Editor's Corner
Oneal, James
Editor's Corner Review of and Comment on Events Here and Abroad, Critical and Otherwise By James One*! "Bleated Word." j_f ORE than three decades ago Ernest Beifort Bax, the British Marxist,...
...Now, time is endless but for us it is limited to our span of life...
...Our Two-Fold Ainu IF the right of free aasembly is stricken down we fight * for its restoration...
...The "Immediate Objective" THE only instance we can recall that any group was * consistent enough to define "our time" as a definite period included those who accepted the Appeal to Reason slogan about 1000...
...Therefore, the only meanlng.that "Socialism in Our Time" can have for each of us is that we want to realize it before we die...
...Socialism in Our Time" is a rood slogan but we have observed it used in the sense.that Bax criticised...
...What is "our time...
...Used as "blessed words" it obscures thought...
...The fact is that our immediate and ultimate aim is Socialism, but while we fight far it there are other Issues vital to the working class which we must support and if won do not mean the realization of the "immediate objective...
...j_f ORE than three decades ago Ernest Beifort Bax, the British Marxist, wrote an essay protesting against the use of what he called "blessed words...
...Where is the Socialist who doesn't...
...That is more definite than the words "our time...
...That slogan at least had the merit of being definite, whatever the anti-climax may have been...
...The meeting I address, the leaflet I distribute and the pamphlet and paper I sell are activities to realize Socialism in my time but your activities are not for this same aim...
...We can work like galley slaves for the "immediate objective," and we should, but power remains the basic problem...
...It is today and tomorrow, next week and next month, this year and next year...
...That also implies that he works for something, makes sacrifices for it, but wants it$ realization when he cannot enjoy it...
...in the day-by-day struggle of the working class for relief, against injustice and oppression, we are with our class in its fight against reduction to degradation...
...Five years later the Appeal translated it into support of the war...
...cause even though these struggles do not bring realisation of our "immediate objective" they constitute the expert* ence, training and struggle that are essential to realist our fundamental aim whether thai aim Is accomplished in "our time" or' after we who participate in ii have passed on...
...No one can possibly object to an "immediate" struggle for the realization of Socialism...
...I want Socialism today if I can get it...
...It likewise adopted the fallowing resolution as a part of its report: "Whereas in recent months there has been a rapid growth in employer dominated company unions and these union* have become a serious menace to the rights of the workers to organise into independent unions and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, rights which the Social Creed of the Methodist Episcopal Church declares employees should have, we petition our representatives in the Congress of the United States to enact legislation which will make it illegal for a corporation or company to intimidate, coerce', or unfairly influence their employees in any way to join a nempkiyer initiated, financed, or controlled, organization dealing with wages hours, and grievances relating to conditions of work...
...However, there are those who use the slogan in the following sense...
...if an injunction is issued against strikers we are with them in the struggle against it...
...But what wt are emphasising is that a Socialist movement that keeps in mind the fight for Socialism as an "immediate objective" must also be a part of the struggle of workers to wrest concessions from the exploiters and that when »uch concessions are won they*do not mean winning the "immediate objective" of Socialism...
...Another form of this idea is that we must right for Socialism as "an immediate objective...
...If I cannot get it now I will work for its reslization tomorrow or next year or as soon thereafter as the masses can be won to support it...
...Not to "immediately" struggle for its realization, if conditions are ripe for its realization, is to throw away an opportunity...
...Immediate within endless time mean* now...
...By this ha meant the use of language that does not convey any precise meaning...
...We* will if we are good Socialists...
...In fact we do...
...A Socialized World Aim of Methodists The New York East Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at tis Annual Session in the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, on Monday, May Utrrf adopted the Report of its Social Service Committee which, after analysing the inadequacy of...
...Are we not taking refuge in "blessed words" by affirming an objective that is always before as and thus assuming that the problem of power is simply a matter of willing it...
...The same is true of others who followed them and died...
...The implication is that somebody else wants Socialism after his death...
...To be sure, a Socialist movement may turn to tha support of issues that do not correlate either with tha present interests of tha working class or our basic aim and where this occurs it is necessary to bring the movement back to its fundamental objectives...
...That slogan was "Socialism in 1912...
...the New Deal, called for a rapid extension of social ownership and democratic control of natural resources and the principal means of production and distribution, exclusive o fagriculttfre...
...Every barricade mounted by workers in the forties, every street meeting held and lecture delivered, every leaflet and book and paper published, have been activities directed to the realization 6f "Socialism in Our Time...
...Tha warning of Bax against "blessed words" Ii Ii I good today as whan he wrote his essay...
...But does a declaration in favor of Socialism as our "immediate objective" tell us anything about the important factor of achieving power to realise it...
...Shall we support these Issues that do not correlate with our "immediate objective...
...Marx and Engels wanted it in their time and did not get it...
Vol. 17 • May 1934 • No. 20
