Chapter 3 preface two

(English preface) One of the popular arguments against communism and socialism in general is that the idea is so old it has never been realized.The thinkers of ancient Greece often had plans for an ideal state; later, the early Christians organized communist groups; and hundreds of years later, during the period of the Reformation, large communist associations took place.The same ideal was revived later in the Great Revolutions of England and France; finally broke out the revolution of 1848 in modern France, which was greatly inspired by the ideal of socialism.Therefore it has been said to us: "But you see how far away your plans are from being realized! Has it ever occurred to you that your understanding of human nature and desires is fundamentally wrong?"

At first glance, this objection seems powerful.This objection loses force, however, when we examine human history more closely.First, we see that in their communist villages hundreds of millions of people are able to maintain one of the main elements of socialism (that is, the communalization of land as the main means of production, and the standardization of labor capacity of each family) distribute it) for hundreds of years; and secondly we know that the collapse of the common land system in Western Europe was brought about not from within but from without by the government creating a monopoly system of land to help the aristocracy and the middle class.Again, we know that the medieval city was able to maintain a certain socialized production and commercial organization for hundreds of years; these hundreds of years were the period of the fastest progress in knowledge, industry and art; as for these The decline of the communist system was largely due to the inability of the people at that time to unite the countryside and the city, the farmers and the citizens, and work together to oppose the growth of the country of force that destroyed the free city.

Human history, so understood, cannot provide an argument against communism.On the contrary, it appears to be a continuum of efforts to realize a certain kind of communist organization, which was partially successful for a certain period; principles, the proper mode of combining agriculture with rapidly developing industry and rapidly advancing international trade.This so-called international trade in particular appears to be a disturbing factor, for it is no longer individuals or cities alone that are enriched by distant commerce and export trade; country to increase its wealth. Although these situations began to appear towards the end of the eighteenth century, they did not fully develop until after the Napoleonic wars in the nineteenth century.Modern communism naturally takes these circumstances into account.

We now know that the French Revolution, beyond its political significance, was an attempt by the French people (between 1793 and 1794) to approach socialism in three different directions.The first is the equalization of property; income tax and inheritance tax are levied at a very high progressive rate, land is confiscated directly, and then redistributed, and heavy war taxes are levied on the rich alone.The second attempt is a kind of urban communism, where the most needed consumer goods are purchased by the cities and sold at real prices.The third is to formulate a national standard price system, paying attention to the actual cost of production and the corresponding profit from sales.The Covenant Council zealously endeavored to carry out such a plan, but when it was about to succeed, reaction took hold and the work was spoiled.

This remarkable movement, which has never been properly studied, yet modern socialism arose at the time of it—the Fourierism of Nangui at Lyon, and the ideas of Fubonarroti, Babeuf, and its comrades' mighty communism.Right after the Great Revolution, the great founders of the three schools of modern socialism—Saint-Simon ④, Fourier ⑤, Owen ⑥ and the founder of stateless socialism, Godwin ⑦—appeared at the same time; The communist secret society founded by Husband and others became a model for the powerful communism that fought for the next fifty years. ① L'ange, a judge and magistrate in the French Revolution, a forerunner of Fourier. - translator

②Philippe, Buonarroti (1764-1837), an Italian lawyer, was expelled from abroad for propagating the principles of the French Revolution, and was naturalized in France in 1793.He was later arrested for participating in Babeuf's activities and was sentenced to be expelled from France in May 1797. In 1830, he went to France again and died in Paris.He wrote a book called "The Conspiracy of Babeuf and the Equality Corps". ——Translator ③ Francois Noel Bapeuf (1760-1797), a revolutionary with communist ideas in the French Revolution, later launched the so-called Equality Group conspiracy in an attempt to overthrow the ruling government at that time and restore the 1793 constitution. Sentenced to death by the Vendome High Court in May 1999, he survived suicide at that time, and later died bravely on the guillotine. - translator

