"THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF SOCIALIST DUTY" ENDNOTES
[1]. Louis Blanc is typically credited with developing the expression "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" in the 1840s (though another French socialist, Étienne Cabet, also started using it at roughly the same time). Blanc wrote in 1848: "Chacun produise selon son aptitude et ses forces, que chacun consomme selon ses besoins." Louis Blanc, Nouveau discours de M. Louis Blanc sur l'organisation du travail devant l'assemblée générale des délègues des travailleurs (Paris: Commission du Gouvernement Pour Travailleurs, 1848), 10.
[2]. The axiom "from each according to their ability" without question remains the socialist standard, appearing time and again today, as three examples illustrate.
First, the Democratic Socialists of America's 2017 annual convention used signage with sayings of Karl Marx, including "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs." David Weigel, "The Socialist Movement is Turning Younger and Turning into a Left-Wing Force," Chicago Tribune, August 6, 2017, https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-socialist-movement-bernie-sanders-20170806-story.html.
Second, the Socialist Students Society of Cardiff University proclaims in its organizational overview: "As socialists we believe that a different kind of society is possible in which the principle of 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need' (Karl Marx) is realized." "Socialist Students Society," Cardiff University Students Union, accessed February 15, 2021, https://www.cardiffstudents.com/activities/society/socialiststudents/.
Third, Binay Sakar, in his article "Road-Map to Socialism—Democracy Is the Road to Socialism," cites "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" as the goal of democratic socialism. Binay Sakar, "Road-Map to Socialism—Democracy Is the Road to Socialism," July 6, 2019, https://countercurrents.org/2019/07/road-map-to-socialism-democracy-is-the-road-to-socialism/.
[3]. "Plus un homme peut, plus il doit. … D'où l'axiome: De chacun, selon ses facultés. Là est le DEVOIR." Louis Blanc, La Historie de la Révolution de 1848, vol. 1(Paris: C. Marpon, 1880), 148.
[4]. J. Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism and Society, 6th ed. (London, Independent Labor Party, 1908), 32.
[5]. "Man once again regains the old sense of happiness in work, the happiness of fulfilling a duty, of feeling himself important within the social mechanism. He becomes happy to feel himself a cog in the wheel, a cog which has its own characteristics and is necessary although not indispensable, to the production process, a conscious cog …." (Ernest "Che" Guevara "On Creating a New Attitude" in Venceremos! The speeches and writings of Che Guevara, ed. John Gerassi (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968), 337.)
[6]. Sidney Webb, "The Basis of Socialism—Historic" in G. Bernard Shaw, ed., Fabian Essays in Socialism, American Edition, ed. H. G. Wilshire (New York: Humboldt Publishing Co., 1891) 38.
[7]. Adolph Hitler spoke of "the community" as frequently as socialist thinkers speak of "society." In his notorious work Mein Kamph, Hitler refers to "the community" dozens of times. One example could appear in a piece of socialist writing without a single change: "The evaluation of the man must be based on the manner in which he fulfills the task entrusted him by the community." Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, trans. Ralph Manheim (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943), 434.
[8]. Liberal democracies are founded on principles that reject compulsory duty. Socialists admit as much themselves. For example, socialist thinker Joseph Carens notes that duty of the type socialism demands is "strikingly absent" in most liberal philosophy (Joseph Carens, "Rights and Duties in an Egalitarian Society," Political Theory 14, no. 1 [February 1986]: 33). Similarly, socialist greats Sidney and Beatrice Webb use the very same words, "strikingly absent," when attacking the US Constitution for lacking the types of mandatory duty to the state that the constitution of the USSR demanded of socialist citizens (Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation, 3rd ed. [London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1944], 437).
Liberal societies are certainly not always perfect in their adherence to liberalism, and liberal democracies have not always rejected dangerous forms of compulsory duty. One obvious example is the military draft, such as that used during the Vietnam War. But when our society deviates from its liberal principles, the answer is to seek more consistent application of these principles, not to throw the principles overboard. In contrast, socialism is based on the outright rejection of liberalism and its replacement with a philosophy founded on the compulsory duty of "from each according to their ability."
