SOCIALISM AND REVOLUTION
The "Socialist Catechism" contains the following passage: "Q. How are
forms of government changed so as to readjust them to the economical
changes in the forms of production which have been silently evolving
in the body of society? A. By means of revolution.--Q. Give an
instance of this? A. The French Revolution of 1789."[1098]
Many British Socialists are revolutionaries. They hope to introduce
Socialism into Great Britain by revolutionary means. They have studied
the French revolutions, and have become pupils of the French
revolutionary leaders. "Socialism is essentially revolutionary,
politically and economically, as it aims at the complete overthrow of
existing economic and political conditions. We should organise and be
prepared for what might be described as a revolutionary outbreak. The
economic changes which are taking place, and the corresponding changes
in other conditions, are bringing about a revolutionary transformation
in human society, and what we have to do is to help on this
development, and to prepare the way for it."[1099] "We Socialists are
not reformers; we are revolutionists. We Socialists do not propose to
change forms. We care nothing for forms. We want a change of the
inside of the mechanism of society; let the form take care of
itself."[1100] British Socialism was founded by revolutionary
Communists. Marx was a revolutionary. "For a number of years the late
William Morris, the greatest man whom the Socialist movement has yet
claimed in this country, held and openly preached this doctrine of
cataclysmic upheaval and sudden overthrow of the ruling
classes."[1101] That idea has been revived by modern British
Socialists, many of whom believe that "The only effective way to
induce the ruling class to attempt to palliate the evils of their
system is to organise the workers for the overthrow of that
system."[1102] "In the International Socialist movement we are at last
in the presence of a force which is gathering unto itself the rebel
spirits of all lands and uniting them into a mighty host to do battle,
not for the triumph of a sect, or of a race, but for the overthrow of
a system which has filled the world with want and woe. 'Workers of the
world, unite!' wrote Karl Marx; 'you have a world to win and nothing
to lose but your chains.' And they are uniting under the crimson
banner of a world-embracing principle which knows nor sect, nor creed,
nor race, and which offers new life and hope to all created
beings--the glorious gospel of Socialism."[1103]
In many respects the French Revolution has served as a model to
British Socialists of the Anarchist-Revolutionary type. They have
adopted its outward emblems, its songs, and its most effective
catch-phrases: "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity was the brave and
splendid legend inscribed on the blood-red banners of the French
Revolutionists. And in strange ways the oppressed and hunger-maddened
people sought to realise their ideal. It is still the battle-cry of
the English Socialists--indeed, of the world-wide Socialist
movement."[1104] In the Socialist song-books a translation of the
"Marseillaise" is to be found, which is sung at Socialist gatherings:
Shall hateful tyrants, mischief-breeding,
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band,
Affright and desolate the land,
While Peace and Liberty lie bleeding?
To arms! to arms, ye brave!
The avenging sword unsheathe!
March on! March on! all hearts resolved
On Liberty or death.[1105]
In the eyes of many British Socialists the French Revolution was not
sufficiently democratic, not sufficiently radical, not sufficiently
violent. We are told that the French revolutionaries were soft-hearted
men, and that our sympathy with their innocent victims, such as Queen
Marie Antoinette, is quite uncalled for. "The Revolution was in its
conception, its inception, and its results a middle-class revolution.
The revolution was inaugurated by the Parliament of Paris--a
pettifogging legal assembly. Marie Antoinette was but one fine useless
woman among the millions, and she personified the heedless prodigal
selfishness of autocracy. We of the Socialist movement, who are full
of the idea of social service, of making a full return to society for
the bread we eat, the clothes we wear out, and the house-room we
occupy, how can we be expected to think so much of the suffering of
one idle extravagant woman and so little of the age-long privation and
torture of the hard-working useful mothers and sisters of France? The
crimes of ignorant, passionate democracy, of which Burke and Carlyle
have made so much, are as a drop in the ocean by comparison with the
deliberate enormities perpetrated by enlightened cold-blooded
autocracy, from Herod to Nicholas. The democracy has always been
pitiful, extremely pitiful. Even the September massacres, carried out
by the lowest of the low in an enraged and degraded and
terror-stricken populace, are brightened by golden patches of clemency
and love such as the annals of class punishment nowhere reveal."[1106]
The outbreak of the Paris Commune of 1871, having been less a
"middle-class" revolution, is considered by Socialists with greater
approval than the French Revolution of 1789. The philosopher of
British Socialism writes: "The Commune of Paris is the one event which
Socialists throughout the world have agreed with single accord to
celebrate. Every 18th of March witnesses thousands of gatherings
throughout the civilised world to commemorate the (alas! only
temporary) victory of organised Socialist aspiration over the forces
of property and privilege in 1871."[1107] Another leading Socialist
writer says: "Year by year as the 18th of March comes round, it is the
custom with Socialists to commemorate the proclamation of the Commune
of Paris. As a Socialist I am a friend of the Commune."[1108]
What was the Paris Commune, and what did it do? In the words of an
impartial publication, "The Communard chiefs were revolutionaries of
every sect, who, disagreeing on governmental and economic principles,
were united in their vague but perpetual hostility to the existing
order of things. History has rarely known a more unpatriotic crime
than that of the insurrection of the Commune."[1109] "The Commune was
an insurrection which initiated a series of terrible outrages by the
murder of the two generals Lecomte and Thomas.... The incapacity and
mutual hatred of their chiefs rendered all organisation and durable