④ Claude Henri De Rouvroy Saint-Simon (1760-1825) French writer, one of the three utopian socialists in the nineteenth century.His doctrine is close to that of Marx. - translator ⑤Charles Fourier (1772-1837), a French social reformer, was one of the three utopian socialists in the nineteenth century.His thinking is close to that of anarchism. - translator ⑥Robert Owen (1771-1858), a British social reformer, was one of the three utopian socialists in the nineteenth century.His theory is close to modern corporatism. - translator ⑦William Goldwin (1756-1836), British philosopher and writer, the original founder of anarchism.His masterpiece is "Political Justice" (An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness) in two volumes, published in London in 1793. - translator

To be correct, it has only been a hundred years since the emergence of modern socialism, and in the first half of the century, only two countries that stood at the forefront of the industrial movement—that is, Britain and France—had achieved the completion of modern socialism. It is creditable.During Napoleon's fifteen years of brutal war, these two countries had shed the most blood, and were drawn into the vortex of the great European revolution from the East. In fact, the discussion of socialism became possible only after the July Revolution of 1830 in France and the reform movement of 1830-32 in England began to shake the terrible reaction, and not until the years before the Revolution of 1848.It was during these years that the wishes of Fourier, Saint-Simon, and Owen were laboriously fulfilled by their adherents, and took on a definite form, thereby determining the definitions of the various schools of socialism that now exist.

① In July 1830, the people of Paris rioted and expelled King Charles X from the country and established a new government.The British reform movement is the constitutional reform movement, also known as the universal suffrage movement.Partial reforms were completed in 1832. - translator In England, Owen and his followers completed their plans for agricultural and industrial communist villages at the same time; created large cooperatives, intending to use their dividends to create more communist colonies; was founded—the forerunner of the International Labor Association and today's Labor Party.

In France, the Fourierist Considran published his superb Manifesto,2 which contained (very well developed) all the theoretical considerations of the growth of capitalism, which is now called "Scientific Socialism".Proudhon completed his anarchism and interdependence (Mutualism) ①, not the idea of ​​state interference.Louis Brown ② published his great book "Organization of Labor", which later became the program of Lassalle ③, and French Vidal ④ and German Stein ⑤ also wrote two outstanding books. The concept of Sidron's theory, published in 1846 and 1847⑥, and later Vida, especially Berger, completed the system of collectivism in more detail, and he even hoped that the 1848 National Assembly would to approve it. ⑦

