228 THE CLASS STRUGGLE EDITORIALS 229 compromise; to compromise is to betray revolutionary Socialism. On with the war against moderate Socialism in our party! Turn to the left.
Eugene Debs, a Revolutionist The revolutionary Socialist who would promote its policy must align himself with the left wing, must carry on the war against moderate Socialism in the party. To dodge on this issue is to play the center, and to betray revolutionary Socialism. The time for hesitation and evasion has passed; the time for definite action has come, to conquer the party for the party, for revolutionary Socialism.
The left wing has not, as yet, formulated a definite declaration of principles acceptable to the whole left of the party.
There is still division of opinion, disagreement on certain points. We are still, largely, at the stage of discussion, although the tendency is clear; but out of this must come a common policy and program, a policy and program absolutely necessary if the left wing is to conquer.
In this organization and formulation of the left wing one thing should be emphasized: it must be an extreme left, and not a center movement. It is not sufficient to wage war upon the right, we must wage equally uncompromising war upon the center, upon the masters of words and the poltroons in action. There must be no swamp in our left movement, but a clear formulation and acceptance of the. theory and practice of revolutionary Sosialism. The division must be clear: revolutionary Socialism against all others. We shall not accomplish our purposes if we compromise with the center. there are comrades who think they are left, but who are actually center. These comrades must be taught to discriminate; and if they don t, they must be excluded from the movement of the left wing. The mass of the center must be split away from its leaders by a merciless criticism of these leaders, by an emphasis of the policy and practice of the extreme left. We don want an Independent Socialist movement in our party. The policy adopted by the Communist Party of Russia (Bolsheviki) of inviting only the groups of the extreme left to their proposed International Communist Congress must be our policy.
The party is developing a revolutionary consciousness; but it needs clarification and organization. This work is being accomplished rapidly; it must be accelerated. Shortly, within six months, we shall have two Internationals claiming to represent Socialism the red International and the yellow the Berne and the Bolshevik. The Socialist Party must accept the red International. But that, again, implies the revolutionary reconstruction of the party program and policy. To shirk this task is to betray the cause of Socialism. To hesitate is to On more than one occasion, the socialist movement of this country has paid dearly for its readiness to raise upon a pedestal inen and women who possessed the gift and the ability to become its leaders. This has been particularly true where these newcomers in the socialist movement had established for themselves enviable reputations as radicals and reformers in bourgeois circles. Their coming was hailed as a great achievement, their opinions were received with a degree of attention and accorded a degree of importance entirely out of keeping with their experience in the working class movement or their deserts. Men like Benson, Russell and others became leaders in the socialist moveinent, not on account of their services in the interests of the working class, but for the notoriety that attached itself to their names and to the prestige that their membership gave to the party in certain circles. And so it happened, that when the great crisis came, when the Socialist Party was forced to undergo an acid bath that separated the true metal from the alloy, that these elements in our movement failed. They were tried and found wanting.
But our movement has leaders too that were made of sterner stuff leaders that can take their place beside the best the international socialist movement has produced. And foremost among them all stands Eugene Debs. No matter how great the crisis and the socialist movement has gone through more than one critical period Debs always rang true. He came into the moveinent at a time when to be a socialist meant to be social outcast.
He came to us, not as a Messiah sent from above, to liberate the toiling masses from economic and political slavery, but as a workingman who had liúrned, in the bitter school of a capitalist jail, that the only hope of the workingman in the unequal fight against the organized capitalist class lies in the merging of his identity with that of the class conscious proletariat. He became one of us to learn, not to teach, to serve, not to lead, to give the best that was within him, without stint and without hope of gratitude. For more than two decades he has served the Party, whenever it called him, in whatever position the movement saw fit to place him, always ready to carry his share of the burden, heavy and