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‘.’ Price: 5c. ‘501. 2, I&. 1. Saturday, July 5, 1919 ” ‘. ‘. .’ . .’ In This. Issue: ^ ,’ Left Wing Con~edion, Manijksto ad Program, I
“Nothing Doing!” 6: THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE July 5 1919 lhe Lefk Wing Manifesto r HE world is in crisis. Capitalism, the Issued on Authority of the Co~fmwe LIponproduction. The answer of Capitalism is J. prevailing system of society, is in pro- by th.e National Council qf the Left Winq war; the answer of the proletariat is the So- cial Revolution and Socialism. cess of disintegration and collapse. Out of its THE COLLAPSE OF THE INTERNATIONAL. vitals is developing a new social order, the heavy machinery, in short, predominantlv a system of Communist Socialism; and the trade in iron goods. This export of capital, In 1912, at the time of the first Balkan war, struggle between this new social order and the together with the struggle to monopolize the Europe was on the verge of a general im- old is now the fundamental problem of inter- world’s sources of raw materials and to con- perialistic war. A Socialist International Cong- national politics. trol undeveloped territory, produces Imperial- ress was convened at Basle to act on the im- The predatory “war for democracy” domi- ism. pending crisis. The resolution adopted stig- mztized the cm&g war m imperialistic and nated the world.. . ~ But now it is the revolutions A fully developed capitalist nation is com- ary proletarrat m action that dominates, con- pelled to accept Imperialism. Each nation 0s unjustifiable 07~ any $rPtext of national b- quering power in some. nations, mobilizmg to seeks markets for the absorption of its sur- ferest. The Basle resolution declared : conquer power in others, and calling upon the plus capital. Undeveloped territory, possessing I. That the war would create an economic proletariat of all nations to prepare for the sources of raw material, the industrial develop and political crisis; a. That the workers f&i struggle against Capitalism. ment of which will require the investment of would look upon participation in the war as But Socialism itself is in crisis. Events are capital and the purchase of machinery, be- a crime. which would arouse “indignation and revolutionizing Capitalism and Socialisrui-an comes the objective of capitalistic competition revulsion” among the masses; 3. That the indication that this is the historic epoch of the between the imperialistic nations. crisis and the psychological condition of the proletarian revolution. Imperialism is the Capitalism, in the epoch of Imperialism, workers would create a situation that Socialists final stage of Capitalism; and Imperialism comes to rely for its “prosperity? and suprem- should use “to rouse the masses and hasten means sterner reaction and new wars of con- acy upon the exploitation and enslavement of the downfall,of Capitalism” ; 4. That the gov- quest-unless the revolutionary proletariat acts colonial peoples, either in colonies, “spheres of ernments “fear a proletarian revolution” and for Socialism. Capitalism cannot reform itself : influence,“. “protectorates,” or “mandatoies “9 should remember the Paris Commune and the it cannot be reformed. Humanity can be saved -savagely oppressing hundreds of millior;‘s of revolution in Russia in 1905, that is, a civil from its last excesses only by the Communist subject peoples in order to assure high profit war. Revolution. There can now be only the SO- and interest rates for a few million people’in The Basle resolution indicted the coming cialism ‘which is one in. temper andpurpose the favored nations. war as imperialistic, a war necessarily to be with the proletarian revolutionary struggle. This struggle for undeveloped territory, raw opposed by Socialism, which should use the There can be only the Socialism which unites materials, and investment markets, is carried opportunity of war to wage the revolutionary the proletariat of the whole iworld in the on “peacefully” between groups of internatio- struggle against Capitalism. The policy of general struggle against the desperately de- nal finance-capital by means of “agreements,” Soc;alism was comprised in the struggle to structive Imperialisms -, the Imperialisms and between the nations by means of diplo- transform the imperialistic war into a civil war which array themselves as a single force macy; but a crisis comes, the competition be- of the oppressed ap.