The Declaration Pro and Con (A Sound Declaration)
Hoan, Daniel W.
The Declaration Pro and Coin A Sound Declaration •y Daniel W Hoan Some opponents have been unethical enough to go to the capitalist press. We in Milwaukee have .shown plainly our opinion...
...Those cities were lost much like the Socialist movement in Germany was lost, because the/ would not look ahead...
...Comrade Hoan reveals an astounding lack of information regarding Germany when he says that the iparty there did not "guide the members of the Reichstag" and that they "drifted aimlessly into fascism without even knowing how to concentrate their energy...
...It is not we who "close our eyes" but Dan Hoan who refuses 'to see important facts, and only remembers that the German working class was defeated...
...Where was Comrade Waldman when the famous declaration was adopted, pledging every single party member "to continuous active and public opposition to war, through demonstrations, mass petitions, and all other means within our power...
...Whatever our speeches, such arguments will be made by our enemies...
...First, let us say, that both sides to the discussion have sent material to the non-Socialist press so it is useless to discuss this...
...And if, as we pray it may, power comes to us through parliamentary methods, and is threatened by a fascist dictatorship cruel as it was in Germany and Austria, are we to let such liberty as we have slip through our fingers rather than hold it with the weapons at hand...
...We now know what the Socialist parties in Europe were up against, and the sole question is whether to follow in their footsteps, elect Congressmen and then be doomed to dismal failure when a crisis occurs, or to point out that danger by inserting in our platforms exactly what' we propose to do, so that there can he no failure when the time comes...
...but we think it is to play Little Rollo to assert that we will "break up the war" when we know that this is sheer heroics...
...Even large numbers of workers were following Hitler's banner...
...I think I apeak for every intelligent Socialist opposed to the Detroit Declaration when I answer his questions as follows: Wre favor protecting every party member in a war crisis if he acts in accord with party principles and decisions but we do not favor support of irresponsible acts...
...Socialists might be compelled to defend a series of asinine acts by maniacs during a war...
...Recently I debated the Detroit Declaration with a "militant" who declared that soon we may have to organize an "armed guard...
...This sweeps a whole "series of important factors aside and substitutes the old dogma of free will...
...Party in Germany...
...Are we to close our eyes to all that lies ahead and con...
...If we are so cowardly as to secrete our real opinions for fear of jail then I confess fascism will have no trouble in bluffing us out of power if ever we gain it...
...They are not worth considering...
...Disputes Hoan By James Owol r\AN HOAN presents some in" teresting views on this page...
...Two years ago in a western state some party members were in a secret military organization with gen| oral-;, corporals and other officers preparing for the "great day...
...What of the St-NLouli anti-war platform...
...We favor mass resistance against war~if it is defined as Dan defines it in his quotations from the St...
...that revolution would be fomented...
...we do not favor support of any imperialist wars...
...Louis platform...
...we shall not permit ourselves to be broken up by any war if we can prevent it...
...An argument from comrades in localities where the party has made little headway in elections ig that the Declaration will seriously Injure our chances in future elections...
...The general strike is already a weapon of truly progressive local labor assemblies...
...Let's stop quibbling over a few hair-splitting interpretations of words and get down to business and organize a practical movement to accomplish Socialism with the least possible pain...
...We cannot mobilize a dozen cap pistols today against the giant war machine we may face, and it will be years before we can even hope to have large masses of the organized workers and farm, ers with us in resisting war, to say nothing of breaking it up when it comes...
...Duplicate it here and no document we may adopt will avail us to avert the fate that came to the Germans...
...T*e will of the whole German working class was paralyzed because of this situation...
...This fits our case...
...A crisis came...
...Our records of national conventions are littered with discussion as to the proper way of stating our views on many questions...
...We want a revolutionary ¦party, but not one filled with irresponsible persona...
...If the workers of this country ever face similar circumstances it is practically certain that every political and .economic organization of the workers will "follow in their (the German's) footsteps," that is, go down in defeat...
...rather than announcing our willingness to withstand these forces in a group...
...One comrade writes, "In future campaigns in which Socialists have a chance of election, the charges will be made that, if the Socialists are elected they will destroy the American traditions of freedom and democracy, they will give aid and comfort to people who blow up ammunition factories, etc., and what chance will a Socialist have against such a campaign...
...That was the German experience...
...They could not see that by ignoring a merit system and adopting a spoils system under which only Socialists could have jobs, they were simply initiating a Tammany Hall...
...Of course, we should "learn by experience," but will Comrade Hoan guarantee that a Communist movement will not follow the course of the German Communists, split the working class of this country into warring factions, and thus make the road easy for some fascist band...
...neither are we fools...
...The big bad wolf paraded by Comrade Waldman is that this Declaration may put some comrades in jail...
...It is...
