Labor's Internationalism Is Not Just Brotherly Love
Lee, Algernon
Labor's Internationalism Is Not Just Brotherly love By Algernon Lee remind ourselves that the observance of May Day. now as widely prevalent throughout the work! as is the capitalist...
...Separate the high ideal from the unromantic daily struggle, and it becomes as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal...
...The capitalist uses labor power because the worker will produce more values than what it cost in the market...
...This is dangerous...
...Vitus" 4-ere: "The Prime Minister, James Aloysius Farley, the Nabob of New York...
...Its exchange value is not realized until it is sold...
...No money, no shoes, no food, no use values...
...The paralysis may have its beginning in the upper range of financial gambling or below in production and exchange...
...It lives and aa] live...
...It has value in exchange and a use value...
...Wo, wfj roared, "We will see each etSS again, over thrte...
...Instead of a union of these three leaders we need a union of the organized workers and farmers in a class party of their own, choosing spokesmen and representatives who have been tested in the struggles of these organizations, not a cleric, a demagog or a professional man with no experience in the struggle...
...Those who earn up to $250 a montn and have contributed for five years would receive a pension of $22.50 a month...
...in the second case the exchange value is enormous and the utility is small...
...Coffee was served, which the ex-burgoma.-ter of Vienna had made himself, while the ex-opposition leader of the Italian Parliament was jubilantly arranging some oranges in a tray...
...For Solidarity Wherever and In so far ssjH cialists think of Socialism asjavl marily a matter of opinion, af'BS trine, of program, and not primer...
...In giving it final form they referred to the St...
...For a Shorter Workday Starting with the shortening of the workday as its whole content, and international only in the sense that this purpose was to be vpiced in the same day in many countries...
...Socialism does say: "Workingmen of all countries, unite...
...It was not so in its inception...
...A starving man can eat the apple and live, but if he ate the diamond he would die...
...In the ad this week he manages to establish a protectorate over "American principles," the "American People," "militant Americanism," the "American system," the "American Constitution," "American institutions," "American ideals," "American standard of living," "American forefathers," "American rights and liberties" and quite a number of other American things and ideas...
...And so we see that Hearst's Washington morning paper calls the President a Socialist and a Communist...
...Each regards the masses as herds to be directed by him...
...Not if, when we proclaim ourselves internationalists, we are thinking in terms of class-consciousness and class struggle...
...Labor produces commodities, exchange values, but they are useless until they reach the consumer...
...it grows and will grow...
...In February of this year Comrades Modigliani and Winter met again in the lobby of a Los Angeles hotel...
...I fights and will fight...
...He wanted us to go to his modest room, where he dreams, plans and works...
...In Vienna...
...it up, but it seems better to hsW in this May Day issue, WgfcfJ large special circulation, SM complete in itself...
...L. SOME PRIMARY PRINCIPLES I IF people could get the basic fact that capitalism is a system of producing commodities and understand what a commodity is, they would be able to understand why industry remains stagnant...
...It has exchange value and use value, like any other commodity...
...Doughton of North Carolina, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, sp.id his committee had been considering the President's social security program for three months, but had given no consideration to the Lundeen measure...
...They are hopeful that the Senate will stiffen the measure at several vital points The bill as pas.-ed by the House provides for: 1. Unemployment compensation...
...A surplus accumulates in the hands of the capitalist...
...He said: "idB afraid I will not see you sgStjfl But t he lion-like votes of sturdy Italian, with gtatSliiB radiant confidence befitting SJ who had long gone through aafl momentary spells, hurried to <sfj fort his comrade...
...A few minutes, and he was court jester again, laughing, buffooning, spattering the New- Deal with nicknames...
...If the worker* want real legislation for security, whether in the field of collective bargaining, social security, old-age pensions, and all other social legislation, let them send their own representatives to Congress...
...A display of fireworks will get a much larger audience than a Sermon on the Mount even during the Master holidays...
...He spoke to the Senators, not to the galleries...
