Socialism and Middle Class Revolt

...But no political party win have either the will or the vigor to undertake such a program if it does not have a goal which goes beyond the objective of social control to that of social ownership and which does not have something of the vehemence which can only come out of class conscious political activity...

...But it is quite clear what the character of such a revolt would be, should it eventuate...

...Detraves, Socialist, had 2,806, and five other candidates some 6,000 '-•votes...

...But if a middle class party Is organised It will prevent the unambiguous conflict between toryism and radicalism from developing as rapidly as it otherwise would...

...If the League for Independent Political Action expects the Socialists to co-operate with it either in the coming election or in any other it is not thinking realistically...

...The Worker's Choice The League stops short of the Socialist principle of the social ownership of the means of production (the inevitable goal of industrial workers, once they are politically conscious) though it espouses this principle In regard to public utilities...

...They will rejoice therefore if the midwifely efforts of the League actually result In the birth of a new party...

...The strategy of the Socialist Party is clearly to move to the left rather than to the right...

...It tiight reason that the workers are no more ready for a Socialist creed than the middle classes and it would have a good deal of evidence for such a conclusion...

...The state is to be used to recapture the profits of the few and to spread them among the many...

...The final result was Peri, Communist, elected with 12,222...

...But if one takes the political history of western civilization into consideration and doea not confine the outlook to the American scene, one can not escape the conviction that any industrial class which arrives at political maturity and fully understands the logic of development in an Industrial civilization, la bound to express Itself in collect!vtst terms...

...Perl, Communist, second, with 7,030...

...But, on the other hand, wherever a Socialist led in the first round the Communists waged a bitter campaign in the second round to defeat the Socialist, and they succeeded In doing so in about 12 districts—some in Paris and others elsewhere, thus making the Capitalists a free gift of a dozen or more seats In the Chamber...

...The SocialDemocratic group voted against the bill...

...They elected 10 of their men as against 13 in the previous Parliament, and of these all but two owe their election to the fact that the Socialist candidates withdrew in their favor on the second ballot...

...Partly because the in- j dust rial workers are even more) politically inert and docile than j the disaffected middle classes and j partly because the program was conceived by intellectuals who are not in organic relation to workers movements the actual program which the 'league has presented speaks the language of a consumers' liberalism rather than that of industrial workers...

...It may be important to challenge the pretensions of the Republican and Democratic parties In the next election and It Is most certainly important to frustrate the kind of politics which was revealed In the recent sales tax, but It Is more Important to build a political party which Is ready to guide the workers la the poMUeal paths Into which they will be driven by all the necessities of the' historic situation In which they stand...

...foundations for a political revolt which would include industrial workers and farmers, which...

...Amnesty for Fascists HELSINGPORS, (L.S.I...

...For example, in a Versailles district on the first ballot De Fels, middle class capitalist, came first with 8,031...

...The inadequacy of the program could be briefly described as a too naive reliance upon the ability of the political state to equalize the injustices which an economic so* dety, based upon private property...

...It has failed to state this goal, one suspects, partly because the present members of the League are ' not certain that they believe In It and partly because they believe that the American people are not ready for It...

...Action would have real meaning and promise...

...Socialism and Middle Class Revolt The Role of the League for Independent Political Action and the Future of Socialism in the United States By Reinhold Niebuhr ria still a question whether the four year presidential program prepared by the League for Independent Political Action will become the basis for a new political revolt in the next election...

...Second, international peace and disarmament will take one or two long steps forward If Herriot—our capable and experienced ally—goes to represent France at Geneva...

...If events were.not moving as rapidly In the whole western world and If America were not becoming increasingly an Integral part of the whole structure of western Industrial society It would be conceivable that we would follow the path which European industrial nations have trod about thirty to fifty years after them...

...Since the workers are bound to understand the limitations of capitalist society much better than any middle class group It is inevitable that they should not only demand a more thorough-going reorganization for it but that they should be more urgent in pressing toward their goal...

...If it has any faith in its dogmas and any understanding of the crisis In which the whole of western civilization stands, it will regard immediate possibilities with less interest than ultimate inevitabilities...

...In spite of these suicidal tactics, however, a Left government with a Socialistic program can be formed based on a coalition of our party and Herrlot'a...

...The peace of Europe looks better today than any time since the set-back of labor in England last Fall...

...Others, however, will be justly fearful of the complications such a party may create in the future...

...A new political party which is based upon the disaffection of the middle tin ears can not fashion a new society because these classes lack the cohesion to develop a strong political power and they do not understand the crisis in our civilization well enough to demand sufficiently thoroughgoing changes in the social structure...

