THE COMMUNIST ALL POWER TO THE WORKERS!
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA VOL. II. NO. MAY 1, 1920 PRICE FIVE CENTS HAIL TO THE SOVIETS!
was a May Day Proclamation by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America Workers of America: efforts of the statesmen have proven achieve wonders in the work of rebuild merely the new tools through which Eighteen months have passed since fruitless in the face of the contradic ing and reconstructing the economic the capitalists maintain their power the imperialist nations of the world tions of capitalist production which are life of the nation so as to end exploita when they can no longer dupe you by signed the armistice agreement which destroying the system. All over Eu tion and secure the necessities of life, the old methods. You must break the was to bring to an end the slaughter rope the workers are starving because education and recreation to those who power of the capitalists. You cannot of millions of workingmen upon the the machinery of capitalist production work.
battlefields of Europe.
cannot be set in motion again.
compromise with them as do the Labor You were told that this The means through which the work Parties, the Moderate Socialists and the Financially the entire structure of ers have outed their exploiters and car reactionary Trade Unionists.
war of democracy against autocracy. the capitalist system faces collapse. ried on the work of reconstruction is You were told that out of the bloody Money is becoming valueless in many the Soviet Government, through which engaging in the present struggles You must develop your power through struggle would come a better world countries of Europe because of the in is expressed the Dictatorship of the against the capitalists. The general for you. You were urged to give your flation during the war and in the Proletariat. The workers found that political strike is the means of expresslabor without stint and to sacrifice your United States prices mount ever high they could not exercise their power ing your power and the beginning of lives without question, so that the cause er. The government has issued paper throuhg the government machinery of the revolutionary struggle which will of right and justice might triumph money and others forms of obligation their exploiters. They found that the finally establish the Soviet Government For a year and a half the represen and destroyed the wealth these repre state machinery of their exploiters, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
tatives of Allied imperialism have been sent and consequently the value of whether it appeared in the shape of the While in this country we are not in control of the affairs of the world. money has depreciated. The financiers autocracy of the Czar or in the shape of ready for the final struggle, the ComWielding power such as few men have of the world see their danger, but yet a so called democratic parliamentary munist Party of America calls you to possessed in the history of mankind, they can find no reemdy. Capitalism government such as we have in the show your power on May Day.
Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau and destroys itself.
United States, was an instrument for There are in the prisons of the Unittheir lesser sattelites, have reshaped the Workers of America, you have not their oppression which they must re ed States hundreds of political and inworld in harmony with their ideas of thus far felt hunger, misery and suf place by their own institution of gov dustrail. prisoners whose only offense democracy and justice.
fering to the extent of your brothers in ernment before they could use their is that they fought the battles of the What has been the result of their Europe. But already your masters are power and destroy capitalism. workers. Shall they rot behind steel labor, workers of America. What have warning you. The black clouds are on The Soviets Workers Councils bars forever? Other thousands are to the imperialist masters of the world the horizon and the men who know the are the natural expression of the power be imprisoned and deported as the reachieved for you and for the workers financial and industrial conditions are the workers. When the workers of sult of the effort of the capitalist govof the world?
forecasting that by fall the United Hungary wrested power from their esc ernment to destroy the revolutionary Have the glowing promises through States will be in the grip of a panic ploiters they did so through the Soviets, movement in this country. Are these which they tricked you into supporting which will bring industrial depression, When the workers of Bavaria achieved workers to be removed from the class their imperialist war been kept? Have unemployment for millions, with the their victory it was through the Soviets. strucs! whi.
outui. they rebuilt the world upon the new consequent suffering and misery. In Germany the workers found that Strike for the release of all political foundation through which they told you This is the reality of the better Moderate Socialism of the Ebert and industrial prisoners on May Day.
the useless slaughter of the flower of world with the capitalist and their Scheidemann type and the militarist Close the shops and factories. Demonthe youth of the nations would be tools deluded you into fighting their autocrats are equally their enemy and strate your power.
ended? Have they changed the condi battles. In place of a better world are fighting against both for the es Demand the freedom of those who tions under which you gain your livli economic breakdown and wide spread tablishment of a Soviet Government.
are imprisoned for fighting the battles Workers of America, you must join of the working class.
hood, broken the strangling grip of the misery and suffering. In place of deexploiters upon your throat and made mocracy and justice the brutal pop, Workers of the World if you would in the Revolutionary Struggle of the Make the slogan of the day All Power your lot more bearable. pression of the workers as in the steel to the Workers. MAY DAY Labor International strike and the miners strike. emancipate yourselves from capitalism.