② Refers to the works of Kong Xidelang: "Principles of Socialism" (Principes du Socialisme), "Manifesto of Nineteenth Century Democracy" (ManifestedelaDemocratieauXIXSiecle, 1843).Kong Sidran (Ⅴ. Considerant, 1802-1893), a French socialist writer. - translator ①About Proudhon, see note ① on page 72 of the text, interdependence, according to C. De Paepe, Proudhon’s follower, leader of the Belgian labor movement, and one of the most active members of the First International) The explanation is as follows: the product of labor should belong to the producer, and the producer should not charge more than it is worth when converting it out, that is to say, it should be equal to the goods produced by the same amount of labor. exchange.Such undertakings can be accomplished by cooperative groups and the People's Bank.The method of nationalizing everything is harmful and the state should be abolished. - translator ②Louis Blanc (1811-1882), French historian and socialist. When the Provisional Government was established in 1848, he was a member of it and chairman of a special committee for reforming the organization of production. He fled to England in 1849.His important works include "Labor Organization" (L'Organisation du Travail) and "History of the French Revolution", etc., see Note ① on page 54 of the text. - translator ③F． Lassalle (1825-1864), a German-Jewish socialist. - translator ④FrancoisVidal (1812-18??), French socialist writer.A member of the National Assembly. - translator ⑤ Lorenz Von Stein (1815-1890), professor of political science in Germany. - translator ⑥ Refers to Vader's "On the Redivision of Wealth" (Delare partition des richesses, published in 1846) and Stein's "The Movement of Socialism and Communism after the Third French Revolution" (Die Socialistischen und Kommunistischen Bewegungseitder3franzosischen Revolution, published in 1848). - translator ⑦ Berger (Constantin Pecquer, 1801-1887) was a French socialist writer.In Chapter 11 of Modern Science and Anarchism (Volume VIII of the Complete Works), Kropotkin said about Vader and Berger, "These two outstanding writers also advocated equality in all transactions. Labor vouchers instead of money, but mines, railways, factories should be owned by the state, they call their system collectivism. Vida was secretary of the Luxembourg committee. Berger wrote a detailed treatise on the subject. In this article he articulated his system, even in the form of a law, to be passed by a parliamentary vote, to bring about a social revolution. When the First International was founded, the names of Vader and Berger seem to have been completely forgotten But their idea of ​​social organization spread widely, and was soon regarded as a new discovery, and was widely circulated under the names of scientific socialism, Marxism and collectivism". - translator There is, however, a common phenomenon in the plans of all the socialists of that period, which we should note.The three founders of socialism, who wrote in the early nineteenth century, were bewildered by the vast horizon that socialism opened before their eyes, and saw socialism as a new revelation and themselves as the builders of a new religion. .Socialism should become a religion, and they should, like the new heads of the church, regulate its conduct, and they, writing in the reactionary period after the French Revolution, saw more failures than successes and distrusted it. The masses, they do not inspire the masses to carry out the reforms they think are necessary.Instead they believe in a certain great ruler, and in a certain Napoleon among the socialists.They thought he too would understand the revelation; that he, seeing the success of their cohabitation or association experiment, might believe it was necessary; of peace and happiness.At that time a military genius Napoleon was ruling Europe, why didn't a social genius step forward and make the new gospel come true in European society? ①This is the place where citizens in Fourier's ideal society live together, called Phalanstere, see note ① on page 61 of the main text. - translator Only in 1840-48 did everyone feel that a revolution was imminent.The proletariat raised the banner of socialism on the obstacle, and in the hearts of the social reformers a belief in the common people arose: on the one hand, there were those who believed in republican democracy, and on the other hand, the belief in free association and labor their own organizational capabilities. But the February Revolution of 1848, the republic of the bourgeoisie, has dashed hopes ever since.Only four months after the founding of the Republic, the June insurrection of the Parisian proletariat broke out, but was suppressed by a bloody tide.Workers were shot to death in large numbers, exiled to New Guinea in large numbers, and finally Louis Napoleon's coup d'état followed. ①The socialists were persecuted even more violently, and the methods of extermination were cruel and precise, so that within the next twelve or fifteen years, socialism disappeared completely; socialist books were completely lost, even in the Books that were very familiar to people before 1848 are still unknown at this time.The prevailing ideas of that time (that is, the fundamental ideas of the socialists before 1848) were completely wiped out, and our generation has come to regard this idea as a new discovery. ①French President Louis Napoleon implemented a coup in 1851, dissolved parliament, arrested Republicans, extended the term of the presidency, and monopolized power.In the second year, he changed to the imperial system, that is, the throne of emperor. - translator Around 1866, the day of the new resurrection came, and communism and collectivism reappeared in the world, but the concept of the method of realizing them has undergone a profound change.The old belief in political democracy has disappeared.When the working people of Paris met in London in 1862 and 1864 with the English corporatists and Owenites, the first principle they agreed upon was that "the emancipation of the workers must be done by the workers themselves."On another point, they also agree.That is to say, the labor association itself should master the tools of production and organize production by itself.The idea of ​​the "Association" of the French Fourierists and Interdependenceists joined forces with Owen's (now extended) idea of ​​a "National Workers' Unity" and the International