BolshevismBourgeoisieDemocracyLeninMarxRussian RevolutionSocialismSocialist PartySovietStrikeWorkers MovementWorkers PartyWorking Class

THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE Saturday, January 18, 1910 New Appeal power.
11 lation; cialisin.
Why?
reradapted is time for American Socialists to do a little painBy John Reed protects these two essential methods of the struggle ful thinking. For my own satisfaction should like of the working class for to set down here what think about the American If the immediate progrgam of the Socialist party Socialist Movement.
does not watch the Courts which interpret the law From my observations in different parts of the For example, take the various Anti Injunction bills in this country is inadequate, that is because it is not influenced by the needs and power of the American country, ould say that, roughly, the American which have passed Congress, hailed by the American workers, who above all vihers, are competent to forSocialist party is composed of two main elements. Federation of Labor as a new Magna Charta. And American petty bourgeois. Clerks, shop yet injunctions are still used as weapons against the the Socialist party is politically impotent, however, mulate the Socialist program in this country.
keepers, administrative officers of small business, workers in industrial disputes. Consider the Child is because there is behind it no economic force few farmers. and American intellectuals (journal Court. The list of cleverly drawn and inefficient labor from the American working class.
ists, mainly)
The dominant of Socialists about Socialist Foreign born workers; foreign born intellect laws on the statute books is endless. And if the wals.
propaganda to Ameworkers seems to be the laws, as sometimes happens, are effective, the em Menshevik to give an impression that SoThe most significant facts in the American Labor ployers simply refuse to obey them, and drag out icalism is really Jeffersonian democracy, to intimate Movement are the American Federation of Labor and litigation in the courts until the whole matter is quiet that all we want are reasonable reforms, labor legis the These two organizations prove that ly forgotten.
political Socialisin has very little attraction for the the full dinner pail. The idea seems The American worker does not see to the heart of to be First make a Liberal, and then convert him to so American workingman; in fact, they prove that the the society in which he lives. When the truth becomes This is my interpretation of Socialist camAmerican workman is opposed to Socialism, too obvious, he is easily persuaded that all abuses can be corrected by agitation, by the law, by the ballotpaign literature, and Socialist speakers at election time. Fully a third of the Socialist votes in normal Let is consider first, the American Federation of box. He does not see that the whole complex structure times, are think, cast by middle class persons who Labor. This is a purely cconomic organization, whose of our civilization is corrupt from top to bottom, be think that Karl Marx wrote a good Anti Trust.
power cause the capitalist class controls the sources of Law.
ers against the assaults of the capitalist class, which wealth.
by raising the cost of living and depressing relative have no quarrel with that kind of Propaganda And yet there is one important truth which he has except that it does not make Socialists. My idea is wages, is always attempting to reduce the workingto make Socialists, and there is only one way of doing class the condition of peonage. Above all, men his daily life in industry cannot be solved by politics. that by teaching Socialism, straight Socialism, who work with their hands are practical, and the American Federation of Labor offers a practical action the strike. His craft union, however. is only is what the Russian Bolsheviki did; this is what the program.
By reason of the history of this country, its bound and this vague interest is manifested by the organt Socialists, but people: workers, peasants, soldiers, less lands and natural resources, the stupendous zation of the American Federation of Labor. One who did not know what Socialism was. First, they growth of its cities, the immeasurable opportunities union will handle the scab products of a factory is found out from the working people what they want presented to energetic individuals in the immense which another union has called a strike. What busimost. Then they made those wants into an immediate demand for food, manufactured goods, and means ness is it of the teamster, or the railroad man, who program, and explained how they were related to of transportation, and the fluidity of social bound inakes the material he transports?
the other demands of the complete Social Revolution.
And then, also. a defensive organization such as And they explained, explained, eternally explained.
the American Federation of Labor is necessarily comsciously or unconsciously, that he can become a milRevolutionary Socialism lionaire or an eminent statesman. This is expressed is not a refined theory to cultivated minds. There is no value in in the saying, once heard often but now less frequently posed of limited and exclusive kinds of workers, be cause half their power lies in the fact that they are inventing new Socialist tactics, merely so that intelthat any American boy can be President.
the skilled men, and therefore must protect their priv lectuals can discuss what Karl Marx would have The American worker knows that this country is owned and controlled by the Trusts. But he does ileges, not only from the employers, but also from thought about it. Revolutionary Socialism, above all the great mass of the untrained workers who might other kinds, must be practical it must work it must not realize that the day of universal opportunity nas lower the level of their Half the victories make Socialists out of workers, and make them quick.
of American Organized Labor are at the expense of that he can still rise above the working class, and the unorganized and the unskilled.
