Four THE COMMUNIST Criticism of the Program and Constitution of the phrases.
to they are sick with the malady of revolutionary In the last Isane we reviewed the convention munist transformation of the economic life.
proceedings of the United Centrist Proletarian dictatorship functions primarily for The Nature of the State, Party) and slowed inet how, by whom and under political purposes for the crushing of counter.
revolution, for enfeguarding the fruits of the The state, which has been completely ignore what circumstances the various heterogoneous for nearly three and a half paren now comes elements that stand somewhere between tho victorious proletarian revolution, for the supre.
into its own. They have a subireading dealing Socialist Party on the extreme night, and the macy of the working class over all other clases, Communist Party on the extreme Left fused for suppressing the bourgeoisie as a class all specifically with the nature of the state.
these factors being pre requisites to the economic One would expect that since the program has and drew up its program and constitution. In transformation of the economic life. But the been so lavish of words in previous chaptors this article we shall take up the program and program is blissfully ignorant of these it might devote some space to an analysis of constitution and point out its pseudo Comunist, elementary facts.
the nature of the state. why it came into being confused, Centrist character.
etc The program is a long verbose document con.
Let us take the sub chapter dealing with the taining much that does not properly belong in League of Nations vs. the Communist Inter the existing government the state has been the orsan of coercion used by the ruling class program. Much of it, after a good deal of national. The could endorse the whole koop the exploited clans In subjection revision, miselt go into a Manifesto, or a treaposition as stated there. We quote. In the working innsees inheres the power Surely no one, not even a bourgeois liberal could tizo on the wor, or in a pamphlet or leaflet find fault with this statement:. but certainly does not belong in the program. of the Communist International power which The program is as conspicious for its errors of is brought to consciousness and action by the Continuing, it says: Ho long as the capital ists control the power of the newspapers, the omission as for its orrors of commission. The pressure which robs life of all its values, by whole thing seems to be disjointed, one part hav. unending wars, starvation and repression. press, the politicians, the schools and college Much ing no coherent relation with the next.
What does this mass of words mean any so long as MILLIONS OF WORKERS ARE THROUGH RACIAL AND DISFRANCHISED of it has no place in a Communist program. For way? Is this an exposition of the essence of the RESIDENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS AND NATU.
instance, one can read the first three pages of Communist International? Most Communists beRALIZATION LAWS, the capitalists can well the first chapter The Collapse of Capitalism.
lieve that the essence of the Communist Inter.
afford to allow the workers the empty privilege up to the League of Nations vs. The Communist national lies in the fact that it is composed International without coming across any dis.
of the class conscious revolutionary vanguard of of periodically voting to confirm their rule.
tinguishing Communist interpretation, or termin.
the proletariat of the various countries, united (caps ours. ology. The dominant note in that chapter 18 under the banner of the Communist Interna. Murder will out! Note the Menshevik state the bourgeois economic fallacy of inflation as tional dedicated to the task of propagating and ment which is capitalized. The implication fa, the cause of the breakdown of capitalism. An leadnig the workers to the proletarian revoluthat if millions of workers were not distranut.
other insistent note which permeates the entire tion and the destruction of the bourgeois state ised then the capitalists could not afford to give chapter is the bourgeois pacifist horror of the by means of force and the establishment of the the workers the privilego. It would no longer destruction of property and lives.
proeltarian dictatorship as the only means of be an empty privilege. It might become a dan Even Oswald Garrison Villard, who is a bour Introducing the Communist society. But the gerous weapon in the hands of the working geois liberal has written much better analyses program has nothing to say on this score. class. It might even be used as a means of of the breakdown of capitalism than is contained It speaks of consciousness and action which ousting the capitalists from power. This is the In this program. We shall give a few illustra. means anything and nothing. This program was meaning of that statement and it is pure Men.
tions of what we mean by quoting verbatim and not and could not have been written by Com shevism According to this, the stin the reader, if he is a communist, will grasp the munist and no Cominunist convention could cherishes the hope that some day, it all the point.
have endorsed such a program.
workers will be enfranchised the ballot may be It is this INFLATION multiplication of the The Communist International unites all the used as the means for the emancipation of the evidences of value at the same time that the conscious revolutionary forces it issues the call working class actual values are destroyed which is undermin. for the final struggle against capitalism.
