Thomas Kirkup

“ Human progress has undoubtedly been attained through struggle, especially through the struggle for existence; but the struggle has essentially been one of men united in society, of tribe against tribe, of city against city, of nation against nation, and race against race. Thus it is easy to exaggerate unduly the importance of the struggle of the individual man. History has only too often seen the abnormal development of private selfishness, so overgrown as to weaken, and finally dissolve and overthrow, the society in which it acted, thereby accomplishing its own destruction. ”

“ With the progress of democracy the proletariat seizes the political power, and through it at last takes complete control over the economic functions of society. It expropriates the private capitalist and appropriating the means of production manages them in its own interest, which is the interest of society as a whole ; society passes into the socialistic stage through a revolution determined by the natural laws of social evolution, and not by a merely arbitrary exercise of power. ”

“ But the labour force of the workman as utilized by the capitalist in the factory or the mine produces a net value in excess of his wage. That is, over and above his entire outlay, including the wage paid to his workmen, the capitalist finds himself in possession of a surplus, which can only represent the "unpaid labour" of his workmen. This surplus is the surplus value of Karl Marx, the product of unpaid labour. This it is which the capitalist seeks to obtain and to accumulate by all the methods available. ”

“ The fearful prolongation of the hours of labour, the merciless exploitation of women, and of children from the age of infancy, the utter neglect of sanitary conditions, whatever could lessen the costs of production and swell the profits of the capitalist, though every law of man and nature were violated in the process,—such are the historical facts which Marx emphasizes and illustrates with an overwhelming force of evidence. ”

“ Natural laws being thus recognized by every man for himself, he cannot but obey them, for they are the laws also of his own nature; and the need for political organization, administration, and legislation will at once disappear. Nor will he admit of any privileged position or class, for "it is the peculiarity of privilege and of every privileged position to kill the intellect and heart of man. The privileged man, whether he be privileged politically or economically, is a man depraved in intellect and heart." ”

“ But, as no freedom is possible in a society where capital is monopolized by a diminishing minority, they believe that capital, the common inheritance of humanity, since it is the fruit of the co-operation of past and present generations, ought to be at the disposal of all, so that no man be excluded from it, and no man seize part of it to the detriment of the rest. ”

“ I. Labour is the source of all wealth and all culture, and as useful work in general is possible only through society, so to society—that is, to all its members—belongs the entire product of labour by an equal right, to each one according to his reasonable wants,—all being bound to work.
In the existing society the instruments of labour are a monopoly of the capitalist class; the subjection of the working class thus arising is the cause of misery and servitude in every form. ”

“ Hence the great task of the Marx school is not to preach a new economic and social gospel, not to provide ready-made schemes of social regeneration after the fashion of the early socialists, nor to counteract by alleviating measures the wretchedness of our present system, but to explain and promote the inevitable process of social evolution, so that the domination of capital may run its course and give place to the higher system that is to come. ”

“ And now the single capitalist is being absorbed in the company, a growing proportion of the world’s business being so large that only a great company can provide the requisite capital and organization; whilst in the large companies there is a tendency, in case they cannot drive each other out of the field, to bring about a fusion of interests. In all this we see a great constructive process inevitably going on as the result of the inherent tendencies of industrial development. Thus the control of industry will be concentrated in a few colossal companies and their chiefs. ”

“ The Alliance demands above all things the definitive and complete abolition of classes, and political, economic, and social equality of individuals and sexes, and abolition of inheritance, so that in the future every man may enjoy a like share in the produce of labour; that land and soil, instruments of labour, and all other capital, becoming the common property of the whole society, may be used only by the workers, that is, by associations of cultivators and industrialists. ”

“ The motive power in Owen’s career was the philanthropy and humanitarianism of the 18th century. He had grown up in the midst of the industrial revolution; he was one of the most successful pioneers in the improvement of the cotton manufacture. No one could be more deeply conscious of the enormous abuses of the factory system; and no one better knew the wonderful services it could render if technical improvement were only made subordinate to human well-being. ”

“ The great merit of Marx, therefore, lies in the work he has done as scientific inquirer into the economic movement of modern times, as the philosophic historian of the capitalistic era. It is now admitted by all inquirers worthy of the name that history, including economic history, is a succession of orderly phenomena, that each phase in the line of succession is marked by facts and tendencies more or less peculiar to itself, and that laws and principles which we now condemn had formerly an historical necessity, justification, and validity. ”

“ The emancipation of the working class demands the transformation of the instruments of labour into the common property of society and the co-operative control of the total labour, with application of the product of labour to the common good, and just distribution of the same.
The emancipation of labour must be the work of the labouring class, in contrast to which all other classes are only a reactionary mass. ”

“ This is indeed the open secret of the ruin of most of the communities that have existed. In short, a happy and healthy individual development can be secured only through its due subordination to social virtue and the general welfare. Human progress has been by strong societies with a well-developed social and public virtue. The excessive development of "individualism" within a society has been its weakness and ruin. ”

“ Thus it happened that a school which attracted so many of the most brilliant and promising young men of France, which was so striking and original in its criticism of the existing condition of things, which was so strong in the spirit of initiative, and was in many ways so noble, unselfish, and aspiring, sank amidst the laughter and indignation of a scandalized society. ”

“ In a word, we object to all legislation, all authority, and all influence, privileged, patented, official, and legal, even when it has proceeded from universal suffrage, convinced that it must always turn to the profit of a dominating and exploiting minority, against the interests of the immense majority enslaved. ”

“ All agree in condemning the principles of liberalism, especially in its economic aspects, as destructive of society and pernicious to the working-man, who, under the pretence of freedom, is exposed to all the precariousness and anarchy of competition and sacrificed to the iron law of wages. ”

“ They are all crystallized forms of human labour. It is labour applied to natural objects that gives them value. What constitutes value is the human labour embodied in commodities. And the relation of exchange is only a phase of this value, which is therefore to be considered independently of it. Further, the labour-time spent in producing value is the measure of value, not this or that individual labour, in which case a lazy or unskilled man would produce as great a quantity of value as the most skilful and energetic. We must take as our standard the average labour-force of the community. ”