...I should be much interested to see a statement from the Committee for the Preservation of Socialist Policies on what they propose to do in the contingencies mentioned in the Declaration...
...If war comes, and some of our comrades are imprisoned for refusal to serve in the army, or protesting against the war, do they propose that we shall not loyally defend them...
...Comrades, millions of workers have given their lives for the progress thus far made...
...The main problem was outside the Reichstag with the working class divided into Socialists and Communists who were at each others' throats...
...Good Cod, were not thousands of Socialists, including Debs and many others to the right and left of him, jailed without any Declaration of Principles?- Are not Socialists persecuted right now in some places for the terrible crime of fighting to maintain our constitutional right of free speech...
...that blood would flow like water ;that the American constitution would be destroyed, factories driven from the city, and free love reign supreme...
...They made no attempt to foresee the troubles they would have to meet after they attained power, and so they lost in a very short time...
...It was wrecked, and has not yet recovered...
...It is also true that our enemies have charged us with desiring to break up the family, that blood will flow in the streets if we are victorious and so on...
...Without defining it some ill-informed members may take the course that some party members did in Oklahoma in 1917 when they organized secretJy for an armed march on Washington, made fools of us, and delivered the splendid state organization of the pary in that state into the hands of the enemy...
...That is not the case with us...
...Louis resolution but the Detroit document does not so define it...
...The most charitable thing to cay is that they could not foresee the crisis...
...tjnue working as if nothing had changed since 1848, or are we to study and adapt our methods to the circumstances and learn from each other's mistakes...
...But we are not discussing the false accusations our enemies make against us but the proper or improper language we may use in stating our own views...
...They did not act in accord with the forms of action, Dan Hoan quotes from the St...
...I know of no local Socialist campaign worthy of the name that has ever been made in this country where such arguments have not been used...
...The party made no pronouncement to tag in case such crisis occurred, guide the members of th<> Reichsand the result was they drifted aimlessly into fascism without even knowing how to concentrate their energy...
...We favor crushing reaction if after receiving a mandate from the masses this reaction threatens to repudiate the decision and we approve and will cooperate with the general strike which, however, only the orgsniied masses can carry out, and this requires educational preparation...
...Is it not a fact that twenty or thirty cities that we once carried for Socialism are now a matter of memory...
...Would the coin rades opposed to the Declaration seriously defend a policy of indivdual surrender to the forces bent on destroying all that we believe in...
...Everybody has to learn by experience, but only a fool has to learn by his own experience...
...Alas, says Comrade Waldman, we are to help defend all antiwar acts of Socialists, and some one might blow up a munition factory...
...It is alleged that the party was free to act and it did not...
...Is it important to be clear on this...
...If it is the purpose of the Socialist Party to build a pink-tea affair of a goodygoody varietv that will elect a few Congressmen and then meet its Waterloo because of lack of preparation and foresight, I doubt whether I want to waste any time in attempting to build such a movement...
...What happened to the Socialist...
...Louis resolution...
...I hope that Dan understands what such things mean for a working closs movement that must preserve its freedom of action if it is to grow...
...We are Social ists, and should know how to formulate our views without them being interpreted a hundred waysMail Orders slur Our Special fcabor Day Issue...
...I hold no ill will against the German comrades...
...Would they seriously oppose massed war resistance represented ,if practicable, in a general strike to avert war...
...In Milwaukee it was alleged that if the Socialists were elected, the red flag would My over City Hall...
...How simple...
...The attempt of the Socialists to get united action with the Communists not only failed but the latter even cooperated with fascists in a number of diets...
...We are not cowards...
...Do they mean that we should not "refuse collectively to sanction or support any international war," that we should not "by agitation and opposition do their best not to be broken up by the war, but to break up the war...
...We at least have as much to lose as any other locality...
...I know of no part of the movement that is more cautious in swinging too far to the right or left than the movement in Milwaukee...
...If he is afraid to go to jail for what we know to be rightt what of the hundreds who did so cting under the St...
...We were not afraid of jail In 1917 and we are not now, but we Want a clear Socialist document on which to Stand, not one that is vague and subject to various inter, pretatlons...
...Yet I know of no one in Milwaukee so politically opportunistic as to oppose the Declaration for fear of injuring our chances of election . One correspondent writes me: "The adoption of the majority resolution, even though we may regard it as a noble gesture, will soon reduce the party to a politically impotent sect" Have We been much more than an impotent sect up to now...
...We in Milwaukee have .shown plainly our opinion of such actions in expelling a prominent public official who took his disagreement -with party policies to the press...
...Some eastern comrades have said that the "sewer Socialists" of Milwaukee were so cautious that they would sacrifice1 all Socialist principles to reformism and the chance of being elected...
Vol. 17 • August 1934 • No. 31
