be so contrived that from the first day of the revolution the worker
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shall know that a new era is opening before him. That henceforward none need
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crouch under the bridges with palaces hard by, none need fast in the midst
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of food, none need perish with cold near shops full of firs. That
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all is for all in practice as well as in theory, And that at
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last, for the first time in history, a revolution has been accomplished which
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considers the needs of the people before schooling them in their duties. This cannot
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be brought about by acts of parliament, but only by taking immediate and effective
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possession of all that is necessary to ensure the well being of all. This
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is the only really scientific way of going to work, the only way to
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be understood and desired by the mass of the people. We must take possession
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in the name of the people of the granary, the shops full of clothing,
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and the dwelling houses. Nothing must be wasted. We must organize without
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delay to feed the hungry, to satisfy all wants, to meet all needs,
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to produce, not for the special benefit of this one or that one,
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but to ensure that society as a whole will live and grow. Enough
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of ambiguous words like the right to work with which the people were misled in
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eighteen forty eight, and which are still used to mislead them, let us
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have the courage to recognize that well being for all, henceforward possible must be
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realized when the workers claim the right to work. In eighteen forty eight,
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national and municipal workshops were organized, and workmen were sent to drudge there at
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a rate of one shilling eight pence a day. When they asked that labor
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should be organized, the reply was patient's friends, the government will see to
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it. Meantime, Here is your one shilling eight pence, rest, now,
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brave toiler after your lifelong struggle for food. Meantime, the cannons were
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trained, the reserves called out, and the workers themselves disorganized by the many
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methods well known to the middle classes, till one fine day they were told
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to go and colonize Africa or be shot down. Very different will be the
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result if the workers claim the right to well being. In claiming that right,
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they claim the right to possess the wealth of the community, to take
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the houses to dwell in according to the needs of each family, to seize
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the stores of food, and learn the meaning of plenty after having known famine
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too well. They proclaim the right to all wealth, fruit of the labor
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of past and present generations, and learned by its means, to enjoy those
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higher pleasures of art and science, too long monopolized by the middle classes.
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And while asserting their right to live in comfort, they assert what is still
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more important, their right to decide for themselves what this comfort shall be,
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what must be produced to ensure it, and what discarded as no longer of
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value. The right to well being means the possibility of living like human beings,
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and of bringing up children to be members of a society better than ours.
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Whilst the right to work only means the right to be always a wage
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slave, a drudge ruled over and exploited by the middle class of the future,
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the right to well being is the social revolution. The right to work
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means nothing but the treadmill of commercialism. It is high time for the worker
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to assert his right to the common inheritance and to enter into possession. End
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of Chapter two