2 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE December 7, 191.
The Revolutionary Age In Russia their the American people troops not need to establish a dictatorship but can are fighting against men who favor the govern satisfied with a democratic Constitutional Asse Chronicle and Interpretation of Events in Europe. ment of the people by one class of the people for bly. In Germany, on the contrary, the industr Louis FRAINA Editor We have no intention of interfering in the in population. For fear he could not get a majori EADMONN MACALPINE Associate Editor Wilson and the Government have declared.
ternal affairs of the Russian people, President immediately, Liebknecht proposes a tempora dictatorship of the proletariat. But his wh Contributing Editors Which is the American policy. Alien troops past proves that he is wedded to the principle SCOTT NEARING LUDWIG LORE are still in Archangel and Vladivostok!
majority rule. His doctrine is that he would ha JOHN REED SEN KATAYAMA Love Your Enemy as Yourself the majority rule though by industrial rath than a parliamentary government. Lenin, ont HOURWICH WEINSTEIN THE class struggle is international that is the contrary, absolutely repudiates industrial den ISSUED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY impressive teaching of recent events. The cracy ag well as every form of democracy a By Local Boston, Socialist Party threat of Socialism unifies Capitalism. When the loses no occasion to say so. Lenin also exper 885 Washington St. Boston, Mass. proletarian revolution conquered in Russia, the to have the mass of the Russian peasantry reactionary forces Capitalism and Czarism him, but only after a considerable period of dic Saturday, December 7, 1918 eager ted the intervention of German troops, That is the essential difference between Li torship of the proletariat, sustained by for particularly in Finland and the Ukraine, as a Reconstructing Governments means of crushing Socialism and the proletariat.
knecht and Lenin. Liebknecht does not expect Paul Milyukov, who was driven from the governrule by force except for a very brief transition THE Executive Committee of the Workmen ment because of his desire fight Germany to Walling draws simply an imaginary differer between Lenin and Liebknecht. Each propos mand that the People Commissaires dismiss Dr. concluded some months ago that Germany should proletarian dictatorship for the transition peric be invited to intervene in Russia to crush Social the duration of this dictatorship depends larg ment by which the Council usurped control of ism. In Germany the forces of Imperialism are upon the complexion of the international siti tion.
the Government as its executive organ evident using the threat of Allied intervention to prevent ly did not much alter things. The Spartacus Group a proletarian revolution, and they are willing that Nor is the theory of proletarian dictatorship and the Independent Socialists assert that Solf, their former enemy, the Allies, should if necess product of Bolshevism: it is a projection of Ma Erzberger and associates are really blocking peace ary march into the country to restore order. ism. In his Criticism of the Gotha Progra)
for Germany. These men are directly connected And now comes Dr. Constantin Theodor Dumba, the ruling class, its state being the revolutions Marx said: The proletarian organizes itself with the old regime, and justified the war. But the unspeakable Dumba, former Ambassador to to put these men out of the government the United States, who was given his pagsports dictatorship of the proletariat. And in his int in other representatives of their class would solve by the American Government, advocating that duction to Marx The Civil War in France, nothing, since the guilt of the war is not personal Great Britain and the United States send one reto a few individuals, but to the class that used giment each into Austria as a symbol of order, Commune was a dictatorship of the proletari war as an instrument of conquest and spoliation and perhaps as a symbol of more to come? And And the lorson of the Paris Commune, accordi all this is equally to protect the enemy. Pecu to Marx, that the proletariat cannot lay ernment will still be a paltering with the revolu liarly, Socialism, which is considered as against of the ready made machinery of the bourge tionary task, will still be retaining in power a religion, apparently produces a religious rennai state and use it for its own purposes: a new sta bourgeois republic hence the campaign of the sance in the ruling class when in conquers. An must be created. And this is the state of Spartacus Socialists to annihilate the Provisional essential doctrine of Chistianity is love your organized producers functioning through a te Government, and establish in its place a proletaenemiy as yourself. While Socialism was thing porary revolutionary dictatorship of the prole rian government the dictatorship of the Soviets. of the future, Milyukov Co. did not love their riat.
enemy, Germany; Dumba and the reactionaries Lenin does not believe in industrial den They Are Still There! did not love the enemy Allies; but with the coming cracy then why the expropriation of capit of Socialism, the religious fervor seizes them: why workers control of industry, why the ci IN arguing that the Allies should refuse to nego Love your enemy as yourself.
