A Basic Principle of Socialism
Ojieal, James
By James Ojieal A Basic Principle of Socialism A Tabloid Explanation of the Proposal That the Working Class Organize for the Abolition of the Capitalist System of Production, Distribution...
...Some of large department stores have settled with their striking girls by giving an increase of %i a week and better working conditions and hours...
...The students and campers have come mostly by freight and hitchhike, and they tell some interesting tales...
...The working class is the first to suffer from machine displacement and the breakdown of the capitalist system...
...These small owners worked by the side I ot their employees at the bench, i Very often a worker or two boarded with the shop master, . being members of his family till ! they learned the trade...
...Class lines between owners and workers became marked...
...The capitalist owners opposed such unions...
...The wage system has become universal for the wage workers, A wage is paid for labor power if it is bought, but the owners are not compelled Jphuj it They buy as much as they want and no more...
...The Farmers' Protective Association of Arkansas—a militant body— had arranged it...
...The American Fund for Public Service donated about 30,000, and with this money land was purchased and the buildings and plant erected...
...The faces, the words, the setting, all introduced me into a new world —ARKANSAS...
...I Was one of the outside speakers...
...This is its primary character but not its only character...
...One may accept all these ideas and (hey may be reconciled to the continuance of capitalist i society...
...SOCIALISTS AIDING READING WORKERS IN WAVE OF STRIKES BEADING, Pa.—Stirred by the possibilities of organization and higher wages the workers of Reading are coming -.i.t in mass strikes...
...In 1025 it was established at its present site, twelve miles west of Mena...
...Socialist speakers from Rending nnd the rest of Berks County are being usee1 day and night...
...He immediately stepped forward, and merely said to the audience: "Nathan Fine...
...II has a wonderful natural location, affording a glorious view of the mountains and woods...
...Instead of this we were housed the first night in a splendid house and then given a lovely little cottage with a Camp Tamiment stone fireplace, and a spacious porch...
...There is no place for them in industry...
...Machines and scientific manage*»"'t reduce the amount of labor Power needed by the owners of industry...
...Silk mills, shops, factories und even the shop girls in the downtown stores have Joined the strike movement...
...The Socialist Educational group, which just started their work in Reading, are finding practical work to do in the strike so that Unci ass-room work on the Labor Movement is suspended...
...As they awaken o a knowledge of their class in,i rests they will more and more >1 titiii governing power...
...Political control is governing lower...
...The labor school here is planting in the figurative sense of the word...
...Commonwealth College is one of the most Interesting experiments in the wholes field of Amerienn labor education...
...There is youth, idealism, and hope everywhere...
...There in a genuine spirit of tolerance, of inquiry, or study, and above all, of I'cvotion to the labor movement...
...The relations between the faculty, students and maintenance men and women are about as fine as I have ever seen anywhere in the radical movement...
...The owners own what they do not produce and the workers produce what they do not own...
...So the capitalist system evolved out of the small shop and handtool system into the vast mass production system of our time...
...We never expected to see such a plant...
...When the shops expanded into factories and the tools into powerdriven machines the owner ceased to work at the bench...
...Those institutions are anged against their material inerests...
...They will irganize more effective unions of their class in the industries...
...These parties, Democratic mil Republican, are financed by he bankers and capitalists who ulit the nation and exploit the workers...
...Several settlements have already been made and others are in view for the next few dayi...
...rHIS principle is basic to a * knowledge of Socialism...
...But I saw them drinking it all in...
...it is a non-factior.al labor school...
...All that they have is labor power to sell...
...Over rough country roads of red clay and dust, bridges of rumbling wooden boards and rocky and steep places where bridges should have been but were not, we traveled from Commonwealth College the half dozen miles to the picnic grounds...
...A picnic on July n 4th at Old Potter...
...For meals we ate in a roomy Commons, equipped with an electric refrigerator and a kitchen with ovens that would satisfy any camp...
