Karl Marx in Role of Adviser to American Labor Movement
Karl Marx in Role of Adviser to American Labor Movement iglL MARX took a profound l^fcterest in the struggle for the gfjon ef slavery in the United jpKjunng that this archaic \Z jjke the...
...Their performance was t the wind-up of the Socialist Bazaar, one of the most successful affairs » run in Reading for several years, i From there to York, Pa., where the National Biscuit Co.'s pretzel fac'- tory is also on strike...
...Lhe membership i overwhelmingly refused to give such an endorsement, so that the vote against the action of the State Committee was more than t 5 to 1. A considerable number of those who voted for the Doc ' laration of P r i n c i p 1 e s voted against the idea of throwing ou'_ the New York State organization...
...At any rate, his canonisation by the Vatican is not to be attributed to his championing of this revolutionary idea, but to the martyr's fate he suffered because he would not permit his Catholic conscience to give approval to one of the many tfivorees of his royal.master...
...Economically the period was marked by the rise of British commercial capital, which destroyed the old communal rural order and drove the peasants from their holdings to clear the way for the development of the wool industry, that the large land owners might enrich themselves in the wool trade with Flanders...
...From still another point of view the question of throwing out the Old Guard in New York seems to me very foolish...
...This canonization did not imply merely the addition of two more names to the endless list of Catholic saints . Insofar as it did not take cognizance of- his writings, which have wielded a permanent influence in the struggle for emancipation of the exploited and the oppressed, it was in reality a disavowal...
...The puppeteers then visited Baltimore for a Socialist party 7cr.c:al membership meeting, and went on to Washington, D. C, for a co-performance with the movie group of the Student League for Industrial Democracy...
...The puppeteer- left New York i last month, making Reading their i first stop...
...With the development of the new economy, based upon money, and the gradual extinction of natural economy More perceived in money the source of all evil...
...It would be unwise to have such members on a committee to mediate and investigate when the members of the National Executive Committee will sit as the court ef final appeal on decision* and recommendations of such a committee...
...Europe, had to be" swept before the labor movement 2 develop into a power...
...support and againet the two con- ¦ ceptions, and quoted Plato, who had rejected as useless the idea of private property...
...Misery was their reward as long as they were strcng enough to toil, and utter poverty and degradation was their lot when they grew old and ill, and no longer able to work...
...New Haven Socialists Hold Banquet Apr...
...Ed.] But to esr fraka...
...Local secretaries are asked to inform party headquarters as to existing cooperation between these groups and the party...
...This affair will mark the opening of the Socialist drive for campaign funds...
...while the wages of manual labor have risen 50 mi those of skilled labor 60 per est 'Pauperism,' he complains...
...That it will bring radicalism in general into disrepute in the country by making the incapability ol radicals to get along with one another more obvious than ever before, is also plain...
...On the contrary, one must cope with the matter wisely and diplomatically, so that while unable to attain the best, one may at lest avert the worst...
...strikers, the Rebel Arts Pup- peters are continuing their "U- Don't-Needa Disc uit" c a nj p a ig n with daily performances in the • streets and union headquarters in - New York and New Jersey...
...U-DON'T-NEEDA BISCUIT...
...the Address in part fol"B oar congratulatory address • Xr...
...Then the group returned to New York with a full season ahead, both in and out of town...
...More inclined, however, to the idea that reforms > should not be rejected in a capitalist society because "one should not quit a ship in the midst of a tempest simply because one cannot master the tempest...
...1 " " ^^^^^^^=^^^=3* St Thomas MoreA May Day Tribute (Thomas More, author of Utopia, is one of the early fathers of the Socialist ideal...
...The laws were stacked against them., The existing order was but a conspiracy of the rich to make secure theii own interests...
...We today do not accept the reservation that he wished to draw his slaves solely from the criminal elements and foreigners, in which idea he likewise followed Plato, who also gave his conception of a higher social order the objective of serving only the upper strata.of society, which was to rest upon the labor of slaves and aliens...
...In his own limited but none the less inspiring manner he blazed the road for the development of mankind's aspirations for a better world...
