War—What For?

by George R. Kirkpatrick

The rulers rule.

We must learn this: Everywhere, always and under all circumstances the working class must stand together in the use of all forms of power we have in defense of our class.

Having distinctly in mind, then, these important preliminaries,—and especially the fact that whatever we do in self-defense we must do as a class banded together, let us consider still further the source—the fountain-head—of the trouble called the class struggle, one form of which is commonly called war.

Society has many functions to perform. In order to perform these functions society must be organized.

Always, it is most important to note, society is organized primarily with respect to the function of wealth production, because the production of things to live on comes before every other social function.

For the performance of this function of wealth production society, developed beyond tribal communism, can be organized in two ways and only two ways:

First Possible Form of Social Organization: On the Plan of Mutualism—under which the INDUSTRIAL FOUNDATIONS of society are PUBLIC PROPERTY.

Society can be organized for the performance of this great industrial function of production on the plan of mutualism—all of the people having Joint-ownership and joint-control of the chief material means of production, all of the people of proper age and condition of health performing useful, necessary social service,—there being no industrial master class and no industrial dependent class,—the industrial independence of all the members of society being due to the fact that each is an owner, a joint owner, of the chief material means of production. Every one is thus commandingly related to the absolutely necessary means of life. With equality in ownership and equality in control of the things used in getting a living the people become equals in opportunity to get a living,—that is, industrially free. The dominant institution would be the institution of public property in the dominant means used in performing the dominant social function. This would render impossible the domination of society by a group or class within society—ALL the members of society would have their feet firmly planted upon the foundations of life, the means of life, the means of production; and could not be crowded off the foundations and robbed by private owners of these foundations.

This form of society may properly be called an industrial democracy.

The purpose of this form of society is the welfare of all the members of society.