Socialism Can Mean Nothing Unless it Is Also International
Feigenbaum, William M.
By William M. Feigenbaum Socialism Can Mean Nothing Unless it Is Also International i ^ -— On May Day Wa Re-ciedkate Ourselves to Our Movement, the Only Hope of Humanity—And It...
...in last week's issue of this paper we carried ah exclusive story of what the Coring "brand of "Socialism" means, and this week we have another...
...To William Morris the besetting crime of Capitalism was its ugliness and the Socialism that be dreamed of and to which he gave his whole soul was the reign of beauty...
...Isn't that optimism...
...I am certain that Hitlerism cannot prevent the eventual return of Mnrxism," Bill replied...
...either an attempt will be made to take Danzig and the Corridor back into Germany—and that will almost certainly mean war—or else Hitler will have to eat his words...
...BUI asked...
...Why the savagery against liberty and democracy...
...One cannot help but think of greening trees, of soft velvet meadows, of gentle breezes, of human beings dancing in happy abandon about the Maypole, of men and women emancipated from ugliness...
...And the answer is here: Why the anti-Semitism...
...From Flowers to Skunk Cabbage 1THINK that the flowers that go to Hitler today may be skunk cabbage within a year...
...quaintnem tj1 from another) William M« 24, 1834, in ' A wonder-ekl the age" of 8; a knight of I before he wai | before he mil associated him spirits ia I movement thati like Burne-Jos] Rossettis tmosj He wrote pel and a digniM stretch befon Earthly Part*, himself as "At empty day...
...look's like an asylum for imbeciles, all right" said Bill, *%st did yon ever hear of lunatics solving any important problemi...
...If just as well," Bill replied...
...William K. Bohn, Educational Director of the Rand School and frequent contributor to The New Leader, will be the speaker of The New Leader period of Station WEVD, Friday, May 5th...
...whole world...
...It cannot be avoided," BUI replied, "and the ruling classes of Germany have not been able to avoid it Marxism emerged In Germany in the late sixties...
...No matter what the dictatorship may be in any country, it will permit only those demonstrations that it favors and those who attempt anything else will find that the boosegow yawns for them...
...the treaty ia to be torn up and the pieces blown into the face of France...
...But the nationalism is real enough...
...So this whole nation paying tribute to the ruling nut in Germany can only be understood by going behind the news," said Bill...
...I was looking it up the other day aad here is what he said: 'It is in no sense a conscription of the unwilling...
...For over a decade that organi zation has been carrying on a wile and turbulent propaganda...
...And he waged that war in his art, his poetry and in his Socialism...
...Even as a young child, living with his wealthy parents in Epping Wood, he had fashioned for himself a toy suit of tin armor the better to capture the spirit bf the brave days of chivalry...
...How would you like to receive several cages of parrots on your birthday...
...It's just possible that the animals and birds bad S subtle meaning...
...fAY DAY is not only Labor D*y, but it is International Labor , Day...
...Well, there's the news," said Joe, "and you can't go back of that" "But that la just what we should do, go back of the news," said Bill...
...Neither optimism nor pessimism influences my judgment It Is knowledge of the economic laws of capitalist society that determines my point of view...
...What's oa your ajind...
...You're a hopeless optimist," said Joe...
...it was supposed to indicate that the radical, the revolutionary aims professed by the party in its progaganda stage are still upheld...
...Today it can put its plans into effect The other (Jay Captain Goring the Nazi closest to Hitler, made i speech in which he said, "We art not only nationalists...
...In the end, those forces will dictate to him...
...Austria may be next >k at the asylum Napoleon that rules Germany aad his taeniae pal, Goebbels...
...Or fcr Uruguay or Andorra alone...
...You said a mouthful," Joe replied...
...In a Brer Hall Today a new movement holds thi center of the stage, something thai calls itself National Socialism...
...This is a good time to fix in ou minds the fearful danger of i strictly national labor movemen not only to the workers but to th...
...Si: men sat around a table in a Municl beer hall and moaned about thii and that, as men have always dorx and probably will always do...
...It was exiled by Bismarck In the late seventies...
...m ourselves wit this First of our forces to We must d< for the millios our country ¦ public works I out procrastim must demsw passage of th* hi'.' by Congrl upon quick ' and state on*1 laws...
...You've spoiled my appetite for that pail of suds," said Joe...
...But he did understand the ugliness of industrialism, and ho revolted against it William Morris was one of the greatest men ever to serve the cause of Socialism...
...If he had never joined the movement he would be remembered for many notable and noble achievements...
...Dictating to the Dictators "fj°> economics," Bill replied...
...It will again return to Germany...
