Rudolph Rocker Quotes
Where industry is everything and man is nothing begins the realm of a ruthless economic despotism whose workings are no less disastrous than those of any political despotism.
Rudolph Rocker, 1873-1958, German Anarchist Writer and Philosopher and Editor, Anarcho-Syndicalism, 1938
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There is a very interesting parallel with the views and statements of FDR at the same time.
This futuristic work attempted to project American life in the year 2000—then 112 years in the future. It is remarkable how many elements he successfully predicted. In this quotation a character in 2000 looks “backward” and correctly describes what occurred well after Bellamy’s death. This prediction describes the early 20th century quite well.
There were few if any consumer protection laws in those days and many wealthy aristocrats made their money by taking advantage of the poor. They were the landowners, bankers, financiers and often the industrialists. Shaw was a sarcastic social critic and this is a typical line he gave his upper class characters. Today, we have more controls on business and finance, and many wealthy business people have gotten that way by providing great value to the consumers and being honest. However, we still have large numbers of wealthy members of society who do make their money from the poor and middle class by unethical and often illegal means. In the aftermath of the Meltdown of 2008. hundreds of thousands of the homes of the working poor and middle class were foreclosed by the major banks forging the legal documentation for the foreclusures. Millions of consumer contracts are issued that even a PhD cannot understand the terms of without special legal and financial training. There is even a legal definition of a salesperson lying to make a sale which is so commonplace that our law excuses it and calls it "puffing". However, there has been over time, improvement over Shaw's era.
Sinclair had written an expose of the meat packing industry – the Jungle – which used as its setting the Armour meat packing factory. It changed the way the public thought about the industry, the role of government and regulation. President Roosevelt took up the reform role, and got Congress to Regulate the quality and cleanliness of the meat packing industry. Sinclair, however not only wanted that reform, but also wanted the labor wages and conditions reformed. He referred to the Armour plant as the fortress.
In his economic view, managers, accountants, attorneys, owners, shareholders, landlords, were all supported by the workers who have to support themselves and all the others.
Webster was taking regular bribes from large corporations and even complained when his payments were late. So he might have had a pro-large business bias. At the time taking bribes even if there was a quid pro quo was not illegal or even “unethical” by then Congressional rules.
He was warning that the corporations and monopolies were taking advantage of the poor who, if there is not some balance of redress and justice will resort to violence such as the man who just short him. He gave the speech still bleeding with the bullet lodged in his body. He refused to go to a hospital or get medical care until he had finished his speech. See {633076}.
One of the contradictions of capitalism is that at many points in history capitalism has caused and/or contributed to great death and suffering. However, that same capitalism has led to the development of science, technology, agronomy, medicine and education which has saved and preserved millions of lives and raised the standard of living more than anything else.
Johann Rudolf Rocker was a German anarchist writer and activist. Though often described as an anarcho-syndicalist, he was a self-professed anarchist without adjectives, believing that anarchist schools of thought represented "only different methods of economy" and that the first objective for anarchists was "to secure the personal and social freedom of men".
