THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT

Transcription

1 THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT BRIEF OUTLINE OF ITS DEVEL- OPMENT AND DIFFERENCES IN THIS COUNI-RY The S. P. is weaker, ill-.finitezy, than it looks; the S. L. P. is infirlifely stvouger than if seems.--daniel DE LEON. PRICE THREE C6NtS 191s

2 THE SOCIALIST MOVEMENT Brief Outline of Ita Development and Differences in This Country Up to the year 1897, the only Socialist political organization of standing in the United States was the Socialist Labor Party. Then arose, as a result of tine lost Pullman stri,ke, so-called, an organization known as the Debs Social Democracy which, at first, set up colonization as its aim and purpose. Composed of elements utterly unfamiliar with the fundamental teaching- of scientific Socialis.m, it could only remotely be regarded as a rival of the Socialist Labor Party, and, had not other events transpired, it would, in all likelihood, soon have become submerged. Tne Socialist Labor Party of that cll; was an organization as consistent as collective understanding of its membership permitted. Disdaming to.bow to popular fallacies or to sacrifice present or ultimate working class interests for the sake of temporary and futile advantage, it had just weathered the Populist storm of the national campaign of 1896,.had come out unscathtd and was gaining m strength. Above all did it, at all times,. clearly enunciate the need of the revolutionary union, the organization of the forces of the working class on the economic field for the purpose of overthrowing the capitalist system of production and ushering in the Socialist Republic. The Party held, correctly, that, without s&h organization of the MIGHT of the working class, its RIGHT, as voiced by the political class organization, would ever remain nurely an aspiration. And the Party pointed out that what forms of econemic organizations existed, as exemplificd by the American Federation of Labor, -- tended to buttress rather, than threaten the capitalist class. In point of form the

3 A. F. of L. dislocated the working class and lamed its power for action by-a system of craft unionism that,mignt have suited medieval conditions, but was utterly unsuited to modern capitalist development. In point of spirit, craft unionism sinned even more grievously. Instead of pointing out the natural antagonism of interests between the working class and the capitalisi. system, and thereby cl,arifying working class vision as to its real nosition in modern civilization, an antagomsm that is, indeed, the only hope of that civilization, it set up the false:false, because contrary to all the facts-principle of the brotheihood of Capital and Lalbor, of a commumtr of i,nterests distur,bed, only occasionally, by disagreements such as will happen among brothers. This vicious doctrine poisoned the Labor Movement at its weli springs, made it the stamping ground of the Labor crook, the demagogue, and raised ignorance on a pedestal. Against this capitalist-bred and capitalnurtured doctrine the Socialist Labor Partv bad to take its stand. and it did SO manfully, r.ealizing tihat one cannot honestly pursue Socialist ideals and yet temporize with such a demoralizing conception of the Labor Movement. At its national convention of 1896, the Party endorsed the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance, an economic organization of Labor which, in harmony with the Socialist Labor Party, declared that the emancipatio,n of the working class can only follow the downfall of the capitalist system of production, and that the organization of the working class in a revolutionary union is indispensable to bring about that downfall, place the means of production into the hands of-society, reorcanized without class dlstlnction, <and thus usher in the Socialist Republic, preserve the civilization the human race has attained, and make possible, lby a -2-

4 complete and unretarded unfolding of human capabilities, its logical development. This coming together of the Socialist forces of the country, on iboth the political and economic fields, coupled with tie steady mising growth of so clear-cut, and, for that reason, uncompromenacing a movement, made the supporters, apologists and Ibeneficiaries of capitalism sit up and take notice. Almost at once began to be felt machinations within the Socialist Labor Party aiming at the undoing of the momentous step taken.!t%e Party, aithough having, perhaps, grown more rapidlv in numbers than was warranted bv thhe growth of sound information, defeated these machinations again and again. But in 1899 the forces of reaction, under the leadership of the New Yorker Volkszeitung, an alleged Socialist daily pulblished in the German language, bolted and, in the course of time, merged with the Debs F;e cial Democracy already mentioned, two forming what is today lcnown as the Socialist Party. Since then the Socialist Party has developed obedient to the causes which led to its appezance ing placed in in the political arena. Beopposition to the Socialist Labor Party-which never once acted contrary to the principles of International Socialism as laid down by Marx and Engels -it necessarily had to develop in opposition to the International Socialist Movement. While seemingly in accord with International Socialism its attitude on the most important questions pertaining to the Labor Movement, has been, and is, a flagrant violation of true working class principles.~ Broadly speaking, the differences principle between the Socialist Party of and -3-

