“The fundamental truth is that the supporters of capitalism have proved to the world that so long as industry is run on its present lines the workers will have to submit to periods of unemployment and periods of over-employment and that the present capitalist system must go before there can be any permanent solution.
“The workers, by the strength of their Trade Unions, may from time to time obtain improved conditions of employment, but until they obtain possession of the means of producing wealth, namely, the land, the mines, the railways, shipping, factories and workshops, they will remain dependent on a small section of the community providing them with employment. In other words, they will continue to be at the beck and call of those who own and control the capital of the country. They will, when the capitalists decide, be allowed to apply their labour to the production of wealth, but they will not be permitted to control its distribution.
“Before the workers will be permitted to control industry effectively, or even the distribution of the products of their industry, they will first require to own the machinery and materials of industry. Such ownership will only be acquired when we capture political power; and political power will come only as a result of hard thinking and intelligent action at the ballot-box. Political power will also enable us to control credit, money, banking and everything which is fundamental to a nation’s foreign policy, and is the cause of most, if not all, wars from which the workers of the world have suffered.”
The Labour Party’s specific proposals for the nationalization of many important industries and “their democratic control” are explained at length in [Chapter VIII].
CHAPTER VI
THE LABOUR PARTY’S ADOPTION OF SOCIALISM
4. THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISTIC PROGRAMME
The First International—The Old Second International—The International Labour Charter of 1919—The New Second International—The Geneva Resolutions on Socialism of 1920—The Second International and Bolshevism—The Third or Moscow International.
The First International
It is important to note the connection before the war between the Labour Patty and International Socialism. As far back as September 28, 1864, the First International was formed in St. Martin’s Hall at the corner of Long Acre and Endell Street, the site now occupied by Messrs. Odhams and used for the publication of John Bull. That organization lived under circumstances of great vicissitude as an international centre of socialistic thought until it received its death-blow through the collapse of the Commune In Paris in 1871. Its interesting career is described in Mr. R. W. Postgate’s book, The Workers’ International, and in The Two Internationals, by Mr. Palme Dutt.