BolshevismBourgeoisieCapitalismKronstadtPrivate PropertyRussian RevolutionSocialismSovietSyndicalism

JUNE 1, 1921 THE WORKERS COUNCIL 67 The Workers Council Vol.
New York, June 1, 1921 No. Page 67 73 to protect life and property and maintain order. But TABLE OF CONTENTS in our own midst we find the existence of conditions, which in the case of Mexico, San Domingo or Hayti would be sufficient cause for intervention in Class War in Mingo 66 order to give the natives a taste of American order.
Poland and the Allies It notorious that in the mining regions of the Equality before the Law67 United States we have a condition of absolute serfA Modei Country 68 dom. The mine owners, who have acquired their Anti Bolshevist Crusaders in the of mines in the main through some form of legal robConvention 68 bery, own not only the mines but also everything The International Lesson of Kronstadt. 70 else in the neighborhood. They own the huts occuClass Divisions in France.
pied by the miners, they own the stores, the press, the church and the minister, the school and the The Storm Center of the Com. International 75 teacher. It is also the practice of the mine owners Patrioteering in Our Public Schools. 76 to own the government officials, especially the The Third International in Germany and sheriffs and their deputies. In short, every possible Italy 78 precaution is taken to prevent any stray, unwelcome International Notes 80 ideas from penetrating into the domain of the coal barons. And the company sheriffs and guards see Published by the International Educational Association to it that no pesky agitator wanders into their wellguarded preserves.
BENJAMIN GLASSBERG, Secretary Editorial Board As if to prove that law and order do reign in these WALTER Cook, Secretary Intern. Educ. Assn. benighted regions, and that they as well as New York City are the recipients of the benign influence of the judiciary, we find that the courts have nobly Editorials come to the rescue of the harrassed coal companies by obligingly handing down a decision which bars CLASS WAR IN MINGO any organizer of the United Mine Workers froin attempting to persuade a miner from joining the To the miners of West Virginia, Colorado and union. According to an injunction issued by the Alabama the class struggle is no academic theory. Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, no They may never have heard of the Marxian theory, organizer of the Mine Workers may come into cerbut again and again they have been active partictain designated counties and explain the meaning of ipants in bitter class wars. The most recent illus unionism, because the miners work under an inditration of this perennial condition of industrial war vidual agreement in which they promise not to join fare is to be seen in the Mingo County battles bea union; therefore a union organizer would be attween the miners and company guards which have tempting to persuade men to break their contract.
already caused many deaths. The newspapers talk This decision was in line with the decision of the of riflemen resting on their guns, of sectors, ter Supreme Court in the case of the Hitchman Coal rain, etc. in the approved military jargon. They and Coke Co. Mitchell, in which the court held realize full well the existence of open warfare in that it was illegal for union organizers to persuade West Virginia.
men who worked under anti union agreements to The average American takes this outbreak rather join the union; that the Hitchman Company was caimly, as calmly as he takes Southern lynchings. entitled to the good will of its employees and that Industrial wars in the mining regions have by this the pecuniary value of such good will was incaltime become an American institution. When the culably great. It is to be understood that this in State and the Vigilantes set out to disarm the strik no way contradicts the right of free speech and ers, but leave the company guards, another name assemblage. It is but a necessary regulation of this for the Vigilantes, in complete possession of their right to prevent license displacing liberty.
guns and rifles, his proverbial sense of fair play The various mine wars, including the present one sees nothing wrong in such a policy.
in Mingo County, have been, at bottom, the result few weeks ago we very grandeloquently re of the efforts of the mine owners to prevent the buffed the offer of Soviet Russia to resume trade re spread of unionism. They have insisted upon the lations because she does not offer sufficient guaran open shop at all costs. It is but one example of the tees for private property and because her govern class struggle inherent in capitalist society. This ment is not the free expression of her people. We struggle occasionally flares out in a dramatic battle hesitate about recognizing Mexico because we want as at Matewan in May, 1920, or in the deliberate to make sure of the ability of the Obregon regime burning of men and children as at Ludlow in 1913, or in the numerous clashes in the Alabama coal to the tender mercies of the Czar. But now that the fields. But it is going on all the time this constant possibility of a Workers Republic becoming firmly struggle of labor for a larger share in their product established loomed on the Eastern horizon. Poland, and for the building up of a strong union. Opposed it was decided must be strengthened for it would be to the workers is the economic power of the mine useful as a barrier against Bolshevism.
