Thomas Views a Collapsing System in His New Book
Beremberg, David P.
Thomas Views a Collapsing System in His New Book ly David P. lercnbtrg The Choice Before 11$, by Norman Thoma*. Macmillan, New York. 0 0 0 *rHIS. the third book by Comrade Thomas in three...
...the third book by Comrade Thomas in three years, continues hi> examination of the present plight of capitalist society and weighs its chances of extricating itself from the doldrums into whic*h it has fallen...
...Opposing Counsel: We object upon the ground that this question is not only irrelevant, incompetent and immaterial...
...The government Wisely abstained from any interference...
...Objection sustained...
...There are dozens of such indications, some small, other impressive, but all of them significant...
...4) that we grant the Philippines, their independence, i We should repudiate (page 179) "blind support of some scheme of action against a so-called aggressor nation...
...It came in Germany in part as a consequence of the economic crisis, but neither the Social Democrats nor the Communists can be absolved from a share of the blame...
...The Worker now takes the witness stand...
...Consequently, it welcomes any (tempt on the part of repreitntative bodies of workers, such is onions, to form a genuine labor ptrty as opposed to the capitalistnntrolled Republican, Democratic ind other parties...
...It has been asked particularly gther it would join in such an mpt at the present time...
...The Notorious Case of the Worker Versus the Shirker A. T. A WORKER summond a Shirker into court and began to crossexamine the Shirker, The Shirker taken the witness stand...
...We made every part, from start to finish, with our skill and with the machinery we made, and so it should be ours...
...He adds (page 231) that "in any new mass party we should preserve our identity at least for educational purposes, as the Independent Labor Party once did within the British I^»bor Party...
...The greatest single failure of Socialism as an international force prior to the first World War was its failure to perfect the machinery for such a strike...
...Objection sustained...
...Question: What, are you, anyway...
...But he favors the economic boycott and also the refusal on the part of the United States to "supply either belligerent in a great war with loans or munitions...
...Socialist Party of Yugoslavia Again Outlawed 11/K reported a few weeks ago the ™ happy tidings of the rebirth of the Social-Democratic Party In Yugoslavia, which on February It h. after a B-year "underground" existence, again became a legal party...
...Answer: Yes, we were paid from capital—paid from the surplus which you sweated from labor...
...2) that in Latin America "we practice the doctrine we have so loudly preached to Japan...
...Answer: None whatever...
...He finds against the defendant and for Socialism...
...It is perilous in the extreme to select candidates fore publishing a platform and fore getting a vigorous pledge adherence to this platform from e candidates...
...Comrade Thomas finds in the New Deal, the NRA and the AAA, in spite of certain redeeming features, on the whole a record of failure...
...Question: Can you assign anyother reasons why this property should be yours...
...The political enlightenment of the workers is proceeding apace, and it is to be hoped that in the very near future, the formation of a genuine mass Labor Party perhaps from these very negotiations will be attempted...
...Yet (page 156) he argues that "what hope there is in America, and probably in Europe, as I have already said, lies in the pressure of sheer necessity that Socialists and Communists act together in certain matters unless they wish to be destroyed separately...
...No nation, in Comrade Thomas' opinion, is immune to fascism...
...In the crisis that confronts the world the choice is between Socialism and fascism...
...We made every tie, every rail, every Car, every wheel, every bridge and depot, every cut and grade...
...Such a party should be composed if working class organizations Mther than individuals, and in lich a party the Socialist Party iould retain its identity...
...and Communism and feared the victory of either of them...
...Question: You claim the right for your class to take over and operate this property now in dispute...
...Opposing Counsel: We object on the ground that the answer ntay incriminate our client...
...178 ff...
...The tral Committee of the Socialist 'arty has accordingly considered his question and submits herewith B answer...
...Answer: Pay whom...
...Answer: I did not...
...In the course of his discussion of the inflationary moves that the administration has made, Comrade Thomas tells us (page 120) that "Simply as an immediate palliative, especially in a capitalist society which will not face the capital levy without nervous collapse, I have always preferred reflation or controlled and directed inflation to a continuence of such deflation as marked the Hoover administration...
...Comrade Thomas indicts the Social Democrats for adopting the policy of the lesser evil...
...Answer: We do...
...Fascism crushes the labor movement...
...It has always opposed tie doctrine that labor should renin outside the political moveatnt and preserve a benevolent aentrality between all parties— rewarding its friends and punishing its enemies without regard to political affiliation, based upon the topelessnesB of expecting working mts emancipation through the ttiele of capitalist-controlled paries...
...As a means of enforcing labor's anti-war attitude in a war crisis he believes (page 180) "that in the moment of mobilization a general strike, or a considerable approach to a general strike would be far more effective, and speedily effective, than a similar strike at a timeWhen all the activities of a country were not focussed on one task...