[9]. When socialist great Charles Fourier attacks the "parasites" he believes inhabit capitalist society, he says the new society will return them to duty: "It [socialism] will return to duty and return to productive work those legions of parasites, called merchants, which create a domain of piracy within each empire" ("Elle fera rentrer dans le devoir et retourner au travail productif ces légions de parasites appelés marchands, qui se créent un domaine de piraterie au sein de chaque empire"). Charles Fourier, Crime du commerce (Paris: Aux Bureaux de la Phalange, 1845), 19.
Liberal society's lack of mandatory duty is what Fourier and socialism generally see as permitting the existence of "parasites"; socialist duty is the path to their suppression. Similarly, in The Doctrine of Saint-Simon, one of the foundational works of socialism, Prosper Enfantin and his Saint-Simonian coauthors call for us to "return with love to OBEDIENCE" (their choice of all cap to for emphasis). Socialist true believers will no doubt "return with love" to obedience. The rest of us will be made to return to duty whether we like it or not.
The Saint-Simonians see a return to duty as the means to achieve social goals: "We will return with joy to this high virtue, so misunderstood, we can even say so despised today, to this virtue so easy and so sweet, between beings who have a common goal which they all desire to achieve … we will return with love to OBEDIENCE" ("Nous reviendrons avec joie à cette haute vertu, si méconnue, nous pouvons même dire si méprisée aujourd'hui, à cette vertu si facile et si douce, entre des êtres qui ont un but commun qu'ils désirent tous atteindre … nous reviendrons avec amour à L'OBEISSANCE"). Prosper Enfantin, et. al., Doctrine de Saint-Simon, Exposition Premier Année, 3rd ed. (Paris: Au Bureau de l'Organisateur, 1831), 330.
[10]. Socialist thinker Joseph Carens notes that duty of the type socialism demands is "strikingly absent" in most liberal philosophy (Joseph Carens, "Rights and Duties in an Egalitarian Society," Political Theory 14, no. 1 [February 1986]: 33).
Socialist greats Sidney and Beatrice Webb use the very same words as Carens (n. 7) "strikingly absent," when attacking the French and US constitutions for lacking the type of mandatory duty to the state that the constitution of the USSR demanded of socialist citizens (Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation, 3rd ed. [London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1944], 437).
[11]. There are multiple reasons socialism cannot be created or operate without the power that the duty of "from each according to their ability" gives to those running socialist society. As one example, if we retained our liberal right to use our lives in essentially any way we wish versus as those running socialist society insist, there would be no change of fulfilling what socialist great Fidel Castrol says is an absolute prerequisite for creating socialism: using our lives in the fashion that's optimal for society. Castro says: "Socialism cannot exist unless every citizen is given optimum employment, unless every citizen is used in an optimum, rational way." (Fidel Castro, "Castro Speaks to Education Conference [Havana Radio, December 24, 1991]," Latin America Network Information Center—Castro Speech Database, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1991/19911224.html.)
[12]. Earlier experiments with socialism were sold as being democratic socialism no different than socialism is sold today. The ultimate example: the USSR. Today the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR, is seen as the very definition of authoritarian socialism. Yet, when the USSR was founded and for decades thereafter, it was said to be democratic socialism in action. This claim was not only made by socialists in the USSR, but also by socialists worldwide. For example, famed American democratic socialist Eugene Debs said that the USSR represented the world's first democracy. To learn more, see the RFP paper "The Keto-Friendly Political Philosophy."
[13]. "Individualism ought to be the efficient use of the whole individual for the absolute benefit of the collectivity." Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "On Revolutionary Medicine," trans. Beth Kurti, Obra Revolucionaria 24 (1960): https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1960/08/19.htm.
[14]. Today's socialists say R. H. Tawney and Ramsay MacDonald should be considered democratic socialists. This isn't really surprising as for over a century socialists have viewed socialism as essentially by definition democratic and have thus seen the term "democratic socialism" as effectively equivalent to "socialist socialism."
There's no test you need to pass to be considered a democratic socialist. If you say you are or someone else says you are, you're considered one. Anyone is free to be a "democratic socialist" no matter how many anti-liberal and authoritarian views they hold (as Tawney and MacDonald illustrate with their calls for society to be based on duty in place of rights). Even Karl Marx is said to be a democratic socialist.
(To learn more about the many factors that demonstrate "democratic" socialism is a marketing slogan, not some different version of socialism, visit our sibling website ketofriendlysocialism.org, which explores this issue in detail.)
