At the Grave of An Ex-Socialist in France
Baskin, Joseph
At the Grave of An Ex-Socialist in France By Joseph Baskin ARISTTOE BRIAND, elevei tunes Premier of France sad apostle of peace, la dead. Thi entire capitalist press is full u eulogies....
...Of direct Interest to the American party Is the plan of the SAPD to affiliate not with the Third International but with the Second, hoping by an alliance with likeminded groups from other countiles such as the I LP of England to effect a left wing opposition within the Second International...
...Two Leaders Dropped When in spite of reprimands and threats activity of the opposition did not cease the two ringleaders, Seydewltz and Rosenfeld, were dropped from 'party membership...
...The SAPD claims to have about 50,000 paid up members...
...On the trade union front It attacks the slogan adopted several years ago by the Socialist trade unons of Industrial Democracy, on the grounds that it is a smoke screen for class collaboration and arbitration by which the worker Inevitably loses...
...Illinois Miners Demand More Work, Better Pay CHICAGO — (FP) — The wage scale committee of the Illinois District, United Mine Workers of America, started negotiations with the coal operators at the Hotel Majestic In Chicago with demands for more employment and a higher wage scale...
...In some smaller towns the SAPD has succeeded In bringing together Communist, Socialist and Socialist-Labor groups in an organized anil Fascist front...
...Pressure for Troops In Ohio Strike Zone ATHENS, Ohio...
...FP) — Coal operators of the Hocking valley, who Bald they would make no effort to reopen their mines when they were struck several weeks ago, are now urging the handful of men who stayed on the job to demand militia protection...
...who once savet France from a great catastrophe namely, a strike of railroad work' era which nearly turned Into t real revolution...
...Etlenne...
...camp, they proceed with extreme ferocity against the class the) have hut recently upheld sc staunchly...
...In other words, be forced the very same workers to act as 'scabs against their families and comrades...
...the Communists Increased their delegation from 4 to 10...
...and against them the National Socialists jumped from 1 to 27...
...The Issues Raised The SAPD believes that no consistent Marxist party can continue to tolerate Bruening nor even the present "republic" It la then i revolutionary in purpose In contrast to the state-supporting SPD...
...Its success In this program depends on Its ability to capture a following from the SPD strong enough to Influence SPD policy so that It will come round further to the left of Its present position...
...It Is the ¦me apace which in England la purpled by the Independent LaMr Party...
...As Senator, Clemenceau played the part of a horrendous revolutionist and anarchist...
...In sharp contrast to the SPD, the SAPD assumes a position of friendly interest and support toward Russia, though at the same time sharply drawing the line between Itself and the German Communists, whose tactics of organizing dual trade unions they particularly oppose...
...If there is a struggle between the workers and the capitalists, and you are called out, it behooves you to know in Death of Brjand Recalls His Betrayal oi Socialism in France which direction to shoot...
...Even the more conservative elements shrug their shoulders and wonder at the impudence of those who but a short time before were the strongest revolutionary champions of the working Class...
...Although it Is bounded—one light almost say squeezed-^on oth sides by the far superior length of both Communists and oclaliats, place has been made >r It by the Socialists themselves...
...Everybody lauds his re markable work in the interests o; world peace...
...The Party Executive took this appeal as a challenge to the majority and a threat of organization within the party against Its power and program...
...All members of Lie executive and all officers of local groups are to be subject to recall at any time by the membership...
...It seems doubtful that an agreement will be reached by then...
...The first party congress met on October 4th In Berlin and drew up Its program...
...They are at best a most hopeful sign for the party's future...
...Within the past ten years Socialists and Communists have moved even further apart than In the United States, and their real difference in alms and tactics has been widened by persistent agitation aimed at one another rather than at their common enemy...
...When this Is compared to the 1,000,000 or more SPD members or the 350,000 Communists it does not seem very Important...
...And it was only when Germany was utterly crushed and helpless, and there was no longer any cause to fear her, that Briand waxer^ magnanimous and began to indulge in the luxury of talking about peace, about a brotherhood of nations, about a United States of Europe...