[inst the oppressor?, anrevolutionary Socialism. bine their capital in order to ,produce more The imperialistic character of the war is It was not alone a problem of preventing the efficiently. This process of concentration of climaxed by an imperialistic peace-a peace war. The fact that Socialism could not pre- industry and the accumulation of capital, while that strikes directly at the peace and libertv of vent the war, was not a justification for ac- a product of competition, ultimately denies and the world, which organizes the great imperial- cepting and idealizing the war. Nor was it a ends competitipn. The concentration of indus- istic powers into a sort of “trust of nations,” problem of immediate revolution. The Basle try and of capital develops monopoly. among whom the world is divided financially Manifesto simply required opposition to the Monopoly expresses itself through dicta- and territorially. The League of Nations is war and the fight to develop out of its &cum- torial control exercised by finance-capital over simply the screen for this division of the world, stances the revolutionary struggle of the pro- industry ; and finance-capital unifies Capitalism an instrument for joint domination of the letariat against the war and Capitalism. for world-exploitation. Under Imperialism, world by a particular group of Imperialism. The dominant Socialism. in accepting and the banks, whose control is centralized in a While this division of the world solves, for justifying the war, abandoned the class strug- clique of financial magnates, dominate’ the the moment, the problems of power that pro- gle and betrayed Socialism. The class strug- whole of industry directlv, purely upon the duced the war, the solution is temporary, since gle is the heart of Socialism. Without strict basis of investment exploitation, and not for the Imperialism of one nation can prosper conformity to the class struggle, in its revolt p”rposes of social production. The concentra- only by limiting the economic opportunity of tionary implications, Socialism becomes either tion of industry implies that, to a large extent, another nation. New problems of power must sheer Utopianism, or a method of reaction. industry within the nation has reached its ma- necessarily arise, producing new antagonisms, But the dominant Socialism accepted “civil turity, is unable to absorb all the surplus- new wars of agression and conquest-unless peace,” the “unity of all the classes and par- capital that comes from the profits of industry. the revolutionary proletariat conquers in the ties” in order to wage successfully the im- Capitalism, accordingly, must fmd means out- struggle for Socialism. perialistic war. The dominant Socialism united side the na$on for the absorption of this The concentration of industry produces with the governments against Socialism and surplus. The older export trade was dominated monopoly, and monopoly produces Imperial- the proletariat. by the export of consumable goods. American ism. In Imperialism there is implied the social- The class struggle comes to a climax during exports, particularly, except for the war period, ization of indztstry, the material basis of Sociol- war. National struggles are a form of expres- have been largely of cotton, foodstuffs, and ism. Production moreover, becomes interna- sion of the class struggle, whether they are raw materials. Under the conditions of ‘Im- tional ; and the limits of the nation, of national revolutionary wars for liberation or imperial- perialism it is capital which is exported, as production, become a fetter upon the forces istic wars for spoilation. It is precisely during by the use of concessions in backward territory of productton. The development of Capitalism a war that material conditions provide the to build railroads, or to start native factories, produces world economic problems that break opportunity for waging the class struggle to a PS in India, or to develop oil- fields. as in Mex- down the old order. The forces of production conclusion for the conquest of power. The ico. This means an export of locomotives. revolt against the fetters Capitalism imposes vzr was a war for world-power-a war of July 5, ‘9’9 THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE 7 the capitalist class against the korking class, concessions and became a semi-privileged of war, accordingly, t!?e dominant moderate since world-power meay power OZIET the pro- caste ; and, on‘the other, the decay of the class Socialism accepted the war and united with the letariat. of small producers, crushed under the iron imperialistic state. But the dominant Socialism accepted the war tread of the concentration of industry and the Upon the advent of Imperialism, Capitalism as a war for democracy-as if democracy. un- accumulation of capital. As one moved up- emerged into a new epd.ch,-an epoch re- der the conditions of Imperialism is not di- ward, and the other downward, they met, quiring new and more ;;ressive proletarian rectly counter-revolutionary ! It justified the formed a juncture, and united fo z~e the state tatics. Tactical differences in the Socialist war as a war for national independence-as to improve their conditio?zs. The dominant movement almost immediately came to a head. if Imperialism is not necessarily determined Socialism expressed this unity, developinS a The concentration of industry, together with upon annihilating the independence of nations ! policy of legislative reforms and State Capltal- the subserviency of parliaments to the imperi- (Nationalism, social-patriotism, and