30 THE CLASS STRUGGLE PROBLEMS OF AMERICAN SOCIALISM 31 is characteristic of its general policy, of its anaemic, petty bourgeois spirit.
The accomplishments of the Bolsheviki are epochal. They have maintained for fifteen months a revolutionary dictatorship in Russia, have accomplished the first stage of the international proletarian revolution. They have organized a new state, upon the basis of which alone can Socialism be intro duced. They have issued the clear, magnificent call to the international proletarian revolution; and they have been a decisive factor in the coming of the proletarian revolution in Germany. They are active in the struggle to develop the Revolution in the rest of Europe, and the world; and they are preparing to wage a revolutionary war against international Imperialism, if necessary, in co operation with the revolutionary proletariat of Germany. The Bolsheviki have subjectively introduced the revolutionary epoch of the proletariat, objectively introduced by Imperialism and the war.
Socialism in action, Marxism become life that, in sum, constitutes the accomplishments of the Bolsheviki.
But while the Bolsheviki have issued the clear call to the revolutionary struggle against Capitalism and Imperialism, they have equally issued the clear call to the revolutionary struggle against the dominant, petty bourgeois Socialism.
In Russia and in Germany, the great enemy of the proletarian revolution was not Capitalism, per se, but moderate, petty bourgeois Socialism that majority Socialism become part of the national liberal movement, corrupted by petty bourgeois politics, allied with the middle class and with social Imperialism. Before the proletarian revolution could conquer Capitalism and Imperialism, it had to conquer the dominant Socialism. Why? Because the dominant Socialism, operating in an epoch of peaceful, national struggles, had become moderate, had become part of the governing system of things, indirectly its ally and protector, had, it is true, accomplished great things, but which did not and could not adapt itself to the new requirements of the revolutionary epoch introduced by Imperialism and the war.
Instead of promoting the proletarian revolution, the dominant Socialism was a fetter upon the Revolution and betrayed the Revolution. This is not true alone of Russia, Germany and Austria. it is true of every European nation, except Norway and Italy, where the tactics and requirements of the new revolutionary struggle are being adopted. Everywhere else, including the United States, the dominant Socialism pursues its old legal.
istic and corrupting policy, is the slave of petty bourgeois illusions, has its face turned to the past and not to the future, is not aware of the call to international action.
Out of life itself, and the relation of Marxian to life, the Bolsheviki and the proletarian revolution in Russia and Germany have developed the new policy and tactics of revolutionary Socialism: rally the proletariat for the immediate revolutionary struggle against Capitalism and Imperialism; abandon the old tactics of parliamentary conciliation and compromise; depend upon the proletarian class struggle alone; carry on this class struggle by means of revolutionary mass action and the dictatorship of the proletariat!
These are the immediate purposes and tactics imposed upon Socialism by the prevailing conditions; these are the immediate purposes and tactics of the Bolsheviki, which alone can make Socialism vital and vitalizing.
Nor are these simply the purposes and tactics required when the proletarian revolution is actually in action: they are necessary in preparing the Revolution, in preparing the forces that will direct the Revolution to the conquest of power by the proletariat.
While the proletariat is revolutionizing Capitalism, it is equally revolutionizing Socialism: what is the response of American Socialism to this epochal circumstance?
The Socialist Labor Party never responded adequately to the Bolshevik call to action, in spite of its revolutionary pretensions. Shortly after the Bolsheviki conquered power, the National Secretary of the published an article in the Weekly People, declaring, in substance, that a proletarian