Hillquit: The Socialist Task and Outlook 1

The Socialist Task and Outlook. by

Originally published in the the New York Call, May 21, 1919, pg. 8. Republished in pamphlet form as The Immediate Issue, circa July 1919.

It is safe to assert that at no time since the forma- movement today, and upon the solution of which the tion of the First International has the socialist move- future of our movement depends. ment of the world been in a state of such physical dis- It may be somewhat premature to pass conclu- union, moral ferment, and intellectual confusion as it sive judgment upon the contending views and meth- is today. The world war, so sudden in its outbreak, so ods of contemporary or to attempt to for- titanic in its dimensions, and so disastrous in its ef- mulate a complete revision of the socialist program. fects , had placed the socialist movement in Europe Socialist history is still in the making and history has before a situation, which it had not foreseen as a con- recently shown an almost provoking disregard for pre- crete reality and, for which it was totally unprepared, conceived theories and rigid formulae. But enough has and it reacted to it in a most unexpected and disheart- happened since August 1, 1914, to justify several defi- ening manner. Far from proving the formidable bul- nite conclusions, both as to the wrongs and remedies wark against war which their friends and enemies alike of the situation. had believed them to be, the powerful cohorts of Eu- ropean socialism on the whole supported their capi- • • • • • • • • talist governments in the capitalist war, almost as en- thusiastically and unreservedly as the most loyal Junker Why did the Second International fail? Some of classes, and when with the collapse of the war, the so- our neo-revolutionary ideologists conveniently account cialist revolutions broke out in several countries, their for it upon the theological theory of lapse from grace. forms of struggle were equally startling. The bourgeoi- The socialists of the pre-war period had become too sie, against whom the revolutions were directed, made materialistic and “constructive,” they paid too much little or no effective resistance, and the fight, repres- attention to political office and reforms, they were sive and sanguinary at times, was principally among corrupted by bourgeois parliamentarism — “they for- those who before the war called each other comrades got the teachings of the founders of scientific social- in the Socialist movement. ism” (how reminiscent of the familiar ecclesiastic com- There is something radically wrong in a move- plaint — “they abandoned the faith of their fathers”!). ment that could mature such sad paradoxes and that Marxian socialists, accustomed to look to mate- wrong must be discovered and eliminated if the inter- rial causes for the explanation of political events and national socialist movement is to survive as an effec- manifestations, can hardly accept this explanation, tive instrument of the working-class revolution. What which after all only reiterates and describes, but does was wrong with the Second International and how are not explain, and furnishes no guide for correction. It its mistakes to be avoided in the future? This is the asks sternly: What were the economic causes which main question which agitates and divides the socialist deflected the socialist movement of Europe from the 1 2 Hillquit: The Socialist Task and Outlook path of revolutionary, proletarian internationalism? spirit of the “non-political” American Federation of And the answer is as startling and paradoxical as the Labor vented itself in extra-parliamentary action. What entire recent course of the socialist movement. It was is true of Germany applies also, though perhaps in the economic organization of the European workers, varying degree, to Austria, Belgium, France, and Great and the pressure of their immediate economic inter- Britain. Conversely, in , Italy, and the Balkan ests (as understood by them) that broke the solidarity countries, in all of which the element of organized la- of the Socialist International. bor was a negligible factor in the socialist movement, It was not parliamentarism which was primarily the socialists have on the whole successfully withstood responsible for the mischief. Excessive parliamentarism the wave of nationalistic reaction, and when the first in the socialist movement of Europe had undoubtedly break came, it was Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, contributed substantially to the disaster, negatively as and Franz Mehring in Germany, Fritz Adler in Aus- well as positively, but on the whole the socialists in tria, Lenin and Trotsky in Russia, and Jean Longuet in Parliament expressed the sentiments of their constitu- France, all intellectuals, that led the socialist revolts in ents pretty faithfully. their countries. The Social-Democratic deputies of Italy, Russia, Serbia, and Bulgaria knew how to use the parliaments • • • • • • • • of their countries as revolutionary tribunals, and so did Liebknecht, Rueble, and Ledebour in Germany. What then is the inference to be drawn from these The parliaments of Germany and France were the facts? Shall hereafter dissoci- scenes of socialist betrayal. Its mainsprings lay much ate itself from organized labor? By no means. A social- deeper. ist movement without the support of the workers is a The countries in which the socialist movement sort of disembodied spirit; in fact, a spook. Socialism failed most lamentably are precisely those in which must remain the political and spiritual guide of the the movement was most closely linked to organized working class, but it must reorganize and reeducate labor, while the principles of international solidarity the working class. were upheld most rigorously in countries in which the The