The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement
Berenberg, David P.
The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By David P. Berenberg 1. The Theory of the Class Struggle This is one of a series of article*—six groups of six articles each, to appear...
...Following the present scries on "The Clans Struggle," by David P. Berenberg, will come "The Materialistic Conception of History," by H. Kantor-ovich...
...Soilall...
...New Leader dinners have a three-fold purpose...
...It was a gay and happy dinner, with close to 750 diners enjoying a good meal and reveling in the delightful comradeship that only the Socialist movement can afford...
...Knll Good* Worker...
...American Economic History," by James Oneal...
...I.I..<i,W.U., I 11 I; I.Ml...
...Meetings are held every Thursday at Workmen's'Circle Hall, 14 Fairmont St...
...In fact, it was regretfully reported that future dinners might have to be held in a larger place...
...Among the organizations that sent to the dinner officially elected representatives were: In mini l:\rillllvr lliiillll, AiinilKU-m.ili'il CIoIIiIiik Workers of 'America| I'ornaril A**orlullon...
...He would have the national platform consist mainly of an indictment of capitalism in terms of the class struggle and eliminate many of the detailed measures past platforms have contained...
...I.L.G.W.U., Local III...
...for a slave class always represents the possibility of rebellion...
...This struggle of the classes has been going on for thousands of years and goes on still...
...In the end they rise against their masters and seek to throw off their chains...
...The workers, upon whom rests the whole structure of modern'society, without whom the machines of modern industry would be a dead mass of metal and wood, are today enslaved...
...The New Leader has enlisted the assistance of the Rand School Of Social Science, whose staff have generously undertaken to help all readers who wish to get the utmost value out of the series, by answering questions that may arise in their minds as they read, directing them to sources of information, advising'them as to farther study, and so forth...
...Suilnllsl League Drc**inaker*| ,lewl*h Dally I'oiwanl...
...Sometimes Socialists who speak of the class war are accused of "fomenting class hatred...
...Workmen's Circle j Walter* Loral I; Mho.I Srllool...
...Bernetta Bowman, organizer of the local, hi one of the active spirits in the campaign...
...Hoardman, it must be admitted, is on" to a flying start, and present opinion indicates that he'll go a long way before Ins opponents stop him...
...They are not stopped in their rebellioas by one defeat, or by ten...
...Cornel and Mralmilere Worker...
...They see this effort as a simple bargain between themselves and their employers...
...i.i.c.wr...
...And rightly so...
...All slave masters have looked with fear upon their servants...
...There are many, of course, who are not aware 4hat they have taken sides in this war...
...C, II: Punic /Ion Kxniillvr Commit tee | United Neckwtar Maker...
...Socialists doNnot create the class struggle...
...Uneasy lies the head that' wears the crown" is not a poetic fancy...
...The Board-man boom unquestionably looked upon by many at the opening of the Socialists' campaign as a joke, has long ceased to be such and the Democratic and Republican parties will do well to recognize that fact...
...if the workers were not called upon to face the difference between their own pinched lives and the rich full lives of their exploiters...
...It is the struggle of the workers for power that produces the Socialist movement...
...And no one does...
...People such as these deplore talk of a class struggle...
...General KxitiiIIvr Board, Cloth Hal anil Capmaker*' Union...
...Again and again they rise, until at last—whether because of their own strength, or because the power of the slave masters has grown less—they succeed...
...1'iirly lirnnehc* anil 'Workmen'* Circle In micros...
...They are a get-together to celebrate another year successfully negotiated amidst the fhoals and rocks that menace every Socialist publication...
...The exploiters of labor take care of that...
...Webster Hall on 11th Street, New York, scene of so many stirring events in local labor and ^Socialist history, was jammed with happy and enthusiastic diners, while the galleries wera filled with men and women who had not sat down at the dinner but who had come to listen to the speeches— and to contribute to the collection...
...and they afford an opportunity to diners to listen to a symposium on some important subject...
...General executive It......i...
...Circle...
...n 2.1...
...Million > Workers' Miiolmlt.iii S ll | Illtrllilcnt*, l-oiill XI...
...Jomes Oneal, editor of The New Leader, and Norman Thomas...
...He was opposed to the propojal fo vest extraordinary power in the hands of the N.E.C., gave some attention' to the problem of the middle class and the farmers and the Socialist .approach to them, and'urgedJthe recruiting of working class agitators for field work...