Regarding Tawney's status as a "democratic socialist," see, for example, the description of Ross Terrill's biography R. H. Tawney and His Times (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973): "Economic historian, democratic socialist, educator, and British labor party activist, R. H. Tawney touched many worlds."
Regarding MacDonald's status as a "democratic socialist," see, for example, Kenneth O. Morgan's paper "Ramsay MacDonald and the Rise of Labour," (New Perspectives, Volume 1. Number 3. March 1996) in which Morgan writes: "[MacDonald] had been regarded as one of the most dynamic and magnetic of British political leaders, a model for democratic socialists throughout the world."
[15]. R. H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1921), 96.
[16]. J. Ramsay MacDonald, Socialism and Government, vol. 1 (London: Independent Labour Party, 1909), 12.
[17]. Bernard Shaw, letter to Dr. Friedrich Adler, October 14, 1927, quoted in Margaret Cole, The Story of Fabian Socialism (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1964), 197. Shaw wrote these words praising Mussolini five years after Mussolini had established his fascist reign over Italy, but before Italy joined Nazi Germany to lead the world into World War 2.
[18]. Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, in Marx/Engels Selected Works,vol. 2 (London: Wishart, 1950), 23.
[19]. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, 23.
[20]. Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question," in The Marx-Engels Reader, ed. Robert Tucker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1978), 40, 41.
[21]. Harrington has called Marx a democratic socialist multiple times. For example, he dedicates his book The Twilight of Capitalism to "Champion of freedom and democratic socialist, Karl Marx. Michael Harrington, The Twilight of Capitalism (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976), v. For more on Marx and Engels being called democratic socialists, see the RFP paper "Karl Marx, 'Democratic Socialist'?"
[22]. The fact that Marx is considered a democratic socialist is another illustration of the fact "democratic" socialism is a misleading marketing slogan, not a new version of socialism. To learn more, see the RFP paper "The Keto-Friendly Political Philosophy."
[23]."Il y a des fainéants, c'est-à-dire des voleurs." Henri de Saint Simon, "L'industrie," in Œuvres de Saint-Simon et d'Enfantin, vol. 18 (Paris: E. Dentu, 1868), 130.
[24]. "La Nature a imposé́ a chacun l'obligation de travailler. Nul n'a pu sans crime soustraire au travail." Gracchus Babeuf, Analyse de la doctrine de Babeuf, tribun du peuple: proscrit par le Directoire exécutif pour avoir dit la vérité́ (Paris: 1796), 1.
[25]. "Y que hemos dicho que ese es un ladrón, ¡un ladrón! ["a thief, a thief!"] Los niños, los ancianos, los enfermos, esos lo tendrán todo. Se trabaja para ellos, para los que no pueden producir, para los que lo necesitan. Para el vago ["slacker"] no. Porque no se van a convertir en nuestros explotadores ["exploiters"], nuestros nuevos explotadores." Fidel Castro, "Discurso Pronunciado por Fidel Castro Ruz, Presidente de la República de Cuba, en la Clausura de la Plenaria Nacional de la Industria Basica [December 7, 1970]," Departamento de Versiones Taquigraficas del Gobierno Revolucionario, accessed December 4, 2020, http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1970/esp/f071270e.html.
[26]. Webb and Webb, Soviet Communism, 437.
[27]. "Ces inutiles ne sont pas seulement les oisifs comme vous pourriez le croire. Ce sont surtout des gens qui travaillent, même parfois qui travaillent beaucoup, mais dont le travail produit rien et qui doivent par conséquent vivre sur le travail d'autrui. Or, ces inutiles, le socialisme les supprimera ; il en fera des au lieu d'être des parasites ils deviendront des producteurs." Lucien Deslinières, Entretiens Socialistes (Paris: Choisy Le Roi, 1901), 35–36.
[28]. Fidel Castro, "Castro Speaks at Uvero Battle Commemoration [May 28 1965]," Castro Speech Database, accessed October 20, 2020, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1965/19650528.html.
[29]. For a comparison of socialist and fascist thinking about duty and rights, see the RFP paper "Our 'So-Called' Rights."
[30]. For examples of Benito Mussolini, the world's first fascist dictator, calling for a society of all workers and no supposed parasites, see the RFP paper "The Socialist Obsession: The Central Role of 'Parasites' In Socialist Thought."