social- ism, making the revolutionary c’ass struggle a alistic mandates and the transfer of thetr vitaJ Imperia&m determined the policy of the doni- parliamentary process. functions to the executive organ of govenl- nant Socialism, and not the proletarian class This development meant, obviously. the merit. developed the concept of industrial struggle and Socialism. The coming of Social- abandonment of fundamental Socialism. It unionism in the United States and the ‘con- ism was made dependent upon the predatory meant working on the basis of the bourgeois cept ,of mass action in Europe. The struggle war and rmperialism, upon the international parliamentary state, instead of the struggle to against the dominant moderate Socialism be- proletariat cutting each other’s throats in ,the destroy that state ; it meant the ‘(co-operation came a struggle against its perversion of par- struggles of the ruling class ! of classes” for State Capitalism; instead of liamentarism, against its conception of the The Second International on the whole the uncompromising proletarian struggle for state, against its alliance with non-proletarian merged in the opposed imperialistic ranks. Socialism. Government ownership, the ob- social groups,, and against its acceptance of This collapse of the International was ndt an jective of the middle class, was the policy of State Capitahsm. Imperialism made manda- accident, noi simply an expression of the be- moderate Socialism. Instead of the revolu- tory a reconstruction of the Socialist move- trayal by individuals. It was the inevitable tionary theory of the necessity of conouering ment, the formulation of a practice in accord consequence of the whole tendency and policv Capitalism, the official theory and practice was with its revolutionary fundamenta!s. But the of the dominant Socialism as an organized now that of modifying Capitalism, of a gradual representatives of moderate Socialism refused movement. peaceful “growing Into” Socialism by means tb broaden their tactics, to adapt themselves to MODERATE SOCIALISK of legislative reforms. In the words of Jean the new conditions. The consequence was a The Socialism which develop-d as an or. J aures: “we shall carry on our reform work miserable collapse under the test of the war ganized movement after the collapse of the to a complete transformation of the existing and the proletarian revolution,-the betrayal of revolutionary First International was mnder- order.” Socialism and the proletariat. ate, petty bourgeois Socialism. It was a So- But Imperialism exposed the final futility o? TIIE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION. ci2ism adapting itself to the con,li!lon; of this policy. Imperialism unites the non-pro- The dominant Socialism justified its’ accept- ,!a!ional deve!optnmt, abandon!?*.; in practice letarian classes, by means of State Capitalism, ance of the war on the plea that a revolution the militant idea of revolutionlzin< the old for international conquest and spoilation. The did not materialize, that the masses abandoned world. small capitalists, middle clbss and the aristoc- Socialism. This moderate Socialism initiate3 the era of racy of labor, which previously acted against concentrated industry, now compromise and This was conscious subterfuge. When the “con&ructive” social reforms. It accepted the economic and political crisis did develop po- bourgeois state as the basis of its activity and unite with concentrated industry and finance- tential revolutionary action in the proletariat, strenghened that state. Its goal became “con- capital in Imperialism. The small capitalists the dominant Socialism immediately assumed structlve reforms” and cabinet portfolios- accept the domination of finance-capital, be- an attitude against the Revolution. The pro- the “co-operation of classes,” the policy of ing allowed to participate in the adventures letariat was urged root to make a revolution. openly or tacitly declaring that the coming of and the fabulous profits of Imperialism, upon Socialism was the concern “of all the classes,” which now depends the whole of trade and The dominant Socialism united with the capi- industry; the middle class invests in monopo- talist governments to prevent a revolution. instead of emphasizing the Marxian policy thst The Russian Revolution was the first act of the construction of the Socialist system is the listic enterprises, an income class whose in- the proletariat against the war and Imperialism. task af t.he revolutionary proletariat alone. come depends upon finance-capital, its mem- bers securing “positions of superintendence,” But while the masses made the Revolution in In accepting social-reformism, the “co-op- Russia, the bourgeoisie usurped power and or- eration of classes,” and the bourgeois its technicians and intellectuals being exported ganized the regulation,bourgeois-parliamentary parliamentary state as the basis of its to undeveloped lands in process of develop- action, moderate Socialism was prepared ment; while the workers of the privi1eged republic. This was the first stage of the Revo- unions are assured steady er!nployment and lution. Against this bourgeois republic organ- to share responsibility with the bourgeoisie in ized the forces of the proletarian Revolution. the control of the capitalist state, even to the comparatively high wages through the profits Moderate Socialism in Russia, represented by extent of defending the bourgeoisie against the that come from the savage explditation of the Mensheviki and the Social-Revolutionists,. working class and its revolutionary mass move- colonial peoples. All these non-proletarian so- acted against the proletarian revolution.’ It ments. The counter-revolutionary tendency of cial groups accept Imperialism, their “liberal united with the Cadets, the party of bourgeois the dominant Socialism finally reveals itself in and progressive” ideas becoming factors in Imperialism, in a coalition government of bour- open war against Socialism during the pro- the promotion of Imperialism, manufacturing ,geois democracy. It placed its faith in the letarian revolution, as in Russia, Germany and the democratic ideology of Imperialism with war “against German militarism,” in national Austria-Hungary. which to seduce the masses. Imperialism re- quires the centralized &ate, capable of uniting ideals, in parliamenetary democracy and the The dominant moderate Socialism was ini- “co-operation of classes.” tiated by the formation of the Social-Demo- all the forces of capital, of unifying the indus- trial process through state control and regula- But the proletariat, urging on the poorer cratic Party in Germany. This party united peasantry, conquered power. It accomplished on the basis of the Gotha Program, in which tion, of maintaining “‘class peace,” of mobil- a proletarian revolution by means of the Bol- fundamdptal revolutionary Socialism was aban- izing the whole national poker in the strug- shevik policy of “all power to the Soviets;- doned. It evaded completely the task of the gles of Imperialism. Stat? Capitalisnz is the organizing the new transitional
(Continued from Page 7) investors, the professions&n short, the of- fusing affiliation with the Communist Inter- international revolution of the proletariat, the ficial Socialist Party actually depended upon national of revolutionary Socialism. war having initiated the epoch of the proletari- the petite bolirgeoisie for the realization of an revolution. ‘PROBLEMS OF AMHRICAN SOCIALISM Socialism. Imperialism is dominant in the United States, The revolution in Germany decided the con- The concentration of industry in the United troversy. The first revolution was made hv \%hich is now a world bower. It is developing States gradually eliminated the small produc- :I centralized. autocratic federal government, the masses, against the protests of the domj- ers, which initiated the movement for govern- nant modeiate Socialism, represented by the acquiring the financial and military reserves for ment ownership of industry-and for other re- ’ ;zgression and wars of conquest. The war has Social-Democratic Party. As in Russia, the forms proposed to check the power of the plu- first stage of the Revolution realized a bour- aggrandizecl American Capita!&, instead of tocracy ; and this bourgeois policy was the ani- c-eakening it as in Europe. But world events gois parliamentary republic, uiith power in Imating impulse of the practise of the Socialist the hands ,of the Social-Democrat5c Party. will play upon and influence conditions in this ! ‘arty. country-dynamically, the sweep of revo:ution- Against this bourgeois republic organized a This party, moreover, developed into an ex- ary proletarian ideas; materially, the coming new revolution, the proletarian revolution di- Dression-of the unions of the aristocracy of constriction of worid markets upon the resump- rected by the Spartacan-Communists. And, labor,-of the A. F. of L. The party re&sed tion of competition. Now all-mighty and su- precisely as in Russia, the domimmt moderate to engage in the struggle against the reac- preme, Capitalism in the United States must Socialism opposed the proletarian revolzctiolz, tionayy unionsJ Jo organize a new labor move: Imeet crises in the days to come. These con- opposed all power to the Soviets, accepted par- merit of the nnhtant proletariat. c!itions modify our immediate task, but do not liamentary democracy and repudiated pro:e- While the concentration of industry and alter its general character; this is not the tarian dictatorship. - social developments generally couservatized the moment of revolution,.but it is the moment of The issue in Germany could not be obscured. skilled workers, it developed the typical pro- revolutionary struggle. American Capitalism Germany was a fully developed industrial na- letariat of unskilled labor,.massed in the basic is deveIoping a brutal campaign of terrorism tion, its econ,omic conditions mature for the industries. This -proletariat, expropriated of n.gainst the militant proletariat. American