Hola from Paraguay,
Socialism will always fail if it supplants capitalism. This, of course, is the impossible conundrum. Karl Marx predicted that capitalism would replace feudalism, and that eventually capitalism’s cruel excesses would lead to the population turning to a fairer system. The question is how to eliminate the ethos of greed and selfishness inculcated by capitalism. Not everyone – even those who have vowed to work for the system – will have the purest intentions, the selflessness needed to get a system established. As Che Guevara wrote a century later, “the way is open for infection by germs of future corruption”.
In 1893, a group of Australians were so disenchanted with capitalism, they decided to risk everything and build their own workers’ paradise. They had undoubtedly all been affected by the recent experience of the severe economic depression of the early 1890s. One of them was a man named William Lane. Perhaps the most driven of these zealots, William Lane organised a ship and a land grant from the Paraguayan government. 238 Australians paid their fare, and in the winter of 1893, they set sail for South America.
It must have been terribly difficult, especially in the first months and years. They were clearing thick forest with a view to quickly establish a viable community, one that was self-sufficient and sustainable. They had no electricity, no running water on the property, and they were quite some distance from civilisation. When I visited on 1st February, it was 36 degrees Celsius, the height of summer. Clearing and building in that heat would be exhausting. The land is flat, with no perennial stream as a source of water.
William Lane imposed some rules for the camp: natural enough. Among the rules which became contentious was No Alcohol. Personalities soon clashed, and there was a dissenting breakaway group who attempted another beginning on another plot of land not far distant.
Within ten years, there were quite a few returning to the Antipodes. William Lane himself returned and lived out his days in New Zealand.
Naturally, lots of commentators then and now proclaim the socialist experiment a dismal failure. In some fundamental respects, it was a failure. Socialist experiments are beholden to human foibles. Che Guevara again: “There is also the danger of the weaknesses we can fall into”.
There are quite a few descendants still living here. There is a discrete settlement proudly bearing the name “Nueva Australia”. They appear to be doing quite well here. Naturally, there has been intermarriage over the several generations since 1893. (There is even a church in the settlement, now!)
The population in the immediate drawing area is large enough to sustain both a primary school and a secondary school. Quite a few of the Australian descendants remained in Paraguay, but relocated to the city. One of these, Leon Cadogan (born in Asuncion in 1899) will be the subject of his own post, elsewhere on this site.
Nueva Australia is well worth the visit, at least for this Australian. Given the same opportunity, I would have been tempted to join them in 1893. I don’t see failure here.
Adios from Paraguay
Gregorio