ABSTRACT
Every man who works is endowed, willy nilly, with ties binding him to the equipment with which he works and to his fellow-workers. He is drawn towards the natural working community. Should this be hampered, by the wage system in particular, then he will form what are called informal groups with others outside the place of work, but these are really a substitute for the work-place community that is lacking. It is normal for the workers to like to develop harmonious relationships—with the machinery, with fellow workers, with supervisors, with the boss. These relationships are of a personal and subjective kind. If one goes to the roots of the matter, one finds a primordial tie between the worker and the means of production with which he works. This we will christen the possession sentiment; this establishes itself alongside the actual working activity, and, as it were, envelops it. Such a psychic attachment is based on a principle of the Geist. A man who relates his whole being to the tools he uses attaches and up to a point unites himself and his heavenly Anteil * therewith. He infuses them, even though it may be unconsciously, with a part of his essence —even when the work is boring and uninteresting. The tools enter a little into his psychic possession, whether or not they actually belong to him. Now, possession became, as it were, overblown during the evolution towards personal ownership, which guarantees personal rights of disposal over the thing possessed, and which is made into a legal category, given the endorsement of society, by the legislation of the state. In complete contrast, the possession sentiment referred to appears as a purely human matter, and carries with it no legal rights of disposal at all. The capitalistic, private-ownership-based economic system still contains this possession sentiment in it, but as it is only there to control the actual working of the means of production, it is not really connected at all with the desire to own their substance. What the capitalist wants, on the other hand, is to take this thing that he has bought with money and make its very substance a part of himself. For this, he has to be the sole controller of it—which is how the “monarchical” principle gets into the capitalist economic system, and into its heart, the acquisition of, and outlook towards, capital. The social synthesis of these two things, the possession sentiment and the relationship of ownership will be achieved by a constitution for industry which will draw its strength from the living principle of the common possession sentiment of all those who work with the means of production.