...Today its sway is—for the moment, at least—undisputed...
...Otherwise you might think you were a Hitler," and they parted at the corner...
...he hated ugliness with all his heart...
...19^\% QNE cannot but think of springtime and May Day when one thinks of William Morris...
...Today it rules Germany...
...It returned to Germany in 1890...
...Can they succeed...
...But why International Labor Day...
...not the feudal England of brutal and savage oppression, but the England of legend and tradition, the England that came to its fullest flower in the works of Chaucer and of Shakespeare...
...It was again exiled last March...
...Remember his pro elamation of the Selective Draft Act...
...It is a beautiful sentiment U call for the unity of the worsen of the world...
...hence the insistence upon the Socialism of that party— or at least in the party name...
...The forces of wildest reaction, bent upon destroying all and everything that is dea rand valuable to the organized workers, have grown immensely during the past year...
...A nut may dictate to hu* ' man beings for a time, but he cannot dictate to the i giant economic forces of capitalistic society...
...The old, wicked balance-ofpower diplomacy is back with us again because the anti-Semite Rosenberg wants to be a great diplomat and because Goring wanted to fly to Rome...
...Madhouse "Socialism" No sane person believes a word of what Goring said...
...Not on your life," Joe replied with some heat...
...ft idle, although were literary « a gifted archite he was genuine...
...Joe Would Drown Hit Sorrow Over Hitler, But B,li Thinks Nazi Chief Will Receive Skunk Cabbage Soon By Autolycus 1WANT to forget Let's go and get a pail of suds," said Joe as he and Bill left the anti Fascist demonstration "Down in the mouth again," said BUI...
...Fascism tItaly and Fascism in Germany...
...it is, rather, selection from a nation which has volunteered in mass.' Yon didn't want to go to the front but Wilson said that yon had volunteered with the mass aad you went...
...Last week the whole population of fermany celebrated the birthday of Hitler who was ranked frith Frederick the Great, Bismarck, Henry the Lion and garbarossa...
...Is it, in fact, possible to havi a Socialism and a labor movemen for one country alone as oppose* to other countries...
...Even the German Salvation Army seat Hitler sled's blessing...
...His loaf la Hons and hi the Sagas andi lied, transitu*] epics and of 1 Hail, Fin W By David Dnbinsky President, International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union MAY FIRST, 1933, finds the working class movement in practically every country in the grip of a life-and-death struggle...
...that the world is our conn try and to do good is onr religion that we believe in Internationa solidarity...
...Well, that would keep sac guessing," said Joe somewhat asjasled "And this 'whole nation' business of which you talk," said BBI1L "Ever bear of Weodrow Wilson...
...But for the sake of argument let us assume that what G6ring says is true, that Nazi Germany does imply a certain form of revolutionary Socialism...
...So you think the whole nation is back of Hitler," said Bill...
...The only bright spot on the European continent at this moment appears (o be Spain, where the forces of genuine democracy and Labor have gained the day and are entrenching themselves against the emergencies of reaction...
...William Morris was an Incarnation of the beauty and dignity of old England...
...To make good the wild speeches of ten years of propaganda something will have to be done about the Polish Corridor...
...By William M. Feigenbaum Socialism Can Mean Nothing Unless it Is Also International i ^ -— On May Day Wa Re-ciedkate Ourselves to Our Movement, the Only Hope of Humanity—And It Must Be International Socialism...
...They cannot satisfy their own followers who look for a Hitler paradise and are doomed for a capitalistic hell...
...I certainly wasn't I was compelled to go or go to jaiL" "Wouldn't you have liked to have sent Wilson a cage of parrots...
...They cannot prevent depressions by administering castor oil to opponents...
...It means the enslavement of the workers...
...Never mind whether or not it is a sound theory, whether or not it can stand up when subjected to the scrutiny of educated men and women, the philosophy as put into practice means a glorification of everything that is German (or supposed, by the Slovak Austrian Hitler and the Lithuanian Rosenberg, to be German...
...So don't get excited about this celebration of Hitler's birthday and!—give up that pail of suds...
...Th< seventh man joined them and be came Number 7; soon he wai Number One, and be still is...
...But when he joined the movement at the age of 49 he dropped everything to give himself completely to it, "For the Can** alone is worthy till the good days bring the best...
...Why not a Socialist and labor movement for America alone: or (or England, or France or Poland alone...
...Joe asked...
...I might have known that vou would drag your Marxism into this," said Joe...
...Ami as a sort of bastard "Socialism' it gained recruits, and—with thi aid of money from bankers an< industrialists, with the aid of th< galling terms of the peace treat] and the crushing burdens of th< economic collapse, and stimulatec by the most elaborate publicity anc propaganda machine in historyit swept like a tidal wave over the country...
