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CHAPTER IV: The Havre Programme and M. JaurÈ' Solutions - Yves Guyot, Socialistic Fallacies [1910]

Edition used:

Socialistic Fallacies (London: Cope and Fenwick, 1910).

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CHAPTER IV

The Havre Programme and M. JaurÈ' Solutions

How many Socialist electors are there who accept the programme of the Havre Congress of 1880, as drawn up by Karl Marx and proposed by Jules Guesde? It is as follows:—

“Whereas the emancipation of the producing class is that of all human beings, without distinction of sex or race; whereas the producers can only be free in so far as they are in possession of the means of production (lands, factories, shops, banks, credit, etc.):

And whereas there are only two forms in which the means of production can belong to them:—

  • i. The individual form, which has never, as a matter of fact, obtained general acceptance, and is increasingly eliminated by industrial progress.
  • ii. The collective form, the material and intellectual elements of which are constituted by the very development of capitalist society;

Whereas,

This collective appropriation can only be the issue of the revolutionary action of the producing class—or proletariat—organised as a distinct political party;

Such an organisation should be promoted by all the means at the disposal of the proletariat, including universal suffrage, which is thus transformed from an instrument of deception into an instrument of emancipation;

The French Socialist workers, in setting up as the object of their efforts the political and economic expropriation of the capitalist class and the return to collectivity of all the means of production, have decided, as a means of organisation and of warfare, to take part in the elections with the following platform:—

A. Political Part

  • i. Abolition of all laws restricting freedom of the press, of meeting and of association, and particularly of the law against the International Working Men's Association. Abolition of the “service-book,” that bane of the working classes, and of all the articles of the code which set up the inferiority of the workman as against his employer, and of woman as against man.
  • ii. Abolition of the budget of public worship and restoration to the nation of “the said goods held in mortmain, movable and immovable,” the property of religious corporations (decree of the Commune, April 2nd, 1871) including all the industrial and commercial appurtenances of these corporations.
  • iii. Abolition of the national debt.
  • iv. Abolition of standing armies and universal military service on the part of the people.
  • v. Commercial independence in local government and police.

B. Economic Part.

  • i. One day of rest in the week, or legal restriction of employers from allowing work on more than six days out of seven—Legal limitation of working day to eight hours for adults—Prohibition of the labour of children in private workshops under the age of fourteen; and limitation of hours of work to six for persons between fourteen and sixteen.
  • ii. Supervision by workmen's organisations for the protection of apprentices.
  • iii. Legal minimum of wages, fixed annually in accordance with the price of provisions in the locality by a workmen's committee.
  • iv. Legal prohibition to employers from employing foreign workmen at less wages than Frenchmen.
  • v. Equality of wages for workers of either sex.
  • vi. Scientific and technical training of all children, as well as their support at the expense of Society, as represented by the State and the Commune.
  • vii. Support of the aged and infirm at the expense of Society.
  • viii. Abolition of all interference by employers in the administration of the relief, benefit and other funds of the working classes, which are to be restored to the sole management of the workmen.
  • ix. Liability of employers in respect of accidents, guaranteed by a deposit paid by them into the work-men's relief funds, proportionate to the number of workers employed and the dangers presented by each particular industry.
  • x. Participation of the workmen in drawing up regulations specially applicable to various factories; abolition of the right usurped by employers to punish their workmen by fines and stoppages (Decree of the Commune of April 27th, 1871).
  • xi. Cancellation of all contracts whereby public property has been alienated (banks, railways, mines, etc.) and management of all State factories by the workmen employed therein.
  • xii. Abolition of all indirect taxes and conversion of all direct ones into a progressive income tax on all incomes in excess of 3,000 francs—Abolition of the right of inheritance through collaterals, and of all inheritance in the line of direct descent in the case of estates exceeding 20,000 francs.

What are the solutions which M. Jaurès offers to each question? He wants to take us back to the Egypt of the Pharoahs by entrusting the State with the monopoly of corn. He said ironically,1 “Guyot still accuses us of being retrogressive.” I certainly cannot call him progressive.

On June 11th he offered his solution of the crisis in the vineyards. “On and after July 1st, 1907, estates in which the culture of vines constitutes the principal source of income are national property. The nation is to entrust their exploitation to a general association of workers employed in wine growing, formed by wage-earners of all kinds employed in viticulture.” The owners of the estates did not display enthusiasm for the scheme.

M. Deslinières has made an attempt, in a bulky volume entitled, “Le Collectivisme,” to endow it with a legal organisation. The “urgent and provisional laws” which he proposes are as follows:—

  • i. To arm the excutive in order to prevent all disorders as they originate.
  • ii. To suspend the liberty of the press and the right of public meeting.
  • iii. To restore to the Government the right to nominate the municipalities.
  • iv. To make a permanent requisition of all Frenchmen of full age and under the retiring age, in order to provide for the public services, in consideration of a fair wage. In the event of refusal, to confiscate all assets which produce an income greater than that of a day labourer of the third class; those whose assets fall below this to be ranked among those who are in receipt of poor law relief.
  • v. Forfeiture of French nationality and confiscation of goods in the case of every person sojourning abroad for more than three months without permission.
  • vi. Cancelling of all process against debtors.
  • vii. All officials, employers and agriculturists are enjoined to continue their duties and their enterprises on pain of the forfeitures set out in article (iv.)
  • viii. Right to requisition everything.

And how long is this system to remain in force? M. Deslinières' answer is—Not only until the final enactment of laws, but until their complete application.

M. Georges Renard, who aims at an eclectic and attractive form of Socialism, says, “Socialism will be a régime of authority.”1 On this point I agree with him.

[1]February, 1894.

[1]Georges Renard, “Le Regime Socialiste,” 1888 (Paris, F. Alcan); “Le Socialisme à l'œuvre,” p. 300.