...a| self except by putting an mmiM all class division, by buildaf^fl classless society...
...In short he is the worst thing American, the windbag of American reaction...
...agjj divide the non-possessing BsaaS ers of wealth from its non-sreaflf ing posse-sors...
...Madama Modigliani and I, together with some local comrades, sat at a distance so as not to interfere with the conversation of the two old leaders...
...Take a shoe...
...I intend to /afM...
...To Hearst's editorial writers a ' Socialist is still the same as a Communist—a hare or a horse, both run...
...as is the capitalist system, originated in the United States, i Perhaps we d'elegates assem- itlifc.bled at St...
...One of the most important acts of that body was the decision that, on a date to be fixed, great demonstrations should be held simultaneously in as many places as possible in all countries, for the purpose of demanding everywhere the legal limitation of the working day to eight hours...
...The'premiums will come from a 1 per cent tax on payrolls, half to be borne by the worker and half by his employer...
...Eliminate production for exchange, produce use values to satisfy human wants and the problem is solved...
...The working masses constitute the great source of consuming use values...
...But shafts at the Public Works Administrator were sandwiched into a general broadside at the Administration...
...Its use value is not realized until it passes through exchange to the user...
...The capitalist buys it and realizes its use value...
...It l* helpful to a wrUerW pet reactions from his resdsmt Last week's article, though W grettably long, obviously dealt adj only a part of the subject to sdrnw it was devoted...
...There may be some strength, some force, in the excuse that it's only a start, a first step in the right direction, the good old argument of an "entering wedge" which covers up a multitude of sins...
...A fist-fight will attract a bigger crowd than a scientific discussion on a social problem...
...The House Committee, under Doughton's conservative leaderrhip, cut out some of the provisions regarded as desirable by the Administration experts, and liberals who considered the original bill too conservative, were even less pleased with the House version...
...But—that's that...
...He tried to be dignified, at least serious...
...Those who started contributing when they were 25 and earned $250 a month all that time would collect $75 a month, the possible maximum...
...The fine internationalism of a healthy Socialist movement has little or nothing in common with philosophic cosmopolitanism or with ethical humanitarianism...
...In an industrial crisis commodities remain in the exchange phase of production and do not reach the use phase...
...Is there a real contrast between the May Day of 1890 and the May Day of 1935...
...But this also means elimination of private owners of industry and substitution of collective ownership—Socialism...
...Talmadge, according to the Associated Press, adopted a new slogan, "Americans, Wake Up...
...V the Socialists cannot get along W , moniously with it—wherever a#l in so far as this state of sip ! exists, there and to that *Xmw organized Socialism remains altt I instead of having grown intb sp> litica...
...The expired and lamented royal block, Hugh Sitting Bull Johnson, who has now described himself as the new oo-lala of Oklahoma...
...To realize their use value, one must have the medium of exchange—money...
...The tax will increase gradually until...
...2. Old-age benefits...
...Talmadge and Long Have Their Say Governor Talmadge of Georgia calls President Roosevelt "a radical and a disciple of Stalin," Senator Long, dictator of Louisiana, talks of the "strange combination of Moscow and the Normahal"—referring to the yacht of the rich young man who entertains President Roosevelt on his fishing trips...
...That fact has a deeper significance than We sometimes realize...
...NOTE.—I kore > rreived SSfJh] comments, favorable or adfaSj upon my articles in The IjH header, and particularly npsm ttsf of last week...
...Co-operation is mot e semxisstsf...
...It is expected that by 1950 the tax will have created reserves amounting to $12,000,000,000...
...The present, the palpitant, throbbing present, was the constant topic of their discussion...
...For what ii a> sential about a political mevagfi^ is not that it goes through aV motions of adopting platfotsn, nominating candidates, and 0fW, paigning for votes...
...Vice-Burgomaster Max Winter received them on behalf of the Red City and put at their disposal an apartment in the Schonbrunn Palace, once the residence of the Hapsburg emperors...
...Easter Monday the Senate gave a good performance to a large crowd...
