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76 THE WORKERS COUNCIL (June 1, 1921 JUNE 1, 1921 THE WORKERS COUNCIL 77 15. This clause demands the change of the pro the central party institutions should consist of indigrams of the organizations desiring to affiliate with viduals who have made an open declaration of their the Third International in compliance with Commu adherence to the Communist principles prior to the nist principles.
Second Congress of the Third International. ExcepAny other requirement would be illogical.
tions are permitted only with the consent of the Ex16. This clause lays down the principle that bind ecutive Committee of the Third International which ing resolutions and directions of the Third Inter also reserves the right to make exceptions with regard national should be formulated only on general ques to the representatives of the Center mentioned in tions, leaving the local and national peculiarities to the clause solution of the respective national Communist parties. These requirements sound somewhat bureaucratic.
This requirement is highly commendable, for other By the time a national party is ready to affiliate, the wise instead of 21 points the Communist International International may have had its Third Congress with would need 121 points to meet all the local exigencies perhaps different resolutions on certain points. Then of the various national organizations.
again, the process of educating the leaders is as dif17. This clause demands the adoption of the name ficult as that of educating the general membership.
Communist Party by all former Socialist or Social Why should then the membership be penalized by obDemocratic Parties if they desire to affiliate with the jecting to its affiliation in case its executive comThird International.
mittees have been slow in grasping the new principles.
The name is very essential in this case. The theory However, exceptions are permissible and naturally of the class struggle was expounded first by Karl the Executive Committee will exercise its judgment Marx and Frederick Engels under the name of Comin passing upon each concrete case.
munism. The Communist Manifesto has survived 70 21. Clause 21 stipulates that members who reject years, and stands today as strong as ever. On the the above conditions and the theses of the Third Interother hand, the various socialist parties with their national are liable to expulsion.
endless demands, whether minimum or maximum, It would appear then that the American judges have undergone numerous changes and have suc are demanding from the workers complete surrencumbed to the temptations of the capitalist reformers der to capital and loyalty to captains of industry.
and imperialists. Therefore, it is essential that the On the other hand, the Third International dename Communist should supplant the discredited mands from its supporters loyalty to communism name Socialist.
and to communist leaders. Time will show whose 18. This clause demands that all the leading organs appeal will find stronger echo.
of the press of every party publish all the important This clause makes the other clauses effective and documents of the Communist International, which consequently is indispensable.
is an obvious necessity.
The spirit of the above points is such as to com19. This clause demands that extraordinary con pel every affiliated party to work for social revolu.
ventions be convened by the parties desiring to af tion and to safeguard the unity of thought and filiate with the Third International, in order that the action, things which were lacking in the Second membership of these organizations may be acquainted International with its loose form of organization, with the resolutions adopted by the Second Congress. and its incoherent tactics. As time goes on, the This demand requires no comment.
number of these points may be reduced, their 20. In this clause the Third International insists working may become more polished, but we venthat not less than two thirds of the membership of ture to say that their substance will stand.
to hide this truth from the common people by taboo The patrioteering in our public schools went so ing the specific and significant term, Class, and by far as to jeopardize the whole historic underpinning popularizing the general and mystical designation of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, Nation (or State. freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom peaceOur educational system, the plutocratic State in ably to assemble and to petition for a redress of grievminiature, is charged with the duty of perpetuating ances. Teachers who held an unpopular point of the upper class mythology of nationalism. National view in relation to the war were dismissed. An atism is the pretence of unanimity and singleness of titude of mind, a theory of things, a hypothetical point interest among the social classes. Nothing but preof view in a hypothetical situation, a mere belief, any tence!
one of these was considered sufficient cause for dismissal.
The most critical time for inculcating this sham conception of the State is, of course, during a period Any teacher who, as part of his activities outside of war (or the preparation for war. The patriotism the class room, perpetrated the folly of writing in of the plutocratic State is then automatically instilled criticism of governmental authority or of educational as the only loyalty of a law abiding citizen.
authority was dismissed.
Those who have a good eye for contradictions The patriotism of plutocracy thrives on the ignormust be amused by the spectacle of an upper class and ance of its victims. It perverts the facts of history, its hired employés straining every nerve to impart because without such perversion its bloated myths their brand of patriotism to a lower class that (for would die of malnutrition. It caters to the most reasons never published by the upper class) is ap primitive instincts, because without such a prostituparently in dire need of an allegiance that should be tion of human nature its schemes of aggrandizement natural and spontaneous, but is somehow or other could not be realized. This is the brand of patriotism artificial and forced.
that is the arch foe of science and humane fellowship.