introduction of Socialism. In spite of dissimil- all property, denied access to the A. F. of L. Capitalism is utterly incompetent on the prob- ar economic conditions in Germany and Rus- jlnions! required a labor movement of its own. lems of reconstruction that press down upon sia, the dominant moderate Socialism pursued This Impulse produced the concept of in- society. Its “reconstruction” program is a similar counter-revolutionary policy,, and re- dustrial unionism, and the I. W. W. But the simply to develop its power for aggression, to volutionary Socialism a common pohcy, indi- dominant moderate Socialism rejected indus- aggrandize itself in the markets of the world. cating the international character of revolu- trial unionism and openly or covertly acted These conditions of Imperialism a?d of mul- tionary proletarian tactics. against the I. W. W. tiplied aggression will n&essarily produce pro- There is, accordingly, a common policy that Revolutionary industrial unionism, more- letarian action against Capitalism. Strikes are characterizes moderate Socialism, and’ that is over, was a recognition of the fact that extra- developing which verge on revolutionary ac- its conrepfion of the state. Moderate Social- parliamentary actIon was necessary to accom- tion, and in which the suggestion af prole6rian ism affirms that the bourgeois, democratic par-. plish the revolution, that the political state dictatorship is apparent, the striker-workers liamentary state is the necessary basis for the should be destroyed and a new proletarian state trying to usurp functions of municipal govern- introduction of Socialism ; accordingly, it con- of the organized producers constructed in order ment, as in Seattle and Winnipeg. The mass ceived the task of the revolution, in Germany to realize Socialism. But the Socialist Partv struggle of the proletariat is coming into being. and Russia, to be the construction of the r.ot only repudiated the form of industrial A minor phase of the awakening of labor is democratic parliamentary state, after which the unionism, it still more emphatically repudiated the trades tnions organiziug a Labor Party. process of introducing Socialism by legislative its revolutionary political implications, cling- reform measures could be initiated. Out of this ing to petty bourgeois parliamentarism and re- in an effort t!o conserve what they have,Secured formism. as a privileged caste. A Labor Party is not coriception of the state developed the counter- the instrument’ for the emancipation of the revoiutionary policy of moderate Socialism. United with the aristocracy of labor and the Imiddle class, the dominant Socialism in the working class; its policy would in general bi Revolutionary Socialism, on the contrary, in- what is now the officia1 policy of the Socialist sists that the democratic parliamentary state Socialist Party necessarily developed all the evils of the dominant Socialism of Europe,,- Party-reforming Capitalism on the basis of can’never be the basis for the intioduction of the bourgeois ‘parliamentary state. Laborism Socialism; that it is necessary to destroy the and, particularly, abandoning the immediate is as much a danger to the revolutionary pro- parliamentary state, and construct a new st?te revolutionary task of reconstructing unionism, of the organized producers, which will deprive on the basis of which alone a militant mass letariat as moderate, petty bourgeois Socialism. Socialism could emerge. -the fwo being expressions of an identica1 the bourgeoisie of political power, and function tendency and policy. There can be no com- as a revolutionary, dictatorship of the prole- It stultified working class political action. by limiting political action to elections and par- promise either with Laborism or the dominant tariat. moderate Socialism. The proletarian revolution in action has, cc?- ticipation in legislative reform activity. In elusively proven that moderate Socialism 1s m- every single case where the Socialist Party has But there is a more vital tendency,-the capable of realizing the objectives of Sxial- elected public officials they have pursued a con- tendency of the workers to initiate mass ism. Revolutionary Socialism alone is capable sistent petty bourgeois policy, abandoning strikes,-strikes which are equally a revolt of mobilizing the proletariat for Socialism. Socialism. against the bureaucracy in the unions and for the conquest of the power of the state, b\- This was the official policy of the Party. Its against the employers. These strikes will con- means of revolutionary mass action and pro- repre’sentatives were petty bourgeois. moder- stitute the determining feature of proletarian ate, hesitact. oblivious of the class struggle action in the days to come. Revolutionary letarian dictatorship. Socialism must use these mass industrial re- AMERICAK SOCIALISM. in its fundamental political and industrial im- plications. But the compulsion df life itself volts to broaden the strike, to make it general The upsurge of revolutionary