:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: -----=====Earth's Dreamlands=====----- (313)558-5024 {14.4} (313)558-5517 A BBS for text file junkies RPGNet GM File Archive Site .:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. ______________________________________________________________________ "It is both dangerous and absurd for our world to be a group of communions mutually excommunicate." --- Alan Watts ______________________________________________________________________ issue number 3 September 7, 1992 // /// // //// // /// /// // //// ////// /// ////// //// // // // /// // // // // // // // / // // // ///// // // // // // ///// // // // // ////// // // // //\\ // \\\ ///// // // // // // \\\// / \\ // // //// \\//// \\ // /// // // // //// \\///// \\/// /// // \\\\\\ \\ ////\\\\ \\ \\ \\\ \\ \\ \\\\\\ \\\\\ \\ \\\\\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\\\\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\\\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\\\\ \\ \\ \\ \\ \\\ \\\ \\ \\\\ \\\ \\ \\ \\\ \\ \\\ \\\\\ \\\\ Address all correspondence to mlepore@mcimail.com CONTENTS ________ #3.01 Book Review: Mary Lee Settle, ..... Joanne Forman _The Scapegoat_ #3.02 As We See It ....................... Philadelphia Solidarity #3.03 Economic Measurements in .......... Mike Ballard Constant Dollars #3.04 "Materialist Conception of ......... Daniel De Leon History" (first published in 1911) ______________________________________________________________________ ORGANIZED THOUGHTS is dedicated to the organization of the working class to establish industrial democracy. Compilation copyright 1992 by M. Lepore. This document may be freely reproduced and distributed by the general public, in electronic or printed form. Please upload this publication to your local BBS's, and send copies to associates. ______________________________________________________________________ | #3.00 Introduction ..... | #3.01 Book Review ..... Mike Lepore | Joanne Forman ___________________________________|__________________________________ | The book review is contributed by | Mary Lee Settle, _The Scapegoat_ Joanne Forman, who is known for | accomplishments in several | fields, including reviews of the | The American literary novel has arts, political journalism, and | been mired in navel-gazing musical composition. She has | self-pity for two generations -- written frequently for _The New | but there are exceptions. Unionist_, the newspaper of the | One of the most brilliant is New Union Party. | Mary Lee Settle's _The | Scapegoat_. Set during a West The article "As We See It" | Virginia miners' strike in 1912, originated with a group called | it is far from being cardboard London Solidarity. It was later | agitprop. Richly panoramic, adopted by Philadelphia | _The Scapegoat_ examines the Solidarity, who submitted it to | interplay of the classes. A this forum. Time will tell | supporting player in this broad whether more Solidarity groups | canvas is Mother Jones. will spring up! | (Scribner, pb.) | The standard of living in the | U.S. has declined in the past | Joanne Forman forty years, despite marvelous | P.O. Box 1101 advances in productivity. Mike | Ranchos de Taos, NM 87557 Ballard reminds us to look at | wage and GNP trends in terms of |__________________________________ constant dollars, and we will surely see that the wage system just isn't working in the interests of the majority of the people. Reader reactions to O.T. #2, the debate about worker-owned corporations, spanned the entire range: One correspondent writes, > My compliments on the decorum and quality of your arguments. > I find reasoned debate somewhat scarce in this realm of > cyberspace. Another writes, > I get very impatient with these abstract discussions. In fact, nearly all of the reader feedback was concerned with whether the discussion was _interesting_, rather than whether the individual arguments were _correct_. <>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<> On Feb. 5, 1911, the Rev. Thomas Gasson, in a widely-advertised address in Boston, denounced the idea of socialism. Daniel De Leon, then editor of the socialist _Daily People_, replied to Gasson in a series of 19 editorials. In this issue I am including the 17th editorial of that series, entitled "Materialist Conception of History". This essay is timely because of the recent claims by the political right, including the Bush-Quayle campaign, that organized religion and conservative politics are the exclusive sources of morality and "family values". Father Gasson was one of those simplistic orators who equated capitalism with marriage, socialism with promiscuity, and similar demagogic gibberish. De Leon here demonstrates the necessary material aspect of morality. This is not a rejection of religion or spirituality, but an eloquent argument that a material foundation for morality is indispensable. Those who enjoy Greek mythology may recall that the god Hephaestus, called Vulcan by the Romans, provided the other gods with animated horses made of brass, tables and chairs (the "tripods") which flew by themselves through the halls, and, for himself, servants of gold, but endowed with