...So today the greatness, the power and the wealth of our industrial cities grows out of the toil of enslaved masses, who enjoy hardly a crumb of the beauty, the comfort, the ease of the life that they alone make possible...
...AiiihIk...
...He closed with a critical view of the minority resolution presented at the Paris Congress of -the L.S.I...
...A summary of Comrade Waldman's remarks appears in another part of this issue...
...One of the local papers, in an alarmist article warning of the Socialist advance, writes: "Judging from the comment on the street, and places where voters are wont to assemble and discuss the coming election, Albert Board-man should win the mayoralty election hands down...
...James Oneal, who received a warm welcome from the guests both as editor of The New Leader from the first day of its publication and as a respected and loved comrade, explained that he considered the subject under discussion so important that he read his address from prepared manuscript, 'i Comrade Oneal declared that he agreed with the protest against political opportunism implied in the statement of thq R.P.C., but, net with its impossibilist form...
...Inquiries should be addressed to the Rand School, at 7 East 15th Street, New York, and if possible a few postage stamps shauld be enclosed, so as at least partly to pay the actual cost of clerical service involved...
...Pant* Maker*' Trade iii.hi.I...
...if the children of the workers could look forward to a future with some assurance of a livelihood...
...Since there is no escape from the class struggle, no one can fail to enlist on one side or another...
...United lliliriw Trailetl .Iniiit iihiimI i iinikniiiio i •> Union11 jolnr IWiiinl Drc**iiiaker*' Union | II...
...I'.iintnV I...
...I do not say that Ihie.v Long and Father Coughlin are fascists, but I do say that they talk as fascists talked in Italy and in Germany before fascism came Into power...
...Iull*i Vii IihiiiI, Downtown Munich...
...It is this class struggle that determines the Socialist aim, for only when the private •ownership of capital has been abolished, only when the worker owns the tools with which he works can he be free...
...Men may endure slavery for a time...
...Local 1112...
...A.C.W.U., l-oral IS2| A.C.W.U, total 25...
...The struggle of the classes, now as always, colors the lives of all of us...
...In all societies in which one class oppresses and enslaves another, there is an undercurrent of unrest...
...And it is the worker for wages—the slavu of our days—who Is rebelling against his slavery, and demanding that he be at last given power over his own life...
...It was admitted by Sol Levitas, business manager of The New Leader, that there were many more people in attendance than at any of the previous dinners, held every year since The New Leader was launched in the early part of 1924...
...d W.I'., I...
...They urge us to think of our "common humanity...
...Today i-is this same class of bourgeois merchants and bankers, grown great and powerful, that is the master class...
...We are not doing a real educational job unless we show that fascism, in its first phases, deals in what sounds like radical phrases...
...they afford an opportunity to the supporters of the Socialist press to contribute to its support...
...Yet the trade unionist, thinking only of his wages and hours, is nevertheless taking part in the class war...
...and "The Labor Movement," by Nathan Fine...
...So the bourgeois traders and bankers of the Middle Ages fought, and finally conquered the feudal aristocrats...
...Only when the classes themselves are liquidated will there be an end of class conflict...
...I'm nltin una Hour Driver*, Loral LIS...
...Grocery Clerk*' Unions Painter* I...
...Hebrew llulrher...
...And the philanthropist, when he dispenses charity and talks of our "common humanity," it waging the class war on the side of his class, in that, consciously or unconsciously, he deceives the worker and weakens him in his fight...
...AiioiIkiiiiihIiiI Vest Mukem...
...Local 25j .lllilll Hi..ml In,.,., ;, in I W.i ls| Milium...
...TPHB Socialist movement is the effort of the mod- • ern working class to achieve power and independence...
...It is the fact of their persistent rebellion...
...750 Celebrate New Leader s 10 Years THE tenth birthday of The New Leader and the beginning of its second decade of service to the labor and Socialist movement Were fittingly celebrated Sunday night at the greatest and most successful reunion dymer in the long history of this publication...
...All three purposes were splendidly fulfilled last Sunday...
...General Ivicrutlvc Hoard, Work-in...
...And that is what we must guard against...
...Comrade Thomas said that at the Detroit convention the Socialist Party must be prepared to enter into a coalition farmer-labor party that may even now be in process of integration...
...there would be no rebellion...
...It is to that end that the Socialist movement dedicates itself...
...I don't want to deal with the impossibility forever of a United Front," he declared...
...The story of the Middle Ages is largely the tale of the struggles'of the peasants and townsmen against the aristocratic feudal lords...
...I mills' Neckwear Union...