...Shortly thereafter nine of the Socialist Reichstag m e m b e rs broke over party discipline and voted against the remaining 130 of their colleagues to refuse additional subventions for cruisers...
...When the war was over and Germany lay prostrate and bleeding, wholly unable to bear the heavy burdens Imposed upon her by the victorious Allies, Briand was the first to suggest the invasion of troops remained in Germany, treating the peaceful native population In the ' cavalier manner characteristic of invaders...
...Within the party Itself it would establish a "genuine democracy," permitting only half of the executive council to be members of the Reichstag, and electing the others on the basis of their activity in local groups...
...Of course, de mortuis nl met boni, especially If • the de ceased is one who beginning as t rolutlonary Socialist became one the strongest defenders of the capitalist system...
...Five thousand miners are on strike and about 75 are on the job...
...The SAPD thus puts itself in the position of wishing to bridge a gap between two groups both of which It maintains are impossible...
...Briand betrayed Socialism and embarked upon the same road that Millerand, another renegade Socialist, had previously traveled...
...Japan and China had also entered into a solemn treaty...
...It is characteristic of all th< more militant revolutionists, onct they pole-vault into the enemy...
...But we know the meaning of such treaties...
...Briand, is given a great deal of credit for the pacts and treaties he concluded with Italy and other countries...
...In their public meetings the SAPD has already become a forum through which Communists and Socialists could meet...
...Particularly is it doubtful when the chief tactic the SAPD uses for organization is to discredit the other two parties in order to establish Its own right to exist ss a separate entity...
...For .more than Jlvem- now they have been In the d pleasant position of supporting "tolerating" is the way they put ) the bourgeois Bruening dlctairship which oppresses the unemloyed and the workers with debased unemployment benefits id Increased taxes while it subsldizes industry and large-scale agriculture...
...The mines are near Dover and New Philadelphia...
...That he was a brilliant orator cannot be denied, and this, indeed, is his sole claim to eminence...
...It alms to organize workers towards a new 'evolution which will overthrow the present state, not stop with the re-achlevement of democracy but push on to the establishment of a workers' state...
...A direct connection between the two was established when the old Ledebour "Socialist League" came over to the new party...
...fToday this road is pursued by the latest betrayer of the working class in England, Ramsay MacDonald...
...A War-Time Jingo When the World War came, Briand was one of the bitter-enders sworn to wreak vengeance upon Germany...
...When, however, the majority of the Socialist Reichstag delegation overruled what these nine felt to be the mandate of the Congress In regard to further toleration of the Bruening dictatorship in lowering wages and Increasing taxes, the insurgents appealed through the columns of The Class Struggle for Support within the party...
...All three have trodden the well-beaten path of Judas...
...The Socialist Labor Party was able to gain one seat (8,170) votes In the provincial parliament...
...Whole districts —Saxony, Thuringia, the Lower Rhine—joined up then and brought their newspapers with them as a result of decisions arrived at by majorities of aotual Social-Democratic members...
...As fate willed it, however, Briand also became a Minister of State, and just then the strike of French railroad workers broke out...
...But the influence and importance of the SAPD Is nowhere near so great as the Independents enjoyed when they first set up shop...
...We know what covenants amount to nowadays among capitalist nations...
...The Development of a "Left" Socialist Fact ion in Germany Toleration of Bruening Government Is Principal Criticism of Newly-Formed Socialist Labor Party By Alice Hanson ¦BTtOLLOWING six months of JL threatened expulsion for its Readers, a group calling itself the Socialist Labor Party of Germany fsAPD) split off on October 4th from the Social-Democratic Party j[SPD) and set up its independent political existence...
...It was so with Clemenbeau...
...The Socialists who lost nine seats still held 15...
...Whether a new party setting Itself up between them can bridge this gap and cement the two forces even In a defensive organization in time to present a united front against Hitter's Fascists Is very doubtful...