5 ihe Socialist Labor Party may be said to be on: I-The Trade Unions. %-Party Press Ownership. 3-State Autonomy. 4-Taxation. 5-Immigration. The position of the two organizations on these auestions is: l-the Socialist Party maintains that ihe American Federation of Labor is the lrue economic organization of the American working class. It claims now that whatever shortcomings the American Federation of Labor suffer s from, they are not caused by its being structurally false, but because it is dominated by non-socialist labor leaders,. and that the thing to do is to keep on rriendly terms with the A. F. of L., not expose its false principles and the wrong acts flowing from adhering to such principles, but keep quiet about this and bore from within only. Furthermore, they look upon the economic orgamization of Labor as a purely transitory thing. a thing which mav aid the workers in their presvnt struggle, but which, heyond this, has no value for the revolutionary <movement. The Socialist Labor Partv on the contrary,,holds that the A. F: of L., as explained above, is not an organization of the workers of America, notwithstanding the fact that it is composed of members of the working class. We hold that the A. F. of I,. corruption is not caused by its labor leaders, anylmore than the evils of capitalist society in general are caused by the pffici,als in power today. We hold-and this 1s. the Socialist view as contrasted with the bourgeois (capitalist) view-that just as the capitalist officials are the products of the sooiety, structurally wrong, and based on false economics, so are the A. F. of L. leaders the products of an organization, structurally false and based on false eco- -4-

6 nom&. Remove one set of ieaders, and another CSOD will Immediatelv shoot UD, from the same soil. We hold that the A. F. of L. is an obstacle to Socialism, and that to support suchan organization is to commit an act of treason against the working class as well as against International Socialism. The Socialist Labor Party holds further that the economic organization of labor. far from being a tragsitory thing, is the permanent thing, and the political, though absolutely necessary and indispensable, is a purely transitory, a means-to-an-end thing. The Socialist Labor Party holds that the correct form of the economic organization (industrial unionism) is the embryo, the undeveloped form of future society. To illustrate: Society today is organized on political lines, i. e. the representative bodies are composed of delegates from the various political (geographical) divisions. Thus, the people of New York state elect representatives to the House, these delegates representing (supposedly) the interests of the given territory. In capitalist society, rent as it is in twain by the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class, it is obvious that these delegates do not and cannot renresent the interests of both classes; we know now, that they represent the interests of capital ism. But even if we, for the sake of argument, would leave this point aside, it would still remain undisputed that no one man can truly represent the many and varied interests of the different industries whic h are found within a given territory. To represent any one of these industries in the interests of those actively engaged and producing therein. one must himself be engaged therein; understanding the needs and >equirements of such industries. It is not the function of political gwernment to administer production. Its dhief -s-

7 function is to maintain order, which, in capitalist society, means to keep in subjection the modern slave class--the wage worker. Political governmen&the State -rose upon the rui;ns of primitive communal society. formed and directed cmbedient to the new basis of society, that of private property, which synchronously gave rise to class rule, and since then political government has been and is allied with the interests of the ruling class. And as further. proof of the fa& that the political government has outlived its usefulness and become,. instead, an encumbrance upon the productive forces of modem industrial society, we point to the fact that since the theory of a true, representative democracy is (based upon proportional representation, and si4nce, with the rapid increase in the population the representative body would become so large as to make it anything but a deliberative body, it would <put sotiety to the alternative, either to abolish the idea of democratic government, by fixing the number of xeprosentatives arbitrarily, in short a government no longer having a true. basis of representation; or on the other hand continue to increase the numlber of representatives in proportion to the increase in population, making this body, as already said, so large as to defeat the very idea of representative (bodiesnamely, to assemble in one place for the purpose of deliberating and discussing. Whichever horn of this dilemma the pure and simple politicalist choose, he will be running his bead against the wall. Instead the Socialist Labor Party proposes to organize the useful producers of the land in industrial unions. Thus, for instance, the workers of the textile industry would organize into one industrial union, with the local~union as a basis. These local unions will be composed of all the aetual wage workers in a given industry in a given alocality, welded together in trade or - 6-

