THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE MODERN SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
Kantorovitch, Haim
The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By Holm KsujtwtwvHea '¦ This is one of a series of articles—six groups of • six articles each—to appear in Tho New Leader in • cooperation...
...If Matthew Levy, Algernon Lee and others had been permitted to make their amendments, a resolution would then have been adopted by almost a unanimous votel But "higher politics" on the part of those, who mouth "democratic" phrases, was employed to break down the rule of the majority...
...I do see hope in a party which firmly maintains its fundamental principles and through unity and devotion is strengthened for the day when the Organised workers of America decide in favor of independent political action...
...are endangering the opportunities of the working class to emancipate itself...
...The Socialist movement is a living, fighting movement, and cannot and should not be turned into a philosophical debating society...
...Others told me that had they read the document carefully they could not have voted for it in the form passed...
...Essentially that is what the Declaration proclaims anew...
...the establishment of a cooperative commonwealth...
...Msy I, as a believer in party democracy and discipline, pledge my willingness to forget personal feelings and remain loyal whether or not the new Declaration is upheld in our forthcoming refer* endum...
...All cries of "Split!'7 have no place in the present moment...
...They were wrong...
...This is a moment pregnant with the possibilities that we have hoped and worked for for more than forty years...
...That we will defend...
...Remember the split in the German Social Democracy when the Independent Socialist Party was formed T The latter soon returned to the fold...
...Does he mean that we no longer believe in "the socialization of industry...
...The differences in 1019 and 1920 do not exist today...
...Materialism is the philosophic basis of Marxism...
...That challenge must be mat...
...Many Marx critics have used this passage in "Feuerbach" to show that Marx and Engels were not materialists at all...
...and Whereas, a number of delegates from the State of New York supported the ^foresaid proposals, contrary % the sentiments and opinions of the membership of the State of New York, whom they were supposed to represent...
...Does that not mean that the Socialist Party will declare a dictatorship...
...On the other hand, Eastman is a much better writer and more clever than Hook...
...and the rift in our movement when the I.W.W...
...If the Declaration is adopted, it means estrangement from Labor...
...This group has indicated that fairness and good will will only be answered wl|h ruthlessneis...
...Revolutionists going to lawyers to determine for them Socialist philosophy, theory and practice) Straight revolutionary Socialism does not fear the law...
...Think of our secession from the S.L.P...
...Louis Waldman says, this declaration "commits...
...We must not provoke the hot-heads in our midst to do what will send us underground...
...That deelsion is the only heritage worth while for our party, and its only hope...
...our appeal must be made to the working class...
...But Waldman, Solomon and others refuse to admit it...
...It rather binds one to a realist point of view than to a specific materialist philosophy...
...The workers are ready to organise politically...
...They philosophised for Socialism and not for philosophy...
...Take heart, comrades...
...It decided to seek legal advice...
...Feuerbach (English translation, p. 58...
...mans conception of democracy that prompts him to attempt to overthrow one of the party's cherished traditions, namely, the authority traditionally vested in nt tional conventions to speak for the entire party...
...peaceable settlement of international conflicts...
...These very fine, very complicated and very technical points of philosophy may be of great interest to philosophers (and the polemic be* tween Eastman and Hook is certainly of no interest to philosophers), but they certainly have neither value nor significance for the working class...
...The new course laid down at the Detroit convention leads us In the path of the Independent Labor Party of Britain, which has dwindled from a membership of 40,000 to » mere 4,000 almostovernight It leads us away from the American workers...
...To define materialism as simply the theory that puts nature above spirit is to give it such a broad and loose definition that many really idealist philosophies can be included in it...
...It molds the law to its purposes...
...THE WHITE-COLLARITES By Pauline Linson Many among the white-collar group with whom I come in contact have expressed new respect for the Socialist Party since the adoption of our new Declaration of Principles at Detroit...
...the others, who recognized nature as the source, belong to the various schools of materialism...
...This definition does not bind one to any of the existing schools of materialism and does not make doubt in the reality of matter a crime...
...If this course is maintained, new alliances will be inevitable for those, like myself, who see Fascism certain to steal the march on a dictatorship of the workers and who mean to fight for true democracy as an essential of Socialism...
...Does that not mean that the Socialist Party will attempt, with 01 without the support even of th« workers, to set up a government...