intelligence. It almost seems that our ancient ancestors were dreaming of the day when automation and robots would be invented. In this essay, De Leon refers to the ancient fantasies which have finally become reality, thanks to the creative genius of labor. If we would be truly moral, let's establish a new system of society corresponding to the fact that modern machinery has reached, to use De Leon's words, a "stage of perfection that an abundance for all is possible without arduous toil". For genuine morality, start there. <>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<> Reminder -- The various organizations and programs mentioned in this publication are not affiliated with each other. They do have at least one similarity: when they talk about workers' self-management in a classless society, they mean exactly that. They do NOT propose handing over any power to a so-called "workers' state", ruled by a "vanguard party". Therefore, these movements overlap partially, in a sector that isn't described accurately by the usual "leftist" label. Yet their programs and tactics are somewhat different. There are only a few forums for discussing the similarities and differences of workers in this sector. This publication is one such place. <>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<> Announcements <>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<> The Industrial Union Party One hundred years ago has a new mailing address: (actually, it was on August IUP, P.O. Box 533, White Plains, 28, 1892), the Socialist Labor NY 10603-1506 Party nominated the first socialist presidential candidate in the history of the United The Industrial Workers of States. The 1892 SLP ticket the World can now be reached consisted of Simon Wing for by Internet e-mail at: president and Charles Matchett iww@igc.org for vice-president. THIS year marks the first time in a century that the SLP is unable to My bulletin board topics on nominate candidates, due to the GEnie network have been financial restrictions. The more popular than I originally party is going ahead with its estimated. The topic "The REAL "1992 Campaign for Socialism" as Marx and Engels", which is in an educational effort. For the Religion and Philosophy BB, information, contact the SLP at has exceeded 26,000 lines of P.O. Box 50218, Palo Alto, CA text since the topic was created 94303. Jan. 1, 1992. The "Industrial Democracy" topic, which is in the Public Forum BB, has I am looking for a volunteer accumulated over 20,000 lines of who has a scanner and OCR text since it was established software, to make ASCII text June 17, 1992. Anyone files out of books and pamphlets interesting in participating in the public domain. I don't should know that the cost of know whether archaic fonts used GEnie non-prime time access in the older documents will cause (weekends and weekday-evenings) OCR problems. starts at $4.95 per month (plus sales tax) in many parts of the U.S. International The quotation in lines 2-3 is access is also available. from Alan W. Watts, _The Way E-mail me for additional of Zen_; New York: Vintage Books, information. 1957, p. xiii ______________________________________________________________________ #3.02 As We See It ....................... Philadelphia Solidarity ______________________________________________________________________ ========== As We See It ========== Published 1991 by PHILADELPHIA SOLIDARITY Box 25224, Philadelphia, PA 19119, USA. 1. Throughout the world the vast majority of the people have no control whatsoever over the decisions that most deeply and directly affect their lives. They sell their labor power while others who own or control the means of production accumulate wealth, make the laws, and use the whole machinery of the State to perpetuate and reinforce their privileged position. 2. During the past century the living standards of working people have improved. But neither these improved living standards, nor the nationalization of the means of production, nor the coming to power of parties claiming to represent the working class have basically altered the status of the worker as worker. Nor have they given the bulk of mankind much freedom outside of production. East and West, capitalism remains an inhuman type of society where the vast majority are bossed at work and manipulated in consumption and leisure. Propaganda and policemen, prisons and schools, traditional values and traditional morality all serve to reinforce the power of the few and to convince or coerce the many into acceptance of a brutal, degrading and irrational system. The "Communist" world was never communist and the "Free" world has never been free. 3. The trade unions and the traditional parties of the left started in business to change all this. But they have come to terms with the existing patterns of exploitation. In fact, they are now essential if the exploiting society is to continue working smoothly. The unions act as middlemen in the labor market. The political parties use the struggles and aspirations of the working class for their own ends. The degeneration of working class organizations, itself the result of the failure of the revolutionary movement, has been a major factor in creating working class apathy, which in turn has led to the further degeneration of both parties and unions. 