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Page 1: Socialism & Land

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

Page 2: Socialism & Land

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?

Page 3: Socialism & Land

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

Page 4: Socialism & Land

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?

Page 5: Socialism & Land

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?

Page 6: Socialism & Land

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

Page 7: Socialism & Land

“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

Page 8: Socialism & Land

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.”

Page 9: Socialism & Land

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.

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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.

Page 11: Socialism & Land

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.

Page 12: Socialism & Land

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?


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