socialism & land
DESCRIPTION
Dave Wetzel: Socialism & Land. A presentation at the TheIU.org 2013 Conference 'Economics for Conscious Evolution', London, UK, July 2013.TRANSCRIPT
Socialists & landDave Wetzel
Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport
President of The IU
President – Labour Land Campaign
Chair – The Professional Land Reform
GroupThe IU, London, UK 2013
Socialists aim to change the world
My considerable experience in the Labour, Co-operative and Trade Union Movement indicates that:•Socialists hold high ideals•Socialists want to build a better and fairer world•Socialists organise the working class•Socialists educate, demonstrate, agitate, campaign•Socialists actively work to alleviate immediate suffering•Socialists have been successful in influencing Governments•Socialists often enjoy a spirit of comradeship and unity
•So why do most socialists NOT support LVT?
Do Georgists Love Socialists?
“The extreme socialist is like the man who would have his
conscious will direct his stomach how to digest his food” Henry
George – Protection of Free Trade
“But it seems to us the vice of socialism in all its degrees is its
want of radicalism” Henry George – Condition of Labour
“The socialist model was anathema to Henry George”
Fred Harrison – Power in the Land
Most books written by Georgists criticise socialists and
socialism
AND YET……………………..
Henry George worked WITH Trade Unionists• When did a Georgist last have 100,000 people at their
funeral?(Most of which were Trade Unionists
who were supporting his new York Mayoral campaign)
• Do we want Socialists, Co-operators and Trade Unionists to support LVT?
Many books written by Georgists criticise socialists and socialism
Many words spoken by Georgists criticise socialists and socialism
Is this the best way to to gain allies?
Do you want socialists to ally with us?
Socialists need lvt
The main reason why socialists should support LVT is
because it helps them achieve their objectives:
•Full employment
•Collection of the major part of surplus value
•Common ownership of land wealth
•Improve housing conditions
•Avoid boom bust caused by land speculation
•A better and fairer society
“After the restoration of the Stuarts, the landed proprietors
carried, by legal means, an act of usurpation, effected
everywhere on the Continent without any legal formality. They
abolished the feudal tenure of land, i.e., they got rid of all its
obligations to the State, “indemnified” the State by taxes on
the peasantry and the rest of the mass of the people,
vindicated for themselves the rights of modern private
property in estates to which they had only a feudal title”
Das Kapital Vol 1.
Most SOCIALISTS ARE NOT MARXISTS BUT…………It never hurts to quote Karl Marx
In The Communist Manifesto (1848) Marx and Engells listed
10 policies in order to achieve socialism.
The first on the list should be of interest to Georgists:-
“Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the
following will be pretty generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of
land to public purposes.”
Vol III Das Kapital
I
n Part VI Marx describes Differential Rent.
H
is description is different in detail but in broad
harmony with Ricardo or Henry George.
Marx on land
He gets it:
Enclosures;
Clearances;
Removing independent peasants from their land to
provide workers for the factories to be exploited by
capitalists.
T
he Russian landowners ……… complain about two things: But
the landowners may take hope. Everything comes to those who
wait.. ..The second complaint is more characteristic. It is to the
effect that even if one has money, not enough labourers are to be
had at any time. The reason is that the Russian
farm-laborer, owing to the common
ownership of land in the village community,
has not yet been fully separated from his
means of production and hence is not yet a “free
wage-laborer” in the full sense of the word.
Decision time
D
o we want Socialists,
T
rade Unionists and
C
o-operators
t
o advocate LVT?
I
f so, HOW do we achieve this?