Reed: The Background of Bolshevism [Jan. 25, 1919] 1

The Background of Bolshevism by John Reed

Published in The Revolutionary Age [Boston], v. 1, no. 16 (Jan. 25, 1919), pg. 8.

On January 15th, in the year of Our Lord against the Espionage Act; Bill Haywood, native 1919, and the 142nd year of American Indepen- America, had such occasion; all Socialists, native- dence, two months after the end of the War, Dr. born or foreign-born, all champions of the work- Morris Zucker, American citizen, was convicted ing class in this country, of whatever origin, have on 4 counts under the Espionage Act, in the Fed- had occasion to protest against the Espionage Act, eral Court of Brooklyn. which has been used by the capitalist class, through According to The World, the speech for which the agencies of our government, to wage the class he was convicted, which was a protest against the struggle and which even now, after the ending of soldiers’ attacks on Socialist meetings, contained the War, is so used. the following treasonable sentences: Let us examine the statements of Dr. Zuc- “America is becoming today what Russia ker one by one. What is the difference between used to be in the old, old days....” the pogroms against Socialist meetings, instituted “Here in America they may tear the red flag by our money-patriots, with the aid of returning from our hands, but they only implant it more soldiers, and the pogroms instituted by similar el- firmly in our hearts....” ements in Tsarist Russia against the Jews? The sup- “While I confess, my friends, I claimed ex- pression of political meetings, the censorship of emption in America, if I were in Germany or Rus- political opinions in the press, the arbitrary ar- sia I would only be too proud to fight in the first rests, the irresponsible menaces of the police, these trench lines...” (i.e., in a Revolutionary Army). do resemble conditions in Tsarist Russia. And why “Yes, it is might that we are after....” should such a comparison be considered seditious, “Next Thanksgiving Day we will celebrated when the Allied armies are supporting in Russia the fact that the United States recognizes the red those forces which desire to restore the Tsar? flag as the flag of democracy....” “Here in America they tear the red flag from Assistant District Attorney Buchner, in de- our hands—” That is also true, and should be manding a heavy sentence, gave as his pretext a cause for self-congratulation to those who are at- desire to check the spread of Bolshevism. tempting to “check the spread of Bolshevism.” In his argument, Prosecutor Buchner is re- That “they only plant it more firmly in our hearts” ported to have said: “Native Americans never had is also inevitably true, as the authorities would occasion to protest against the Espionage Act, in- realize if they knew anything of the psychology of sofar as the right of free speech is concerned.” loyalty to symbols. That is a lie — a deliberate lie. Eugene V. But they do not. They think, when with Debs, native America, had occasion to protest curses and the threat of punishment they force an