This statement completels nulifies the chapter ing the whole organization of capitalist exchange There you have the conception of on Election Campaigns, which claims that the and production High prices are the reflection CP. will use the parliament for revolutionary the Communist International out of its own of inflation.
mouth! It is some kind of International bureau propaganda only.
Compare the above quotation And again: which holds meetings once in a while for gather. from the CP. and their chapter on Eleo Italy is on the verge of the Communist rev. ing and exchanging Information sends out an tion Campaigns and you will get a dear idea olution The national debt of Italy exceeds the peals once in a while and nothing else. The of the meaning of paying lip service to the national wealth. haven the slightest conception (or, if revolution During four years of war the capitalist na they have, they certainly don show it in the We quote the following paragraph in order tions engaged in the greatest orgy of destruc program) of the real role and function of the to show how completely this program falls to understand tion which humanity even current political phenomens ever know Communist International in the world revolti The en tire energy of the nations was directed to pro. tionary movement.
from the Communist standpoint.
ducing the implements and ammunition which In striking contrast to the above is the fol The expulsion of the Socialist Assemblymen at Albany, the expulsion of the Socialist Counwere poured out in an incessant stream upon lowing excerpt from the Communist Program the battlefields. Hundreds of billions of dollars cilmen in Cleveland during the war, indicate how adopted at its second convention: worth of wealth were produced for instant des.
summarily the capitalists get rid of elected of The Communist International is the organ truction: the direct expenditures alone have been ficials who even in the least degree challenge of the internationl revolutionary proletariat in calculated at 870, 000, 000, 000. An equal amount the capitalist dictatorship.
their struggle for the conquest of world Imperi.
is represented in property destruction, loss of Now, we would like to ask the theoreticians alism. The Communist International subor.
production, interruption to trade, etc. The United of the whether or not they belleve that dinates the so called national interests to the States alone. in less than two years, paid out the Socialist Assemblymen or Cleveland Council.
interests of the International proletarian revoluover 32 billions. Such sims are beyound the men challenged in the last decree the capitalist grasp of the mind. Italics ours. tion, embodies the reciprocal aid of the protedictatorship? If they do so belleve, then their tariat of various countries, for the proletariat characterization of the Pas a party of social The bourgeois theory of Inflation and hour. of any one nation will not be in a position to patriots and traitors to the working class is geois pacifism as expressed in the program 19 organize the new society without economic and Camouflage probably the work of Caxton, who has constantly other mutual assistance. It wages war against If they do not, why did they put exposed himsell in all the party controversies the Borne International of social patriots and it into the program?
as a bourgeois intellectual. It is not surprising the Centrist parties and their leaders who accept We will quote fust one thing more from the coming from him. But how could a convention chapter on Election Campaigns as showing the the proletarian revolution and proletarian dic of so called Communists permit such flagrant tatorship in words but not in deeds.
ability of the unscrupulous Centrist leaders to bourgeois ideology to creep into its program?
The Class Struggle.
manipulate language so as to fool their memIn that chapter there is no Communist ex.
We now consider the second chapter of tho bership. They claim they will send their parllapression of any sort. There is no mention of program under the above title.
mentary representatives to the legislative halls We proletarian revolution, or proletarian dictatorship.
to keep these slogans to the front. Down with shall quote the preamble which is printed in or mass action. Instead it talks of workers rule which will save civilization a typical bour. epitomize the entire chapter.
Agate type and epitomizes, or is supposed to the parliamentary sham of capitalism: Hall to the Soviets and real working class democracy!
geois phrase It talks of the destruction of Now what in the name of common sense do capitalism the overthrow of world capitalism The conflict that is rending capitalist 60 these slogans mean?
and the reconstruction of society on the basis ciety is a class struggle (that is like saying This is sheer word logo gling. Damon who probably wrote this chapter of Communism. but there is no mention of the white is whilte. Ed. It is a struggle between remembers some slogans that were used in the bourgeois state and the part it plays in capitalist exploiter and exploited between oppressor and society: no reference to the communist task of oppressed. The basic facts of the present ecorecommendations issued by the Third Interna.
tional to the Communist Party, and like a Cendestroying that state.
nomic system place capitalist and worker in Just u mass of verbiage trist corrupted them to milk and water consist.
dealing with the collapse of capitalism from a constant opposition to one another, in constant conflict over wages. hours and working condi.
ency that would suit his own purposes statistical point of view, many phrases of bour.