...This, is nonsense...
...What we have to figKt in America is not the Communist Party—which is annoying enough, but outside of New York, not very dangerous—but a fascist movement, open or covert...
...Norman Thomas deplored the tendency to denounce the statement of 47 party members describing themselves as a "Revolutionary Policy Committee...
...l.l..<i.\V.I...
...He cannot'help it any more than he can help breathing...
...And in our own time we have seen the workers ot^ Russia, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, and of many other countries rise against their masters— with great success or little...
...There are others, perhaps among the upper, favored classes that have power, who imagine that by charitable acts they can "serve the poor...
...Jewish s...
...and the world would be safe for the exploiter...
...Sunday night Alfred I^oyd, Jr., of New Haven, will speak for The New Leader Fellowship on "The American/ Youth" at Yantic...
...AiiihIk...
...Molina* Embroiderer*1 Union...
...The class struggle expresses itself in social prejudices, in the administration of the law, in politics...
...Socialist Economics," by August Tyler...
...To denounce them," he said, "is something of a defense mechanism...
...B. C. Vladeck, who officiated as toastmaster, likewise contributed to the interesting and provocative discussion...
...and considered the problem of reaching the mass of organized workers and working farmers...
...W.U., total .iv...
...All the "agitation" of the Socialists could not cause a ripple on the calm surface of society if the worker were well fed, well housed, well dressed...
...C.iiiI Milkers' Trade Board) A.C.W.U., Local g| A.C.W.U„ Local 1(1...
...My Committee*, Work-Men's Circle...
...There was eagerness on the part of the diners to contribute to' the finances of their paper, over $1,300 being collected...
...A.C.W.U...
...The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By David P. Berenberg 1. The Theory of the Class Struggle This is one of a series of article*—six groups of six articles each, to appear weekly in The New Leader—written in response to requests from muny readers, Socialists and non-Socialists atyke, who desire aid toward understanding the world-play of Labor and Socialist forces...
...They merely ixiint out its existence, And Socialists do not create class hatred...
...Probably the leaders of those two major parties are awake to the situation, and probably they have plans in the works to counteract Hoardman and his party...
...In ancient Greece the few rich were1 supported in luxury by the many slaves...
...The New I/cadcr Fellowship, composed of local Socialists, la holding big meetings constantly with local and outside speakers...
...Apparently those who argue in this manner want people to believe that if only the wicked Socialist agitator kept still about the miseries crested by the exploitation of labor, all the workers would be contented...
...N. V. Clothing Colin...
...although heartily opposed to its proposals...
...He who thinks he can escape from it is living in a fool's paradise...
...Joint llonnl A.C.W.U...
...It is not the measure of their success that concerns us here...
...And there was a plendid symposium on problems that face the Socialist Party today, participated in by State Chairman Louis Wald-man...
...The symposium was in no sense a debate, the three speakers each discussing the problems that face American Socialism in his own way...
...Nevertheless, while they are sitting back, checking and double checking, Hoardman and his supporters are out working tooth and nail to convince the voters that the day of reckoning is here...
...It is the class struggle as it manfeists itself from day to day that produces the labor union, the fight for wages and hours, the war for labor legislation...
...If the interest proves as great as we expect, we hope.to have the articles printed in pamphlet form, after their serial publication is completed, with such notes and review questions as will make them most valuable to students...
...I "nil 111...
...Economic Problems," by Harry W. Laidler...
...There is no escape from the situation but one: only the creation of a society in which there are no classes can be free of class struggle...
...There are many members of trade unions, for example, who still imagine that the sole purpose of the union is to win for its members a few more cents in wages, a few hours less of labor in the week...
...So the enslaved barbarians of the Roman provinces 1,500 years ago turned on their masters and destroyed them...
...I.L.C.W.U...
...ni Hill...
...Class after class has fought its way* up from slavery to power, to become in turn a master class oppressing a new etas* of slaves...
...l.L.ii.w.i., i ...ni :i...
...In the Middle Ages the pomp and glory of Feudalism were built on the backs of sweated and beaten serfs...
...Norwich May Elect Socialist Mayor NORWICH: Conn.—This industrial city of 25,000 people may be the second city in the Nutmeg State to have a Socialist mayor, First considered a joke by old-ine | iliticians, it is now conceded tint Albert Roardman, Socialist, Ins more than an even chance of being elected mayor at the city •lections in June...
...This happened again and again in the ancient world...
Vol. 17 • April 1934 • No. 16