...In tile United States itelf sn independent labor movetat hat siace arisen which the ai aaanas and the professional loiHieiaoj new with d i s t .- u s t. This iefowii to the National1 La»r Reform larty with which Sylns was iMKfied...
...More's Antecedents » Thomas More did not belong to the poverty-stricken classes of England...
...If we throw out the N'ew York orj ganizatien anil the Old Guard j throughout the country," therefore, ! we are in the foolish position of j firing them out one day and then I being compelled -to get together with them in a "labor party the next day...
...Yours, then, is the glorious task of seeing to it that at last the working class shall enter upon the scene of history, no longer as a servile following, but as an independent power, as a power imbued with a sense of its responsibility and capable of commanding peace where their would-be masters cry war...
...He saw no possibility of building his state on a foundation of communal ownership of property without retaining a clasa of slaves for the performance of menial and low grade manual labor...
...When Maynard Krueger spoke at the open meeting held at the I time of the Boston meeting of the ' National Executive Committee, he gave the pledge that the members of the Socialist Party control and would continue to control the IHirty...
...The prices rfweessaries, remarks one of your sasasan, have risen 78 per cent B1860...
...By resorting to the writing of thai utcpian work the author sought escape from the opposition and resistance of hostile forces and the contradiction presented in the problem of reform versus revolution, far in his Utopia there was nothing that needed either to be reformed or revolutionized...
...close to the four hundredth anniversary of his death, a consistory assembled in the Vatican and canonized Thomas More, late Lord Chancellor of England, together with ] Bishop Fisher of London, who suffered with him the punishment of execution...
...Marx ^the author of an Address by mttint International to Abraham rjajtln...
...But there is still another point which seems to me, needs emphasizing...
...It paved the way for a long series of Utopian novels which gave humanity the vision of better worlds—with or without private property—and was the precursor to Owen's practical experiment...
...C. D. Rostow will act as toastmaster and prominent speakers will appear...
...In Philadelphia, they performed for a joint meeting arranged by the Socialist Party and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union...
...Karl Marx in Role of Adviser to American Labor Movement iglL MARX took a profound l^fcterest in the struggle for the gfjon ef slavery in the United jpKjunng that this archaic \Z jjke the remnants of feuE'ja...
...I Aawllal W^fiie Thai rvnitfotaftft U Lewis Warns That Expulsion of New fort Would Split Party By Alfres Baker Lewis By Alfred Baker Lewis When the State Committee of the Socialist Porta of...
...member him in the midst of our own world economic crisis because, far in advance of his time, and after a pause of two thousand years, he was, like Plato, the first to propound the idea that the happiness of mankind required a radical readjustment in property relationships, and to give the idea a firm foundation...
...increasing is America more rapHy thsa population.' f•<firtovej, the sufferings of the working class are in glaring contrast to the new-fangled luxury of financial aristocrats, shoddy aristocrats and other vermin bred hy, war...
...Both it tht United States and in Europe aa colossal burden of a public debt as shifted from hand to hand in car to settle it upon the shoulders 4 At working class...
...His Defects and Virtues More did not embrace in his conception the Rights of Man as proclaimed two hundred and fifty years later...
...Nevertheless, there are manyfeatures in the conception of a . better social order as presented bymen four hundred years ago that remain not without interest, and More deserves his title to fame in that he did not hesitate to repudiate the idea of private property...
...Comrade Mrs...
...I urge that this committee be composed of members not on the N.E.C...
...Neverj theless, More's conception was that I of a democratic association of : autonomous parts, headed by a ! president elected for life and re| movable only upon proof of seeking i to establish a tyranny...
...SOCIALIST PUPPET SHOW . CARRIES BISCUIT STRIKE MESSAGE By Joel Lloyd i JUST returned ^from a southern ¦ ** tour for the National Biscuit f Co...
...If the members of the National Executive Committee intend to follow the defires of the membership it is plain that they should not throw out New York...
...More and more of our members are coming to that opinion, and that is true amdfig the militants and Old Guard alike...
...Tee immediate tangible result <f the Civil War was of course a xunorrtioa of the condition of t* American workingmen...
...He maintained that poverty and crime would disappear if money were only abolished, since it was lack of money that gave stimulus to these evils...