It is not difficult to explain why the intensest What is the plutocrats fear? Socialism! They patriotism wells up naturally in the hearts of those haven the courage to express it in so many words, who are especially privileged! Let us frankly acknowlbecause they know that the philosophy of Socialism edge that the perfect patriot (in a society torn by has captured the allegiance of the greater portion of class struggles) cannot be found among the proletariat. civilized mankind. They screen their opposition to radicalism in general behind the bogey of Bolshevism.
The plutocracy as a whole yielded up its heart and soul (though not its income and control) to the Nothing could serve their reactionary purposes more adequately than this newly discovered opportunity to patriotic requirements of the State. It never occured launch their attacks upon the critical minded by to official spokesmen to inaugurate campaigns of screaming, Bolshevik!
patriotic enlightenment among those whose historic Teachers have been terrified into an unholy silence.
privilege it is to control the State. Campaigns of Their hearts beat in tune with the marvelous procespatriotic enlightenment seem to have been necessary only among that peculiarly detached section of society sion of an awakened proletariat. Unorganized, diswhose struggle for control has not yet brought the organized, timid and insecure, the radical teachers are State within its grasp.
in a desperate plight. The passionate truth locked within their souls cries out for liberation.
There is the perfect patriotism of the plutocrat To whom shall the public schools belong? How (who controls the State and, therefore, enhances his much longer shall the younger generation be brought class when he fights for the nation) and there is up on lies? How much longer before the common the perfect patriotism of the proletarian. This latter people appreciate the revolutionary function of educais a comparatively recent contribution to civilized valtion?
ues. In the course of the evolution of the State, it is destined to supplant the former. The patriotism Verily, these are the momentous days that try one soul.
which springs inevitably from the consciences of the Which shall it be: the patriotism of the plutocracy plain people and attaches itself to ideals that promise genuine amelioration of their hard lot is the kind or the patriotism of the proletariat? No question can of patriotisin that will increasingly gain the attention be more profoundly significant.
of the mass of mankind. Every other kind of patriotism will be known for what it is: a species of self 350, 000 Tchech and Slovak Socialists Go with Moscow destruction in behalf of irrelevant ideals.
The experiences of the Tchecho Slovak workers with their Socialist Government during the past two years Our school system distinguished itself during the and the clarifying process which has been going on within period of America participation in the Great War the Socialist movement has led the Congress of the Soby assassinating the patriotism of the proletariat and cialist Party (Left) to join the Third InternationalThe super imposing the patriotism of the plutocracy. Un name of the party was changed to Communist, and the 21 questioning obedience to authority was the command conditions of affiliation were approved by a vote of 562 to The party claims a membership of 350, 000 and rep.
of the ruling class. Those teachers whose intellectual resents a powerful link in the revolutionary movement of attitude toward life did not permit so drastic a sur Central Europe.
render to coercive patriotism were severely dealt with; Tchech Socialism is not of recent origin, With Allied persecution, suspension, dismissal, the spirit of the imperialism no longer able to give sufficient material supinquisition, a systematic reign of terror these were port to their vassal states, with the government of the Socialist the conventional methods and devices employed by an Tusar thoroughly discredited among the masses, the Tchecho Slovak party of militant Socialism outraged plutocracy against the spokesmen of the new should be in a position to challenge the bourgeoisic for order.
political supremacy in the not very distant future.
Patrioteering in Our Public Schools By SCHMALHAUSEN Patriotism is the primitive emotion of self glorifi destiny of the State. In a very simple and literal cation erected into a sham philosophy of nationalism. sense, the patriotism of the plutocrats is the essence The State (meaning a political clique temporarily of real patriotism.
in control of the machinery of governmental repres The plain people (the vast mass of the propertysion and coercion) is assumed to be a mystic power, less) have no State. Their duty it is to share the in every way superior to the collectivity which it is burdens, not the privileges and the strategic positions, presumed to represent.
of the State. The only group in modern society which By a process of loose believing and thinking, we honestly typifies the consciousness of kind of the plain come to look upon the State as ours. madman people is The Class.
delusion!
The only reason why the State (usually referred The State belongs to those who own the wealth to as the Nation) is not simply alluded to as the proand industries of the nation. Then representatives perty of the Upper Class is because so straightforoccupy the strategic positions of legislative, executive ward a refernce would at a stroke reveal the sinister and judicial control. The plain people occupy no such division in modern society the existence of classes positions. The State is in no honest sense theirs. in irreconcilable opposition.
It is easy to understand why the plutocratic cit As at present constituted (judged by the laws of izenry encourage State worship. Their interests, ec Profit and Prestige. the Nation is the property and onomic and psychologic, are inseparable from the plaything of a manipulating class. That class attempts