owners, protected by all the force of the state, the France encouraged the Polish imperialists in hoping courts, the legislatures, and aided by the church for the establishment of a swollen eastern boundary, and the school. It is an uneven battle, so long as the boundary of 1772. She was encouraged to war on workers face the master class with divided ranks, and Czecho Slovakia, another Allied creation. She was without a clear concept of the nature of the struggle allowed to seemingly defy the League of Nations by they are waging. Labor in West Virginia must seizing Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, which her.
realize that the only way out of their condition of troops under the insurgent General Zeligowski are wretchedness, of starvation, of enforced unemploy: still holding. She was goaded into an invasion of ment is gaining control of the machinery of the State Russia which brought her up as far east as Kiev.
and using it for the purpose of sweeping away the Only the determined stand of the workers of France, whole system of private ownership and control of the England, Germany, Belgium and of other countries, wealth and resources of the nation.
prevented the active aid which the Allies managed to give Poland secretly.
POLAND AND THE ALLIES The Polish effort to establish a fait accompli in The convenient arrangement which gave the seas Upper Silesia was evidently one too much for the English ruling classes. It seems that it was timed to to England, and Europe to France, seems to be in take place coincidentally with the much heralded danger of breaking down. No imperialist nation can French occupation of the Ruhr which was called off stand still for any great period. England could not temporarily as a result of the German acceptance of stand idly by and watch France and her satellites, the Supreme Council Reparation demands, as part especially Poland, grow in influence and Power, To do so would mean that France might become entirely of the French effort at crippling still further the Gerindependent of England and in the end be in a posi opposed to any further weakening of Germany or an man industries. The English bourgeoisie however is tion to challenge England supremacy.
further strengthening of France and Poland, who now The Silesian question afforded a convenient op have the largest standing armies in the world.
portunity for bringing the matter to a head and the once friendly Allies have almost been rattling the Very soon it will be decided whether there is to be a peaceful settlement of the Silesian question; whether sword in their presen wordy dispute over the Polish England and France will agree to allow Korfanty to coup.
stay or whether England will find it will suit her The workers have something to learn from the purposes better to quietly aid Germany in the attempt Polish question, for it illustrates how easily they have to drive the Poles out of Silesia.
been used by the opposing imperialist camps for their It is very likely that the Polish workers will special benefit.
again be summoned to the slaughter in order to defend During the war the Allies in the secret treaties Poland sacred aspirations. It is a question whether promised Russia a free hand in Poland with the right the workers and peasants will answer this new call of to unite the German and Austrian sections with the the imperialists or whether they wrest power out of part already in the Russian Empire. It was thus that the hands of their rulers as the Russians have done they fought for Polish independence. It mattered and bring to an end the role which the French ruling not at all to the rulers what promises were madeclass assigned to them. The Polish workers have had so long as the Poles could be made to aid Allied Iman opportunity, at great expense, to learn the nature of perialism.
clashing nationalistic ambitions. They are beginning With the coming of the Russian revolution and the to realize that the workers will benefit in no way disintegration of the Russian armies, the situation by the extension of the nations boundary lines. And changed. The Polish question received a new orienta the Silesian workers have by this time learned that tion. free Poland was still the ostensible aim of regardless of whether the Polish or German flag waves the Allies, but this time its freedom was to be over Silesia they will be just as much exploited.
directed by a self constituted committee of Polish For the workers there is but one solution, the delandholders led by Dmowski and Paderewski, and well struction of capitalism the world over and the estabknown for their anti Semitism, and their love of Gerlishment of workers and peasants Soviets.
man Junkerdom. Even Pilsudski, at present the most faithful servant of the French and Polish imperialists, was looked upon with suspicion, because he was be EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW.
lieved to be tainted with Socialism and not amenable The law has ever been as useful an instrument in to Allied dictation.
the service of the ruling class as the armed forces.
Following the armistice, it was this element which In many respects it is much more serviceable than an was forced upon Poland. The Allies, and especially army for it enables the ruling class to get all that it France, posed as the creators, friends and protectors wants with the seeming consent of the people, through of Poland. These same friends had but a short time their representatives. The master class has never previous agreed to hand over the whole of Poland failed to utilize the law to the utmost.