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Émile Vandervelde - Socialism Versus The State
Émile Vandervelde - Socialism Versus The State
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SOCIALISM
VERSUS THE STATE
BY
EMILE VANDERVELDE
MINISTDR OF STATE: MEMBER OF THE BELGIAN GOVERNMENT
CHICAGO
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
CO-OPERATIVE
Copyright 1919
By CHARLES H. Kerr & COMPANY
Authorized Hdition for all English-Speaking Countries
S25
V28¢
141273
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
SRE ACE MER cisccte ss dleoe tay om ont ane MAaih se Monee ae
TENZERODUCEION st .5 Soin os wie cisleis oe arora eee loci ee
1. REFoRMIST SOCIALISM ..... SUA iSi vols ae eeee
2. REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM ..........22220++, 28
3. THE SOCIAL DEMOCRACY 0 ocs0s seers nactcese 44
a PART ONE
THE CoNnQueEst oF PoLiTICcAL PoWER
CHAPTER I. THE CAPITALIST CONQUEST OF THE
PUBEIC POWERS «.6..054 Peete sete eee OS
1. Action Upon THE VOTERS ......... Se. ae tare OL
2. AActION Upon THosE ELEecTEeD: .....0s..:..0%. ESS
Cuapter II. THe BANKRUPTCY OF PARLIAMENTARISM 102
CHAPTER III. PRoLeTARIAN ACTION ............... 107
i; INESISTANCE TO: CAPITALISM. 2.5.nc0.6s csaesnie eh eenl LL
2. PressuRE From WITHOUT ................--» 116
3. Tue ForMATION OF THE NEw SYSTEM......... 122
4. Tue ProLeTARIAN CONQUEST OF POLITICAL
BOWER ace: ints ste ee on eet eh wrt eee LEO
PART TWO
Tue SocIALIZATION OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION
Section I. Pusiic CorPoRATIONS ............++2-- 150
Section II. Autonomy or Pusiic SERVICES........ 159
CuHaptTer I. FINANCIAL AUTONOMY ..........<.... 161
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
CwHaptTer II. ADMINISTRATIVE AUTONOMY..........167
1. Tue ADMINISTRATION oF MiNEs IN Prussia... 168
2 THE-SPATE RAIL WAVS>:carcicis
eins tes eras ieee ZO
3. Tue Betctan Natrona Ramtway Project.... 177
Cuapter III. Autonomy or THE WorKING Force.. 181
LO BESGIUM 2.03 cgs iar chance cteme eee eee 187
22 HRANCB rs ie ceiete
taleeee Setsee Sathe eats deg
SF UNGEAND. acces aiactesaacto suiesPe ae 191
4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ........-.eeeeeees 194
Cuapter IV. SocrALIsM AND STATE INDUSTRIES.... 205
CHAPTER V. SOCIALISM AND STATISM .....e002++-- 220
:
PREFACE
8 PREFACE
14 INTRODUCTION
/
16._% INTRODUCTION
18 INTRODUCTION
20 INTRODUCTION
22 INTRODUCTION
24 ‘ INTRODUCTION
34 INTRODUCTION
42 INTRODUCTION
46 INTRODUCTION
48 INTRODUCTION
50 INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION,» 51
On this subject one should read:the pamphlet
written by Jules Guesde in October, 1883, from
the prison of Sainte-Pelagie, against Brousse,
Malon and other “possibilists” who advocated,’
within the structure of the present society, thé.» |
nationalization of the railroads, mines and other
monopolized industries.
Public services thus understood, he said in
substance, have nothing to do with modern social-
ism. Rather than pursue the extension of these,
there is ground for attacking those which exist
and which constitute so many obstacles in the
way of proletarian organization and action. If
Germany has incorporated the railroads into the
imperial State of the Hohenzollerns, it is in order
to bring to its maximum power that machine for
murder and pillage which, across the Vosges
mountains, as everywhere, the army of passive
obedience constitutes,—it is a strategic or mili-
tary expedient. If France has been menaced
for some time with a new public service, the tele-
phones, it is because private telephoning makes a
serious competition with State telegraphy, and
because, moreover, it escapes that eagle eye which
the capitalist State, master of telegraphs and
posts, turns at pleasure upon our letters and mes-
sages,—it is an expedient both of the Treasury
and the police. If the French submarine cables
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54 INTRODUCTION
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© (c). France
Of all the great countries of Europe, France
is undeniably the one whose institutions approach
nearest to the democratic ideal.
All Frenchmen past the age of twenty-one are
voters. The deputies, elected by a majority of
the votes, levy taxes, make laws, control the acts
of the Government, and can, by a vote of censure,
overthrow it. The Senate, that great council of
the communes of France, has itself an origin-
more or less democratic. The President of the
Republic is a temporary constitutional sovereign,
who reigns for seven years, but does not govern.
It seems under these conditions that nowhere
should popular sovereignty be so effective. From
the social viewpoint however, there are few as-
semblies so conservative as this Parliament of
the Third Republic, which will have been the
last in Europe to establish, under pressure of
war, the. progressive income tax.
Sir Charles Dilke, speaking one day of I know
not what politician of his country, whom he re-
proached with being systematically hostile to »
every reform measure, said to me,—‘He is as
CAPITALIST CONQUEST OF PUBLIC POWERS 95
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108 . SOCIALISM VERSUS THE STATE
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For the last three years, I must say, since the strike
of 1891, we have new questions which pre-occupy us;
difficulties may arise on this field, over which the com-
panies, you understand, ought to be anxious.
Is it surprising, after such confessions, that
certain great newspapers show themselves so dis-
tinctly hostile both to the demands of the railway
workers, and to the nationalization of the rail-
ways?
Nevertheless, after making allowance, and it
should be a very large allowance, for exaggera-
tions and falsehoods, the fact remains, at least in
countries where the industrial State is con-
founded with the Government-State, that the
1V. Milhaud, Le Rachat des Chemins de fer, p, 22, Paris
Cornély, 1904, * :
SOCIALIZATION OF MEANS OF PRODUCTION 141
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CHAPTER I
FINANCIAL AUTONOMY
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1. Bertcrum
When in 1881 the employees of the railroads,
posts and telegraphs attempted for the first time
to create a federation having for its aim the im-
provement of their condition and the defense of
their common interests, the Liberal minister
Sainctelette formally forbade them to associate
themselves. He based this prohibition on the
fact that “collective demands are prohibited as
incompatible with administrative discipline. It
is inadmissible, moreover, for agents of the State
to organize an instrument of pressure upon the
Government and the Chambers.”
Later, in 1891 and 1892, new attempts having
developed, the minister Vanden Peereboom re-
newed the former prohibitions.
It required more than fifteen years before the
governmental ideas, under pressure from the
Parliament, were modified to a certain extent.
On February 5, 1908, on a question raised by the
Socialist deputy Anseele, the Chamber adopted
a resolution refusing State employees the right to
strike, but proclaiming that they “have the right
to associate themselves freely to the greatest
extent compatible with order and discipline.”
As a result of this vote, the Government
proposed a law according, but with many re-
strictions, a legal status to the unions of State
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THE AUTONOMY OF THE WORKING FORCE 197
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SOCIALISM AND STATISM 223
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