...His father was a judge, and the sen received an excellent education, attended Oxford University and responding to an inner urge, devoted himself to the study of law, coupled with theology and philosophy...
...As will be seen from the first, the socio-political part, of his Utopia, he proclaimed the belief that there could be no trace of either right or justice in a land that enriched the bankers, speculators and courtiers while peasants, agricultural laborer.-, blacksmiths, carpenters, miners and other workers, were permitted to sink in impoverishment...
...They stopped ofT in Hopewell, Va., i scene of the spectacular lock-out I of three thousands members of the United Textile Workers by the I Tubizc company, that would rather ; move its plant to Brasil than ; recognize the usion.| From there i they journeyed to Chapel Hill, t N. C. for the three-day Drama t Festival sponsored every year by . the University of North Carolina Shaw University, colored colI ictre in Durham, N. C, gave one , complete chapel period to the Rebel : Arts Puppeteers, who gave their i pertormance for the entire student ¦ body...
...The Rhode Island Textile Council has endorsed the idea of a labor party and is sending its delegates to the Rhode Island State Federation of Labor with that in mind...
...It wppna* it, a war between the Dated States and England would r the sore means...
...To make perfectly clear my complete disinterestedness in the matter, I declare now that if yon follow the earnest request that I make to you and appoint a committee of members outside of New York who voted both sides ou the Declaration, I am not a candidate for appointment to such a committee and would not accept such an ^ppcintment...
...I think that the vote here is sufficiently typical of the opinion throughout the country to show that only about half who voted in favor of the Declaration of Principles want to have the New York State organization thrown out...
...C.A., to an audience composed of factory girls from the Workers' School and a group of girls from i the Junior League of Richmond, ' Va...
...His work does not lose significance by its defects...
...At a meet' ing arranged by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers funds were raised " for strike relief...
...It .is also true that the so-called Old Guard have the in.-ide track with the unions in the clothing ( trades and some other unions in ; New York and with the unions in j the clothing trades throughout most j of the larger cities, Boston included...
...A definite and sizeable majority of the party members, therefore, would be against throwing out the New York State organization...
...Then the players went i north to Richmond, Va., for a • special meeting arranged by the i industrial department of the Y.W...
...And the avawMclose of the war against tsery has indeed inaugurated a ¦a eta in the annals of the work¦j class...
...at social readjustment...
...To escape the practical difficulties of finding the best road to a social state...
...Political despotism coincided with the spread cf economic misery, as has frequently been the case in the history of mankind to the degradation and destruction of the' generaT welfare...
...QX April 1, 1935...
...Karl Kautsky has devoted a whole volume to Thomas More...
...Intended for American jjjis...
...declaring that ^Zgieaa workers "were unable to *"~g 'jtc true freedom of labor or JJjJpart their European brethren -mar struggle lor emancipation" 1st the slave barrier "has been -at of by the red sea of ciyil h 1865 the International sent an jjress to President Johnson deijjBgthe assassination of Lincoln , in 1869 sent an address to fllism H. Sylvis, president of the Labor Union, also written ¦ Min...
...We have all the more reason to re...
...congratulating nim on his S^*a in 1864...
...Max Beer, in his "General History of Socialism and Social Struggles," discusses his work in extensive detail...
...It is appropriate that we remember him on May Day for the revolutionary things he said and did, especially since the Catholic Church saw fit recently to cannonize him for the thing that was of least revolutionary significance in his life...
...Compulsory universal education (which Europe "Vififl*"1 several centuries later), religious freedom, although limited to those who believed in God, a tolerance for which Lessing had to fight in vain two hundred years after More, abolition of war as cruel and barbarous, and many other things for which we of the Twentieth Century are still fighting, were part of More's Utopia...
...The fate of the workers was even worse than that of beasts of burden...
...then report to the members of your committee and to the membership throughout the country...
...I realize that it is easy simply to say, 'Don't take a particular action when you are faced with a • serious situation in New York.' | Some more constructive and posiI tiye iine of action nrast be suggested in its place, and I want to suggest and urge as strongly as I can upon the members of the National . Executive Committee that they appoint a committee of comrades outside of New York coss. posed of persons who voted both sides on the Declaration of Principles to investigate and mediate, if possfcle, and if not, to hear and try charges against individuals or against the State Committee of New York...