...we $m tionalization ot of the country forever from...
...I hope you are right," said Joe...
...Bnt is it more than mere rbet oric...
...They have the power and they won't let go...
...we are also Socialists...
...All rig...
...from 4:80 to 4:45 p. m. S o c i a 1 ig| No...
...heretofore the strongest link in the international working class movement, prostrate and helpless...
...No, bnt I've heard of them wrecking things placed th their hands," Joe replied, "and to see a whole nation congratulating that nut makes me sick...
...manding...
...The speech was sup posed to be a warning to the capitalists of Germany to bend the knee and eat out of Hitler's hand...
...German capitalism reached an epileptic stage and made it possible for an eccentric to rise to the top, but he cannot control the underlying economic forces that are washing away the foundations of capitalism itself...
...steeped In the i and he had s a Icelandic manni value...
...For regardless of whether or not every word of what Goring and Goebbels and the rest of the national "Socialists" say about their "Socialism" is true no one can deny that they are living up to their nationalism to the hilt The terms of the Versailles treaty are not to be eased off, as the Republie was getting them eased...
...It isn't a matter of faith but of knowledge of the capitalistic structure of production and exchange...
...Thi German masses bad been taught bj many years of experience that So cialism is their inspiration an< their hope...
...The nut Chancellor no more than the Iron Chancellor can solve the riddle of the capitalist system of producing commodities for sale...
...Because of the Nazi philosophy of nationalism...
...Marxism Exjlatl and Returns "yilKY may hold on for some years and they may go out * in a short time but they cannot last forever," said Bill...
...If the* succeed they will prove <that our International Socialism is nothing but a bit of sentimentality...
...Before he acquired fad so romphtafel mediaevshaal spirit iaearaj left him...
...And that means war —and the collapse of civilization...
...Have you observed how this structure has dictated to President Roosevelt in spite of the large powers he has by sliding off the gold bssis last week...
...He admitted that he never could apply himself sufficiently to understand Marx...
...Was the whole nation back of Wilson...
...Why the atrocities and terror against men and women—humble folk and bankers and tcienuV and musicians—of that race...
...To that we dedicate our May Day...
...National "Socialism" is no Socialism...
...And as International Labor Day May Day it is celebrated wherever workers hope and struggle for a better world...
...Let us do violence to our reason and the plain verdict of our senses and pretend that we believe that Germany under the guidance of Hitler and Goebbels (who is s crazy, cockeyed sort of a radical), under jHugenberg and von Papen and the iHohenzollern boys is actually going to establish a sort of cooperative commonwealth...
...Nuts cannot root out the contradictions of capitalistic production with bayonets...
...it means a glorification of Germany as a nation as distinguished from the German people as a race...
...Among the presents sent him last week were dogs and parrots...
...This is a good tim< to pause for a moment and reflec upon the international feature o: International Labor Day...
...And that is where the danger lies...
...Fascism and dictatorship are menacing the very existence of the working class movement In Austria, Czechoslovakia, in the Balkans...
...To make good the wild speeches of years of propaganda about restoring Germany's place in the sun, national "Socialism" will have to resume large-scale militarism, and that means war...
...In our own land, the working class movenMSt mered down kj nomic crisis, II not yet in sigH despite frsntk an outlived S economic sad despite promist work, the snsy partly employ...
...The whole world's gone nutty," Joe replied...
...In the fse* calamity our Si and Socialist...
...It means more than that...
...There is no Socialism but International Socialism...
...with disheartei standards of I have in the pas' dive...
...For William Morris—poet, artist and Socialist—early in hitgreat life declared war upon one thing and one alone, and he gave his life to that war...
...WEVD NEW LEADER SPEAKER Dr...
...The victory of Hitlerism in Germany has left the German Labor and Socialist movement...
...In Italy the voice of labor, stifled a decade ago by the mailed fist of Fascism, is still impotent...
...and that means the enslavement of the world to the war machine...
...Hitler and other Hitlers will rule Germany for hundreds of years...
...what then...
...seventh man joined them am asked, "Who are youI" "We are," one of them replied, "the Nationa Socialist German Workers' Party' —one name for each member...
...wages at many Industrie are" kept up si level...
...I must confess that, whereas I thoroughly enjoyed the historical part of 'Capital' I suffered agonies of confusion of brain over reading the pure economics of that great work...
...it sounds exciting U declare before vast mass mee'ir.gi that all workers are brothers ant sisters...
Vol. 15 • April 1933 • No. 17