fundamental weakness of the organized la- economic labor movement was either very weak or bor movement has been that it was a movement of a quite detached from the socialist movement. In the class within a class, a movement for the benefit of the United States, where this detachment was more com- better-situated strata of labor — the skilled workers. plete than in any other modern country, the Ameri- As such a semi-privileged class, the economic organi- can Federation of Labor, under the leadership of Sam- zations of labor had attained large power in the lead- uel Gompers, outdid all jingoes in the orgy of profi- ing countries of Europe and in the United States be- teering, while the Socialist Party adopted the St. Louis fore the war. They enjoyed a sort of governmental rec- platform. The bulk of the Social Democracy in Ger- ognition, and had accumulated considerable material many was made up of workers organized upon the wealth. They had certain “vested interests” in the capi- same structure and looking to the same immediate ends talist regimes of their respective countries. In addition as the American Federation of Labor. The German to this basic shortcoming, and largely because of it, workers were more progressive than their American the workers were organized along the narrow lines of brethren. They acted politically within the Social separate trades and crafts. This form of organization Democratic Party. They had their own representatives naturally limits the efforts and activities of the work- in parliament, and their social-patriotic stand found ers to the petty struggles and interests of their own parliamentary expression, just as the social-patriotic special trades. It creates a psychology of craft solidar- Hillquit: The Socialist Task and Outlook 3 ity, rather than class solidarity, and deflects the work- reins of government as a pure working-class govern- ers’ attention from the ultimate goal to immediate ment, determined upon the immediate socialization benefits. of the country, the true socialists of all countries will In such conditions the parliamentary activities of support it. Whether we approve or disapprove of all labor’s political representatives cannot but reflect the the methods by which such proletarian government narrow economic policies of their constituents. The has gained or is exercising its power is beside the ques- petty political reform measures of the pre-war social- tion. Each revolution develops its own methods, fash- ists correspond to the craft organization in the eco- ioning them from the elements of the inexorable ne- nomic field, and the striving of the organized workers cessities of the case. to preserve their economic position within the indus- The socialists of the foreign countries are face by trial system of their country and to protect it against an accomplished fact and by the simple alternative of the menace of enemy capitalists is the basis of the war- supporting the revolution or counterrevolution. It is patriotism of their parliamentary representatives. quite evident that no socialist or socialist party that The first task of the post-war Socialist Interna- makes common cause with the ultra-reactionary ele- tional must, therefore, be to organize and reorganize ments of bourgeois and Tsarist Russia in supporting all grades and strata of labor on broad class lines, not foreign military intervention against the Soviet gov- only nationally, but internationally. Not as trade ernment, or in any other way actively opposes that unions, nor even as mere industrial unions, but as one government in the face of its life-and-death struggle working-class union. with international capitalism and imperialism, has a legitimate place in the international socialist move- • • • • • • • • ment. The same may, of course, be said of the socialist attitude toward Hungary. This first lesson to be drawn from the recent ex- In countries like Germany, in which the struggle periences and failures of the old International applies, for mastery lies between two divisions of the socialist of course, mainly, if not exclusively, to the countries movement, one class-conscious and the other oppor- still remaining under capitalist-class control. In the tunist, one radical and the other temporizing, the sup- countries that have passed, or are passing, to a regime port of the Socialist International must, for the same of Communist or Socialist government the problem reason, go to the former. presents itself in a different and more advance form. Shall the socialization of industries and national life • • • • • • • • be attempted by one master stroke, or shall it be car- ried out gradually and slowly? Shall the working class Such, it seems to me, must be the main outline immediately assume the sole direction of the govern- of the guiding policy of the new International. Upon ment as a working-class government, or shall it share such or similar general program must the Third Inter- governmental power and responsibilities with the capi- national be built. For the Third International of so- talist class, at least, “during the period of transition”? cialism has not yet been created, nor have its founda- While the question involved is primarily one of tions been laid, either at Berne or in Moscow. power, to be determined inn each country according The Berne conference proved hopelessly back- to the conditions existing at the critical moment, there ward and totally sterile, although some elements in it can be no doubt about the stand which the Socialist showed a distinct understanding of the new order of International must take on it. In all cases in which the things. The Communist Congress at Moscow made proletariat of a country in revolution has assumed the the mistake of attempting a sort of dictatorship of the 4 Hillquit: The Socialist Task and Outlook

