Are We Heading Toward a System of State Feudalism?
MacMurrey, Robert
Are We Heading Toward a System of State Feudalism? By Robert MacMurrey IN the face of disrupted in 'In-f - y and demoralized agriculture the administration now makes a suggestion to...
...This Dollfuss refused On its face this appears to be consent to increase the power of the government but, as a matter of fact, since April, 1933, the government had been governing by decrees without any check...
...And so when the time comes and the druma roll and the bugles play the men march and the nations buy guns and their profits rise sky high...
...When will they learn that the one who boasts of his love of country is like a woman who talks too much about her honor, who by that fact causes one to suspect her purity t Dr...
...Will they succeeded again ? Editors Corner Review of and Comment on Events Here and Abroad, Critical and Otherwise By James Oneal Stalin's Boys Want to Know BEFORE we proceed with a distasteful job, let us take a text from Lenin's pamphlet, Should Communists Participate in Reactionary Trade Unionsf—published by Stalin's American conscripts in New York in 1928...
...Several days of each week he worked for his lord, and the rest he spent in getting his own existence...
...In Buenos Ayres, capital of the Republic and largest city in the Southern hemisphere, the Socialist Party scored heavily, winning a plurality of 100,000 ia a total vote of 400,000...
...If there is to be distortion^ why not do a good job of it and be done with it...
...This credit will be used toward payment for the house and the original investment which the government will have to make...
...To them there is no patriotism...
...there is no Fatherland ;there is no God but gold...
...In return for all this the state will give him the usual protection and see that he gets the usual justice...
...The city has a population of two and one half million...
...But certain points can and must be made clear at once with regard to the immediate cause of the revolutionary outbreak...
...there is no country...
...Minister Fej the Republis various loci Vienna and' rested, and longing to t SOCIALISTS MAKE HEAVY GAINS IN ARGENTINA A RGB N TIN A Socialism has won *"another electoral triumph...
...If the statement of Bauer to the Linz comrade was wrong in February, then the previous decisions were wrong, and workers shared in making the decisions as well as the leaders...
...Since March 7, 1933, the day of the coup d'etat of the Dollfuss-Fey government, the Austrian SocialDemocratic Party has made the greatest efforts to facilitate a peaceful and constitutional solution of the political crisis...
...In time of war he acted as soldier for his lord...
...Bauer added, "Our party stuck to the last of these four points...
...When printing the two sentences the boys were remembering Lenin'g advice, not what Bauer said...
...Zaharoff may be a Greek or a Turk, h...
...Our Suggestion 1I/E suggest that Stalin's conscripts do better in discussing the proletarian struggle in Austria...
...Now with the failure of Capitalism it is proposed to step back to Feudalism...
...This world is to be called the Subsistence Homestead and the program is described as a decentralization of industry and an attack upon the evils of large industrial centers in time of depression...
...Workers and leaders had months before the conflict agreed not to be provoked by the Heimwehr...
...For eleven full months the Social-Democratic Party exercised the greatest r e s t r a i n t When Parliament was put into cold storage and an absolutist emergency decree regime was established, when the Republican Schutzbund was suppressed, when a whole series of emergency decrees were issued, which abolished in an unconstitutional manner the workers' right of public meeting and freedom of the press, curtailed the sociopolitical gains of the workers, deprived the - Social-Democratic municipal administration of Vienna of its income, and thereby made its activity impossible, the SocialDemocratic Party did not reply with forcible resistance...
...Their game has succeeded on so often in the past...
...Local i of at Issuers...
...But there is one aspect of the story that is constant, and that has neve* really been properly grasped...
...So be it Germans a n German., Americans are Americans...
...In the winter he will work in tho factory, but not for wages...
...Only supermen avoid mistakes...
...Why not run a front page streamer declaring that Otto Bauer was secretly in the pay of Dollfuss and that it was really a Stalin robot who gave the signal for the struggle...
...In Buenos Ayres the Socialists won If seats in Congress, seven in Buenos Ayl in <-ordoI>s...
...Breathe* there a man with noul to dead who never to, himself hath eaid, This is mine own, my native land...
...And do they intend to deprive the Agitprop, the Polcom, the Polltburu, the nuclei of Slam, the E.C.C.I., and Section > of Street Nucleus 7 in Happy Alley of their share in starting the rising...
...It is a story that is by no means new...
...And in these days when the energies of all mankind should be turned in the direction of seeking solutions for the greatest problems the world has ever faced, 'those who began to talk too noisily about patriotism ahould be instantly suspect...
...In return the lord was bound to maintain »rder and to see that justice was given...
...This afford to | starve...
...But it is such a complex world n which we live that people must lo more than just "subsist...
...But it is a story that requires retelling again and again...
...In his campaign of hate against the French, might give the French arms peddlers a talking point for the sale of their wares to the French government...
...As the "Fortune" article pointed oat, Wendels become von Wesdels in Germany and de Wsndels in France and sell gnns indiscriminately to each other's Fatherland, while d* Wendels sit in tha French Senate and own arid direct important French organs of patriotic public, opia'-ons at tha moment that von Wendels mH in the German Reichstag and •reach patriotic fervor against the French...