resistance impossible.... The Communists were committing the most
horrible excesses: the Archbishop of Paris, President Bonjean,
priests, magistrates, journalists, and private individuals, whom they
had seized as hostages, were shot in batches in prisons, and a scheme
of destruction was ruthlessly carried into effect by men and women
with cases of petroleum. The Hotel de Ville, the Palais de Justice,
the Tuileries, the Ministry of Finance, the Palace of the Legion of
Honour, that of the Council of State, part of the Rue de Rivoli, &c.,
were ravaged by the flames; barrels of gunpowder were placed in Notre
Dame and the Pantheon ready to blow up the buildings, and the whole
city would have been involved in ruin if the national troops had not
gained a last and crowning victory."[1110]
Socialists have nothing but praise for the Communards, who killed and
burned, desecrated the churches and devastated the town. They speak
with enthusiasm of the leaders of that outbreak as of heroes who
fought for the "Brotherhood of Man," and they exalt them above the
saints of early Christianity. The philosopher of British Socialism
exclaims: "Limitless courage and contempt of death was displayed in
defence of an ideal, the colossal proportions of which dwarf
everything in history, and which alone suffices to redeem the
sordidness of the nineteenth century. Here was a heroism in the face
of which the much-belauded Christian martyrs cut a very poor
figure."[1111] "It was in the Commune that we saw manifested as never
before the strong compelling force of a secular altruism. Without hope
of heaven and without fear of hell, men lived and died for the idea of
a brotherhood of self-governing and self-respecting men and
women."[1112]
Even the murderous Paris Commune was too moderate for the taste of
many British Socialists, who favour sterner measures. The philosopher
of British Socialism informs us; "The Commune had one special fault,
that of a fatuous moderation in all its doings. Probably never since
history began have any body of men allowed themselves and theirs to be
treated as lambs in the slaughterhouse with more lamb-like forbearance
and absence of retaliation than the Commune and its adherents; we have
seen this illustrated by the incredible fact that up to the last, amid
all the slaughterings of Communists, the vast majority of the hostages
and prisoners in its hands remained unscathed."[1113] "One of the most
unfortunate characteristics of the leaders of the Commune was their
sensitiveness to bourgeois public opinion. The first thing for the
leader of a revolutionary movement to learn is a healthy contempt for
the official public opinion of the 'civilised world.' He must
resolutely harden his heart against its 'thrills of horror,' its
'indignation,' its 'abomination,' and its 'detestation,' and he must
learn to smile at all the names it will liberally shower upon him and
his cause."[1114]
Whilst the revolutionary criminals who ruled by murder and arson were
heroes and martyrs, the defenders of law and order were criminals
according to British Socialists: "The thirst of the well-to-do classes
for the blood of the Communards was insatiable. The latter were tried
and shot in batches."[1115] "The Communards, desperate as they were,
only faintly imitated the wholesale savagery of the regular
troops."[1116] Peaceful M. Thiers, being at the head of the
government, was "probably the cleverest, most hypocritical, and most
unscrupulous villain that ever denied the pages of history."[1117]
Although Socialists pose as democrats, they do not believe in majority
government.[1118] Being aware that they will hardly be able to gain
over the majority of the people to their revolutionary and visionary
plans, they may, like the Paris Commune, try to force Socialism upon
an unwilling majority. Therefore the attempt of the Parisian
Socialists to overrule France is not condemned but regretted by the
British Socialists: "The revolt was open to the objection that may be
urged against most insurrections. It was an attempt to impose the will
of a minority on a large majority of the people. The Socialists in the
Commune must have realised at times that the people of France were not
prepared for even the small instalments of Socialism which they sought
to introduce. The revolutionists may have thought to impose their
policy upon France by a mere _coup de main_."[1119]
The attitude of Socialists makes it appear possible that the
revolutionary outbreak of 1871 will not be the last. The next
revolutionary attempt may conceivably take place in Great Britain.
"One man with an idea in his head is in danger of being considered a
madman; two men with the same idea in common may be foolish, but can
hardly be mad; ten men sharing an idea begin to act; a hundred draw
attention as fanatics, a thousand and society begins to tremble, a
hundred thousand and there is war abroad."[1120] "Whilst our backers
at the polls are counted by tens, we must continue to crawl and drudge
and lecture as best we can. When they are counted by hundreds, we can
permeate and trim and compromise. When they rise to tens of thousands,
we shall take the field as an independent party. Give us hundreds of
thousands, as you can if you try hard enough, and we will ride the
whirlwind and direct the storm."[1121]
FOOTNOTES:
[1098] Joynes, _A Socialist Catechism_, p. 13.
[1099] Bax and Quelch, _A New Catechism of Socialism_, p. 37.
[1100] De Leon, _Reform or Revolution_, p. 3.
[1101] Keir Hardie, _From Serfdom to Socialism_, p. 23.
[1102] _Socialist Standard_, October 1, 1907.
[1103] Keir Hardie, _From Serfdom to Socialism_, p. 86.
[1104] Ethel Snowden, _The Woman Socialist_, p. 10.
[1105] _Independent Labour Party Song Book_, p. 20.
[1106] Leatham, _French Revolution_, pp. 13, 14.
[1107] Bax, _Paris Commune_, Preface.
[1108] Leatham, _The Commune of Paris_, p. 3.
[1109] _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. xxviii. p. 480.
[1110] _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. xviii. p. 294.
[1111] Bax, _Paris Commune_, p. 59.
[1112] Leatham, _The Commune of Paris_, p. 18.
[1113] Bax, _Paris Commune_, p. 74.
[1114] _Ibid._ p. 88.
[1115] Leatham, _The Commune of Paris_, p. 13.
[1116] _Ibid._ p. 19.
[1117] Bax, _Paris Commune_, p. 86.
[1118] See Chapters XV. and XXX. _ante._
[1119] Leatham, _The Commune of Paris_, p. 15.
[1120] Morris, _Art, Labour, and Socialism_, p. 24.
[1121] Shaw, _The Fabian Society and its Early History_, p. 28.