8 shop brandhes, or as the particular requirements 01 said industry may render necessary. Delegates from these local industrial unions from the various localities in America in a given industry will form a national industrial union, and the delegates of National Industrial Unions of closely kindred industries will form an Industrial Department, these industrial departments, represented in a General Executive Board, constituting the industrial government, answering in a sense to the present.government and House of Representatives. All that is outlined here may,be modified or elaborated as special conditions require. The Socialiot Party adheres to the bourgeois theory that the aim of Socialism is to capture the political State and to run the industries by the State. We hav2 shown how utterly impossi~ble it is for the State to do this, and this #being the conception of the revolution held Iby the Socialist Party, it, logically enough, does not see the necessity of organizing the workers into industrial class unions. We cannot here go into this at great length, but enough has been said to show why the Socialist Labor Party and the Socialist Party differ on the trade union question. It might be added, however, that the %uccess of the S. P. theory of boring from withtin only, is testified to by the fact that the A. F. of L. is getting more and more reactionarv. The fact OF the matter is that the S. P. borers do not,bore for Socialism; that, on the contrary they permit themselves to be voted in as cattle at the A. F. of L. conventions whenever questions of importance are being acted upon. Thus, for instance, at the Rochester A. F. of L. convention rn 1912, the seating of delegates from the Cathr$ and Protestant dhurches came before convention, and not only did the 72 S. P. 5borers acquiesce in the seating of these -7-

9 two delegates (who were the notorious reactionary Socialist haters MacFarland, Protestant, and Peter E. Dietz, Roman Catholic,,but a Socialist Party member, Duncan McDonald, moved that they be seated. This is but one of many instances, and illustrates the S. P. method of tboring from within. Needless to say, the A. F. of L. machine (Gompers et al.) louks upon them as harmless scarecrows. ~-AS to the question of Party owned press, the Socialist Labor Party holds that if the Party does not own its press, the press will own the Party, which agai.n means, as is so well illustrated in the Sociahst Party, that as many,different individuals as are found in the S. P. owning papers, each one with a different conception of Socialism and tactics, as many different factions are created within the organization, rendering it largely ineffective. Unity of thought must precede unity of action. We need here ibut to point to the recent heated controversies anent the industrial union question. We refer you to the National Convention of the Socialist Party where 30 per cent, *ted against the clause prohibiting a member of that Party from advocating sabotage or other forms of Anarchist tactics. Dove-tailing into this is the: 3-Theory of state autonomy which guarantees eadh state sovereilgn powers over its membership, leaving it to each state to conduct its agitation as it sees fit, with practically no control from heedquarers. Thus for instance, a member expelled from the state of Washington may a DRY and be admitted to member-shin in t; R e - state of Wisconsin. The Socialist Party of California freely indulges in reactionary anti-immigration policies catering to the pro-canitalist A. F. of L.. while in the South Ihey echo the sentiments of the race-hating elements by refusing to organize the negroes in other than separate -8-

10 branch&;, while in the East and Middle West (as well as elsewhere) they cater to the reactionary middle class (small taxpayers) notions of clean the lowering of taxes, and anti-graft issues, etc., all of them issues, which are of no concern to the workers, and this &brings us to 4-The question of taxation. The Socialist Party has always held that the workers pay the- taxes,. a theory which is as false as it is permcmus. Taxes are paid by the property holding classes out of that portion of wealth, produced, true enough, by labor, hut which labor never pocketed. In other words, taxes are paid out of those values, produced over and above the wage whidh the worker receives and which are generally known as surplus value. By advancing such a theory the Socialist Party attracts to itself the amall capitalists and corner-grocers, while at the same time by the Same act it betrays the interests of the wonkers by using them as pawns (voters) in their game. The policy of its theories on taxation has been well illustrated with the recent S. P. administration of Schenectady as testified to b the then Mayor Lunn s secretary, Mr. Wa P - ter Lippmann. Finally- &-As to immigration, the Socialist Labor Party holds that the working class the world over is indivisibly one; that as victims of the capitalist class their interests are common, regardless of race, creed or color. The Socialist Party maintains (uttering a fractional truth) that the influx of immigrants causes a keener struggle and lower wage for the workers already here. The fact remains, that while immigration does add to the number of work- &s,. and to that extent increases the competition among the workers, it is as a drop in the ocean compared to the real cause- *e introduction of l&or-saving mm&in- -9-

