The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement
Berenberg, David P.
The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By David P. Berenberg This it one of a series of articles—six groups of six articlts each—to appear in Tht New Leader in cooperation with...
...The response of New Leader readers to help in the work of circulating petitions is a high tribute to> the educational work this naper is doing building up the party organization spirit in Oregon...
...Finally, it is control of the government which gives to capital its power over the armed forces, which it has never hesitated to use against labor when it thought necessary...
...Such a party—and nearly all parties in America are of this sort -writes itself the enemy of labor, no matter how high-sounding its claims may be...
...If here and there a crumb of labor legislationlike a workmen's compensation law, or a law limiting the hours of working women and children—is passed, it comes as the result of labor pressure, as the outcome of the class struggle transferred to the political field...
...This is the experience of many new comrades and new locals...
...Tamiment presents an attractive rate for the five days between Tuesday at supper and ending Sunday at dinner...
...and Mrs...
...It is certain that authors of some of the recently published books in which the machinations of the armament makers are exposed, have drawn heavily on the fullydocumented "War for Profits...
...When "War for Profits" by Dr...
...to the Socialist Party's failing to cast the required percentage of votes to maintain its Mfal standing, the comrades are compelled to circulate a petition » Ret on the ballot this fall...
...For the struggle that goes on between capital and labor for control over industry and society has a political phase, too...
...His articles contained much valuable information and provoked keen discussion here...
...In the past thirty or more years I have visited Bakersfield many times in the interest of the Socialist Party, but not until my recent visit did I learn of the magnificent hospitalization equipment maintained at the expense of the county, surpassed in efficiency by nothing in our big cities...
...These comrades believe that the way to build up the" Socialist movement is to begin at home, to seek how to meet the issues and solve the problems that concern the workers and producers In their own immediate state and community...
...Workers in Fight for Socialized Hospital ly Lena Morrow Lewis ORGANIZED labor in Kern County, California, aided by active Socialists in Bakersfield and the county, is making a strong light to maintain the splendid pubhe hospital equipment maintained by the community, in face of the bitter battle being waged by private interests against the hospital's continuance as a public function...
...The work of George Buickerood in the labor unions and Albert Streiff in the farmers' organizations is bringing very desirable results...
...The earnestness with which M. J. Shannon and his wife are taking hold of'the organization of the county and the state generally is already showing results...
...He has been trained in the public schools in the belief that the law is impartial, that the American government is one of "laws, not men...
...that "all men are equal before the law...
...War for Profit...
...Jack Altman, speaking for the Socialist organizations, said the party was interested in the case and had brought Solomon into it because it was feared Porter might be made to suffer because of his color for defending himself against insult and attack...
...Any political party that claims to be the party "of all the people" is claiming the impossible...
...Prices for service hardly cover the cost of materials used, and Socialists liere consider it a good illustration of the socialization of medical and hospital service which is maintained largely because of sentiment roused by organized labor...
...All fusions, all political bargains lead only to the disappointment of the workers...
...I know of no group of workers better informed on the Issues that affect the citisens of their city and state than Tamimemt Opens for Decoration Weekend The official season at Camp Tamiment will open Tuesday, May 29th, for the Decoration Day weekend...
...striking his brother under the circumstances...
...According to Porter, Uronson, who was accompanied by a friend, Fred Lloyd, was under the influence of liquor when he came over to vthe corner where, Porter's cab was\ parked and began calling him "nigger" and addressing insults to him...
...No one can represent both the interests of labor and those of capital...
...This local hacf a big increase in membership several months ago, but time proved that some of the newcomers, emotionally attracted to the party, were lacking in the staying qualities necessary to be efficient members...
...Porter who is married and has two small children, has never before been in trouble of any kind...
...But what worker does not know how often pickets are scattered by the police, arrested and punished by fine and prison, in spite of the "legal" right to picket...
...Among the Rand School lecturers on a particularly interesting program for the summer, are Herman Kobbe, just returned from Vienna and Paris, Dr...
