Orderly Transaction or Chaos?
By Junes Denson Sayers Orderly Transaction or Chaos? There May Be a Good Reason for Seeking Restoration of People's Buying Power—But After That! PARADOXICAL,!**, the shortened work - day...
...Let me offer here a program: Intensify the nation-wide drive for organisation of the Workers' Unemployed Leagues...
...To Capitalism is offered a temporary intension of life...
...Shortsighted, of course...
...It is therefore absolutely necessary for both the Federal Government and state governments to enforce the new arrangement upon sll uniformly...
...Engela la his reply said, "You reject, in principle, mil common action with other parties even of short duration...
...When Hoover's R.F.O...
...In other esorae, if eve met denes ewtedeya**** for (sees save* erevusajr ami pus en taeer pie* a* these was are sew out of work, a" iiiiplsaaia mill to ee«ed upon for IVes rsWe/ ate***" By Jack Altman When E gels Approved Coalition With Non-Socialist Parties Jfi^|ANY comrades have taken or take the position that coalition with a bourgeois "l^eft" party t<> gain certain rights err to maintain for the working class certain gains or to senile some immediate advantage should be opposed by Socialists as a matter of fundamental principle...
...In States a: - Nation j It is necessary ' ,r states as well as for the Federal Congress to act because Congress can legislate only in the field of interstate comaeStsa, Hotels, restaurants, local transps*> tatio essaysniss, a Iftiee sad Innumerable other employers of tabor within state limits must be coerced by individual state legislator The argument that employer could not afford such a revolutonary innovation does not hold w-ter...
...This would bring employment to all and start a boom of temporary prosperity such aa we have never seen tbe like heretofore...
...This does not signify above all that it cannot temporarily sup port other parties whea they realize messures useful to the proletariat or representing a step in advance in the direction ef economic development or of political liberty I would support anyone, who in Germany would fight effectively for the abolition of the majorats and other feudal survivals, against beaurocracy, against the protective duties, against the anti-Socialist lsws [then still In effect], against ths limitation of the right of assembly, and of the right ef trade union organisation...
...Let's see why the radically •softened work-day must be inaugurated to bring the temporary relief of another short boom period...
...But ere shall know the illusion too well...
...Roger Spills the Beans The stagger system of employment, which is being considered as a possible relief measure lor unemployment, was unwittingly presented la Its true light by Roger W. Baboon in a recent issue of Collier's...
...Criticism Is Its vital element Mow tbea ean it itself avoid criticism and try to enforce a prohibition ef discnestonT Da we demand fswedme ef speech for others only to destroy it in emown ranks...
...Ths Ufa and development of each party are generally accompanied by the development and mutual struggle ef the moderate and extremist currents...
...Bat, strange as it may seem, Mir masters and their political mckeys in legislative hall and axeeutive mansion must be forced to take the needed medicine like the bilious boy who fight* against the proffered does of castor oil...
...to Socialism, tt least in the United States, t •hereby offered a greater oppottunity for orderly progress to its goal of complete socialization of industry...
...Some of us did forget during the fat years of the '20's...
...About them Engels had this to aay, "This policy threatens to corrupt us, ssy the Anarchists and friend Morris (William Morris ths English Socialist), bat if the working clam is composed of a group of Imbeciles, of enfeebled people, If It is made up only of venal scamps, then it would be better if we get out immediately...
...ft Is my desire to shew in this article the urgent Bead far atbor eughly vocal, nation-wide driVe to persuade legislatures sad Congress that tbe root of evil in this depression cannot ha reached by patch-work at the top or in iso Med spots...
...Millions—-no, billions being skimmed off by the sleek, fat hoga at the top Soon, very soon as history measures time, the accumulation of mouldy, uncirculated money in the hands of the few, withholding its equivalent ef labor's products from purchase sad use, will bring tbe next crash...
...Everyhedy with a grain of reason admits that pur chasing power nrast ha restored to the people froaa wham adequate purchasing power has been drained •way by the accumulation of in ordinate surplus value in the hands at the few who, because of their small a ambers, cannot absorb it through purchase sad consumption of labors' products...
...TV re would Immediately be a tremendous flood ef buying by those so lang without the wherewithal to purchase...
...to exclude the extremists purely and simply only favors their development The working clam .Movement Is based an the most severe criticism ef existing society...
...They would begin after the first pay day to refill their eapteted clothes resets and replace the ragged furniture ami all sorts of knieknaeks they have gems without so long...
...Again we shall depression come...
