On the Mission of the Working Class 1905

The Problem Confronting Labor Ably Analyzed; the Remedy Pointed Out; Its Means of Accomplishment; and What It Will Mean to the Proletarians of the World

On Christmas eve, Sunday last, amid a pouring rain, some 300 workingmen and women gathered in City Hall, to hear Com. E. T. Kingsley’s address, his subject being “The Mission of the Working Class.”

Com. James Pritchard acted as chairman, and after briefly announcing future meetings, etc., introduced the speaker.

“It does seem peculiar that despite the fact that the working class—the only useful class in society—have built the most gigantic and complicated means of wealth production this world ever knew—the great mass of them are still suffering from poverty, except when they were able to secure employment from another man, or set of men,” observed the speaker.

“To ask for a job is to ask for permission to live.

“We hear much in these days of the right to live. At this very moment the great working class of the world do not possess that right. They only have the privilege; and this because they have no command over the means of life. The things the workers have to use in order to feed, clothe and shelter themselves, are the instruments used to dispossess that working class.”

Com. Kingsley then briefly reviewed the methods of production from the time of the hand tool up to the present time of great mechanical devices; until to-day we have what is termed by the Socialist capitalist property—a form of property between private property and what is soon to be—collective property.

The proletarian—that portion of society without any means of subsistence—cannot exist except by wage-labor.

The small farmer, too, who at first glance would not appear to have interests identical with the proletariat, crystalises his and his family’s labor-power into wheat, etc., but he too, must turn his product over to capitalist property—the combines—the latter to use for profit-making.

In the last analysis the small farmers and the wage-earners have worked for the same thing—a bare existence.

Surplus farm products and surplus labor, both tended to depress their market price.

Therefore, the small farmer—not the big farms, operated by wage-labor—had interests identical with the wage-slave. There should be no conflict between the small farmer and the city wage-earner.

The function of capitalist property was to make a profit out of wage-labor; and unless profits would accrue to its capitalist owners, not a wheel was turned, no matter what the hunger or suffering of those dependent upon the sale of their ability to work.

The function of capitalists was to take what the workers make.

We have no reason to harm capitalists as individuals; but since the means of wealth production were created by labor alone, we must merely strip the capitalist of his power to exploit those who do the work.

The proletariat must know his position in human society; what capitalist property is, and how he is robbed through the wage-system, and denied the right to life.

The workers having mastered the problem of wealth production; with the modern means of machine production, there should be little difficulty in providing food, clothing, shelter and other necessaries for all.

Yet, with all this accomplished by the workers, they are still face to face with poverty in all its hideousness, degradation and humiliation.

They (the workers) have another mission to perform. They must convert these “trustified” means of wealth production to their own use.

How?

By destroying capitalist property—yet not wrecking a single wheel—but merely by stripping the means by which we live of the garb of capital—the power to enslave labor for profit. Make it the collective property of the class who use it.

How?

By taking possession of the power of government, and by legal enactment, backed by the power and mandate of the working class—without which we are helpless. The conquest of the organized powers of the state, the reins of public power placed in the hands of the proletariat, the instrument with which to strike the blow for its emancipation.

But what of resistance on the part of the ruling class?

Say; if you wanted to capture a grizzly bear, how would you go about it? Would you approach it and ask: Please Mr. Bear, will you lay down and die? (laughter).

Or would you make ready for the task before you, and I want to tell you here and now the governments of every country are just as lacking in scruples as any grizzly bear you could meet.

What is legal enactment?

The power to do!

Constitutional rights?

Bah!

You must possess yourselves of the power to protect yourselves. If the ballot will do, so much the better—for the other fellow.

With all the power in its hands the proletariat can free itself. You cannot stop its robbery by leaving representatives of the robbing class in power.

The workingmen to-day have no means or power of enforcing their mandate or agreements, while the capitalists—few in number—are backed by all the powers of the State, and vested with the ownership of the means of existence. Formerly it was chattel slavery; then feudal serfdom; now wage-slavery.

One “Professor” had said socialism would mean a reversion to barbarism. Barbarism would at least be preferable to modern “civilization.” Why, there are dozens of hungry men and women in Vancouver tonight—this glorious, prosperous Christmas eve.

The vilest holes of debauchery, prostitution, human degradation and cesspools of iniquity exist within the shadow of this very hall—with the consent of Mr. Business Man and Mr. Church Man, all for the glory of God and Profit.

As you all know we have developed some of the ablest, Godliest, and highest types of morality and refinement in polite business society the world ever knew. For instance, our insurance men, copper kings, oil kings, and that whole bunch of scallywags engaged in the business of what?—Skinning the workers, and dividing the swag.

And the workers?

Why, many of them are so busy upholding the dignity of labor that they stay up and slave all night in order to preserve it.

Current events throughout the world, in Russia as elsewhere, are making plain the mission of the working class. In France, in Germany, in the United States, and even in reactionary England, the workers are more than beginning to recognize that if they would be free they must themselves strike the blow—and assert their freedom.

It is a tremendous task. But the campaign everywhere is being waged with a persistence never duplicated in all history.

The Twentieth Century belongs to the Proletariat.

The Russians are sounding the advance. Capitalism cannot much longer stand; it must choke for need of further markets to conquer.

The proletariat will be compelled to accomplish its mission—no matter what the cost.

“And I intend to live to see the flag of freedom float o’er every country on top of this earth!” concluded the speaker amid spontaneous applause.

After the collection, a few questions, and some little discussion the meeting adjourned, stirred with the spirit of the “Marseillaise.”