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American to stand up when “The Star Spangled money, to save for a few years and accumulate a Banner” is played, that they have “planted it firmly little sum upon which they could not live if they in our hearts.” And they also think that when they remained in America, but upon which they can “tear the red flag from our hands,” they are “check- have a decent life when they return to their own ing the spread of Bolshevism.” No, they are spread- “backward” lands.... For some time the tide of re- ing Bolshevism. ally valuable immigration has been setting home- Are men to be imprisoned for speaking the ward — and after the war, when in every Euro- truth openly? Well, then, they will speak it pri- pean country some form of People’s Government vately, with far more effect because of that very will rule, maybe — who knows? — even Ameri- fact. can workers will want to find a country where Dr. Zucker then went on to say that he they have some voice in the government.... would rather fight in the Revolutionary Armies “Yes,” said Dr. Zucker, “it is might we are of a Socialist Republic than in the conscript armies after...” of a Capitalist state. What Socialist will not agree This is true. The workers of the United States with him, no matter in which country of the world are now confronted with brute force, the naked he lives? Many times our useless rich, our idle para- force of the capitalist class, which does not even sites who live on the labor of others — for ex- deign, itself, to obey the law. It has been proven ample, American heiresses who marry foreign that Mooney was convicted on perjured evidence,, nobles — have said that they preferred to be citi- deliberately manufactured by an official of the law zens of another country, and have expatriated who shamelessly did the will of corrupt financial themselves — and the kept press applauds.... interests — and Mooney is in prison for life. It is This country of ours used to be the refuge proven that the mine-owners of Bisbee and other for the world’s oppressed. From Germany, Aus- Arizona towns deported into the desert, without tria, Poland, Bohemia in ’48 they came; from the any warrant of law, several thousand striking min- Russia of the Tsar, from landlord-ridden Ireland; ers and their sympathizers, and even their legal from Southern Italy, groaning under the weight representatives, and attempted to starve them there of superstition and poverty; from the Asia of the — and yet these bandits are freed from prosecu- Tu rk... The influx of new blood into “free tion by officers of the government. It is proven America” reached hundreds of thousands every that the great corporations, such as the Bethle- year. And yet when the war broke out we discov- hem Steel company, who took advantage of the ered to our astonishment that lately most of these war to make huge profits out of the government, people had refused to become American citizens now cynically refuse to perform the agreement — had deliberately rejected the manifold “privi- they made with an agency of the United States leges” of American citizenship. government, the War Labor Board, concerning Why? Is it, as the National Security league treatment of their workers. It is plain to everyone alleges, because immigrants are “ignorant” of the who reads the papers that the capitalist class of advantages of American citizenship? Is it because this country is dumping on the labor market, with they do not understand our “glorious institutions”? absolute indifference to the widespread human No, it is because they have been exploited and misery which follows, hundreds of thousands of starved and clubbed and brutalized generally by workers who surrendered their defensive power the American industrial system and its agents, the at the call of “patriotism.” American police and the American courts. It is We are still beset and bedeviled by half- for this reason that foreigners come here to make official, half-private strikebreaking and spying or- Reed: The Background of Bolshevism [Jan. 25, 1919] 3 ganizations like the National Security League and What chance has a Socialist or labor leader the American Defense Society, who, now that before such a court? there is no longer any pretext for pursuing “Ger- But worse. There are, as everyone knows, man agents,” turn their attention to “checking the persons who remain on the jury panel year after spread of Bolshevism.” year — “professional jurors.” Their business is to Might is what these agencies have. Might is convict — or else they are liable to lose their chance the sole weapon by which the capitalist class pre- to earn $2 a day. This applies even to the Federal serves its hegemony — the might of economic juries in New York. In San Francisco the jury terrorism, the might of controlling the price of which convicted Tom Mooney was drawn from a living necessities, the might of police and con- list notorious for its “professional” character. stabularies, expressed by the courts of criminal law. When the official organs of justice them- It is usually the practice of Socialists and la- selves disregard the law, what is there left but bor leaders convicted under the Espionage Act to “might”? When the political ballot is cancelled by praise the fairness of the court that tried them. I the money power which corrupts or nullifies the am inclined to believe that most stories of this men we elect to represent and govern us, what is sort are apocryphal. Any Socialist knows that un- there left but to oppose it with some other kind der the dictatorship of the capitalist class in which of power? When, in this “land of the free,” men we live, the courts of law are administered in the are sent to prison of 10 and 20 years for political interests of the ruling class, and the law is inter- offenses —punishments unparalleled in the Em- preted according to those interests. pire of the Russian Tsar — when conscientious But, it will be answered, there is the jury sys- objectors are tortured more fiendishly, and mili- tem.... tary offenders broken more brutally, than ever The jury system! Whoever heard of a So- under the autocracy of the German Kaiser, what cialist knowingly drawn on a jury panel? And if are we to do but resist? When the whole ruling he were, how many times do you remember a So- class of this country, at the end of a war suppos- cialist being permitted to sit on a jury in a politi- edly waged to “make the world safe for Democ- cal case against a worker? If a juryman admits to racy,” turns with the utmost cynicism to strength- being a Socialist, he is challenged or excused “for ening its own brutal power at the expense of the cause.” This also applies to “social workers,” and workers, and all the answer to our protests is a indeed to anyone who displays either intelligence speech by Mr. Wilson that sounds like an edito- about economic questions or democratic leanings rial in The New Republic, what in God’s name are of a Jeffersonian nature, or sympathy with the we to do except abolish it? underdog. I do not believe, with Dr. Zucker, that “next Naturally, therefore, the jury is carefully Thanksgiving Day we will celebrate the fact that weeded out until all that remain are petty bour- the United States recognizes the red flag of de- geois — who think that Socialism means Free Love mocracy.” But it is certain that if the present state and a reign of thievery — and class-conscious of affairs continues, the red flag must soon begin members of the ruling class.

Edited by Tim Davenport. Ellipses in original. Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2007. • Non-commercial reproduction permitted.

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