...The chairman, an old farmer, tapped me on the shoulder...
...J. Henry Stump, formei Socialist mayor, is speaking to strikers constantly...
...By James Ojieal A Basic Principle of Socialism A Tabloid Explanation of the Proposal That the Working Class Organize for the Abolition of the Capitalist System of Production, Distribution and Exchange...
...Led by the militant pickets from the striking hosiery mills, shop after shop in the Reading district are Joining what Is fast becoming a general strike...
...Kvery one of the militant Socialists of Reading is doing his bit in the strike and is giving a practical demonstration of the possibilities of Socialist action in the Isbor movemeat...
...Both the workers and the bosses are more or less confused a» to the effects and the possibilities of the NIRA, with ths result that the bosses hasten to settle on any basis as soon as possible...
...The workers have no ownership in plants, machines, raw materials or the products of their labor...
...Commonwealth College Four four days and a night my wife Emily and myself traveled in buses to reach Commonwealth College, where we were invited for the summer to do some teaching and earn our keep by industrial labor...
...Whenever Clay Fulks, who ran for Governor on the Socialist ticket last fall and is one of the teachers at Commonwealth College, stops to Introduce me to one of the active spirits of the Farmers' Protective Association or of the Socialist Party, a crowd gathers, just as in Union Square—but what different faces 1 We discuss the new marketing act...
...In the industries it is different with the workers...
...The faculty contributes 10 hours, the students 15 hours a week...
...Reports are that some 20,000 workers are now out in the Reading district with more coming out almost every hour...
...It will bt considered for reprinting as a leaflet tn New York City...
...From the managers at the top to the laborers below the useful work is performed by hired labor...
...The school was a most welcome surprise to us...
...There is an air of general neighborliness...
...f capitalist society rest upon heir backs...
...Glory to Jesus...
...The "institutions and girls from the Middle and Southwest, with their industrial backgrounds as miners, carpenters, printers, electricians, farmers, etc...
...That was all...
...They liked the attack on the ruling classes...
...Pity for poverty, resentment of banker rule, efforts to restore small capitalists to their former position in society, middle class reform movements, pacifist opposition to war, are not Socialism...
...Would that others would take his example I The farmers either sat or stood and they listened in complete silence...
...We talk over plans for calling a Continental and party conference in the state to stimulate activities...
...Owner and worker got along fairly well...
...The factories developed into great plants end the plants were consolidated into big corporations...
...A few of the party members tell me how hard it is to keep the local going and collect dues...
...My first job on the place was the simple, unskilled taak of seeding beans...
...Several request* , have been received for an ex- j pansion of the principles there , treated...
...refusing to go back until the bosses have agreed to run union shops...
...This is the Socialist interpretation of its development...
...He became a capitalist superintending his business and hired a manager to look after the factory...
...The shady side of the street is jammed with farmers—mostly in overalls, some in bare foet—their wives and children...
...It is almost religious...
...It is the one class that has no stake in the preservation of capitalism and everything to gain by abolishing it...
...Thus fsr a majority of the vorkers of this country deliver heir votes to their class enemies ind the parties representing these memies...
...Its interests become ranged against the system as it becomes more and more intolerable...
...There is always abuilding, a-hammcring, a-growing, whether on the campus or on the farm...
...The students and campers pay $- a day, if they wish to work 15 hours a week—if they stay less than a month, it is $25 for the whole month...
...There are a modern laundry, shower baths, a fresh-water creek in a marvelously beautiful natural setting, tennis court, and a number of buildings: faculty homes, dormitories, an office, a laboratory, a printing plant, and a library the size of that in the Rand School...
...When the system breaks down the unemployed army is swelled to tens of millions...
...Jack Shur of the New York Yipsels had some pretty exciting adventures trying to reach this spot, but he's undoubtedly richer because of them...
...1 am told that the cotton planters are not so eager to cut down their acreage now that the price has gone up...