...The evestismm democracy is big enough and mwsa ly enough to remain a live eiiljij| to warrant coming back to t tM and again.~A...
...Connery retorted that while the Ways and Means Committee might have studied the subject for three months, his committee—the Labor Committee — had considered the subject for 15 years and from the vast knowledge thus accumulated favored the Lundeen bill...
...It aims ultisaatjS if you will, at universal bmenf brotherhood...
...Behind the Scenes in Washington By Benjamin Meiman Our Washington Correspondent DERSOXAL quarrels overshadowed all important or semiimportant political occurrences in Washington last week...
...He warned of "another Boston Tea Party" and revived the ancient cry of Southern politicians of State sovereignty...
...The old-age insurance program provided by the bill will require every employed person in the United States making not more than $250 a month to take out what amounts to an annuity policy with the United States Government...
...wherever aaj a so far as they think of tnetnaaW...
...Secretary Ickes, as such, wasn't delivered...
...as an intellectual elite, mom e> less apart from the bulk of tat working class, qualified to lead asj direct it...
...What the American Federation of Labor did at St...
...This limited pensions to $50 a month as a starter, but gradually stepped them up to the full $200 a month contemplated by the original plan...
...Those may be very fine sentiments, but they are empty and sterile ir, a class-divided society...
...When it was time to part, however, the gentle Viennese could not keep back his tears...
...A few months later, in July, 1889, delegates from Socialist and Labor organizations in nineteen countries (the United States, included) met at Paris in what has come to be known as the first congress of the Second International...
...The gentle Viennese wanted to be host again...
...But rii -t or aeo»sjgBjBj working class...
...House Adopts Social Security Bill AT last a modified Social Security bill passed the House last Friday with an overwhelming majority (372 to .13) that almost-insures its passage in the Senate...
...The Honorable Lord Destroyer, Henry Almighty Wallace, the Ignoramus of Iowa...
...Eventually the surplus becomes a glut...
...BaSd^H will be plenty of r*oa far SaH ream, tar farther evaleltsa...
...On a teller vote Connery lost, 158 to 40...
...The worker will become eligible for a pension when he reaches 65 and has contributed regularly to the system for five years...
...It is therefore not surprising that the personal fight on President Roosevelt, the major bout between Secretary Ickes and Senator Long, , and minor sparrings and wrappings between Reliefer Hopkins and Governor Talmage, took up all the center rings in our political circus...
...Then Connery (Dem., Mass ), the hard-hitting chairman of the Labor Committee, offered the Lundeen unemployment insurance proposal which would guarantee full wages to the idle...
...It's a security bill that in reality does not secure...
...Other figures, he said, enjoying "a peculiar status in this third year of our reigning empire of St...
...an insurance bill that does not insure...
...Milo Reno who heads the National Farm Holiday Association hopes to see a political union between the three "leaders" to end wage slavery...
...What it eafetfg tial about a political wsiswtal if that it is the movement of a class —not just for a class, bat of ft...
...We are about to pass the mo-t important measure, probably, ever considered by an American Congress," said the veteran Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, who guided the measure thiough the House...
...It does not say: "All men are Of one blood and ought to live together in brotherly affection...
...thought of now as primarily a manifestation of internationalist thought and feeling, with the demand for the shorter workday as one among its incidental features: —Has it become something essentially different from what it was...
...ftifht er Wroaa...
...No one dared sponsor the fantastic $200 per month old-age pension contemplated by the good but foolish doctor...
...But they were not bemoaning the past...
...The embrace of good-by was probably too much for his heart, not vat hardened by the hardships of exile SSH by the nerve-wracking vigil IH the tomorrow...
...Bg ! it is better to be with and of ft I working class, st the risk of aaVl times sharing its mistakes, IsW to stand aloof and never te mm For the working class is a faeaM mental reality...
...but it knows that on can be attained only through Hf victory of a class which by fts*2| nature cannot aspire to bocoaw al ruling class, cannot emancipate...
