Page:Eleven Blind Leaders (1910?).pdf/26

24 "public parks," "municipal playgrounds for children," "old age pensions," "insurance against unemployment," etc., some of which might be good in themselves, but are subject for the most part to the same strictures as so-called "labor laws," I come to the final phase of the argument, which hinges on the question raised by the Saturday Evening Post, and touched upon in the replies of the "ten leading socialists." That question is:HOW IS THE CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT?

The Preamble to the Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World declares that "it is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism." That to this end, "the army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with the capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown." That, furthermore, "by organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old."

The first question that naturally suggests itself in connection with this proposition is, "What, in its fundamentals, constitutes capitalism or capitalist society?"

Capitalism is a state of society based upon territorial and property relationships that have become international in their scope. The territorial unit is known as the nation, which is usually subdivided into states, counties, townships and municipalities, and which maintains international relations with other nations of similar territorial formation. The nation embraces the whole body of people within its boundaries, divided into "citizens and non-citizens." The citizens are those who, by birth or naturalization have been admitted to membership in a given territorial organization embracing the nation.

Theoretically, all citizens are assumed to be on an equality as far as "rights," "duties," and "privileges" of citizenship are concerned. Out of this territorial formation, inherited from the past, a complicated system