The Proposed Socialist National Platform
The Proposed Socialist National Platform Draft Submitted to Milwaukee Convention by the Special Agenda Committee T BS Socialist Party demands a job and living incomefor every man and woman...
...The present acute depression reflects this growing lack Of balance and is bringing us nearer and nearer to the •ad of the capitalist economic order...
...the transfer of this department of the Post Office to a government-owned banking corporation...
...3. The cancellation of war debtsdue from the Allied governmentsas part of a program for wipingout war debts and reparations, oncondition that such cancellation does not release money for armaments, but promotes disarmament.4...
...The regular press, almost without exception, Is united to confuse the people about Socialism...
...If the community of work-era owned the industries, it is inconceivable that they would permit themselves to starve in the midst of abundance...
...our public utilities dealing with light and power, transportation and communication...
...During the years 1922-1929, while net corporate Income Increased at the rate f 7 per cent a year, average real earnings of wage workers increased at about 2 per cent Even In those "prosperous" years, from a million and a half to three million and a half were out of work...
...Soldiers, sailorsand workers unemployed by reason of disarmament, to be absorbed, where desired, In a program of public works to be financed In part by the savings due to disarmament...
...The operation of these industries by boards of control in which the wage-earner, the consumer and the technician are adequately represented...
...Banking 1. The socialization of our credit and currency system, and the establishment of a unified banking system, beginning with the complete governmental acquisition of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks through the substitution of government subscribed stock for the capital stock held by member banks...
...i This is the least the workers have a right to expect a country with natural resources, machinery andtrained labor sufficient to provide a secure and comfortable life for all Today, in every city of the United States, jobless men sad women by the thousands are fighting the grim battleagainst want and starvation, while factories stand Idlesad food rots on the ground...
...to establish and take over enterprises in manufacture, commerce, transportation, banking, public utilities and other business and industries, to be owned and operated by the Government of the United States or agencies thereof for the benefit of the people, and generally for the social and economic welfare of the workers of the United States...
...Only when the principal Industries of the country are owned by the people and operated by appropriate public agencies for the use and benefit of the whole population rather than for the enrichment of the privileged few, will it be possible to organize ogi Industrial life on the buu of planned and steady operation without periodic breakdowns and disastrous crises...
...The few obtain vast fortunes...
...The Republican party has proved utterly incapable of coping with the devastating business depression which is on us...
...Big business is still engaged In a war against any attempt of labor to organize, and in many parts of the country it is denying labor Its most elementary civil rights...
...The Socialist party is today the one democratic party of the workers whose program would remove the causes of class struggles and class antagonisms inherent in the capitalist system...
...Renewing his subscription, Robert Teller writes, "It's too bad that there are not more papers like The New Leader...
...The capitalist order means not only Increased insecurity, but increased concentration of economic power in the hands erf financial and industrial magnates...
...to limit the work time and establish minimum compensation of wage earners...
...Section %. The power of the several states to enact social welfare legislation ia^tjtStonpaired by this Article, but no such legislation ouafi supersede, abridge or conflict with any Act of Congress under this Article, and such states and all local political subdivisions of the same shall have the power to establish and take over enterprises in manufacture, commerce, transportation, banking, public utilities and other business conducted within the respective territories and not established or taken over by the Government of the United States, to be owned and operated by the governments of said states or local political subdivisions of the same for the benefit of the people...
...The complete independence of the Philippines, and the negotiation of treaties with other nations safeguarding the sovereignty of these Islands...
...The repudiation of the clauseIn our post-war sole guilt for the World War...
...As the industrial system advances, the difference Jpe-tween the capacity to produce and the power of theasses to buy becomes greater...
...The workers are compelled to give a large part of the product of their labor to the few...
...While boasting of their efforts in behalf of peace, the Republican and Democratic parties, backed by their capitalistic masters, have been fostering those policies of nationalism, militarism and imperialism which, unchecked, can lead to but one end— another world conflagration...
...It proposes to transform the principal industries of the country from private ownership and autocratic management to social ownership and democratic control...
...our public utilities dealing with light and power, transportation and communication...
...Temporary recovery might ward off the final collapse...
...The withdrawal of United States military and naval forcea from China...
...It was drawn up by the convert0m agenda committee, consisting of Morris Hillquit, flgrry If...
...Big business is still engaged In a war against any attempt of labor to organize, and in many parts of the country it is denying labor Its most elementary civil rights...
...Social Ownership 1. The establishment of National Planning Boards to coordinate Industry and to assist in the maximum utilization of our economic and financial resources for the common good...
...The few put aside large sums in new Industry to turn out more goods which the many are unable to buy...
...The Democratic party, If it had been in power, Would have been equally powerless to preserve or restore prosperity to the country...
...The American people, however, preferred to cast theirvotes for the two old parties, equally controlled by thegreat industrialists and financiers...