Left Wing have an immediate job to do. They must above his fellows. And because many thousands beThe machine character of modern industry, however, find out from the American workers what they want lieve this, their unanimous sentiment is opposed to most, and they must explain this in terms of the whole any system, like Socialism, which wishes to destroy day of the skilled man is passing. Any man can run Labor Movement, and they must make the workers their imag. ned opportunity.
a machine. In Bridgeport, for example, all the trouble want more make them want the whole Revolution.
Moreover, although the American worker is pro arose from the fact that the employers took untrained They must do this in words which can be underfoundly disgusted with the dominant Democratic and men and trained each man to do part of the work of immediately by the workers, in terms of their Republican parties, and if you ask him what he thinks own lives. In this lies the secret of success of the of such and such a candidate, will was doing it. Three machinists cost a good deal in Non Partisan League. In this lies the secret of suca dirty politicia all alike they wages; but three inen, each trained to perform onecess of the American Labor or wil lie.
make third of a inachinist function could do the work of anything when they it get elemises, but 1s Sul. We, however, have a bigger job although the American worker knows threc machinists, and do it for much less money; and than the organization of either of those movements: that the Legislatures and the City at the same time the Machinists Union was smashed. we must include them and go beyond them, and Councils are used by business interests for their own In various sections of American industry there is our appeal must be first of all to those whom they do selfish purposes. stiil he does not know how to answer not touch the unorganized, the unskilled, the landwhen he is told, Well, if you don like your officials, appearing now a new tendency. Political parties are less, the propertyless.
being organized; the American Labor Party is a vote for somebody you do like. You are the boss.
That all workers belong to the working class and This is a free country.
symptom of this new movement. But why an Amemust be conscious of it; that all the sources of wealth rican Labor Party? Why not the Socialist Party. The American worker still thinks politically, in The reason is that the Labor Party is a practical to the capitalist class who are conscious of stead of economically. No one has ever been able to tell organization, designed to carry out politically the it; that this wealth must become the property of the him, in a way which he understands, that in our state work done economically by the Unions, while all the that the civilization we live in, and our Governrxent workers before they can control their own lives; of society the vote is almost powerless. As have Socialist Party has to offer is the election of candisaid, he knows that the men he elects to political office dates to office, where they are uniformly impotent, on are controlled by Force Economic Force and that are dominated by Big Business after they get élected; it can only be opposed by Economic Force.
but he doesn realize that unless he, the worker, takes a platform which is too broad to appeal to the craft And finally, the workers must be told that ther uinon training of the American worker.
Trate the force, if they will only organize it and exaway the power of Big Business before he elects his The presents another phase of the same press it; that if together they are able to stop work.
representatives, those represeptatives will always be question. Here again is an organization which is no power in the universe can prevent them from boughtor if they are honest, they will always be practical, and appeals to the man who does things doing what they want to do it only they know what powerless.
power doesn the American worker vote the Social with his hands. If an American worker becomes como they want to do!
scious of his class interests, and sees the truth, he ist ticket? Is the first place, he probably doesn like And it is our business to formulate what they want naturally wants to change the system of to do.
Socialism, which means to him only a system worked most practical, the quickest way. He sees that the out in foreign countries, not born of his own partiSaid Nicolai Lenin, at the Peasants Congress in workers inust control, first of all, the sources of cular needs and opposed to democracy and fair Petrograd. If Socialism can only be realized when wealth. He sees that the ballot does no good. Industplay, which is the way he has been taught to charthe intellectual development of all the people permits rial action works; he knows that. He realizes the acterize the institutions of this country. In the second utter failure of the craft unions as organs of a workit, then we shall not see Socialism for at least five place. if he has become conscious of his class interests, ing class bent on controlling industry. He is disgusted this is the vanguard of the working class; it inust for the Socialist party seems to him impractical. with politics. Why should he bother the vote at all?
They won win, he says. it will just be throwing Revolutionary direct mass action is the only weapon not allow itself to be halted by the lack of education of the mass average, but it inust lead the masses, reaway Of course he does not see that voting for a candilying upon the Labor Organizations for revolutionary If anything were needed to demonstrate the value who promises and does not perform, is just as of political action, the Russian Revolution ought to And again, at the Third Congress of Soviets. You much throwing away his vote as voting the Socialist do it. No true Socialist denies that the parliamet accuse us of using force. We admit it. All Governticket.
of the future Socialist State will be an Industhal ment is legalized force, controlled by one class and Sometimes, however, the candidate does perform parliament: but the transformation from the political used against another. For the first time in history, his promises. sometimes the popular discontent does to the industrial system must be expressed by politic we in this in hall are creatina legalized force cont force a legislative body to pass some needed social al action, whose value in the class struggle lies in the rolled by the working class, the vast majority of the measures. The worker is satisfied; he does not follow fact that it creates opportunities for the education of people, and directed against those who have exploitthe law to its most important stage its operation. He the workers, and for industrial direct action. and ed its and enslaved 115.
stood say, Oh Party or if he just a Congress, they never do State helong to society in the my vote!
he needs. at initiative. date