11 ery and concentration of cap&lism. Even if every foreigner tram now on were excluded, the nnsery of the workers would increase. Since this is so, and reallung that injecting the question of race supeniority or inferiority foments race-hatred, and to that extent prevents the organizing of the workers. the S. L. P. condemns the stand of the S: P. as reactionary and un- Socialistic. There are other questions of equal importance, though of a less permanent nature, such as the attitude of the Socialist Party toward the high cost of living, blaming the rise in prices on the rapacity of the trusts and monopolies, and maintaining that the workers are robbed as consumers and not, as Socialism teaches, as producers. Its attitude toward reforms in general does not differ essentially from that of the out and out capitalist reformers. In its anxiety to capture political office it seizes u on everything that agitates the mind of t R e people, regardless of whether it conterns the workers as a class or not. The S. L. P. dms not refuse ameliorations offered by the capitalist class, but contends that the more revolutionary the workers become, and We stronger they make their economic and political organizations, the more ready, aye anxious, will the capitalist class be to throw sops to them in order to keep them contented. The program, therefore, of the Socialist Party IS in keeping with its (basic principles. Its anti-socialist and bourgeois theories have led to its entering into collusions and log-rolling with capitalist parties in different places of the country. From the foregoing it will be seen that the differences :between the two parties are fundamental and important. Any organization, such as the Socialist Party, which organizes the workers on wrong lines, is fated to fail in bringing about So

12 cialism. The differences must be settled; correct principles adopted; and then only will progress toward Socialism be made. The Socialist Labor Party holds the key.

13 APPENDIX SOCIALIST LABOR PARTY PLATFORM Adopted by the National Convention of the Party, April The Socialist Labor Party of the United States of America in National Convention assembled in New York on April moth, 1912, reaffirming its previous platform pronouncements, and in accord with the International Socialist Movement, declares: Social conditions, as illustrated by the events that crowded into the last four years, have ripened so fast that each and all the principles, hitherto proclaimed by the Socialist Labor Party, and all and each of the methods that the Socialist Labor Party has hitherto advocated, stand today most conspicuously demonstrated. The Capitalist Social System has wrought its own destruction. Its leading exponents, the present incumbent in the Presidential Chair. and his illustrious predecessor, however seemingly at war with each other on principles, cannot conceal the identity of their political views. The oligarchy proclaimed by the tenets of the one, the monarchy proclaimed by the tenets of the other, jointly proclaim the conviction of the foremost men of the Ruling Class that the Republic of Capital is at the end of its tether. True to the econonxic laws from which Socialism proceeds, dominant wealth has to such an extent concentrated into the hands of a select few? the Plutocracy, that the lower layers of the Capitalist Class feel driven to the ragged edge, while the large majority of the people, the LVorking Class, are being submerged. True to the sociologic laws, by the light of which Socialism reads its forecasts the Plutocracy is breaking through its republic-democratic shell and is stretching out its hands toward Absolutism in government; the property-holding layers below it are turning at bay; the proletariat is awakening to its consciousness of clas!. and thereby to the perception of its historic mtssion. In the midst of this burly, all the colors of the rainbow are b&g projected upon the social mists from the prevalent confusion of thought. From the lower layers of the Capitalist Class the holder, yet foolhardy, portion bluntly demands that the Trust.. be smashed

14 Even if the Trust could, it should not be smashed: even if it should it cannot. The law of social progress pushes toward a system of production that shall crown the efforts of man, without arduous toil, wirh an abundance of the necessaries for matenal existence, to the end of allowing leisure for mental and spiritual expansion. 1%~ Trust is a mechanical contrivance wherewith to selve the problem. To smash the contrivance were to remtroduce the days of small-fry competition, and set back the hands of the dial of tune. The mere thought is foolhardy. He who undertakes the feat might as well brace himself against the cascade of Niagara. The cascade of Social Evolution would wheim him. The less bold among the smaller property-holding element proposes to curb the Trust with a variety of schemes. The very forces of social evolution that propel the development of the Trust stamp the curbing schemes, whether political or economic, as childish. They are attempts to hold back a runaway horse by the tail. The laws by which the attempt has been tried strew the path of the runidv=y. They are splintered to pieces wih its kicks, and serve only to furnish a livelihood for the Corporation and the Anti-Corporation lawver. From still lower layers of the same property-holding class, social layers that have sniffed the breath of Socialism and imagine themselves Socialists, comes the iridescent theory of capturing. the Trust for the people by the ballot only. The capture of the trust for the people implies the Social Revolution. To imply the Social Revolution with the bailot only, without the means to enforce the ballot s fiat, in case of Reaction s attempt to override it, is to fire blank cartridges at a foe. It is worse. It is to threaten his existence without the means to carry out the threat. Threats of revolution, without provisions to carry them out result in one of two things only-either the leaders are bought out, or the revol+onary class, to, which the leaders apfx&nd whxh they succeed III drawmg after th+;; are led bke cattle to the shambles. Corn&e disaster of France stands a monumental warning against the blunder. An equally iridescent hue of the rainbow is projected from a still lower layer. a layer that iies almost wholly within the submerged class-the theory d capturmg the Trust for the Working Class with the fist only. The capture :of the Trust foi the people implies something else, besides.revolution. It implies revolution carried on by the masses. For reasons parallel to those that decree the day of small-fry competition gone by, mass-revolutionary. conspiracy is, today, an.impossibility. The. Trustholding Plutocracy niqy successfully put tfirough a _ conspiracy of physlcal forcsz :._ The smallness of. its numbers makes a suocess fi7, conspiracy possible ori it% part. The hugeness of the numbers requisite for a revolution against the Trust-holding Plutocracy excludes Conspiracy from the arsenal of the Revolu