Hail to freedom for all political and Holiday is approaching. On May Day There is only one way in which the The parties of your enemies the capithe revolutionary workers of the world workers can save themselves from the talists the Republican and Democratic industrial prisoners.
HAIL TO THE POLITICAL will count their gains and losses; they consequences of the breakdown of the party have proven to you that they will renew their courage and determi present economic system. Capitalism stand for your oppression and exploita STRIKE.
HAIL TO THE SOVIETS AND nation by recounting their victories and has played its part in the history of tion. Labor parties, Moderate Socialpay tribute to those that have fallen as mankind. It is no longer workable. It ism such as that of the Socialist Party. THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE martyrs to their cause.
must be uprooted and destroyed and a and the reactionary trade unions are PROLETARIAT.
Dare you, workers of America, face new system of industry built in its the facts of the promises and perform place. This is the historic task of the AN OPEN LETTER TO EUGENE DEBS ances of your masters, the exploiters, to working class.
whom you have in the past given your The work of destroying international Issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of America support?
capitalism has already begun through Dear Comrade Debs. government, while the official Socialist Eighteen months have gone since the splendid achievements of the work year ago you were taken from our Party was, and is, defending those traitors your masters won their victory for de ers of Russia. Consider Russia and the midst by the enemies of the working class and their government as Socialist.
mocracy and justice. Look abroad Communists who control the Soviet and thrust into Atlanta Penitentiary with All your life you had championed the in the world and witness their achieve Government and contrast it to the capi head unbowed hurling defiance at the Capi cause of the working class all vour life ment!
talist nations and their statesmen! talist Government the very incarnation of you had espoused the class struale and The war is at an end and but war The Soviet Government was es the proletarian revolution in America. the principles of International Socialism.
On two continents, on tablished in Russia after the old regime All through the war, while the leaders Not without reason did the Communist many battlefields, men are fighting had brought about the complete col and officials of the Socialist Party were be Party of Russia (Bolsheviki) in issuing the The threat of war and yet more wars lapse of the economic system in that traying the class struggle and making a call for the formation of a New Internahangs over the people of almost every country. In Russia the chaos existed hollow mockery of the St. Louis Resolu tional, invite the left elements of the Socountry of Europe and America. Im toward which the capitalist system is tion, you stood like a rock for International cialist Party of America under the leadperialistic ambition and greed the detending everywhere. While in the capi Socialism and against the capitalist imperi ership of Eugene Debs to send delesire to secure new economic resources talist nations things are going from alist world war. Later, when the Bolshev gates to Moscow.
for exploitation, which is the charac bad to worse, the Communists of Rus iki conquered power in Russia and set up Your article in the February, 1919, Class teristic of every capitalist nation are creating new jealousies and conflicts dustrial system of that country, a are reconstructing the social and in a dictatorship of the workers and peasants, Struggle, and of the organs of the Left and continually threaten to again pre tacked by the capitalist imperialists of ringing words while the officials and lead tors THE DAY OF THE PEOPLEcipitate the people of these countries the world, they organized the Red ers of the Socialist Party were busy dis was one of the factors aiding this revolt.
into the abyss of universay slaughter. Army, which has been victorious on crediting the idea of proletarian dictator We shall quote the last part of it in order thetate of collapse. The strivings of against counter revolution and hemmed ism. You also came out openly for the capitalism and militarism has made of all the statesmen at Paris have failed in ons all sides by the Fockade of the Liebknecht Luxemburg Spartacan revolt the people inflammable material. They are to put this machinery in order. The Allies. they have still been able to against the Ebert Scheidemann bourgeois (Continued on page 7)
still goes on.