IX. First Fruits of the Revolution
In this series of articles we have outlined the aim and method of the Syndicalist Revolution. The aim—the abolition of privilege, private property, class society and the State and the establishment of the common ownership of the means of production. The method—the taking and running of industry by workers’ Syndicates, the abolition of the standing Army and other armed forces, police, judiciary, etc., and the creation of Workers’ Militia and other necessary working class organization for the administration of society.
But what do we immediately expect from the Revolution? Let us be clear. This is not a plan for society of a few hundred years hence. We are not making blueprints for our descendants to work to long after we are dead. What we here outline is possible immediately [ if ] the workers desire it and throw off their chains of illusion. It is the aim of that Revolution which already is stirring in war ridden Europe.
Let us first consider the possibility of man’s labor if fruitfully employed. Even in peace time only a small minority of the population is engaged in useful work and even they waste much of their time because of out-of-date machinery and obsolete labor methods. If each did his share of work and took only what he could really enjoy (for who can enjoy a one hundred bedroom mansion or half a dozen motor cars?) It would be necessary to work only a few hours a week for all to enjoy good housing, clothing, food and all the good things of life.
The Revolution would at once set about releasing this unmeasured human labor power. Every fit person would find a socially necessary job. Think of the millions now wasting their time! Capitalists, landowners, parsons, politicians. The domestic, club and restaurant servants of the rich. (Even in wartime one may see two able bodied men opening the double door of a Piccadilly club to allow another able bodied man to pass.) The millions of clerks, bankers and inspectors who count, check and re-check the business of the capitalists. The enormous tax eating Civil service. The half dozen milkmen in each small street, the vast number of unnecessary shopkeepers and assistants. The collectors and canvassers, the advertising men. All could do useful work and at once make a big stride toward plenty and leisure for all. Here we describe what we consider must be the immediate economic aims of the Revolution.
WAGES. The abolition of all wages and the establishment of the principle of equal income for all. What that income would be cannot be expressed in money terms, the only terms known to capitalist society, but it should certainly be more than double the present average wage.
WORK TIME. A six hour working day, a five day week and a month of holidays annually.
OLD AGE, SICKNESS AND BEREAVEMENT. The most generous of proposals and “demands” for old age pensioners stop well below even the low wages of the workers. Aged workers should receive the same income and services as the younger population. The same is true of the sick and of widows and orphans.
UNEMPLOYMENT. It may be that in the busy, early days of reorganizing industry some workers may ind themselves temporarily out of work. Unemployment is society’s responsibility and the unemployed man should not be punished for it. The equal income of other members of society should be the right of the temporarily out-of-work while immediate effort is made to find him a job. We do not believe that any worker will want to shirk his part of the stirring movement of social reconstruction unless he is psychologically ill. In any case a job will soon be found and personal adjustment made. It is the capitalist system, alone of social systems, which creates unemployment. Men are unemployed, not because there is no useful work to do, but because a profit cannot at the moment be made from that work. There is always a job to do in a community just as there is always a job to do in the home.
FOOD. The production of a plentiful supply of the best food from our own land. This would need to be of such a character as to radically change the diet of the large majority of the population who eat much bread and too little eggs, fruit and milk. The production would greatly increase the supply of poultry, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, fruit, fresh salads and vegetables and fish.
We would seek to do this by producing the vastly greater part of our food at home, enjoying it fresh and not robbing the peoples of other lands by forced imports of finance capital.
To accomplish this we could recruit for the land an extra million workers from the useless jobs they now occupy. We would need to plough up the estates and pleasure grounds of the rich, to reclaim moors and hillsides and other lost land and increase the fertility of most of the present farm land. We would need to fertilize the land by the collection of that valuable “waste” we now throw away and turn the automobile factories to the production of tractors and other farm machinery. Private landlordism and rent being abolished no obstacle would stand in the path of this newly released social energy.
MANUFACTURES. The Syndicates would be concerned with the immediate production of sufficient shoes and clothes to meet the reasonable needs of all, with enough house furniture for all and the multiplication of those thousands of goods, wireless sets, books, articles of toilet, sweets, etc., which make life more pleasant. As these flower from the factories in ever-increasing volume the standard of living of all would rise until human saturation point had been reached.
But we are concerned not only with the quantity, but, also, with the quality of goods. Capitalism is the age of shoddy, and shoddy goods are waste. The poor are robbed twice; first from the wage packet, next over the counter by cotton and jute suits, starchy food, gimcrack furniture and leaky shoes. For the first time all workers will enjoy what is now the privilege of the well-to-do, the feel of good cloth, the firm tread of a well-made shoe and the pleasure of well designed goods.
HOUSING. The mainly empty houses of the wealthy must be requisitioned for the housing of the overcrowded. Those houses too big, or otherwise unsuitable for conversion to flats would be used as museums, hospitals, rest-homes and colleges.
It will be urgently necessary to start the immediate building of several millions of houses to meet the shortage and clear out the slums and semi-slums. This much is easier than might be supposed for there would be no houses of the wealthy or palatial banks, brewers or insurance offices to build and cinemas would take second place. Consider the huge munition factories, the military camps and colossal aerodromes which have been built during the past four years and weigh them against three million houses.
EDUCATION. Education will be free to all able to benefit from it and wishing to enjoy it, free from kindergarten to university. Classes would be smaller, equipment improved and new schools built. The recent trend of education from coercion and terrorism to freedom and co-operation of teacher and scholar would be accelerated.
MEDICINE. Medical treatment would be free—medicine, attendance, clinics and hospitals. But the new society would increase the health of all, not by a new flood of physic, but, in main, by a better diet, right working and living conditions and the end of industrial fatigue.
RECREATION. The new society would end the petty restrictions which curtail the enjoyment of our few free hours. Moral bigots and publicans close the theaters and cinemas on Sunday, the workers’ one free day. Thousands of restrictions prevent him enjoying his too short leisure. All these would bee swept away. Let each find his pleasure as he will so long as he does not interfere with the freedom and pleasure of others.
How Soon?
These are the main tasks of our Revolution, tasks which can be accomplished within two or three years of the triumph pf the workers’ forces. If you, clouded by the pessimism and disappointment of life under capitalism, doubt that statement, then take each item singly and consider, from your own observation and your experience of your job, “If the waste and profit are cut out, is this possible?” We have no doubt of your answer. And this will be bu the beginning, but the foundation stone of a free and co-operative society!
Do not ask of us, “How long will it take to persuade the workers that all this is possible and desirable?” Stop thinking so much of the apathy of the other fellow. When each worker asks the question of himself the Day has dawned.