...Secretary of Interior Ickes, whose ears he bad threatened to "pin back" for daring to threaten withdrawal of Louisiana's share in the Federal-aid jackpot, was labeled "Lord High Chamberlain Harold Icke-, the chinch bug of Chicago...
...It talks editorially of "Our Socialistic Administration in Washington" and of "these two great Soviet Republics, the United States and Russia...
...If an insured person cies before reaching 65, his heirs will receive the amount paid into the system by him and his employers...
...patiently or impatient...
...I1JH1LE approving the Govern" merit's assumption of responsibility for the aged and the needy, we cannot enthuse over the bill the House adopted...
...Louis resolution, and accepted the date which the American Federation of Labor had set...
...On a standing vote this was beaten 206 to 56...
...3. Federal aid to dependent cnildren, neglected dependents and cripples...
...There is the American demagog, the American who coins money out of malice, the American who racketeers in medieval prejudices, the American exploiter, jingo, imperialist and war-maker...
...ily as a matter of class inters* and class, action...
...j offering it the benefit of their tab* 'age, instead of feeling themtsJasJ to be flesh of its fle«.h and boras g its bone...
...An apple to a man who is starving is in the first category and a diamond is in the second category...
...So it aiau js> mediately at that class victory...
...But he couldn't hold that serious pose...
...The Interior Secretary, whose warning against Long control a Federal works funds in Louisiana provoked the attack, was meanwhile not silent...
...But 91 sense of the raying was eorlM The working class may go wajfi for a while, in some things...
...which is quite a different thing...
...The First of May stands for s ilidarity among workingmen only ail cause it recognises the irrajjS sible conflict between worktagfS to unite across national htengH in order that they may the »nH effectively carry on their defeasd and aggressive struggle aloof,II class frontiers which i 11...
...There are a few things American that Hearst might well claim...
...Like a blood clot in the brain, paralysis follows...
...The Kingfish returned fire to those who dared challenge his dictatorship in Louisiana...
...The Worfclaa Class...
...Tt>4s far from being the kind of Social Security demanded by Socialists, but it beats by a mile the present relief makeshift and the old-age poor-house...
...Not if our Socialism has remained vital and sound...
...In any event, a depression is inevitable...
...There is in it also the danger of setting a bad example, which results in discouragement for future efforts...
...In the one case the utility is enormous and the exchange value is small...
...1957, when it will become 6 per cent, still divided, half and half, between the employer and the employee...
...If 1 dn not /tad til] to answer all such rnmmunieatwm j this does not mean that I disrsfsm them...
...Louis in December, 1888, was to fix May 1, 1890, as the date for launching a great nation-wide effort for the general establishment of the eight-hour day...
...Ickes was "No...
...They were not wasting time over what might have happened...
...It is in just such hard, materialistic, work-a-day facts as the struggle over wages, over hours of labor, over the right to "hire and fire," that the heart-stirring ideal of internationalism lives and has its being...
...The worker realizes its exchange value in the market—a wage...
...THE DANGER OF LEADERS IF there is one thing that the working masses have to avoid more than anything else it is reliance upon a leader...
...Moreover, each of them has no intention of ending capitalism...
...2" on his list of New Deal characters...
...Louis J*2=^=KLin the eighth annual conven- Algernen Lee tion of the American Federation of Labor...
...He takes everything "American' into his special keeping...
...X| Our glorious old Ben fl Iliad ' adopted and adapted a famoasjk, triotic slogan of esHicr day- M; often have we he <-d ,|»^^| speech with thos...
...But now "voices in the air" about] Roosevelt's waning popularity have encouraged personal attacks upon the Pontiff of the New Deal and all his cardinals and bishops...
...McGroarty and championed by Monaghan of Montana...
...The scheduled personal reply to...
...Utility will then be the primary motive in production, the only motive that should prevail in a civilized society...
...That's unusual for Huey...
...4. Additional Federal aid to State and local public health agencies...
...A modified form of the plan was offered by Rep...