4. The trade unions and political parties cannot be reformed, "captured," or converted into instruments of working class emancipation. We don't call however for the proclamation of new unions, which, in the conditions of today, would suffer a similar fate to the old ones. Nor do we call for militants to tear up their union cards. Our aims are simply that the workers themselves should decide on the objectives of their struggles, and that the control and organization of these struggles should remain firmly in their own hands. The _forms_ which this self-activity of the working class may take will vary considerably from country to country and from industry to industry. Its basic _content_ will not. 5. Socialism is not just the common ownership and control of the means of production. It means equality, real freedom, reciprocal recognition and a radical transformation in all human relations. It is "man's positive self-consciousness." It is people's understanding of their environment and of themselves, their domination over their work and over such social institutions as they may need to create. These are not secondary aspects, which will automatically follow the expropriation of the old ruling class. On the contrary they are essential parts of the whole process of social transformation, for without them no genuine social transformation will have taken place. 6. A socialist society can therefore only be built from below. Decisions concerning production and work will be taken by workers' councils composed of elected and revocable delegates. Decisions in other areas will be taken on the basis of the widest possible discussion and consultation among the people as a whole. The democratization of society down to its very roots is what we mean by "workers' power." 7. _Meaningful action_ for revolutionaries, is whatever increases the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the self-activity of the masses, and whatever assists in their demystification. _Sterile and harmful action_ is whatever reinforces the passivity of the masses, their apathy, their cynicism, their differentiation through hierarchy, their alienation, their reliance on others to do things for them and the degree to which they can therefore be manipulated by others -- even by those allegedly acting on their behalf. 8. No ruling class in history has ever relinquished its power without a struggle, and our present rulers are unlike to be an exception. Power will only be taken from them through the conscious, autonomous action of the vast majority of the people themselves. The building of socialism will require mass understanding and mass participation. By their rigid hierarchical structure, by their ideas, and by their activities, both social-democratic and bolshevik types of organizations discourage this type of understanding and prevent this kind of participation. The idea that socialism can somehow be achieved by an elite party (however "revolutionary") acting "on behalf of" the working class is both absurd and reactionary. 9. We do not accept the view that by itself the working class can only achieve a trade union consciousness. On the contrary, we believe that its conditions of life and its experiences in production constantly drive the working class to adopt priorities and values and to find methods of organization which challenge the established social order and established patterns of thought. These responses are implicitly socialist. On the other hand, the working class is fragmented, dispossessed of the means of communication, and its various sections are at different levels of awareness and consciousness. The task of the revolutionary organization is to help those in different areas to exchange experiences and link up with one another. 10. We do not see ourselves as yet another leadership, but merely as an instrument of working class action. The function of a Solidarity organization is to help all those who are in conflict with the present authoritarian social structure, both in industry and in society at large, to generalize their experience, to make a total critique of their condition and of its causes, and to develop the mass revolutionary consciousness necessary if society is to be totally transformed. ______________________________________________________________________ #3.03 Economic Measurements in .......... Mike Ballard Constant Dollars ______________________________________________________________________ From: miballar@leland.stanford.edu The figures below have been gleaned from the "Survey of Current Business" and publications of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As is shown, output per worker has been growing in real terms since 1950. Yet, it seems that the general standard of living for people who are employed (as opposed to people who are employers) has gone down. YEAR GNP MEASURED IN NUMBER OF WORKERS AVERAGE VALUE OF BILLIONS OF PRODUCING GNP OUTPUT PER WORKER CONSTANT 1982 IN CONSTANT 1982 DOLLARS DOLLARS ____ ________________ _________________ _________________ 1950 $1,203.7 63,377,000 $18,992.00 1955 $1,494.9 62,170,000 $24,045.00 1960 $1,665.3 65,778,000 $25,316.00 1965 $2,087.6 71,088,000 $29,366.00 1970 $2,416.2 78,678,000 $30,709.00 1975 $2,695.0 85,846,000 $31,393.00 1980 $3,187.1 99,303,000 $32,094.00 1985 $3,618.7 107,150,000 $33,772.00 It is true that many commodities now sell for lower real prices than they did earlier. This is most apparent in the electronics area, e.g., televisions, radios, computers and so forth. As the amount of labor time it takes to produce a commodity goes down, so should its price in a free market. (Over time, the effects of supply and demand on price tend to balance out, barring global monopolies.) The cheapening of commodities by the reduction of labor time necessary for their production is a general tendency of the economy. Some commodities which have not undergone extensive automation may appear to be way out of line with the prices of yesteryear. Measuring prices in constant dollars is a way of bringing these things into perspective. Houses for example, if they are of the same quality (materials etc.) as those constructed in earlier times, may appear to be vastly more expensive than those of earlier times, if one does not deflate the price. The point of my comparison is that in terms of a steady measurement, like constant dollars, one can see that the real productivity of labor has grown tremendously since the 1950's. The problem is that the real wages haven't grown with this productivity. If one takes the figures for total people in the workforce given by the government and divides that figure into the total amount of money paid in wages in any given year since the 1950's and then measures that money in constant 1982 dollars, you find the price of labor as a whole, runs between a wage of $7,000 and $10,000 per year. So, while real wages have remained relatively constant, the real dollar total of goods and services has exploded. If these wages can only buy $7,000 to $10,000 worth of the commodities that are being produced and if the recession/depression is real (and the advice is to ask anyone who is unemployed for the answer),then it would stand to reason that the best way to get the economy going again would be to see that more money goes into the pockets of those who produce the wealth. This is more of a trickle up theory, if you will. That's one goal of the IWW. In fact, we think that labor is entitled to all the wealth it produces. We see the wages system as inherently unjust and our strategic goal is to abolish it. As to our expectations, as a class they should be at least as high as what we already produce. Join us! I.W.W. Ph: (415) 863-9627 863-WOBS 1095 Market St. Suite 204 Internet: iww@igc.org San Francisco, Ca 94103 ______________________________________________________________________ #3.04 Materialist Conception of History ........ Daniel De Leon ______________________________________________________________________ |||||| Reprinted, with permission, from the Sept.-Oct. |||||| 1992 issue of the De Leonist Society Bulletin. The materialist conception of history is not a deduction from assumed premises. It is the induction from facts carefully ascertained and construed together. These facts history furnishes in abundance. They leave room for no alternative other than either reject the facts as false, an impossible thing, or, accept the materialist conclusion to which these facts point. From the inexhaustible quarry of historic facts a few leading ones will suffice. The sense that involuntary poverty is an evil to him who is afflicted therewith is found in all literature, and in all ages. The sense of the evil has affected people in two ways. What those ways were is typified by the best types of the people differently affected. Isaiah and Plato may be taken as the oldest types on one set; Aristotle and Xenophon as the oldest types of the other set. The set typified by Isaiah and Plato undertook to remove the affliction of involuntary poverty, then and there. There reasoning was that, involuntary poverty being an evil, the moral sense must revolt against it; and, seeing that morality could not bide by the sufferings of mankind, all that was needed was to render man moral. A quickened morality was to establish paradise on earth -- Isaiah's "Kingdom of the Lord of Hosts", Plato's "Republic". The set typified by Aristotle and Xenophon looked upon involuntary poverty as an evil, but a necessity, an unavoidable evil. The Aristotelian passage, cited by Marx, -- "If every tool, when summoned, or even of its accord, could do the work that befits it, just as the creations of Daedalus moved of themselves, or the tripods of Hephaestus went of their own accord to their sacred work, if the weaver's shuttles were to weave of themselves, then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers, or of slaves for the lords." -- this passage strikes the key-note of the reasoning of this set. There is not on record, in the history of intellectual development, another instance of an error of judgment embodying a truth of such colossal proportions as the error which the Aristotle-Xenophonian school uttered in the passage cited above. There is no other instance of error big with such constructive powers. The Aristotle-Xenophonian