...There will also be presented a new satirical review entitled, "Their Times," and a# International Music Hall entertainment, cabaret style...
...In this political struggle, as well as in the industrial, labor has no friends...
...Stockton is taking advantage of the state secretary's residence there to keep open a reading room at the headquarters...
...To gain their emancipation from wage slavery the workers must wrest control of the state from their present masters and fashion it into an instrument of their own...
...Property is more important than men, and cur-' tainly more important that- the workers...
...They make ample use of their opportunities to turn the children of the workers against their class...
...Already Comrade Porter has developed these agencies to a high degree of efficiency and the detailed manner in which ha has routed speakers over the state gives promise of a line of work that'will no doubt extend all along the Pacific Coaut and be of service to the entire western movement...
...Porter pleaded with Bronson to desist and struck him with his fist when Bronson rushed at him with a gin bottle in his hand...
...The exploiters hire armed thugs who are protected in their murderous attacks on unarmed workers by the armed forces of the state...
...The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By David P. Berenberg This it one of a series of articles—six groups of six articlts each—to appear in Tht New Leader in cooperation with the Committee on Education of the Socialist Party...
...It is not enough to talk Socialism—, to turn people away from the capitalist system—the all-important thing today is to build up an efficient organization that will enable the workers to secure political and economic power in their interests and for the social good...
...IV Government and the Workers IN the course of a strike the worker is sure to * make the acquaintance of the law, and of the courts that enforce it...
...Comrade Kobbe, for many years a member of the State Executive Committee, and a Socialist worker for close to thirty years, left the United States about three years ago to teach in the internationallyfamous school at Oberbambach, Odenwald, in Germany...
...While abroad he kept in close touch with the Socialist parties of all the European countries, he served as a delegate from the United States to the Vienna and the Paris International Socialist congresses, and he wrote frequently for The New l,ca(ler on conditions abroad...
...The camp announces many plans and improvements for the 1934 season...
...It is hard for him to give up his childhood beliefs...
...In many states (e.g., Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado, West Virginia) almost every strike is the occasion of open and bloody warfare...
...In politics this takes the form of the effort to gain possession of ] political office, to influence legislation, to take away from capital the "rights" it has usurped...
...In the class struggle on the political field, as in the economic struggle, there can bo no compromise with tho enemy...
...The Socialist local in Bakersfield is making a fight to restore its right to use the public schoof buildings for educational meetings...
...He is in possession of enormously important information on conditions abroad, much of it of so confidential a nature that it la impossible to commit it to paper...
...Bronson died two days later...
...Oregon Socialists were full of enthusiasm over the organization of several locals as the result of the meetings of George R. Kirkpstrick, who had preceded me wme three weeks up the coast...
...The state executive committee at its March meeting made them state affairs...
...The meeting will be open only to party members and members of the Y.P.S.L., and no party member should permit anything to stand in the way of attending...
...ong various Socialist papers, J» readers of The New Leader Irnish by far the larger number *tMnra«kg who have undertaken W circulate petitions to place the HP** the ballot in Oregon...
...The New Leader has enlisted the assistance of the Rand School of Social Science, whose staff have undertaken to help readers who wish to get the utmost value out of the series, by answering questions that may arise in their minds as they read, and directing them to sources of information, advising them as to further study, and so forth...
...The meeting isiof such great importance that pafty members and Yipsels from every part of tho city and nearby cities are urged to be on time, because the story that Comrade Kobbe has to tell will in all probability lead to a long and highly important discussion...
...And in politics, as in industry, the class struggle has an ultimate aim and an immediate goal...
...It » no easy task to secure 18,000 T****' It everx comrade will do «5* ¦ "ttle, they will succeed, but H need store active workers...
...They are seldom passed before they have been so re-written as to make them practically worthless...
...Solomon Wins Freedom for Negro in Homicide Case Charles Solomon, acting as attorney for John Porter, Negro taxi driver held for homicide, won a remarkable victory Thursday morning when Porter was discharged by Magistrate Guy Van Amringe in the Manhattan Homicide Court...
...How many workers do not know of pickets who have been killed while exercising their "legal" rights...