...Socialists and the League Since a middle class revolt is a more immediate possibility in American politics than a proletarian one (a proletarian class being an inevitability but not an actuality) it is quite natural that the League should consciously aim to exploit the disaffection of the lower and the more intellectual middle classes and that its program should be appropriated by th m. even if .this were not its intention...

...This leaves the Communists, who, It must be remembered, mostly owe their election to Socialist votes, to form a futile and ridiculous opposition in alliance with the various groups of the capitalist parties—now in the minority...

...It will force America, in other words, to pass through several decades of political development which European history has proven to be futile...

...The day is past when workers in any country will choose between liberalism and Socialism...

...There will be a difference of opinion among Socialists on the importance of doing what the League intends to do...

...As a result of the election Socialism now Is in a stronger position in France than in any other large country and Communism is pretty well down and out...

...In 'that case the liberal radicalism of the League for Independent Pontics...

...would in fact place these classes I in the spearpoint of the political rebellion...

...That means that the middle classes are not ready for It, for the League has made up its mind, more or less, that the middle classes are more ripe for political revolt than the workers...

...and increased social control is to correct the more flagrant Injustices which now result from the anarchy of individualism...

...Our own party gained some 30 seats (from 101 in the previous general elections of 1928), and the infiltration of Socialist Ideals into the lower middle class was shown by the growth of the so-called Radical-Socialist party led by Herriot from 122 seats in the last legislature to 162 in the present...

...Its political ideal envisages an economic •octetv which remains essentially unchanged but which is' saved from the worst abuses of the present order by the intervention of the political state...

...Such a political movement can not expect, however, to gain the support of a political party which is consciously aiming at the organization of the industrial workers...

...A middle class paradise (such as America has been) will not disintegrate without an expression of the desirw for emancipation of the lower middle classes from the political power of the more potent commercial and industrial groups...

...It would be a middle class revolt...

...The character of the revolt would be determined partly by the temper of the political credo which the League has presented and partly by inexorable factors in the American political situation...

...Economic, power is the significant power of modern so* ciety and as long as it remains intact it will bend political agencies to its own uses...

...They can only choose between Socialism and Communism...

...On the second ballot the Socialist withdrew urging his supporters to clinch the defeat of the capitalist candidate, De Fels, by concentrating all working class votes on Peri, the Communist...

...It must think not of the next election but of the future...

...The Communist vote was heavily cut...

...Very beneficial results can be expected from the new government The lot of the growing hundreds of thousands of unemployed will be improved first by emergency measures, and we trust eventually by a long-range constructive program of public works, and aid to farmers...

...The League Intended to lay the...

...In other words it makes the means, which parliamentary Socialists of Europe have used to approach their ultimate goal of social ownership, into a political program without stating the goal in unequivocal terms...

...It would give an opportunity for those portions of the middle classes who have the social intelligence to understand or who have suffered sufficiently to realize that their economic interests are in conflict with the Interests of the overlords who control the Democratic and Republican parties...

...The Socialist Victory in France New Government Will Swing to the Left ' By Herman Kobbe THE legislative elections in Prance were a notable victory for militant Socialism...

...There will be some who will regard any break in the crust of American conservatism as a good thing...

...The Finnish Parliament has paased an Act pardoning the majority of those who took part in the Fascist coup d'etat at the beginning of the year...

...Thus in most of the districts won by the Communists...

...De Fels, Capitalist, 11,277, and two minor candidates trailing...

...Middle classes may hold on to semi-individualistic creeds but no workers' group will do so...

...and they will choose Socialism only if it can prove that it can take solid steps in the direction of the goal of social ownership, which proletarian groups are bound to set as their political objective...

...Economics and Poll Mrs If a strong labor party is organized, or if the Socialist Party expands to become the instrument of an awakened labor world it may possibly draw a considerable portion of the middle classes into its orbit...

...Bat If one studies the history of western society and sees bow the whole of it is bound together and how the logic which Is working Itself oat In It Is ceo tain to affect even so politically an Immature nation as A merles and telescope Ms political progress, one Is inclined to put less weight upon political programs which have the immediate prejudices and convictions of the American people In mind...

...Liberalism, even if it expresses itself in a kind of consumers radicalism and accepts a creed of social control, gives modern society no ultimate political program, partly because the middle classes who elaborate such a political creed have no permanent place In the structure of modern industrial society and partly because the program is itself inadequate for the needs of an industrial society...

...The Act does not apply to the ringleaders, the agitators and the financiers jof the coup d'etat, amounting in all to from 100 to 300 persons, but liberates some 5,000 Others...

...creates...

...It is conceivable, of course, that a parliamentary Socialism will approach the goal of social ownership by establishing progressive degrees of social control and by equalizing income and wealth through stiff income and inheritance taxes, the proceeds of which are used for social services...