...It was in the England of Henry VIII, the roue on the throne, who frequently sought escape from his political and personal difficulties with the help of the executioner...
...Massachusetts adopted a remalution favoring the revocation of the chatrer °t Sew York State, this action :warn sent to a referendum of the party, members...
...The State Committee was reversed by a vote of 5 to I. Following the referendum State Secretary Lewis sent to members of the National Executive Committee the following statement: "A REFERENDUM was submitted on the question of endorsing or overturning the reI quest made by the State Exccu' tive Committee of Massachusetts ! h the National Executive Committee to revoke the charter of I New York...
...Sooner or later we are bound to have a labor party in this country, as that is the form which the Socialist political movement has taken in every other English speaking country in the world...
...He cited arguments both .in...
...More caused his- hero to purchase a virgin rainless island and to transform it into a happy dwelling place by means of his political, economic and social program—to create a Utopia (Eutopia in Greek...
...Thus came about j the thing that since More has been termed Utopia...
...And if the expression "from Utopia to science" has advanced from the title of a book to an idea pregnant with powerful content, we owe this to Thomas More, for it was he who coined the very word Utopia...
...Reform and Revolution Before taking up the discussion of his idea of a better social order, More concerned himself with the problem which to this day continues to occupy so much prominence, the problem of reform and revolution, without, however, reaching any definite conclusions on the question...
...27 NEW HAVEN.— The anniversary banquet of the New Haven Socialists will be held Saturday, April 27th, 8 P. M., at Silverberg's Restaurant, 204 Crown St...
...In talking with members both of the so-called Old Guard -and socalled miiltan|s, I have found a substantial degree of agreement regarding certain things that have been done in New York by the Old Guard which they feel should not have been done, and also regarding certain things which have been done or proposed by the militants which they feel should not be done, so that I believe it will be possible to get a fairly substantial degree cf agreement among members of a committee appointed to investigate the New York situation even though such a committee was composed of equal numbers of those who voted for and those who voted against the Declaration of Principle...
...Every- , thing was to be built from the be- i ginning, a fact that did net exist anywhere in life...
...Finally, it was the parent of all advanced political programs, particularly those which have set themselves the purpose of emancipating humanity through the abolition of j j private capitalism...
...As a young man be had alreadyi attained a reputation as a scholar extending beyond the confines of England...
...Party Seeks to Cooperate With All Scandinavian Workers' Groups * CHICAGO.—Calling attention to the fact that Denmark, Norway and Sweden now all have SocialistLabor governments, the national office of the Socialist Party- has asked local secretaries to work closely with Scandinavian workers' fraternal and coperative groups where these are known to exist...
...needs years of peace...
...Upon ascending the highest judicial post in the country as Lord Chancellor he stood forth as one of the most striking personalities of his time...
...s Then the group traveled down to ' Norfolk for a performance at the : Workers' Education Conference...
...Still the Civil War offered a compensation in the liberation of the slaves and the impulse which it thereby gave to your own class movement...
...The visible results of this puppet lour is a trail of newspaper publicity through the Southeast for the National Biscuit strikers and for Rebel Arts, and a distribution of fifty thousand "U-Dont-Needa Biscuit" circulars to union and Socialist Party groups who were practically unaware of the strike...
...They have worked up in favor of a labor party a mass sentiment of the members of the United Textile Workers in Rhode Island...
...Another war, not sanctified by a sublime aim or a social j^necessity, but like the wars of the ¦"Old World, would forge chains for the free workingmen, instead of j sundering those of the slave...
...Lincoln on the occasion of a re-election to the Presidency „ expressed it as our conviction pt the Civil War would prove to its important to the progress of ¦j working class as the War of jfcaaaieaee has been to the deans* of the middle class...
...while all of those who voted against the Declaration of Principles are anxious not to have this take place...
...and ifi.not for a labor party, on other matters of common interest...
...The ' accumulated misery which it would leave in its wake would furnish your capitalists at once with the motive and the means of separating the working class from their courageous and just aspirations by the soulless sword of a standing army...
...That it would s]ilit the party goes without saying...
Vol. 18 • April 1935 • No. 17
