Socialism and Democracy in Europe Part 44

4. The fixing of "an eight-hours' day" as the maximum for all public servants; and the abolition, wherever possible, of overtime?

5. An Eight-Hours' Bill, without an option clause, for miners; and, for railway servants, a forty-eight-hours' week?

6. The drastic amendment of the Factory Acts, to secure (_a_) a safe and healthy work-place for every worker, (_b_) the prevention of overwork for all women and young persons, (_c_) the abolition of all wage-labor by children under 14, (_d_) compulsory technical instruction by extension of the half-time arrangements to all workers under 18?

7. The direct employment of labor by all public authorities whenever possible; and, whenever it is not possible, employment only of fair houses, prohibition of sub-contracting, and payment of trade-union rates of wages?

8. The amendment of the Merchant Shipping Acts so as (_a_) to secure healthy sleeping and living accommodation, (_b_) to protect the seaman against withholding of his wages or return pa.s.sage, (_c_) to insure him against loss by shipwreck?

II.--_A Democratic Budget_

9. The further taxation of unearned incomes by means of a graduated and differentiated income-tax?

10. The abolition of all duties on tea, cocoa, coffee, currants, and other dried fruits?

11. An increase of the scale of graduation of the death duties, so as to fall more heavily on large inheritances?

12. The appropriation of the unearned increment by the taxation and rating of ground values?

13. The nationalization of mining rents and royalties?

14. Transfer of the railways to the State under the Act of 1844?

III.--_Social Reform in Town and Country_

15. The extension of full powers to parish, town, and county councils for the collective organization of the (_a_) water, (_b_) gas and (_c_) electric lighting supplies, (_d_) hydraulic power, (_e_) tramways and light railways, (_f_) public slaughter-houses, (_g_) p.a.w.nshops, (_h_) sale of milk, (_i_) bread, (_j_) coal, and such other public services as may be desired by the inhabitants?

16. Reform of the drink traffic by (_a_) reduction of the number of licenses to a proper ratio to the population of each locality, (_b_) transfer to public purposes of the special value of licenses, created by the existing monopoly, by means of high license or a license rate, (_c_) grant of power to local authorities to carry on munic.i.p.al public houses, directly or on the Gothenburg system?

17. Amendment of the Housing of the Working Cla.s.ses Act by (_a_) extension of period of loans to one hundred years, treatment of land as an a.s.set, and removal of statutory limitation of borrowing powers for housing, (_b_) removal of restrictions on rural district councils in adopting Part III. of the Act, (_c_) grant of power to parish councils to adopt Part III. of the Act, (_d_) power to all local authorities to buy land compulsorily under the allotments clauses of the Local Government Act, 1894, or in any other effective manner?

18. The grant of power to all local bodies to retain the free-hold of any land that may come into their possession, without obligation to sell, or to use for particular purposes?

19. The relief of the existing taxpayer by (_a_) imposing, for local purposes, a munic.i.p.al death duty on local real estate, collected in the same way as the existing death duties, (_b_) collecting rates from the owners of empty houses and vacant land, (_c_) power to a.s.sess land and houses at four per cent. on the capital value, (_d_) securing special contributions by way of "betterment" from the owners of property benefited by public improvements?