...It willgive us another short period in which to carry more ram par U by further educaton fas Socialism and plant our flag nearer the goal, er perhaps be ready to capture the citadel itself previous to or during the neat crack-up which must surely come in a few years...
...neve- again aha...
...But mistakes in tactics under certain conditions can end up in a break with principle.' Engels then tells Trir be thinks he wss right in opposing a coalition with the Wenatre because that party tended to conciliation with Estroup, the reactionary leader of the Government "With such s party, it seem to me, the proletarian party cannot really march together without losing for s long time its own dam character as a workers' party...
...At the bottom, I see here only a question of tactics...
...We must make the vast ¦ambers of our fellow-workers, •specially the millions of unemployed sufferers, understand the Batter and then act...
...For the first time the •Btlre world is down in the gutter 9 depression...
...Let as devise batter and better methods of winning the ears and reason of many ether men aad women...
...By all means let as collaborate fen the unpleasant duty of saving capitalism—-temporarily...
...They could not afford the former shortenings ef the workday, either, bat the) adjusted their prices to the shorte day and continued to make profits, yea, far greater profits...
...But, in the meantime, let aa Socialists not forget...
...la all former crises resulting •rem accumulations of "surplus" (unpurchaseable but needed wares) there were other countries still prosperous, into which the surplus at the surfeited country could be exported at a profit...
...Up ami at 'ma, Werners' Unem aioymf Leagues, A. W. ef la anions, flerasMst tseats, and all groans ei toilers...
...Operation is seizing hold of the farmers asm urea sites alike...
...Greed for profits makes it impossible for private interests to inaugurate the revolutonary change in the labor day...
...low the picture is profoundly nfferent...
...Easy come, easy go...
...Emaciated, unarmed, daaed and ' Jnorant workers cannot but offer themselves up as pitiful victims for the slaughter-pens now...
...Profits, profits and snore profits...
...Speculation wild and fantastic I Wall Street heaving with tea million share days in the stock market...
...depression come...
...I accept, as a revolutionist any means leading to the goal, the most violent as well as whst seems to be the most peaceful...
...just long enough to skim off ninety Billion dollars for his own bank ; and then resigned...
...PARADOXICAL,!**, the shortened work - day and mark week offer much to both C»r*tdip-.ni and Socialism...
...The uniform adoption throughout the nation of the sis> hour day and five-day week would at once make possible and necessary the re-employment of most of the .unemployed...
...That is why I put it sside...
...Relief for Capitalists) started pouring sseney in at the top in generous handouts of millions to sickly tanks and railroads, ear Socialist economists told them that they mere going at the thing backwards But all that our big boys Who held the strings to the nation's money bags could see was that they must preserve their dividends er the money invested in vastly depreciated paper...
...This Is for me the absolute limit Tea will find this policy explained already in 1847 In the Communist Manifesto...
...Unloading Dead wood Unloading the deadwood into the lap ef the people was an excellent way out since the dumb, anyway, and erven if tlfey should finally wake up to the steal it would be too late...
...we applied it in 1848, in the International everywhere...
...A New Trooscrtty" When this occurs the Socialists asast net forget, though most of the pedple win forget...
...Schweitzer needed ft hi view of his suspicioas relations with the Berlin police...
...the lesson is learned sad will be heeded...
...why worry about the future T Be the mule, in the lush Spring grass, forgets the lean winter Just past snd the next sure to come...
...Technological advance makes this imperative...
...Now, the Socialist Party, aa much aa it desires the early passing of Capitalism, wishes to bring about th» change from the overstuffed, unwieldy last stage of Capitalism to a sanely controlled and directed social organization for the common good by orderly proresn of education and intelligent guidance...
...Whea ear deputies vote for a proposal formulated by another party, they must do this often...
...1 Engels condemned unequivocally the method which the Danish Party aaed to expel Trir, aad he has this to say on party democracy: la peaceful times I know such aa arbitrary met hod of proceeding only amoi g the partisans of Lasaalle, of the 'strong organization' of Schweitzer...
...Trir wrote to Engela complaining about hia treatment...
...Bahson presented the employers' viewpoint la the fine profit-making spirit of capitalistic disregard for real human life when he wrote: "Of course it Is vary easy tor understand how employers jump to linages eil ampluymeiit as a drowning man jumps tor a life preserver...
...Therefore thi« ¦JPression has not cured Itself and P" never cure Itself "naturally" Hi our p leudo-statesmea and so nOed be'ter minds have fondly •rpeeted...