...Abraham Edel, Norman Th fias, B. C. Vladeck John T. Flynn, Karl M. Chworowsky, and M. E. Kriegel, the latter two new and attractive speakers in the field of radical literature...
...And when the unions attempt to make use of their "legal" rights, when they .try to have the employers' thugs punished for their assaults and their murders, they discover that there is no equality before the law, that our states have governments of men, not laws...
...No compromise, no political trading" is the slogan of the workers...
...They will one day use this instrument to destroy the master-slave relationship and to take control of the industrial machine...
...Lehmann-Russbuldt (Alfred H. King) wan published four years1 ago, The New Leader said that the work would outlive the widely circulated war books of that period, adding: "War for Profits is the most powerful weapon we know of in the fight to prevent the plans for the next international slaughter...
...A valuable feature of the work in California is the establishing of a state lecture bureau and literature agency...
...Fresno local was still feeling the inspirational effects of the state executive committee meeting when I arrived there some weeks after the meeting...
...Through their government the owners of capital punish with prison, or the threat of prison, all who dure to assert with vigor the rights of the workers...
...He was in Germany during tht Hitler upheaval, ' after which h< went to France...
...Through it they control education...
...It is control of the government that enables the masters of industry to pass the laws that favor them, to legalize the "yellow dog" contract, to destroy strikes by means of the injunction, to prevent any law of any real use to labor from being passed...
...The government is the most important weapon the capitalists possess...
...A numbr of new faces indicated that the party is attracting attention in that community...
...In the political struggle, therefore, Socialism cannot make terms with the upholders of the capitalist system...
...Bronson's brother took the stand and testified that Porter had done right in...
...Inquiries should be addressed to the Hand School, 7 East loth Street, New York, and if possible a few postage stamps should be enclosed, so as partly to pay the cost...
...In short, they discover that their exploiters have taken care to own, not merely the factories, the newspapers, the radio, the moving pictures and the churches, but the government as well...
...No one will, for no one can, fight labor's battle except the working class itself...
...While we seek for large membership, it seems to me e»en more important that we educate an intelligent, qualified membership able to carry on the work of the Socialist movement...
...Such laws are never passed except against the whole-hearted opposition of the united capitalists...
...Oregon Socialists Trying to Get on Ballot Owing...
...About a year ago, E. E. Porter of 628 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, undertook these departments in a very modest way, covering only San Francisco Bay district activities...
...Milton Spielman's Nut Club Orctiestra whose dance music, always well liked at Camp Tamiment, has been much enhanced in popularity by its many program over the radio during the past winter, will be with the camp again...
...Following the discharge of the prisoner, a collection was taken for the driver's children...
...Many of the sleeping cabins, accommodating four, have been remodelled and fitted with modern lavatory equipment, comfortable beds and convenient furniture The weekend program will feature the opening of a drama and music festival under the direction of Mac Liebman, who was the social director of the camp during the season of 1933...
...It must be remembered that the state today is only the political instrument of the ruling class...
...The cabman had been held following the death of Tyler C. Bronson, wealthy Southerner, who had been struck by Porter following a barrage of insults...
...The struggle will never end until capital has been driven from the seat of power, and until political power is in the hands of the working cluss, Before that goal is reached there is the daily struggle for labor's right to exist...
...Educational institutions were eager ^ take advantage of Comrade Wrtaatrick's presence to have him «Ik before the students...
...After one hundred years of class struggle, the workers in some American states have won the right to picket a shop against which a strike has been called...
...He was in Vienna shortly before and shortly aftet tho fighting last February, and everywhere he was in the closest touch with party members and leaders...
...Kobbe Reports On Europe Monday AN event of extraordinary Interest and importance will take place Monday night when Herman Kobbe, just returned to the United States, will report on Socialist conditions abroad to the party membership at the Rand School, 7 East 15th St., N.Y.C...
...But what else can he do when he is brought face to face with the fact that the law is chiefly concerned with the protection of the rights of property...
Vol. 17 • May 1934 • No. 20