...but, he never displayed real statesmanship, and was far from being even an Asquith, a Lloyd George, or a Clemenceau...
...Student groups have gone over In large numbers as well...
...Real trouble has been Imminent for well over a year and first found expression in the expulsion of groups of Young Socialists in November of 1930 and the threatened withdrawal of official sanction from publications which represented the radical Marxist viewpoint held by the Young Socialists, such magazines as the Klasscnkampf (The Class Struggle), and the Fackel (The • Torch...
...Four of their colleagues followed them In forming the new party...
...Although reckoned absolutely the SAPD made remarkable progress in its first six weeks of life, relatively however, It is a party weak almost to the point of insignificance, and It has set Itself a task within the left wing of parliament which In view of the Fascist sudden rise to power looks almost hopeless...
...In a proclamation addressed to the French army, he had said: "You, soldiers, are only workers upon whom the Government has forced swords and guns...
...At once his slogan became: "Let all railroad workers be called to the colors and ordered to run the trains...
...In one of his speeches in the French Senate, he declared, apropos of the state and government, that the story of government was the Story of blood and iron and constituted one long chain of cruelty and oppression...
...This group of six Reichstag members and their followers among the left-wing Socialists throughout Germany organized a party between the Socialist and Communist parties In spite of official Social-Democratic Insistence mat there is no "sociological loom" there...
...It was these nine who in the Party Congress at Leipzig in May were first outvoted by the remainder of the convention and then reprimanded for their rebellious stand within the Reichstag and within the party generally...
...Briand, to be sure, was a pleasant man...
...It is however a hopeful sign if within three months of life the party has been able to muster even such a following...
...Briand had been one of the most extreme revolutionists...
...The new party has been in the making almost ever since the Independents reunited with the Majority in 1922 and gave the SPD a militant left wing...
...The one opportunity the party has had to test its strength cams six weeks after its organization, in the Hesse elections In November...
...In a sense the Socialist Labor Party Is a child of the earlier Independent Socialist Party which split off in 1916 from the majority Socialists In opposition to Socialist support of the prosecution of the war...
...Twentyseven of 40 operators In the Tuscarawas county district have signed up with the union...
...Ktead of providing within their wn ranks for radically minded jyembers they have moved further ¦Ijd further right...
...everybody sings hli praises...
...To Justify Its position between the other two workers' parties, the Socialists and the Communists, the SAPD wishes to be an Instrument for building a united front on a Marxist basis for all three parties as a defense against on-coming Fascism...
...yet when Japan saw an opportunity to grab Manchuria and to drive the Chinese out of Shanghai, she did so despite the peace machinery of the League of Nations, which sits in Geneva and does nothing but talk...
...Although the officials of the Breslau district came over to the SAPD the district itself did not, nor has any followed...
...As Clemenceau once put it so aptly, "Briand knows nothing and understands everything...
...But when he entered the cabinet In 1906 as Minister of the Interior, his first official order was for the shooting down of the striking miners of St...
...Of his former views there remained not a trace...
...At the same time he bent every effort to obtain a guarantee from England that would leave France secure in her conquests, so that if Germany ever got a breathingspell and grew stronger, she might under no circumstances be able to regain anything from) France...
...The present contract expires March 31...
...The greatest Inroads made In the old party this time are In the ranks of the youth groups where it Is safe to believe that perhaps even a majority have followed the Insurgents out of the SPD...
...Several Socialist editors left the SPD for the SAPD but they did not bring their papers with them...
...9 Break Discipline This time, the insurgents could report that delegates from 25 of the 32 voting districts in Germany had been sent, to convention, but no mention was made pf the strength which lay behind them...
...It Is room, however, imlch has been occupied before by the Independent Socialists and Much the new party already Bares with several Communist ¦jlt-offs, chief among them the ¦mmunlst Opposition...
...Its strength lies undoubtedly in the number of youth groups which have swung to its support, but youth groups often represent little voting power and little stable political strength in any case...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 12