...Laidier and fames Oneal, and appointed by tkt national executive committee of the party...
...With this aim in view, the Socialist party enters the present campaign with the following program: Workers' Right Amendment The Constitution of the United States shall be amended by adding thereto Article XX reading as follows: Section 1. The Congress shall have power to establish uniform laws throughout the United States to regulate, limit and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age...
...Committed to this constructive program the Socialist Party calls upon the nation's workers and upon all fair minded and progressive citizens to unite with it in a mighty movement against the present drift Into social disaster and in behalf of sanity, justice, peace and freedom...
...The continued imprisonment of Mooney and Billings, in spite of the accumulated indisputable proof of their innocence, is indicative of this disregard of essential justice for the workers...
...2. The extension of the service of the Postal Savings banks to cover all departments of the banking business and...
...Section %. The power of the several states to enact social welfare legislation ia^tjtStonpaired by this Article, but no such legislation ouafi supersede, abridge or conflict with any Act of Congress under this Article, and such states and all local political subdivisions of the same shall have the power to establish and take over enterprises in manufacture, commerce, transportation, banking, public utilities and other business conducted within the respective territories and not established or taken over by the Government of the United States, to be owned and operated by the governments of said states or local political subdivisions of the same for the benefit of the people...
...Men and women are discharged...
...It is appalling tothink what this will mean in the months ahead In home frictions, in hunger, in disease, in increased crime andsuicide, in starvation and utter demoralization of body,Bind and spirit Nor is the situation essentially different among ourfarm population...
...The Immediate withdrawal of military forces from Haiti and Nicaragua 9. The refusal to use American military forces for the collection of debts In foreign countries or to permit American financial or military control of foreign countries, with special reference to Latin America...
...The middle classes are being forced into ever greater 'dependence upon organized capital, while the life savings of small Investors are being dally confiscated by the nation's racketeers of speculation There is a sharp conflict of interest between the capitalist classes and the working masses and there Is perpetual warfare, open or covert, between them...
...to establish and take over enterprises in manufacture, commerce, transportation, banking, public utilities and other business and industries, to be owned and operated by the Government of the United States or agencies thereof for the benefit of the people, and generally for the social and economic welfare of the workers of the United States...
...s 2. The socialization of our mines, forests, oil and power resources...
...to provide for the relief of aged, invalidated, sick and unemployed wage earners and employees In the form of periodical grants, pensions, benefits, compensation or indemnities from the public treasury, from contributions of employers, wage earners and employees, or from one or more of such sources...
...2. The extension of the service of the Postal Savings banks to cover all departments of the banking business and...
...s 2. The socialization of our mines, forests, oil and power resources...
...The capitalist order means not only Increased insecurity, but increased concentration of economic power in the hands erf financial and industrial magnates...
...8. The abandonment of ©very degree of military intervention by the United States in the affairs of other countries...
...But the economic and social forces that hasten the end of capitalism and prepare the foundations of a new economic order will continue irrespective of temporary palliatives...
...The Socialist party is today the one democratic party of the workers whose program would remove the causes of class struggles and class antagonisms inherent in the capitalist system...
...our land and other key sources of economic power...
...The abandonment of our special interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, and the reorganization of the Pan-American Congress Into a Congress of equals dedicated to the advancement of economic well-being and cultural advantages in all the countries of the Western Hemisphere...
...In 1929, 511 of them, securing a million dollars Or more a year, obtained a total Income equal to that Of a million or more of the average workers in thecountry...
...The nation is thrown into a panic...
...Under capitalism, the few own our industries...
...7. The enactment and enforcement of drastic anti-lynching laws International Relations 1. The reduction of armaments, leading to the goal of total disarmament by International agreement, If possible, but, if that Isnot possible, by setting an example ourselves...
...Even this dole is nolonger available to Increasing thousands, as private andpublic relief funds near exhaustion...
...Capitalism not only spells widespread economic disaster and class strife, but carries with it an ever present threat of international war...
...Efght to ten million wage-tamers and salary workers are hunting In vain forJobs, while other millions are only partly employed...
...long predicted, la the last campaign it warned the people of the increasing Insecurity in American life and urged a program of action which, if applied, would have saved millions from their present tragic plight...
...Banking 1. The socialization of our credit and currency system, and the establishment of a unified banking system, beginning with the complete governmental acquisition of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks through the substitution of government subscribed stock for the capital stock held by member banks...
...These millions are facing the fourth winter of unemployment, with their scant savings exhausted or sweptaway in bank failures or in depreciated securities...
...The operation of these industries by boards of control in which the wage-earner, the consumer and the technician are adequately represented...
...Tens of thousands of farmers continueto be driven from their homes through farm foreclosuressad tax sales while other thousands are virtually penniless We are facing a breakdown of the capitalist system.This breakdown the Socialist Party ha...