15 tion. The idea of capturing the Trust with physical force only is a wild chimera. Only two programs-the program of the Plutocracy and the program of the Socialist Labor Partygrasp the situatton. The political State,, another name for the C!+s State, is worn out m this; the leading capitahst nation of the world, most prominently. The Industrial or Socialist State is throbbing for birth. The Political State, being a Class State, is government separate and apart from the productive energies of the people; it is government mainly for holding the ruled class in subjection. The Industrial or Socialist State, being the denial of the Class State, is government that is part and parcel of the productive energies of the people. As their functions are different, so are the structures of the two States different. The structure of the Political State contemplates territorial representation only; the structure of the Industrial State contemplates representation of industries, of useful occupations only. The economic or industrial evolution has reached that point where the Political State no longer can maintain Itself under the forms of democracy. While the Plutocracy has relatively shrunk, the enemies it has raised against itself have become too numerous to. be dallied with. What is still worse, obedient to the law of its own existence the Political State has been forced not merely to multiply enemies against itself; it has been forced to recruit and group the bulk of these enemies, the revolutionary bulk, at that. The Working Class of the land, the historically revolutionary element, is grouped by the leading occupations, agricultural as well as industrial, in such manner that the autonomous craft union one time the palladium of the workers, has become a harmless scare-crow upon which the capitalist birds roost at ease, while the Industrial Unions cast ahead of them the constituencies of the government of the future, and, jointly point to the Industrial State. Nor yet is this all. Not only has the Political State raised its own enemies; not only has itself multiplied them; not only has itself recruited and drilled them; not only has itself grouped them into shape and form to succeed it; it is, furthermore, driven by its inherent necessities. prodding on the Revolutionary Class by digging ever more fiercely into its flanks.the harpoon of exploitation. With the purchasins power of wages sinking to ever lower depths; with certainty of work hanging on ever slenderer-threads; with an ever more piganticallv swelling army of the unemployed: with the need of orofits pressing the Plutocracv harder and harder recklesslv to squander the workers limbs and life: what with all this and the parallel process of mrreine the workers of all industries into one interdenendent solid mass. the final break-up is rendered inevitable and at hand

16 No wild schemes and no rainbow&asing will stead in the approaching emergency.. The Plutocracy knows this-and so does the Socialist Labor Party--and logical is the program of each. The program of the Plutocracy is feudalic Autocracy, translated into Capitalism. Where a Social Revolution is pending, and, for whatever reason, is not enforced, REACTION is the alternative. The rogram of the Socialist Labor Party REVOLUTION-the Industrial or Socialist Repul? lit, the Social Order where the Political State is overthrown; where the Congress of the land consists of the representatives of the useful occupatiotw of the land; where, accordingly, a government is an essential factor in production; where the blessman that the Trust is instinct with are %zd yrom the trammels of the private ownership that now turn the potential blessings into a curse.; where, accordingly, abundance can be the patnmany of all who work; and the shackles of wage slavery are no more. In keeping with the goals of the different.programs are the means of their execution. The means.in contemplation by REACTION is the bayonet. To this end REACTION is seeking, by means of the police spy and other agencies, to lash the proletartat into acts of violence that m?y give a color to the resort to the bayonet. By its manoeuvres, it is egging the Working Class on to deeds of fury. The capitalist ress echoes the policy, while the pure and simp P e political Socialist Party press, generally, is snared into the trap. On the contrary, the means firmly adhered to by the Socialist Labor Party is the constitutional method of political action, backed by tbe industrially and class-consciously organized proletariat, to the exclusion of Anarchy, and all that thereby hangs. At such a critical period in the Nation s existence the Socialist Labor Party calls upon the Working Class of America, more deliberately serious than ever before, to rally at the polls under the Party s banner. And the Party also calls upon all intelligent citizens upon the ground of join us in this mighty emancipation; so that we may put summary end to the existing barbarous class conflict by olacing the land and all the means of production, transportation and distribution mto the hands of the people as a collective body, and substituting for the present state of planless production, industrial war, and social disorder, the Socialist or Industrial Commonwealth-a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization