Other than the version lodged in my memory I have never found another rendition of, “The Avaricious Capitalist and the Three Little Proletarians”.  So unless someone tells me otherwise I choose to believe that my mother, Dorothy Davidson Arvedon, was probably the author.  If you pass the story on please credit her.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, in a place not so very far away, there lived an avaricious capitalist who owned a factory.  The capitalist was a horrible man who paid his workers just enough for them to live.  The workers were forced to pay rent to live in rat infested shacks owned by the capitalist and to buy their groceries at a company store also owned by the capitalist.  The workers never had any money to send their children to school or buy them toys or take them on vacation trips.  The capitalist forced the workers to work all day long and never even let them take bathroom breaks.  By the time the workers got home at night their children were asleep.

Finally, one of the little proletarians, who was a plumber, just could not take the terrible conditions any longer.  So he said, “I am going to organize a trade union of all the plumbers in the factory and we will negotiate with the capitalist for better pay and working conditions”.  So the plumber worked very hard and convinced all the other plumbers in the factory to join his trade union. 

On the day all of the plumbers marched up to the capitalist’s office to negotiate with him the capitalist would not even let them in the door.  He just fired all of them on the spot and hired scabs to replace them.  The plumbers and their families were all evicted from their shacks and their lives were even worse than before.

The second little proletarian had watched what had happened to the plumbers and decided that the way to make the lives of the workers better would be to organize an industrial union of all the workers who worked in the factory no matter what their jobs were.  So the second little proletarian worked very hard and organized all the workers in the factory into an industrial union.  When the avaricious capitalist refused to negotiate with the industrial union all of the workers in the factory went out on strike.

The avaricious capitalist, who regularly contributed to the campaigns of politicians, called up his good friend the governor and the governor agreed to help him by sending in the National Guard to attack the strikers and break the strike.  With the strike broken and the union defeated the lives of the workers and their families became even worse.

The third little proletarian had watched what had happened to the trade union and the industrial union and he decided that the best way to help the workers would be to organize a party of the working class that would include all workers no matter what jobs they did or where they worked.  So the third little proletarian worked very hard and organized a party of the working class.

When all of the workers were organized into a party of the working class they did not even bother trying to negotiate with the avaricious capitalist.  They just marched up to his office and told him to pack his bags and head on out because they were taking over.

From that day to this, in that place not so very far away, life is good for the workers and their children.  Any day when the workers have to work more then eight hours they get time and a half pay and they can take a bathroom break any time they need to.  Their houses have been fixed up, the rats chased away and they are free to shop at any store they want.  The workers now make enough money so that their children can go to school, and their families can take vacations and the children even have toys.