...Several days, of each week will be spent working for the state (even though they all be concentrated into one period in winter) and the rest getting his own existence...
...They got tangled up in putting the question that way, for it implies that the leaders did fight Fascism...
...Here they will carve out their own existence...
...U is important to understand these events in the last days of tht , Republic and they are presented below...
...There had been searches in previous months and the workers had kept cool...
...Therefore, it is proposed to erect in the iricinity of each town a small factory where the homesteaders will work for the government during the winter months when farming is impossible...
...On the other hand, the embitter ment of the working class rerrarding the government's poucy continually increased...
...Bauer cautioned the Linz workers to be cool, that "if we in Vienna could submit patiently to an arms search in party headquarters, they must try to do the same...
...For that is what the Subsistence Homestead is in its basic principles, STATE FEUDALISM 1 Note the astonishing parallel...
...The party leaders back in October suggested that the government govern by decree "without Parliament for two years, on two conditions only— that a small parliamentary committee, in which the government had a majority, should be able to criticise decrees and that A constitutional court, the only protection against breaches of the Constitution, should be restored...
...The October Decision* pass on to one section of the Bauer statement, how" ever, that is not mentioned by the boys and which may have puzzled some readers...
...Briefly, the project is to establish towns in areas where there has been continued unemployment in such basic Industries as soft coal mining...
...But at the same time the Socialist parliamentary leaders announced that a general strike would be called in the event of any one of four things happening, "if the government imposed a Fascist constitution on the country, if a government commissar was appointed in Vienna, or if our party or the trade unions were dissolved...
...The daily published by the boys wants to know why we do not "discuss the way the Austrian Socialist leaders supported Dollfuss in a united front against Fascism...
...In the summer this "citizen tenant" will cultivate the soil, but not as a commercial farmer...
...From this land -he family will "subsist...
...That is the side concerning itself with that sentiment known . i Patriotism...
...The "Fortune" article shows that French munitions interests contributed money to the success of the wretched Hitler so that he...
...He adds some additional information of the provocations o) 1 the government and the Heimwehi on the eve of the insurrection...
...Breathes There a Man With Soul So Dead By William M. Feiqenboum •JMIK story of the international traffic in armaments printed in the de luxe magazine "Fort u n e " and referred to in these columns last week carries enough dynamite to blow the capitalist system to eternity, if generally circulated, properly t nderstood and correctly acted upon...
...Dollfuss' Final Austrian Worlt UnnamecJ Socialist Le Republic Goes Dow The information service of thi Labor and Socialist Internationa, carries a long document writtei by a Socialist leader in Austrie whjle the struggle was still poinj | on...
...They cannot get over the fact that Otto Bauer fought by the side of the workers in Vienna...
...The boys quote Bauer as saying: "I sent a message urging them to submit to a search for arms...
...Groups of about two hun-' dri'd families will be settled on farm land in building constructed for them by the government...
...And so to make more gold they spend vast sums deliberately to incite and instigate wild and feverish "patriotism" in others, teach them that nothing matters but the Fatherland...
...Seemingly, even the complicated social relations of vassal and lord and king of Feu dalism are to be paralleled...
...I T ig still too early to describe the bloody events that are taking place in Austria...
...There are many aspects to the story, all important Decade after decade there are new developmnts, new names, deviltries...
...According to the regulations made by the Minister, the only workers who could be ei with such were '"ei'i agenc Social tiads wehr...
...this time in Argentina...
...With the growth of trade and the development of towns, Feudalism gradually broke down and Capitalism took its place...
...A comrade from Linz reached Vienna before the outbreak occurred and told Bauer that.the Linz Socialists were alarmed at the demand of the Heimwehr in the provinces for "a whole series of breaches of the constitution" and that if any further Heimwehr action was taken the workers would "defend themselves for the sake of the Republic...
...I asked our Finance Minister and our Vice-Governor to get Dollfuss or President Miklas at all costs to stop the imminent fighting...
...Comrad it quietly, contrlbnl Street, I...
...The arms were concealed in homea and were even buried in gardens...
...Ed During th growing si| ment was | cisive blow i the worker* Constitution, that Austrii receive a " tion" which dictatorship.' tution there i Parliament t univerxal ikj Schmitz am could not lie i in the "nei "semi-State « right to strife the right of I all wage disj The Heirr auxiliary Sti and paid by the Provutc.il in Tiro] mc provinces, inform of as Provincial I immediately placed by Pi which the have the le the Socialist...
...alliance will 68 Deputies, Party will gredient S i "\rou« 1 cisa the hero* trian com We raw need fool for their hearts...
...I t is interesting to note further that the establishment of a group of workers apart from and under entirely different conditions than their fellow-workers more widely separates the social classes...
...The serf or peasant was owned by the land and his lord owned that land...
...He and his*'family must consume all be raises, growing fat In good seasons and mighty lean in bad...
...What happened, according to Bauer, was this...
...and especially today, when the whole world is again teetering on the brink of war, it is important that the masses know the facts and understand their implications...