Russian proletariat in the Socialist International and tance of American socialism lies in the future, prob- was conspicuously inept and unhappy in the choice of ably the immediate future. The futility of the war, the certain allies and in the exclusion of others. It has not failure of “peace,” the governmental persecution and advance the process of reorganization of the socialist repression, the stupid obscurantism of the press and movement of the world. the terrorism of countless private and public agencies The task of organizing the Third International is are bound to cause a reaction of revolt, and a period of still before us. It must be accomplished on the basis of unemployment and intensified exploitation will arouse principles and conduct, not on that of personal likes the American workers from the narcotics of their lead- or dislikes. It is the common task of all international ers’ empty phrases. Then it will be that the workers of socialists. America will look for a new light and guidance, and the socialists of America will have their opportunity. • • • • • • • • To prepare for that period, and to hasten its coming, is the present task of American Socialism, and that The attitude of the Socialist Party of the United means primarily two things — propaganda and orga- States toward international problems is thus clearly out- nization. Propaganda in international socialism in the lined. From the temper of its membership and from modern and advanced meaning of the term; propa- the official utterances of its administrative bodies, frag- ganda of new class-line unionism, systematic propa- mentary as they necessarily had to be under extraordi- ganda through all methods available, including politi- nary restrictions, there can be no doubt about the cal campaigns and legislative forums, and organiza- party’s advanced and militant position. How is that tion of all effective organs of such propaganda. At no position to be translated into a domestic program? time was a comprehensive and harmonious plan of The platform and policies of the Socialist Party action along such lines so urgently imperative for the must be revised in keeping, not only with the devel- socialist movement in America as it is just now. opment of socialism abroad, but also with regard to the changes wrought by the war in the United States. • • • • • • • • The Untied States emerges from the war the stron- gest capitalist country in the world, not only because All the more unfortunate is it that the energies of of the superiority of its material and military resources, the Socialist Party should at this time be dissipated in but also because the power of capitalism has been less acrimonious and fruitless controversies brought on by shaken inn the United States than in any of the ad- the self-styled “Left Wing” movement. I am one of vanced countries of Europe. Our “liberal” administra- the last men in the party to ignore or misunderstand tion has turned to the lowest depths of reaction and the sound revolutionary impulse which animates the repression without effective resistance or opposition rank and file of this new movement, but the specific on the part of any considerable section of the popula- form and direction which it has assumed, its program tion. The “progressive” elements in politics and social and tactics, spell disaster to our movement. I am op- reform have collapsed like a house of cards, and orga- posed to it, not because it is too radical, but because it nized labor has so far remained inert and passive. The is essentially reactionary and non-socialistic; not be- only voice of protest and the only vision of progress cause it would lead us too far, but because it would have come from the Socialist Party and a negligible lead us nowhere. To prate about the “dictatorship of group of industrial workers and radical individuals. the proletariat” and of “workers’ soviets” in the United But the Socialist Party is as yet an insignificant factor States at this time is to deflect the socialist propaganda in the political and social life of America. The impor- from its realistic basis, and to advocate “the abolition Hillquit: The Socialist Task and Outlook 5 of all social reform planks” in the party platform means rades in the party. They must “capture” and establish a to abandon the concrete class struggle as it presents sort of dictatorship of the proletariat (?) within the itself from day to day. party. Hence the creation of their dual organization as The “Left Wing” movement, as I see it, is a purely a kind of “soviet,” and their refusal to cooperate with emotional reflex of the situation in Russia. The cardi- the aforesaid stage “Centrists” and “Right-Wingers.” nal vice of the movement is that it started as a “wing,” But the performance is too sad to be amusing. It i.e., as a schismatic and disintegrating movement. Pro- seems perfectly clear that, so long as this movement ceeding on the arbitrary assumption that they were persists in the party, the latter’s activity will be wholly the “Left,” the ingenuous leaders of the movement had taken up by mutual quarrels and recriminations. Nei- to discover a “Right,” and since the European classifi- ther “wing” will have any time for the propaganda of cation would not be fully reproduced without a “Cen- socialism. There is, as far as I can see, but one remedy. ter,” they also were bound to locate a Center in the It would be futile to preach reconciliation and union socialist movement of America. What matters it to our where antagonism runs so high. Let the comrades on imaginative “Left Wing” leaders that the Socialist Party both sides do then next best thing. Let them separate of America as a whole has stood in the forefront of — honestly, freely, and without rancor. Let each side socialist radicalism ever since the outbreak of the war, organize and work in its own way, and make such con- that many of its officers and “leaders” have exposed tribution to the socialist movement in America as it their lives and liberties to imminent peril in defense of can. Better a hundred times to have two numerically the principles of international socialism? They are small socialist organizations, each homogeneous and “Right Wingers” and “Centrists” because the exigen- harmonious within itself, than to have one big party cies of the “Left Wing” requires it. The “Left Wing” torn by dissensions and squabbles, an impotent colos- movement is a sort of burlesque on the Russian revo- sus on feet of clay. The time for action is near. Let us lution. Its leaders do not want to convert their com- clear the decks.

Edited by Tim Davenport. Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2005. • Free reproduction permitted.

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