20. The further equalization of the rates in London?

21. The compulsory provision by every local authority of adequate hospital accommodation for all diseases and accidents?

IV.--_The Children and the Poor_

22. The prohibition of the industrial or wage-earning employment of children during school terms prior to the age of 14?

23. The provision of meals, out of public funds, for necessitous children in public elementary schools?

24. The training of teachers under public control and free from sectarian influences?

25. The creation of a complete system of public secondary education genuinely available to the children of the poor?

26. State pensions for the support of the aged or chronically infirm?

V.--_Democratic Political Machinery_

27. An amendment of the registration laws, with the aim of giving every adult man a vote, and no one more than one vote?

28. A redistribution of seats in accordance with population?

29. The grant of the franchise to women on the same terms as to men?

30. The admission of women to seats in the House of Commons and on borough and county councils?

31. The second ballot at Parliamentary and other elections?

32. The payment of all members of Parliament and of Parliamentary election expenses, out of public funds?

33. Triennial Parliaments?

34. All Parliamentary elections to be held on the same day?

THE PROGRAM OF THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION, 1906

OBJECT

The Socialization of the Means of Production, Distribution, and Exchange, to be controlled by a Democratic State in the interests of the entire community, and the complete Emanc.i.p.ation of Labor from the Domination of Capitalism and Landlordism, with the establishment of Social and Economic Equality between the s.e.xes.

The economic development of modern society is characterized by the more or less complete domination of the capitalistic mode of production over all branches of human labor.

The capitalistic mode of production, because it has the creation of profit for its sole object, therefore favors the larger capital, and is based upon the divorcement of the majority of the people from the instruments of production and the concentration of these instruments in the hands of a minority. Society is thus divided into two opposite cla.s.ses: one, the capitalists and their sleeping partners, the landlords and loanmongers, holding in their hands the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and being, therefore, able to command the labor of others; the other, the working-cla.s.s, the wage-earners, the proletariat, possessing nothing but their labor-power, and being consequently forced by necessity to work for the former.

The social division thus produced becomes wider and deeper with every new advance in the application of labor-saving machinery. It is most clearly recognizable, however, in the times of industrial and commercial crises, when, in consequence of the present chaotic conditions of carrying on national and international industry, production periodically comes to a standstill, and a number of the few remaining independent producers are thrown into the ranks of the proletariat. Thus, while on one hand there is incessantly going on an acc.u.mulation of capital, wealth, and power into a steadily diminishing number of hands, there is, on the other hand, a constantly growing insecurity of livelihood for the ma.s.s of wage-earners, an increasing disparity between human wants and the opportunity of acquiring the means for their satisfaction, and a steady physical and mental deterioration among the more poverty-stricken of the population.

But the more this social division widens, the stronger grows the revolt--more conscious abroad than here--of the proletariat against the capitalist system of society in which this division and all that accompanies it have originated, and find such fruitful soil. The capitalist mode of production, by ma.s.sing the workers in large factories, and creating an interdependence, not only between various trades and branches of industries, but even national industries, prepares the ground and furnishes material for a universal cla.s.s war.

That cla.s.s war may at first--as in this country--be directed against the abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; but sooner or later the workers must come to recognize that nothing short of the expropriation of the capitalist cla.s.s, the ownership by the community of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, can put an end to their abject economic condition; and then the cla.s.s war will become conscious instead of unconscious on the part of the working-cla.s.ses, and they will have for their ultimate object the overthrow of the capitalist system. At the same time, since the capitalist cla.s.s holds and uses the power of the State to safeguard its position and beat off any attack, the cla.s.s war must a.s.sume a political character, and become a struggle on the part of the workers for the possession of the political machinery.

It is this struggle for the conquest of the political power of the State, in order to effect a social transformation, which International Social Democracy carries on in the name and on behalf of the working-cla.s.s. Social Democracy, therefore, is the only possible political party of the proletariat. The Social Democratic Federation is a part of this International Social Democracy. It, therefore, takes its stand on the above principles, and believes--

1. That the emanc.i.p.ation of the working-cla.s.s can only be achieved through the socialization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and their subsequent control by the organized community in the interests of the whole people.

2. That, as the proletariat is the last cla.s.s to achieve freedom, its emanc.i.p.ation will mean the emanc.i.p.ation of the whole of mankind, without distinction of race, nationality, creed, or s.e.x.

3. That this emanc.i.p.ation can only be the work of the working-cla.s.s itself, organized nationally and internationally into a distinct political party, consciously striving after the realization of its ideals; and, finally,

4. That, in order to insure greater material and moral facilities for the working-cla.s.s to organize itself and to carry on the cla.s.s war, the following reforms must immediately be carried through:--