...You know what became of these super - revolutionary movements with their phraseology...
...obtaining power through th« ballot—and defense of our victories against fascist attacks...
...FOR THE DECLARATION By Harry Lopatin Those who contend that the Declaration of Principles provides a basis for a 'split in Socialist ranks are creating a false issue, and...
...Arguments for the Declaration (Continued from Page Three) which has been agreed to...
...The one party which placed the origin of the spirit before that of nature and therefore in the last instance accepted in some form or other . . . made up the camp of the idealists...
...The leaders of the Russian revolutionary movement were patiently—or maybe impatiently—waiting abroad for a chance to come back and really do something...
...Can it be interpreted in any other way than an acceptance of the Bolshevik theory as practiced in Russia...
...To that end we need free speech, free press and free assemblage...
...membership and work within the trade unions...
...the Socialist Party...
...Time will vindicate us in the future as it has in the past...
...ing whether the Socialist Party is going Communist...
...But the Socialist movement is a class movement...
...There was no possibility of doing anything in Russia...
...opposition to militarism and war preparations...
...The committee also adopted the following resolution: Whereas, at the national convention of the Socialist Party, held in Detroit May 81-June 8, 1934, proposals were submitted placing the Socialist Party in opposition to the American Federation of Labor, endorsing the report ;of a number of American delegates attending the rc:snt International Congress held in Paris, and offering a Declaration of Principles Which repudiates the basic principles of the Socialist Party of America...
...It U a serious thing for serious people, for men and women who by their devotion will build a Socialist world...
...Th party solemnly declares the fol lowing: "The Socialist Party in tends not to be deceived by fascia propaganda...
...Ludicrous, isn't it...
...Russian Socialists remember the celebrated debates between the dialectic materialists and the empiro-critics and other machist schools among the intellectual leaders of the Russian Social Democratic movement The one incident of that battle I can not forget is how Georges Plechanov refused to call,another Socialist, A. Bogdanav, "comrade" because the latter wrote in many books and articles that "matter" is only a useful hypothesis, while Plechanov believed thst "matter" is a real substance...
...Farmer-Labor parties are being formed...
...The reverberations are already felt...
...course, Marx and Engels were philosophers, and Marxism is a philosophy, bit they were philosophers of a special kind...
...to a program which runs contrary to everything for which the S.P...
...i , Both want us to believe that what they are doing is of great importance to the Socialist movement and to the working class...
...Marx and Engels were both materialists, yet this is how Engels solves the problems of Materialism versus Idealism: "The great fundamental question of all, especially new, philosophy is connected with the relation between thinking and being...
...meanwhile, they had nothing to do but to philosophise...
...The American labor movement is on the road to progress—to radicalism...
...and Whereas, the said Declaration of Principles contains provisions committing the Socialist Party, nationally and locally, to (1) the encouragement of lawlessness by offering to protect all who may, by arms or other individual acts of violence, come in conflict with the law, (2) the use of "massed resistance" against war, with the dangerous implications of armed rebellion that the proposal contains, and (8) the seisure of political power and the setting up of a minority dictatorship in the United States...
...has stood...
...This I deny...
...A CHALLENGE By George Field I can see no gain in a set of principles calculated to win over a few thousand intellectuals who are on the border line between Socialism and Communism...
...He claims further that "the doctrine Comrade Thomas seeks to impose on the S.P...
...They are a faint memory...
...If we outlaw ourselves, it means that we lose contact with the workers...
...and ' Whereas, such policies are not only at variance with the position the Socialist Party has consistently taken in the thirty years of its existence, but completely repudiates the purposes for which it has been organized and which it considers basic if the Socialist Party is to be an instrument for the protection and advancement of the political interest of the working class...
...international working-class solidarity...
...their materialism is not metaphysical but sociological...
...Therefore be it resolved, that the State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party, at a special meeting held on June 12th at the People's House, New York City, expresses its disapproval of the attitude taken by those delegates...
...As this question was answered this way or that, the philosophers were divided into two great csmps...
...There is no doubt that Sidney Hook is much more of a philosopher and knows Marx better than does Eastman...
...They were Mlosophera who somehow - ntrived to build up a philosophy without writing a single book on philosoj hy...
...The philosophy of Msrxism is to be found in the economic, historical and tactical writings of Marx and E: :1s...
