All socialist urged restriction of private property but Utopians Socialists envisioned reform from the top of the social ladder while others called for radical change from the bottom. Early Socialism

Evidence utopian socialist Henri de Saint-Simon Charles Fourier Robert Owens cooperatives New Lanark New Harmony Louis Blanc Pierre Joseph Proudhon Karl Marx Friedrich Engels Communist Manifesto Marxism proletariat bourgeois

In generally, Utopian Socialist called for the elimination or restriction of private property. Instead, property should be owned communally or by the state in the name of the people. Henri de Saint-Simon, a French reformer, argued that industrial development be used for the improvement of all. Consider by many to be the founder of socialism The wealthy and educated classes should devote their energies to activities that would benefit the lower classes. The economy ought to be controlled by technocrats (scientists, engineers, industrialists) Large-scale public works projects should be undertaken to improve the infrastructure and provide jobs.

Charles Fourier, a French philosopher, also advocated for the establishment of cooperatives. A fierce defender of freedom of choice, he opposed traditional marriage and established communities where free love was the norm. Many women were enthusiastic followers of Fourier, who was an early proponent of the total emancipation of women.

Robert Owens, a wealthy British industrialists who opposed the employment of young children, believed that workers would be more productive if treated well. He created cooperatives, socialistic communities were experiments in new forms of organization of work and workers’ lives Contrary to general practice, he paid high wages, reduced working hours, provide sanitary working conditions, built decent homes for his employees, established schools for their children, and allowed the works to share in management and profits. New Lanark in Scotland prospered New Harmony, Indiana in the U.S. failed I n 1834, Owens tried to create a national union of workers with the short lived Grand National Consolidated Trades Union

Louis Blanc, a French Socialists, fought for a new right, the right to work He believed that every person had a right to a job Advocated the establishment of workshops and factories by the government to achieve full employment Blanc organized a worker’s party and played a major role in the French Revolution of Pierre Joseph Proudhon was not a utopian socialist but an anarchist who rejected the power of the state but he articulated a profoundly socialist idea in his 1840 pamphlet What is Property? He simply stated, “Property is theft,” meaning that private wealth is always stolen from the workers who create it.