...From the unemployment, the economic collapse, tho wastes and the wars of our present capitalistic order, only the united efforts of workers and farmers, organized in unions and cooperatives and, above all, in a political party of their own, can save the nation...
...Hoover taken office, than business began to show signs of drastic decline...
...2. The recognition of SovietRussia and the encouragement oftrade and industrial relations withthat country...
...The abolition of R. O. T. C. units and of military training camps 14...
...The many in the factories, mines, shops, offices and fields obtain but a scanty income and are able to buy backonly a part of the goods that can be produced in such abundance by our mass industries...
...This draft is to be submitted for the consideration of the jeUgates to the national convention of the party which pill convene in Milwaukee next Saturday, May 21st with problems of raw material, investments, money, credit and tariff from a world, rather than a national viewpoint...
...Factories close...
...The Proposed Socialist National Platform Draft Submitted to Milwaukee Convention by the Special Agenda Committee T BS Socialist Party demands a job and living incomefor every man and woman willing to work...
...Themany do the work...
...to provide for the relief of aged, invalidated, sick and unemployed wage earners and employees In the form of periodical grants, pensions, benefits, compensation or indemnities from the public treasury, from contributions of employers, wage earners and employees, or from one or more of such sources...
...But hardly had Mr...
...It proposes to transform the principal industries of the country from private ownership and autocratic management to social ownership and democratic control...
...Unemployment and Labor Legislation 1. A Federal appropriation of $5,000,000,000 for public works and roads,, reforestation, alum , clearance and legalequality for the Negro...
...Social Ownership 1. The establishment of National Planning Boards to coordinate Industry and to assist in the maximum utilization of our economic and financial resources for the common good...
...to limit the work time and establish minimum compensation of wage earners...
...Manyof them are compelled to depend upon the pitiably inadequate dole handed out on the breadlines and at home asthe one alternative to starvation...
...i, Under such a socialistic order, every Increase in the power of the workers to produce would immediately rein shorter hours and higher income rather than ingreater insecurity and want...
...With this aim in view, the Socialist party enters the present campaign with the following program: Workers' Right Amendment The Constitution of the United States shall be amended by adding thereto Article XX reading as follows: Section 1. The Congress shall have power to establish uniform laws throughout the United States to regulate, limit and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age...
...our land and other key sources of economic power...
...Capitalism not only spells widespread economic disaster and class strife, but carries with it an ever present threat of international war...
...The entrance of the UnitedStates Into the World Court and the adherence of the UnitedStates to the Optional Clause providing for affirmative Jurisdiction...
...Unemployment and Labor Legislation 1. A Federal appropriation of $5,000,000,000 for public works and roads,, reforestation, alum , clearance and greater insecurity and want...
...5. The entrance of the UnitedStates Into the League of Nations under conditions which will malicIt a more effective Instrument forworld peace...
...From the unemployment, the economic collapse, tho wastes and the wars of our present capitalistic order, only the united efforts of workers and farmers, organized in unions and cooperatives and, above all, in a political party of their own, can save the nation...
...The middle classes are being forced into ever greater 'dependence upon organized capital, while the life savings of small Investors are being dally confiscated by the nation's racketeers of speculation There is a sharp conflict of interest between the capitalist classes and the working masses and there Is perpetual warfare, open or covert, between them...
...the transfer of this department of the Post Office to a government-owned banking corporation...
...Prohibition on the sales of munitions to foreign powers...
...While boasting of their efforts in behalf of peace, the Republican and Democratic parties, backed by their capitalistic masters, have been fostering those policies of nationalism, militarism and imperialism which, unchecked, can lead to but one end— another world conflagration...
...If the community of work-era owned the industries, it is inconceivable that they would permit themselves to starve in the midst of abundance...
...the recognition in each industry of the principle of collective bargaining...
...Neither the Republican nor theDemocratic party has supported a single measure toprovide work on any considerable scale...
...Then came theWall Street crash, followed by futile conferences of great business leaders, by daily prophecies of returning pros-parity, by faith cures and Incantations, by the appointment and the discharge of Presidential committees, by doles to capital, wage and salary cuts, high tariffs and Other measures calculated to reduce the power of the masses here and abroad to buy goods, thus intensifying industrial stagnation...
...Goods pile up...
...The abolition of conscription...
...the recognition in each industry of the principle of collective bargaining...
...The continued imprisonment of Mooney and Billings, in spite of the accumulated indisputable proof of their innocence, is indicative of this disregard of essential justice for the workers...
...For both parties support and are in turn supported by the capitalist system of wealth production, and recurring business depressions and industrial crises are inseparable from that system...
...7. The creation of international economic organizations to deal WE* is a tentative drift of the 1932 platform of Socialist Party...
...They elected Mr.Hoover, the typical capitalist "engineer," to stimulateand continue economic prosperity...
Vol. 13 • May 1932 • No. 20