Socialism in drew more and more proletarian masses in the and militant; use the strike for political ob- the American Socialist Party, expressed in the party, who required simply the opportunity to jectives, and, finally, deve!op the mass political Left Wing, is not a product simply of Euro- initiate a revolutionary proletarian policv. strike against Capitalis; and the state. -pean conditions. It is, in a fundamental sense. Revolutionary Socialism must base itself on the product of the experience of the American The war and the proletarian revolution in the mass struggles of the proletariat, engage movement-the Left Wing tendency in the Russia provided the opportunity. The Socia- directly in these struggles while emphasizing Party having been invigorated by the experi- list Party, under the impulse of its membership, the revolytionary purposes of Socialism and ence of the proletarian revolutions in Europe adopted a militant declaration against the war. the proletarian movement. The maSs strikes The dominant moderate Socialism of the But the officials of the parts sabotaged this of the American proletariat provide the .ma- International was equally the Socialism of the declaration. The official poiicy of the party terial basis out of which to develop the con- American Socialist Party. on the war was a policy of petty bourgeois cepts and acti& of revolutionary Socialism. The policy of moderate Socialism in the pacifism. The bureaucracy of the party was Our task is to encourage.the militant mass Socialist Party comprised its policy in an at- united with the bourgeois People’s Council, movements in the A. F. of L. to split the old tack upon the larger capitalists, the trl$s, which accepted a Wilson Peace and betraved unions, to break the power of unions which maintaining that all other divisions in society those who rallied to the Council in opposiiion are corrupted by Imperialism and betray the -iticluding the lesser capitalists and the mip- to the war. militant prolefariat. The A. F. of L., in its ale Tlass, the petite bourgeoisie-are material This policy necessarily developed into a dominant expression, is united with Imperi- for the Socialist struggle against Capitalism. repudiation of the revolutionary Socialist posi- alism. A bulwark of reaction,-it must be The moderate Socialism dominant in the So- tion. When events developed the test of ac- exposed and its power for evil broken. cialist Party asserted, in substance : Socialism cepting or rejecting the revolutionary implica- Our task, moreover, is to articulate aqd or- is’s struggle of all the people against the trusts tions of the declaration against the war, the ganize the mass of the unorganized industrial and big capital, making the realization of So- party bureaucracy immediately exposed its proletariat, which constitutes the basis for a c’ialism depend upon the unity of “the people,” reactionary policy, by repudiating the policy of militant Socialism. The struggle for the revo- of the workers. the small capitalists, the small the Russian and German Communists. and re- (Contiulfe$ on page 11.) IS. . THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE July 5. 1919 Th e Left Wing Manifesto lutionary industrial unionism of the proletariat becomes an indispensable phase of revolution- The concentration of industry produced the ary Socialism, on the basis of which to broaden industrial uroletariat of unskilled workers, of and deepen the action of the militant pro- tion which emphasizes the implacable character the machine ‘proletariat. This proletariat, letariat, developing reserves for the ultimate of fhe class struggle is an indispensable means massed in the basic industry, constitutes the conquest of power. of agitation. Its task is to expose through militant basis of the class strueqle against Imperialism is do&nant in the United States. political campaigns and rhe forum of parlia- Capitalism: and, deprived of skill and craft Tt controls all the factors of social action. ment! the class character of the state and the divisions. it turns naturally to mass unionism, Imperialism is uniting all non-proletarian reactionary purposes of Capitalism, to meet to an industrial unionism in accord with the social groups in a brutal State Capitalism, for Capitalism on all issues, to ra!ly the proletariat integrated industry of imperialistic Capitalism. reaction and spoliation. Against this, revo- for.the struggle against Capitalism. Under the imoact of industrial concentra- lutionary Socialism must mobi!ize the mass But parliamentarism cannot conquer the tion, the proletariat developed its own dynamic struggle of the industrial proletariat. power of the state for the pro!etariat. The tattics-mass action. Moderate Socialism is compromising, vacil- conquest of the power of the state is an ex- Mass action is the proletarian response to lating, treacherous, because the social elements tra-parliamentary act. It is accomplished, not the facts of modern industrv. and the forms it . iv depends upon-the petite bozrr