[31]. Mario Palmieri, The Philosophy of Fascism (Chicago: Dante Alighieri Society, 1936). Benito Mussolini is referred to as "the father of Fascism" multiple times in this work authored by Palmieri, a support of fascism. Additionally, the preface was authored by another fascist, Dr. Guido Corni, who writes: "Mr. Palmieri's work is not only honored by the seal of the Dante organization, but also by the approval of the father of Fascism, the Duce himself, his Excellency Benito Mussolini."
[32]. Prior to becoming the world's first fascist dictator, Mussolini was a leader of the Italian Socialist Party and editor in chief of the party's daily newspaper. Mussolini even started his own socialist theoretical journal, Utopia. For more about Mussolini's background as a socialist, see the RFP paper "Our 'So-Called' Rig
[33]. See socialist thinker Ernest Mandel's discussion of Marx's concept of private labor in his introduction to Karl Marx, Capital, trans. Ben Fowkes and David Fernbach, 3 vols. (London: Penguin Classics, 1978–1981), 1:32, 38, 39, 42, 43, 54, 57, 74.
[34]. Michael Lebowitz, The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now (New York: Monthly Review, 2015), 67. For details, see the RFP paper "A 'Defect' of Liberalism: Treating Our Lives as Our Own."
[35]. Lebowitz, Socialist Imperative, 67.
[36]. Kohei Saito, Karl Marx's Ecosocialism: Capitalism, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy (New York: Monthly Review, 2017), conclusion, Kindle.
[37]. Marx explains: "Private labour cannot be treated as its opposite, directly social labour" (Capital, 1:188n). Elsewhere, he writes that in socialist society "the labour of the individual is posited from the outset as [directly] social labor" (Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy, trans. Martin Nicolaus [Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973], 172). Even though Marx does not specify "directly" in this latter instance, he's writing about the same concept he elsewhere describes as "directly social labor," as present-day socialists note (see Peter Hudis, Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism [Boston: Brill, 2012], 111). See the RFP paper "A 'Defect' of Liberalism: Treating Our Lives as Our Own."
[38]. Vladimir Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder (New York: International Publishers, 1940), 10.
[39]. As detailed in the RFP paper "Why Socialism Says Craftwork Is 'Idiocy,'" another example of the socialist belief that "small production engenders capitalism" is found in the thinking of Lenin's socialist nemesis, Karl Kautsky.
[40]. Marx says those who work as craftspeople "arrive at the knowledge and the consciousness of the pin"—that is, become pinheads. Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1956), 144.
[41]. Sean Sayers, "The Concept of Labor: Marx and His Critics," Science & Society 71, No. 4 (October 2007), 449.
[42]. For example, the new constitution for the USSR introduced in 1977 included the requirement of "from each according to their ability" for all citizens. 1977 U.S.S.R. Const. ch. 1 art. 14, Bucknell University, accessed December 17, 2020, https://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/77cons01.html#chap01.
[43]. Laurence Gronlund, The Cooperative Commonwealth: An Exposition of Modern Socialism (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1884), 83–84.
[44]. Lebowitz, Socialist Imperative, 39.
[45] Fidel Castro, "Castro Speaks at Education Conference (December 24, 1991)," Castro Speech Database, accessed March 17, 2021, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1991/19911224.html
[46]. For example, Michael Harrington, the founder of the Democratic Socialists of America, writes: "The goal of socialism, clearly, is to overcome greed and act on the basis of 'to each according to his/her need, from each according to his/her ability.'" Michael Harrington, "What Socialists Would Do in America—If They Could," Dissent, Fall 1978, 445.
[47]. Other examples of present-day socialists who profess to be democratic socialists (as essentially all socialists have for well over a century, see RFP paper "The Keto-Friendly Political Philosophy" for details) stating that socialism is to be based on the "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" standard include David S. Pena, Michael Lowy, Michael Stevens Smith and Rob Sewell:
David S. Pena, "You Might Be a Marxist If … You Believe in From Each According to Their Abilities, to Each According to Their Needs" April 4, 2011, http://www.politicalaffairs.net/you-might-be-a-marxist-if-you-believe-in-from-each-according-to-their-abilities-to-each-according-to-their-needs/.
Michael Steven Smith, "Law in a Socialist USA," Michael Stevens Smith, Frances Goldin, Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (Toronto: Harper Perennial, 2014), 58, Kindle.