...All this on the condition that the proletarian or class character of the party Is not put st stake...
...The prolet riat, like all other parties, becomes more intelligent primarily as a result of its own mistakes from which no one can save it completely...
...The Polly ef Violence We gee the folly of violence and disruption, whirl, may not only destroy much that really belongs to us in common, but which may very likely prolong our agony, even intensify it manyfold...
...A fourth of our working population is now unemployed...
...armed demonstration* are making front-page stories...
...Therefore, according to my view, you are wrong when you raise a question of principle...
...Never was there a clearer example of men wiling to sell their sou la—and eventually perhaps their lives, who knows ?—for a pot of gold...
...I am revolutionary saaagh net to reject in aa asamhrte manrendering it profitable er the least kMrmfuL" Engela as far hack as 1889 could foresee that a situation might arise which would aeieeaitats a Socialist Party supporting a bourgeois party because that party would be the "least harmful" to the interests of the proletariat Engels insists that while the workers must form a distinct class party, separate from all other parties and opposed to them, "This hardly signifies that the party csnnot utilize, for its own end, other parties at certain mo mentff...
...Engels goes on to say that the question of morality does not enter...
...To the degree that you oppose this policy, the clsse character of the movement, I ean only approve of your stand...
...This is already common action...
...Their mountains of geld are se dose before their eyes they cannot see beyond...
...and here it only accelerated the disorganization of the D*uUeh*r ArbeiterverbarH...
...This is begin rung so scare the lackeys a iitUe, but their masters at Wall and Broad Streets are both blind and deaf...
...Then when wlater comes again let capitalism pick its sbread and coffin...
...This is evident to every thinking maa and woman when we consider that such a small proportion ef «ir people have an understanding of the causes of oar wee and the Way ef permanent cure...
...In 1889 the people who objected most to this policy of playing off one bourgeois group against another were the Anarchists and cartain rigid groups of Socialists...
...In sddition to and shove the goal of handling local grievances, hold up as our central, unifying object a drumming, ever-increasing demand ¦ on legislatures and Congress for the uniform adoption of sis-hour day and five-day week laws to enforce upon all employers at owe and the same time the shortened work time...
...Let us fill our war chests as never before...
...In the light of the reaction of our members to these events it is interesting to read the following quotations from a hitherto unpub Ushed English letter by Frederick Engels, written in 1888 to Hereon Trir, a member of the Danish Socialist Party expelled because he opposed a coalition with the Danish Wenatre (left) a bourgeois party...
...Notice how Cbarley Dawes took the chairmanship of the R.F.C...
...But I am for it only where the advantage flowing directly far as, or for the historical development of tbe country along the road7of the economic and political revolution is contestable and justifies this path...
...They dumbly drive on into the maelstrom, ordering farther salary slashes and other false economies which further reduce the purchasing power of the masses...
...When in Germany our comrades felt obliged to support Burning to waul off Hitlerism, because tbe Communists refused our offer to work jointly with them, a shocked cry went up from many of our people...
...Former depressions, being only nation wide in one country at a thne, seldom even jarriag neighbor •sentries, could find a "natural" •are in time by thus eliminating P> surplus which could not be ttanght back by the always under l*»d workers at home...
...Staggered employment schemes enable us employers' to turn ear relief ewer to these already employed...
...None Is left sober ffi do the lifting...
...Result: no countries left Into which the surplus could be fibpoeed...
...the lesson is is with us to stay...
...At the present time, no Socialist workers' party would ever have the idea ef proceeding in Danish fashion towards the opposition appearing in its ranks...
...Preserve those mountains of gold by holding intact their sacred streams of rent, interest and profits, never mind the millions who suffer unuttersble mental and physical torture...
...When, finally, the German So-' cial Democratic Party was driven to support President Hindenburg for re-election as the last bulwark against Hitler, again because of the refusal on the part of the Communists to support a joint candidate, some American comrades felt that a Socialist tenet had been destroyed once and for all...
...Like Queen Antoinette and Caar Nick they are toe far away from the rabble and the feul odor of poverty to see or smell...
...Oa to Washington awt your Mats capitals wth smceaslni barrages ef demands for the six hour dsy ami the five-day wed with no jokers...
...Following the World War the financial fabric of the world became so closely interWoven that when the newly estab¦shed heart of that world, the United States, collapsed in 1929 ll carried down tbe whole world structure...
...So it will he in greater measure in thie ease...
...In such a case the proletariat and we ourselves have nothing to do on the political arena...
Vol. 15 • April 1933 • No. 14
