Tower of Bebel
11th April 2007, 09:38
Hi,
Right now I'm doing sopme research on vaganbondage in Belgium in a periode from 1890 tot 1914. In the archives in Brussels I stumbled on a so called French vagabond, mr Morisot, who crossed to border between France and Belgium more than 30 times. He disliked French politics. He was caught and send back to France the same day he got in Belgium. According to his files he said he was a singer who sang for money on the streets. He never succeeded because he never got the chance to try his luck in Belgium as he was repeatedly send back by the Belgian police forces.
I think that reason why he came to Belgium for so many times was because of the social crisis in France. France suffered from many homeless since many lost there jobs and houses. Historians estimate that there were like 400.000 or even 500.000 homeless across the whole country begging for food and a bed to sleep in.
The government responded with assistance and repression. Everytime the State did some assistance some people had to be repressed. For exemple if the State aided women and children then the same time the State would repress the homeless with the excuse that the State needs people to work if it wants to help them.
The homeless were said to have bad genes or bad behaviour and that this made them homeless beggars. And the French elites, like all elites, refused to admit that it was the social crisis that made so many people into vagabonds.
Now we know capitalism suffers from periodic crisises, and that the elites do not know the answer to solving the problem. They just try make people "understand" that they have to work more, work harder, work for less pay. And they have the police behind them to repress everyone who refuses to do so, like mr Morisot who only wanted to sing on the streets, not to work in a factory.
But what would happen in a communist/anarchist society with people like mr Morisot who refuse to work and rather walk along the streets, singing for there living in cities and small towns etc.
Is this choice perfectly possible for many people? Or is it more a romantic dream?
Right now I'm doing sopme research on vaganbondage in Belgium in a periode from 1890 tot 1914. In the archives in Brussels I stumbled on a so called French vagabond, mr Morisot, who crossed to border between France and Belgium more than 30 times. He disliked French politics. He was caught and send back to France the same day he got in Belgium. According to his files he said he was a singer who sang for money on the streets. He never succeeded because he never got the chance to try his luck in Belgium as he was repeatedly send back by the Belgian police forces.
I think that reason why he came to Belgium for so many times was because of the social crisis in France. France suffered from many homeless since many lost there jobs and houses. Historians estimate that there were like 400.000 or even 500.000 homeless across the whole country begging for food and a bed to sleep in.
The government responded with assistance and repression. Everytime the State did some assistance some people had to be repressed. For exemple if the State aided women and children then the same time the State would repress the homeless with the excuse that the State needs people to work if it wants to help them.
The homeless were said to have bad genes or bad behaviour and that this made them homeless beggars. And the French elites, like all elites, refused to admit that it was the social crisis that made so many people into vagabonds.
Now we know capitalism suffers from periodic crisises, and that the elites do not know the answer to solving the problem. They just try make people "understand" that they have to work more, work harder, work for less pay. And they have the police behind them to repress everyone who refuses to do so, like mr Morisot who only wanted to sing on the streets, not to work in a factory.
But what would happen in a communist/anarchist society with people like mr Morisot who refuse to work and rather walk along the streets, singing for there living in cities and small towns etc.
Is this choice perfectly possible for many people? Or is it more a romantic dream?