...The conscious self-directed movement that chooses and recalls its spokesmen, instructs them, holds them to instructions, formulates its own program,changes it when necessary, is the only movement that can serve the working class...
...ngug wttiju "The working claas, may * dad be right...
...The rise of Father Coughlin, Dr...
...Such reliance implies lack of confidence in themselves...
...Until very recently the most violent critics of the New Deal spared the person of the President...
...Or,—is that asking too much of the workers to understand ? Comrades in Exile By S. Romualdi riGHT years ago, when Comrade Giuseppe Emanuele Modigliani and his wife had to flee from Italy, they traveled first to Vienna...
...But there is also the danger of making a false start, which condemns the best intentions to inevitable failure...
...The tax will go into effect January 1, 1937...
...IH decay and disappear, bat they all contribute te the uabauhValfl the Organism ef HstsassssVMl Laurence Groalaad...
...Their labor power is also a commodity...
...Conscious that it was making history by committing the Government to permanent responsibility for the care of the nation's aged and needy, the debate was on a much higher plane...
...Huey's fanfare of criticism echoed down the Eastern seaboard to Atlanta, where Gov...
...When the Co-operative Ceesaaasn wealth is achieved, there will iwflj room tor isj more revolutions, MJ revolutions are caused by dstdtflj in*-* of class interests, and afl dM distinctions are foreter •beftatfl the moment the lowest class tsMH incorporated into Society...
...Unless we have confidence in ourselves, we are certain I to be led up a blind alley to realize disappointment...
...We commonly think of the First of May as being dedicated above all to the idea of internationalism...
...Such an important thing | as the Social Security Bill in the ' House is being shoved into a dark j corner...
...Exchange suffers from a glut of commodities and as exchange becomes clogged production slows down...
...It is made not to use but to sell...
...Eugene Talmadge, reputed friend of Long and a New Deal antagonist, declared reelection of President Roosevelt would be "a national calamity...
...Such is life...
...In casting their vote for it they conceded, however, that the measure is a stride forward in that it gives official recognition to the principle that the Federal Government is responsible for the care of victims of the economic system...
...The use value of commodities is thus not realized...
...Sinclairism, the Townsend Plan, Labor party prospects, tactics and programs of the Socialists throughout the world, were the only things to occupy their minds...
...That is one way by which wage slavery will not be ended...
...Talking arm in arm, two veteran soldiers of temporarily defeated armies, they appeared, to those of us who knew and therefore could understand, in the light of two wandering prophets seeking to fulfill the never-ending mission of workers' redemption...
...Exchange becomes clogged...
...It does not say: "The world is my country and to do good is my religion...
...Short work was made of the Townsend plan...
...In Kurmael jH Rome...
...Now it is the use of things that is essential to human welfare and happiness, but capitalism is a system of producing values for exchange, not use...
...THE AMERICAN WIND BAG WHEN Hearst runs sloppy and sentimental ads in other dailies in support of his reactionary ideas he must be feeling the effect of criticism...
...He would readily admit that I one were to take only the HmM meaning of the words, onejaddt draw false conclusions...
...Townsend and ' Kingfish" Long and recruiting by these "leaders" for each leader's program is not a healthy development...
...Oat Of ft] experience ia struggle it lea 11 in correct its own mistakes, h»|n large sense the working class hi ever right...
...movement...
...That resolution emanated from the French Federation of Labor Unions, then but three years old, and was introduced by two of its leaders, Dormoy and Lavigne...
...Speaking in New York, he denounced the Long "share-the-wealth" plan as "despicable beyond my powers of description...
...That's human nature...
...A commodity may be very useful and have little exchange value or have much exchange value and be of little use...
...wherever and in so fermj Sociali Til fails of being what.: heartedly identified with Orgaajag| Labor, understanding and retaaS- i ing its point of view, recogTSaht i that it is the more basic as MM as the larger embodiment efajflH ing-clas- consciousness, that it at I get along without 'the Socialist...
Vol. 18 • April 1935 • No. 17
