Page:Wilhelm Liebknecht - Socialism; What It Is and What It Seeks to Accomplish - tr. Mary Wood Simons (1899).djvu/10



chiefly in national boundaries, is conscious of the international character of the labor movement and is resolved to fulfill every duty which is laid on the workers in order to realize the brotherhood of humanity.

The socialist labor party of Germany demands as a step to the solution of the social question the erection, with the help of the state, of socialistic productive establishments under the democratic control of the laboring people. These productive establishments are to place industry and agriculture in such relations that out of them the socialist organization of the whole may arise.

The socialist labor party of Germany demands as the foundation of the state:

I. Universal, equal and direct suffrage, with secret, obligatory voting by all citizens at all elections in state or community.

II. Direct legislation by the people. Decision as to peace or war by the people.

III. Common right to hear arms. Militia instead of the standing army.

IV. Abolition of all laws of exception, especially all laws restricting the freedom of the press, of association and assemblage; above all, all laws restricting the freedom of public opinion, thought and investigation.

V. Legal judgment through the people. Gratuitous administration of law.

VI. Universal and equal popular education by the state. Universal compulsory education. Free instruction in all forms of art. Declaration that religion is a private matter.

The socialist labor party of Germany demands within, the present society:

I. The widest possible expansion of political rights and freedom according to the foregoing demands.

II. A progressive income tax for state and municipality instead of all those existing, especially in place of the indirect tax which burdens the people.

III. Unrestrained right of combination.

IV. Shortening of the working day according to the needs of society. Abolition of Sunday labor.

V. Abolition of child labor and all female labor injurious to health and morality.