The slogans if they are to mean anything at all tione geois horror at the destruction of lives and siouid read. Down property etc. The overthrow of capitalism and the estab.
Senate! Long live the Workers Government!
with the Congress and Then it goes on to speak of those countries 11lument of a communist society is the historic Long live the Government of Workers Soviets. where the breakdown has been inost complete, mission of the working class. The United Industrial Unionism.
where the masses have been goaded to final expression of the class struggle of the workers States. Communist Party is the conscious On this question the straddles pain.
desperation as if the proletarian revolutions fully.
were due simply to the fact that the masses had against capitalism.
They seek to please all elements. They have not dared to take an unendivocal position beon goaded to final desperation!
The first chapter is exactly the views of on this question, one way or the other. They Referring to Russia, the program speaks of Compers the class struggle is due to the con the Bolsheviki who took the lead to arouse the have failed to learn from the experiences of the flict over wages, hours and working conditiona.
last year and the last convention of the mannes to consciousness of power and to reall.
The have a much clearer exposition zation of the need for the Communist reconst.
of the class struggle than that contained in this is diametrically opposed to the position of the They relect the policy of the which ruction of society 10 mention of the proleta program This paragraph says nothing, and Third International and yet they maintain that rian revolution taught and propagated by the means nothing. tries to state an elementary the is the obvious medium for giving Bolsheviki for years no mention of the dest.
truth of Sucialist economics and falls miserably ruction of the bourgeois state accomplished under The second paragraph is more ambitious. It the advocacy of Industrial unionism affirmative the leadership of the Bolsheviki taught and bridges the gap from the mero conflict over against the of The must be upheld as propagated by the Bolsheviki for years no men.
wages, hours and working conditions to the The itself, after its last convention historic mission of the working class the overtion of the establishment of the fron dictator throw of capitalism and the establishment of las renounced all claim to any revolutionary ahip of the proletariat taught and propagated the Communist society.
by the Bolsheviki for years!
They have reiected every prin how it is to be accomplished. That is the very ciple and policy which the Third International Referring to Italy, the program speaks of crux of the differences between the Communist the Italian workers and pensauts turning to the and Socialist parties, as well as the syndicalists nization, better constructed to struggle for high Italian Socialist Party (a section of the Commun.
and anarchists. But the is silent on wages and better conditions under capitalismo That is all. To engage in the propaganda for int International. to the program of Soviet rule this point just where it ought to be explained Industrial unionism to the workers means to under a working class dictatorship. first men.
There is no mention of the capitalist state and tion of dictatorship, and, confused. Proletarian the necessity for its destruction nor the manner dictatorship does not function under Soviet rule the workers minds of its destruction, as advocated by the Comwhich will be very difficult to remove later on. proletarian dictatorship and Soviet rule are munist International mass action culminating in It is the task of a real Communist Party to pro one and the same thing. The Soviet Government armed insurrection and civil war.
pagate and agitate for the proletarian revolution, is a form of proletarian dictatorship.
for the destruction of the capitalist state and The use The next two paragraphs, again develop the of the term Soviet rule under a working class the establishment of the roletarian dictator dictatorship shows a fundamental lack of under capitalist state and its role in caplaltat society.
process of Imperialism but say nothing about the ahip as the only means of emancipating the standing of soviets and proletarian dictatorship.
Meaningless revolutionary phrases and nothing neither committed to this program nor are the Then the program speaks of the working class dictatorship as being committed to the Com in Russia can be aptly applied to the else. What Lenin once sad to some comrades to mediums for this trucola Particularly the Is opposed to the Communist program.
Trade and industrin unions are a field for character.
pretensions.
But it fails to state stil erroneous ideas into