Labor Association was formed. ②trade-unionists, the so-called trade-unionism is a labor movement that arose with the development of factory organization after the Industrial Revolution.Its meaning can be seen from the term "trade union" itself (that is, the association of all workers in the same occupation).It was originally aimed only at improving the living conditions of workers, and later, between 1875 and 1880, it began to evolve into an active militant syndicalism.The birthplace of corporatism is the United Kingdom, but the movement is now well developed in various countries.It was most active in pre-Hitler Germany.Cole (G.D.H.Cole) and Weber (S.Webb) in the United Kingdom are both theorists of trade unionism. - translator ① The First International, founded in London in 1864. The first official meeting was held in Geneva in September 1866, attended by representatives of the six industrial groups participating in the association.The Association soon became an organ for the dissemination of socialist ideas.Later, due to the conflict between Marx and Bakunin (the representatives of Germany and Britain tended to Marx and believed that the state could still exist after the abolition of the private property system, while the representatives of the Latin nation believed in Bakunin, opposed the state, and did not believe in representative system), At the Hague Congress in 1872, the Society split into two groups of the same name.After the Bakunin faction held a meeting in Shengdetian, they raised the banner of free associationism and continued the work of the First International until 1878.After moving to New York, the Marxist General Council held its last meeting in June 1876 and disappeared. - translator However, this new revival of socialism has a lifespan of only a few years.Soon the war of 1870-71 broke out, followed by the revolution of the Paris Commune—but then the free development of socialism in France became impossible again.However, when Germany accepted the socialism of the French "people of 1848" in the works of the German socialist preachers Marx and Engels, that is, the socialism of Considran and Louis Brown and the collectivism of Berger At that time, France also went a step further. In March 1871, Paris declared that it would no longer wait for those parts of France that were slow to progress, but intended to start its own social development in its communes. Because the life of this movement is too short, it has never produced any positive effects.It is only communal; it can only establish the right of the commune to complete self-government.But the working class of the First International will immediately see its historical significance.They understood that free communes would hereafter be the means of modern socialism.Free agro-industrial communes (as the Anglo-French used to speak of before 1848) need not be like communal houses or small societies of two thousand; they must be large solidarities like Paris; Small counties like that.Those communes were united under certain circumstances, even regardless of present-day national boundaries (such as the Cinque Ports in England and the Hanseatic League in Germany).At the same time, a large-scale labor union was formed to deal with the railway, ship canal, and other undertakings that were united among the communes. ①The five ports refer to the five ports on the south coast of England, namely Dover, Sandwich, Hastings, Romney, Hy-the.——Translator ②Hansa, a treaty of alliance between northern Germany and neighboring cities in the Middle Ages to protect and expand trade with each other. - translator This is the idea that, after 1871, spread less clearly among thoughtful workers, especially in the Latin countries.In such an organization (the details of which are to be determined by life itself), the average working man has already seen that the method of realizing a socialist form of life is a method of comparison between state ownership of all industrial property and state organization. The agro-industrial approach is much easier. In this book I would like to explain some of these ideas. Looking back on the situation in the years since this book was written, I can say with complete confidence that the main idea of ​​the book was good.National socialism has naturally made a lot of progress. State-owned railways, state-owned banks and state-owned businesses have been implemented everywhere.But every step in this direction, even if it results in lowering the price of goods, represents a new obstacle in the struggle for the emancipation of the workers.We can therefore see among the workers, especially in Western Europe, the emergence of a very powerful idea that a huge state property such as the railway network should be managed by a union of railway employees rather than under the management of the state. Come manage much better. On the other hand, we see, all over Europe and America, innumerable attempts, whose chief idea is to recover the institutions of production and put them under the control of the workers, and to gradually expand the functions of the city for the benefit of its inhabitants. range.Corporatism has a tendency towards the international unification of occupations, not only as an instrument for the improvement of working conditions, but as an organization for the recovery of the management of production for a given period; Distributive co-operation, co-operation in industry and agriculture, and the attempt to combine the two co-operations in experimental colonies, and finally the vast and complex sphere of what is called "urban socialism"—these are There are three directions in which the greatest amount of creativity has developed recently. Naturally, none of these can replace communism or socialism to any extent, because both of them have the meaning of common ownership of the means of production.But we must regard all these attempts as experiments—experiments, like those of Owen, Fourier, and Saint-Simon in their colonies—experiments designed to enable the human mind to understand the communist society from which it will be realized. in some practical way.All those partial experiments will someday be combined by the building genius of a civilized nation.Yet samples of the masonry of this great complex, and even of some of the rooms in it, are being produced at the present time by the most virtuous efforts of the constructive genius of man. author Brighton, January 1913