struction of an industrial state? These are tiate peace with Germany if Bolshevism conmeasures of industrial democracy, of Commun quers and establishes a Socialist proletarian Gov Proletarian Dictatorship Socialism; and it is precisely this task of introd ernment, the New York Times says editorially ing industrial democracy that must be perform in its December issue: THE revolutionary Socialists in Germany insist by the dictatorship of the proletariat. President Wilson represents the American peo upon a dictatorship of the proletariat as the All revolutions are minority revolutions, ple, and the American people are not for the rule means equally of converting the revolution defi formed by a minority of the people. The bo of any people by any one class. In Russia their nitely into a proletarian revolution and of intro geois revolution was of this character; but it troops are fighting against men who favor the ducing Socialism. What is a dictatorship of the still more a minority revolution in that it government of the people by one class of the proletariat, what is its function in the Revolution rioted the interests of a minority class, the bo people for one class of the people, and they are and the coming of Socialism in Germany? geoisie. The proletarian revolution is a major fighting in alliance with Russian democrats. The dictatorship of the proletariat, the prob revolution in the sense that it promotes the in When President Wilson made his declaration ial Revolution. In the New York Times of De is not, however, a majority revolution in the se he had in mind the autocracy of Imperial Ger cember 1, William English Walling, the American that a conscious majority necessarily perfor The Czar government Hyndman Co. violently protests and warns olution is bourgeois or proletarian rule, not maj was just such an autocracy, and it was against the dictatorship of the proletariat. He ity or minority rule: that is a petty bourgeois thrown by the Russian people.
says: ception. The antagonism between majority Is the Soviet government an autocracy? An dence that Liebknecht is pro Bolshevist. Not only class divisions. There is a large amount of satisfactory evi minority is a fact only in a society based autocracy is government by a ruling class holding does he share many of the Bolshevist views, but In Russia the actual revolution was accompli in subjection and exploiting the majority of the he has brought about a regular defensive and of ed by the proletariat and peasantry, but it wa people, government by a small clique either of the fensive alliance between the German Revolutio conscious minority of proletariat and peasan blood aristocracy or the money aristocracy, or a aries and the Russian Bolsheviki. Liebknecht, sweeping into action the more backward sectic unity of both as in Germany and Great Britain.
toward the end of October, made a number of im of the people. According to all the evidence, The Soviets are mass organizations of the work portant speeches in Berlin, which are reported as Soviet Government is a majority governme ers and peasants; every useful producer partici follows by the Vossische Zeitung: and still it a dictatorship against the count pates and votes in the Soviets, and a majority may Liebknecht speeches were all absolutely revolution, against the more backward secti decide a new policy for the government. If a Bolshevist. Now the proletariat is conscious of of the people, against the bourgeoisie and capi noble or bourgeois feels irresistibly the urge to be come a citizen and participate in the Soviet Govits power, he said, the watchword is world rev The bourgeois revolution ended dictatorshi in ernment, the process is Cromwell, Naroleon; and even after the Ameri very simple one: geolution or world destruction. The call to the nacure gome socially useful employment, and the tional defense should be answered by the dicta Revolution. Washington was offered a crown.
Hamilton party represented the tendency of producer immediately becomes the citizen. Is of capitalistic rule, thus establishing a Socialist tatorship, the agrarian democracy alone preve of blood and of money, who perform no useful Republic. If the Russian Soviet Republic be sup ing the realization of this dictatorship. The ported by the German Republic, then all countries letarian revolution ends in dictatorshiplabor but sponge uron the producers, participate will have to follow, and the world domination of where the bourgeois dictatorship perpetuates cl and control legislation. the proletariat will begin.
rule and dictatorship, the purpose of a prole The autocracy of the Soviet Government has It is clear, accordingly, that Liebknecht and the rian dictatorship is to destroy the old social accomplished something new and magnificent in revolutionary Socialists insist upon a dictatorship lations creating class rule and dictatorship, history it has introduced industrial democracy of the proletariat. Walling continues: establish new relations under which these e The workers control their jobs, are dominant in There are four distinct propositions in this will cease to exist.
industry, the proceeds of industry are used for the speech: a German Russian revolutionary alliance, Capitalism is itself a dictatorship. It is, in happiness of the people and not the corrupting a world revolution, a Socialist Republic for Ger ory, government of all the classes; in fact, pleasure of the leisured parasites upon the people. many. and the dictatorship of the proletariat. It government of one class, the class that The Soviet Government is so autocratic that it is only the last doctrine that is purel Bolshe trols industry, the class that has wealth and introduces democracy in industry! Surely, this vist. This doctrine, which spells Bolshevism in sure, and consequently power. Bourgeois de is astonishing. But precisely because the Soviet Russia, becomes something absolutely different. cracy is the form of authority of the bourgeo Rerublic introduces industral democracy and an however, in Germany. The industrial proletariat over the proletariat; its forms are calculatec nihilates Capitalism, the capitalist press charact constitutes a minority in Russia of not more than prevent proletarian action, to centre all gove erizes it as autocracy.
10 of the nation. By including certain agricul ment power in the representatives of the bo Democracy to the capitalist means the rule of tural elements the figures might be raised some geoisie. It does not have to function through capital, the supremacy of the principle of owner what, but in any case it is a dictatorship of a armed dictatorship; but by means of its con ship of the means of life by a small class: any minority. In fact, this is the only sense in the of education, of the intellectuals, of the sou thing else is autocracy.
use of the word dictatorship. majority does of information of the factors for creating the will of the peoplevernments irresponsible to over