school looked upon involuntary poverty as unavoidable because the tool did not move of itself. Under such mechanical conditions, the alternative was -- either economic dependence, that is, involuntary poverty, for all, with leisure, hence, the opportunity for intellectual expansion for none; or, economic dependence, hence, involuntary poverty with its train of suffering for the masses, and the consequent economic independence for some. The Aristotle-Xenophonian school grasped the sociologic law that decreed intellectual progress. Pardonably unable to project itself into the future so far ahead as the time when mechanical conditions would be so radically revolutionized that the "weavers' shuttles would weave of themselves", this school considered slavery, which meant labor and poverty, to be unavoidable. By doing so, the Aristotle-Xenophonian school planted itself upon the material conditions as the prime factor to determine social institutions and morality. The fruitfulness of their posture is inestimable. In the first place, it was a shield against wishes that were impracticable. The Isaiah-Platonian school, by aspiring and grasping at a goal for which society afforded no material foundation, led from disappointment to disappointment, and finally to the psychologic spot where the road forks -- one road striking in the direction of extreme Reaction, to a frame of mind in which the well-spring of lofty sentiments is dried up, and the masses are looked upon as brutish herds, who get no worse than they deserve when starved or beaten over the head into quiet; the other road striking in the direction of Hypocrisy, the original sentiments being preserved only in phrases, while actual conduct is hard to distinguish from Reaction -- each of the two roads being worse than the other. In the second place, the Aristotle-Xenophonian school furnished the key to the successive correction of whatever principle, which, however correct at one time, time may subsequently have rendered incorrect. By subjecting Aspirations to Material Possibilities, the key furnished by this school opened the portals for loftier and ever loftier sentiments in the measure that Aspirations, once lacking material foundation, were furnished with the same by the material conquests of advancing society, and things once held impossible, had become accomplished facts. The passage from Aristotle cited by Marx contrasts the two schools, and it illustrates the incomparable superiority, moral and material, of the Aristotle-Xenophonian posture over the Isaiah-Platonian. The Aristotle-Xenophonian is the Materialist Philosophy. The Materialist Philosophy subordinated the Heart to the Mind. By doing so, the Materialist Philosophy is the Guardian of Social Morality. Mass-humanity, the facts of history demonstrate, ever adapts its moral conceptions to its material needs. The Anti-Materialist does not, and can not escape that law of human action. The Anti-Materialist not only cripples himself, he injured society. By expecting universal Good Will, the application of Golden Rule, in short, ideal morality under conditions in which, for instance, "the weavers' shuttles do NOT weave of themselves", the Anti-Materialist renders himself stone blind to the advent of the material conditions when "the weavers' shuttles DO weave of themselves". Expecting the impossible, the Anti-Materialist impedes the inauguration of the possible. It is seen in the fact of the churches, the centers of Anti-Materialism, being filled with Reactionists and Hypocrites. The Materialist, on the contrary, ever adapting Aspirations to Material Possibilities, never can inflict upon society the alternate and double injury of promoting Reaction, or Hypocrisy, or both. The highest possible Ideal that material conditions afford he stands for -- none beyond that. Where material conditions -- as, for instance, when the mechanical appliances for production are so rudimental that the abundance needed for the welfare of all is a physical impossibility -- his Mind will curb the beatings of his Heart, and he will abstain from preaching the New Jerusalem. He knows the deep morality of the warning against the shouting of "Peace, peace, where there is no peace", and the deep damnation of the practice. On the other hand, when material conditions have so improved -- as, for instance, when the mechanical appliances for production have reached the present stage of perfection that an abundance for all is possible without arduous toil -- then will the Materialist's Mind give full rein to the throbbings of the Heart, and he will proclaim the advent of Man's terrestrial wellbeing. He will do so because, aware of the deep damnation of upholding "War, war, where there can be peace", and the lofty morality of insisting that there be "Peace, peace, where there can be peace." Being the carrier of the highest Morality, Socialism is Materialist, Materialism being TRUE, Anti-Materialism FALSE, and false pretence. ______________________________________________________________________ Revisions to this file ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oct 22 1992 Changed e-mail address ____________________________ Line 527; end of issue number 3 _______