...Some millions of workers are cast aside...
...That was the furthest they would go...
...The capitalist system of pro- I suction and distribution is not the result of deliberate planning and ; organisation by the present ruling , classes, it is the sum total and , result of the inventions and dis- j eoveries of the past few hundred ( years in improving the productive ( powers of society...
...I have not run into a single affiliated member of any of the Communist factions...
...In its early stages it was one of shop production by tens of thou- 1 sands of small shop owners who • owned the shop, the tools, the raw 1 material and the product...
...It is for these reasons that we say that Socialism is primarily a movement of the working class to abolish the capitalist system of production and distribution...
...They are ownerleas workers...
...It is basic to the whole Socialist philosophy and program and it determines every other phase of the movement and its program...
...The dancers were going through the steps of the old square dance, to my great delight...
...It is a primary concept of the Socialist philosophy and is essentiaal to a basic understanding of the Socialist movement...
...Only one man applauded vigorously when another speaker was talking—and it was quite irielevant And when this same speaker spoke of Jesus, a woman threw her hands outward and upward and shouted: "Glory to Jesus...
...Shops which have heretofore re."tinted every attempt at organization arc now out on strike anil are...
...They are kept in subjecion to the owners of Industry by - ho governing agencies of society...
...The course: cover labor and farm problems, Marxism, labor journalism, public speaking, psychology, history, etc...
...1. Socialism is primarily a j movement of the working class , to abolish the capitalist system of production end distribution...
...During the day it is warm, but at night it is delightfully cool...
...Oh, if only we had some of the iv.oods and the natural cool spring at our own New York picnics I A platform was raised about half a foot from the ground...
...About four couples were whirling around, one of them was shouting, a couple of boys were stringing guitars, and the crowd was clapping...
...One branch ordered an extra hundred for j distribution...
...These unions will help them to obtain governing power and the governing power will help them to protect their unions...
...If the owners buy it the workers live...
...They do not applaud down here...
...if they do not ouy it the workers starve...
...They became workless owners drawing workless dividends...
...A Glorious Spirit Commjnwealth is not a colony...
...It is true that some of the teachers and students are C>mmunistic, but there are just as many who are members of the Socialist Party or Yipsels...
...All this grows out of the capitalist system of production...
...I wish the Rand ochool could have some of these fine, tall boys SocialiBt Party...
...The masses vote but do not lave this power...
...The owners no longer even visited their industries...
...It is therefore the primary duty of the Socialist to awaken the class-consciousness of the working masses and to enlist them in the By Nation Fine Carrying the Torch of Socialism Into Faraway Arkansas A BIG event...
...and the constitution of their own association calls for union with the city workers in a common attack on the common enemy—they call it Wall Street It's Saturday afternoon in Mena, a little town of 8,000...
...Here it the first in- j stallment in answer to these requests...
...Workers organized unions to shorten hours and increase wages...
...One of the lads was dressed in overalls...
...Commonwealth is young—the administration, the factulty, the students, and above all, the spirit of the school...
...It was symbolic...
...Some of the hosiery shops are making settlements with the union while others arc offering everything except recognition of, the union, but in all such cases the workers on strike are insisting upon jir i that...
...Through these inventions and discoveries and the ' growth of population this system ' See developed from one stage to 1 another...
...To obtain control of these agencies t it necessary for ths workers to vage a political struggle of their >um, independent of the parties of he capitalist class...
...The tabloid presentation of the elementary principles of ¦ Socialism that appeared on this page in the issue of June 2Uh node a hit...
...We had had the feeling that we were coming to a primitive community in the woods, that we were entering a group of colonists, and that we were running into a nest of Communists...
...Are you Nathan Fine...
...Behind His Back I spoke to the farmers after the meeting, and when I left them they said: "We won't tell you what we think of your speech, but we'll talk about you behind your back...
...That was the shortest introduction I have ever had...
Vol. 16 • July 1933 • No. 3