Robert Sewell, "Why You Should Be a Socialist" Socialist Appeal 4 September 2015 https://www.socialist.net/why-you-should-be-a-socialist.htm.
[48]. David Weigel, "The socialist movement is getting younger, thanks to one 75-year-old," Washington Post, August 7, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/the-socialist-movement-is-getting-younger-thanks-to-one-75-year-old/2017/08/06/464f0656-7924-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html.
[49]. For well over 120 years, socialists have considered socialism to equal democracy—they've believed that socialism is democracy. Two example of this reality from celebrated American socialist Eugene V. Debs, who writing and speaking early 1900s, equated socialism with democracy. This was the norm for socialists at that time and it has been ever since and despite the fact socialism is based on compulsory duty.
"The only genuine Democratic party in the field is the Socialist party." (Eugene Debs, "The Socialist Party and the Working Class [Opening Speech Delivered as Candidate of the Socialist Party for President of the United States, at Indianapolis, Ind., September 1, 1904]," in Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches (St. Luis: Phil Wagner, 1908), 368.)
"Social democracy is the only democracy." When Debs was writing in the early 1900s, "social democracy" was the slogan used for democratic socialism. Today Debs is called a democratic socialist, but he always referred to himself as a "social democrat" and led to socialist parties that used "social democratic in their names. (Eugene Debs "The Essence of Social Democracy [September 3, 1900]," Marxists.org, accessed February 27, 2021, https://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1900/000903-debs-essenceofsocialdemocracy.pdf.)
[50.] Fidel Castro, "Castro Speaks at Education Conference (December 24, 1991)," Castro Speech Database, accessed March 17, 2021, http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1991/19911224.html
[51]. "Every member of society will thereby be enabled to develop and exercise all his powers and abilities in perfect freedom." (Friedrich Engels, "The Principles of Communism," in Marx/Engels Collected Works, vol. 1 [Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1973], 87.)
[52]. Friedrich Engels coined this expression that has become a common socialist theme. It appeared in his work Anti-Dühring: "The government of persons is replaced by the administration of things and the direction of the process of production. The state is not 'abolished,' it withers away." Friedrich Engels, Anti-Dühring: Herr Eugen Dühring's Revolution in Science, trans. Emile Burns, Marxist Library 18 (New York: International Publishers, 1947), 315, emphasis added.
[53]. Leon Trotsky, Dictatorship vs. Democracy: A Reply to Karl Kautsky (New York: Workers Party of America, 1922), 169.
[54]. Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program, 23.
[55]. Socialist theory is explicit that a world of "to each according to their need" is a world in which all good and services are available for free worldwide. Tatah Mentah reports that this standard would mean: "Individuals will have free access to what is produced according to self-defined needs" (Tatah Mentah, Socialism: The Only Practical Alternative to Contemporary Capitalism [Mankon: Langaa Research & Publishing, 2012], 36). Socialist thinkers are similarly clear that such a world is one in which goods and services are constantly overproduced—produced in quantities that exceed demand. Paul Mattick writes: "In socialism overproduction would be indispensable to assure the satisfaction of social needs and would therefore be considered normal" (Paul Mattick, Economic Crisis and Crisis Theory [London: Merlin Press, 1981], 108). For more, see the RFP paper "The Secret Sauce of Socialism."
[56]. Eminent modern-day socialist philosopher G. A. Cohen provides an example of socialists admitting that Marx and Engel's predictions of a world of perfected freedom and equality are founded on the assumption of a world of what Cohen calls "limitless conflicts-dissolving abundance." Note the phrase "conflicts-dissolving." The cornucopia of goods socialism would supposedly produce is to be so massive as to end all human conflicts. This is what leads socialists to claims their philosophy would eliminate the need not only for government but also even for law. G. A. Cohen, Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995), 10–11, 122–127.
[57]. Trotsky, Dictatorship vs. Democracy, 169-170.
[58]. Ernesto "Che" Guevara, "On Revolutionary Medicine," trans. Beth Kurti, Obra Revolucionaria 24 (1960): https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1960/08/19.htm.
[59]. The earlier socialist nations we think of as defining authoritarian socialism were themselves said to be democratic socialism in action. For example, socialists around the world proclaimed that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was not only a democracy but also the world's first democracy. For more, see the RFP paper "The Keto-Friendly Political Philosophy" available at ketofriendlysocialism.org.