...When will the masses learn what this "patriotism" means...
...We may ask: Why did workers remain cool in previous searches...
...We hsve again read the Timet story in full and the two sentences quoted above are not recorded in the Bauer interview...
...His wages will bs goods, just as the serfs wersj— taxes, rent, mortgage Interest, heat and light...
...Because practically all the searches were made In party buildings and weapons were not concealed there...
...When it was too cold or unseasonable to farm he worked making cloth and tools in order to eke out his own existence and to enable his lord to live in the greatest comfort known to his day...
...Even if they had won they could have probably pointed a t o past errors of judgment...
...He was part of the value of the land on which he lived...
...Each family will be assigned from two to four acres of land, depending ipon the fertility of the soil, and itarted on the road to feeding it ielf by the allotment of seed, chickens and a cow...
...bears liritish titles and honors, and he is influential in France and in Monaco...
...In time of war the Subsistence Farmer will form the nucleus for the building of an army, just as the Citizen Conservation Corps with its military routine and leadership already does...
...The lord did not own the serf, and if the land were sold the serf went with it...
...Here we will have a social class beneath the workers...
...The Heimws1 manded th* Social-Demoe municipal to Socialists hi Heimwehr oj they would i Government Town Halls mands wertl coup d'etat I nent During tin Heimwehr 1 this ultima...
...It is a step, but they have the direction wrong) The world has seen FEUDALISM before...
...The steady march forward of the working class in all countries under the Socialist banner, begun with such startling success from the moment of Hitler's seizure of power in Germany, continues...
...The conservative press claims that the establishment of Subsistence Homesteads is a step toward State Capitalism or Socialism...
...The garded this to compel tl the Chnstisi which have significant ft in Austria, (The Dollf pointed this to succeed K Vienna...
...The "Fortune" article brings the story down to date, and as such it serves na important purpose...
...it was told by Karl Liebknecht in his famo'is expose before the war, and it furnished the background for "Major Barbara," one of Bernard Shaw's most important plays...
...Wages will be paid not in cash but in credit with the government...
...But the big international munitions manufacturers know no u ch thing as Patriotism...
...Frenchmen will die for Lo Patrie regardless of their material interests, and Englishmen will forget everything to serve King and , Country...
...Let's call it what it really is— STATE FEUDALISM...
...When statements are put in quotation marks they are supposed to be a record of what a person said...
...Why not give Stalin himself a good break by saying that he sent a "thesis" of 100,000 words which really mobilised the masses...
...The Schneiders are French and have contribution* in G e r m a n y and CsecluMvakia, while the Krupps are not unconnected with arms firm and banks in other countries...
...If bis hens are prolific It will behoove him to be likewise, lest eggs be waited...
...Liebknecht pointed out t h a t German ana > i esldier a owned patriotic French newspapers that preached a violent French chauvinism and hatred of the Germans, so t h a t the German munitions people might point t . that hatred (which they had bought and paid fori) as an argument for protecting Germany against the hostile French—that is, to i ilme their government to buy more guns and munitions to "protect" themselves against that hostility...
...Now this was not unusual...
...The proposal to Dollfuss was not to increase but to funic and decrease government by decree...
...What does the 13th Plenum, first section, fourth book, tenth chapter, eighth verse, second paragraph and Seventh line say about this...
...Austrian comrades no doubt made mistakes...
...It will be used also to obtain those necessities of life which cannot be raised on the land—light, heat, protection and clothes...
...We will provide some suggestions to pass on to all those who follow the "party line" laid down for them by Joe Stalin...
...In that Republic, after fighting •like heroes against the spread of Fascism, the Socialist Party won remarkable successes in the congressional elections last Sunday, held to fill 81 of the 168 seats in tha Chamber...
...In the issue of February 27 two statements are ascribed to Bauer, whose interview with a New York Timet correspondent appeared in that paper on February 18...
...On the contrary, right down to the last it made every effort to enter into negotiations with the Dollfuss government and the non-Fascist wing of the Christian Social Party...
...The boys are keeping time in the lockstep of the Comintern's chain gang by obeying these instructions...
...It was intensified in a high degree by a decree of Minister Schmitz under which all workers organized in free trade unions were to be excluded from employment in connection with works and building operations carried on the by the State and also from employment by private firms, in to far as these were fulfilling contracts from the State...
...By Robert MacMurrey IN the face of disrupted in 'In-f - y and demoralized agriculture the administration now makes a suggestion to remove many of the unemployed from the overcrowded labor market and transplant them to a, new economic world...
...The citizen will be economically bound to the land and the state will own that land...
...I^enin advised the boys "to practice trickery, to employ cunning, and to resort to illegal methods—to sometimes even overlook or conceal the truth...
...Johnson was right...
...However, we will not quarrel about that...
...During the Middle Ages the existing economic system was Feudalism...
...In times of "national danger"— that is, when the rulers of a count ry have plunged nations into war —all opinions are supposed to be suspended and all are supposed to pull together as one team for the Common Cause...
Vol. 17 • March 1934 • No. 10