...their mistakes consist in the fact that they did not distinguish between Marxian materialism and all other kinds of materialism...
...It it an ironical commentary on Wald...
...N. Y. STATE COMMITTEE URGES DEFEAT OF REFERENDUM fHE following resolution was adopted by the New York State Committee at a meeting this week: / Whereas, by a decision of the national convention of the Socialist Party, held in Detroit May 81June 8, a Declaration of Principles was approved by the delegates assembled there, which Declaration of Principles is to be submitted to the membership of jthe Socialist Party for its acceptance or rejection...
...I believe that our honesty and clear-speaking in that document will win us valuable recruits from this large class -of workers...
...If they would admit it openly, no complaints would be forthcoming, but neither Eastman nor Hook will admit this...
...They were not metaphysicians but practical, fighting revolutionists...
...Democratic Socialism will triumph everywhere...
...Socialism to progress needs freedom...
...The movement is not a playground for the novelty seeker...
...The National Executive Committee itself was uncertain as to whether it should stsnd by the proposed Declaration...
...to be . . . undistinguishable from the doctrines which we repudiated when we split with the Communists...
...The Socialist movement is at the cross-roads...
...All of us know what thst means...
...Therefore be it resolved that the State Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of the State of New York condemns the said Declaration of Principles as unSocialistic, reactionary, and destructive of all that the Socialist Party stands for, and calls upon the membership of the State of New York to use every means in their power to secure its defeat in the pending referendum...
...made its appeal to our younger and more impulsive membership...
...At that time, however,, there was no movement to split The great interest in philosophy of that time was itself the result of political reaction...
...Labor unions are" ask...
...The New Leader has enlisted tho aosistance of tho Rand School of Social Science, r whose staff have undertaken to help roadert who ¦ wish to aet ths utmost value out of tho •fries, by ' answering questions that may arise in their minds ' at they read, and directing them to toureeo of ' information, advising them at to further study, and ' to forth...
...SOME FORMER RIFTS By H. Kalmanowits Please permt a disheartened observer of former rifts in the party to offer some advice to our comrades who talk of split Comrades, remember when the left wing of the French Socialists gained the upper hand, acquired the official organ L'Humanite and finally drifted into the Third International...
...Inquiries should be addrotted to the Rand School, 7 East lbth Street, New York, and if ' possible a few pottage stamps should ho inclosed, so at partly to pay the cost, I Marxism and Philosophy FOR no good reason I have been following the endless polemic between Max Eastman and Sidney Hook...
...Plechanov, as well as Bogdanav, was ready to split the movement on the question of the reality or ideality of matter...
...The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By Holm KsujtwtwvHea '¦ This is one of a series of articles—six groups of • six articles each—to appear in Tho New Leader in • cooperation with the Committee on Education of tho Socialist Party...
...The vogue for dictatorships of any brand will soon pass...
...That is only possible if we defend and maintain the results of what we have won by our struggle on the economic and political fields...
...Continued next week) Panken Sees Grave Dangers (Continued from Pag* Three) Declaration...
...Credit for it belong to Devere Allen, I assume...
...As philosophers they knew materialism as well as idealism in the exclusive field of metaphysics, but Marx and Engels threw all metaphysics overboard at the beginning of their careers...
...Finally, note this sentence: "I the capitalist syttem should col lapse in a general chaos and con fusion, which carnot permit o orderly procedure, the Socialis Parry, whether or not in such casi it is a majority, will not shrinl from the responsibility of organ ising and maintaining a govern ment under the workers' rule...
...They base their attack on certain phraseology— which Solomon forced the convention to retain by his motion on procedure "not to permit amendments...
...One with more time than he has use for may waste his time reading this endless polemic Both are much more interested in showing how learned and clever they are than in clearing up the moot points of Marxian philosophy...
...In essence it is freedom...
...Some delegates told me that they did not realize the serious consequences...
...The Socialists in our party have faced for some time a well disciplined, organised group acting as a unit and "boring from within...
...Do not talk of split Sit tight...
...Comrades representing Waldman's point of view should be encouraged to seek a change of the present position through democratic channels, but the Socialist Party of America will resist, I am su: various anti-democratic tactics of this "lover of democracy" whose recent statements in the New York Times warrant the severest discipline...
Vol. 17 • June 1934 • No. 73
