British Socialism Part 34

Free Trade has been tried and has been found wanting, and a return to Protection, which is in accordance with the needs of the times and the spirit of the workers, especially of the trade unionists, is inevitable. "Capitalist Free Trade is a manifest failure. Trade unionism is, in its essence, a very st.u.r.dy form of Protection, as we can see, if not here in Great Britain, certainly in America and in Australia."[804] "Society is constantly changing its form of living: every day some supposed old truth goes into the limbo of forgotten things, and, looking around us, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear may see and hear on all hands the death-knell of the old Manchester school of political economy."[805]

The claims of Free Trade and the cheap-food cry are disregarded and treated with contempt. "Free Traders talk about the folly of Protection. But Free Trade itself is a form of Protection. It protects the strong and the cunning against the weaker and the more honest. It protects the cheap and nasty against the good."[806] The founder of modern Socialism had stated already in 1847: "What is Free Trade under the present conditions of society? Freedom of capital."[807] Free Trade undoubtedly directly protects capital and leaves labour unprotected. "Your food will cost you more! I am to bow down to the idol of cheapness. I, one of the unemployed. What is cheapness to me, who have no money at all?"[808] "Your Manchester school treat all social and industrial problems from the standpoint of mere animal subsistence."[809] Declarations such as "The Social-Democratic Federation stands for universal free trade or free exchange and for the abolition of all indirect taxation,"[810] and "The only form of Protection advocated by the Social-Democratic Federation is the protection of the proletariat against the robbery and exploitation of the master-cla.s.s"[811] have not the ring of seriousness about them.

Only very rarely are utterances in favour of Free Trade to be found in Socialist writings. However, frequently the demand is made that Tariff Reform and Socialism must go hand in hand, and doubt is expressed whether the Tariff Reform agitation is carried on for the benefit of the manufacturer or for that of the workers. "Mr. Chamberlain is not a Socialist. His Government will not be a Socialist Government. His plan would protect only the rich. This fiscal fight is a fight between capitalists as to who shall make the profits. It is not a fight for the benefit of the 'nation.' That is what they tell you. The capitalist who loses his trade through foreign compet.i.tion is a Tariff Reformer. He wants Protection. The capitalist who depends on cheap foreign imports for raw material is a Free Trader. He does not want his prices raised."[812] "Preferential trade is the proposal of individual capitalists who desire to make profits out of our Imperial connections."[813]

The Fabian organ looks at Free Trade and Protection merely as a business proposition. "We care nothing for abstract Cobdenite economics, and are quite willing to welcome Tariff Reform if its advocates show us that it can be used as a lever for raising the standards of life and labour. The Labour party is therefore eminently wise in seeing how far it can be used for their advantage.

Protectionism of the Australian Labour party is the right kind of Protectionism--Labour-Protectionism: a very different thing from the Capital-Protectionism which is (with a few exceptions) the characteristic mark of Tariff Reformers in this country."[814]

Some revolutionary Socialists are in favour of Free Trade because they hope that it will bring on a revolution in Great Britain. Their great leader, Karl Marx, taught sixty years ago, when Free Trade was being introduced: "The Protective system is nothing but a means of establis.h.i.+ng manufacture upon a large scale in any given country.

Besides this, the Protective system helps to develop free compet.i.tion within a nation. Generally speaking, the Protective system in these days is conservative, while the Free Trade system works destructively.

It breaks up old nationalities and carries the antagonism of proletariat and bourgeoisie to the uttermost point. In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the social revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone I am in favour of Free Trade."[815] Those Socialist revolutionaries who wish to increase the misery of the people, hoping that unbearable poverty, owing to increasing unemployment and consequent want, will at least madden the people and cause a revolution--they remember that the great French revolutions were also brought about by unemployment and consequent widespread misery--are the most determined champions of Free Trade.

FOOTNOTES:

[766] Macdonald, _Socialism_, p. 16.

[767] Lecky, _History of the Eighteenth Century_, quoted in _Fabian Essays in Socialism_, p. 81.

[768] Ellis Barker, _Modern Germany_, p. 531.

[769] _Fabian Essays in Socialism_, pp. 80, 81.

[770] F. Engels in Marx, _Discourse on Free Trade_, p. 5.

[771] _Fabian Essays in Socialism_, p. 90.

[772] Blatchford, _G.o.d and My Neighbour_, p. 154.

[773] Blatchford, _Merrie England_, p. 33.

[774] Blatchford, _Merrie England_, p. 33.

[775] _Ibid._ pp. 33, 34.

[776] _Ibid._ p. 35.

[777] _Ibid._ p. 34.

[778] _Ibid._ p. 12.

[779] Suthers, _My Right to Work_, p. 100.

[780] Blatchford, _Britain for the British_, pp. 97, 98, and 118.

[781] Hall, _Land, Labour, and Liberty_, p. 11.

[782] Suthers, _My Right to Work_, p. 82.

[783] Blatchford, _Merrie England_, p. 92.

[784] _Ibid._ p. 97.

[785] _Ibid._ p. 97.

[786] Blatchford, _Britain for the British_, p. 100.

[787] Suthers, _My Right to Work_, p. 103.

[788] _Justice_, November 23, 1907.

[789] Blatchford, _Britain for the British_, p. 100.

[790] Suthers, _My Right to Work_, pp. 102, 103.

[791] _Clarion_, October 25, 1907.

[792] Suthers, _My Right to Work_, pp. 96, 97.

[793] _Ibid._ p. 101.

[794] _Ibid._ p. 104.

[795] _Labour Leader_, January 12, 1906.

[796] _National Union Gleanings_, vol. xxvi. January-June 1906, p.

220.

[797] _Social-Democrat_, September 1907, pp. 519, 520.

[798] _Battersea Vanguard_, November 1907, p. 5.

[799] _Report, 27th Annual Conference Social-Democratic Federation_ 1907, p. 29.

[800] Mann, _The International Labour Movement_, p. 8.

[801] Jones, _Mining Royalties_, p. 14.

[802] Blatchford, _Compet.i.tion_, p. 9.

[803] Hall, _Land, Labour, and Liberty_, pp. 9, 10.

[804] _Justice_, November 23, 1907.

[805] George Lansbury, _The Principles of the English Poor Law_, p.

16.

[806] Suthers, _My Right to Work_, p. 104.