...3) that we apply to Japan the same quota immigration system as to other nations...
...Question: You claim to own this disputed property...
...i Question: Upon what do you base your claim...
...Answer: Yes, if any other were needed...
...In effecting the transfer of property from private to social ownership he prefers compensation to the present owners to confiscation...
...ThV Communist refusal to make a united front with the Social Democrats possible, their occasional cooperation with the Nazis, and their failure to win over the peasants and the middle class caused their debacle...
...Compensation plus the capital levy Is his formula...
...Roosevelt's failure to nationalize the banks when he had the opportunity in March 1933...
...On pages 1^2 and 153 he analyses the meaning of the Communist slogan of the "united front from below," and exposes the Communist love of lying...
...The building of the navy to treaty strength, our trend to economic nationalism, Japan's intransigeance in Manchuria, Hitler's sword rattling are bad omens.' As forces making for peace he lists the decision of the...
...Answer: That the property belonged to a man named Sockafeller...
...In a recent statement on the jAjtct the Philadelphia Socialists, trough their County Central Comlittf', declared: "The Socialist Party of PhilaWphia has been approached by irUin organisations representing ibersl and labor bodies concerning Dm formation of a Labor Party...
...It is with regret, then, that it fcserves that the present sponsors )1 a Labor Party do not intend a Implete break with the capitalist Parties but rather propose to run candidates in the Republican and Democratic primaries...
...For the foregoing reasons the Socialist Party of Philadelphia is imphatic in withholding its supPort from the proposed Labor Party at the present time and in•tructs all its members to act in accordance with this decision...
...it may incriminate our client...
...Most Socialists," he says (page 212), "believe in compensation plus taxation rather than confiscation, because they believe that today we are not ready to take over at one act all the great mass of production and run them smoothly, and that piecemeal confiscation of the sort the government would likely apply Invites confusion and counterrevolution...
...Answer: We took every ounce of raw material from the earth and forest...
...Sockafeller died...
...She gave me a deed to the property and now it's mine...
...Question: Do you work in this railroad industry...
...So long as •uch an intention prevails it is, of course, impossible for the Socialist Party to participate...
...I am not in the producing business...
...This overhauling must Include the installation of a single legislative chamber, a reduction in the power of the Supreme Court, and the abolition of state lines...
...He had a daughter and I married her...
...Answer: A Socialist...
...Comrade Thomas finds that we are confronted with a real and vivid war threat...
...He believes we should never again enter a coalition like that which endorsed LaFollette in 1924 (page 230...
...As an immediate program against war he suggests (pp...
...Case dismissed...
...The Socialist Pa'rty since its teeption has urged upon labor the ^ity of political action, of ....al action conditioned by the Ins lines...
...The Socialist Party will then be only too glad tp give all of Its energy and strength to the achievement of such a purpose...
...Labor Party Rejected gpf LA DELPHI A. — The proposed Labor Party of Pennpania, the formation of which p reported in these columns iwral weeks ago, does not reject ^method of attempting to "capIre" old party nominations, and h that reason, and many others, me local Socialists are empatically Cithholding their support from it...
...He recognizes the difficulty of working with the Communists...
...Question: You say you built it, but were you not paid by the day in cash while you were doing the work...
...Question: Did you produce it or have anything whatever to do with its production...
...Both the parties of the workers failed because (page 59) "they alarmed the middle class without conquering it or working out an effective alliance with it...
...The legalization of the Social - Democratic Party and the labor celebrations that followed it lasted only six weeks: on March 17th, the government revoked its decision and published an order suppressing the Socialist Party...
...It does not and indeed cannot expect such a Labor Party to start with...
...To avoid fascism, Comrade Thomas believes that there must be a united front of all working class groups...
...1) that we make it clear "that we shall assume no role of St...
...a thoroughgoing Socialist philosophy, but it does and can demand as a luarantee of its 6ona fides that it •ever all' connections with capitalist political groups...
...To make the transition fiom the present state of thing* possible there must be a drastic overhauling of our governmental machine so that the workers as producers and consumers may have effective power...
...While hoping for a united front with the Communists, Comrade Thomas also looks forward to a mass party of the American workers for the realization of Socialism...
...the failure to use the capital levy to provide the wherewithal to finance a real public works program are among the reasons for the bogging down of the so-called recovery program...
...It should be stated that this was written before the now famous Madison Square Garden meeting...
...the wholesale destruction of foodstuffs by the AAA in the face of starving millions...
...Through its private ownership, not only the workers it employs, but millions who have to use it are exploited.' To maintain this power to exploit, the owners have polluted government, corrupted elections, and bribed legislatures, councils and commissions...
...In the attainment of Socialism, Comrade Thomas favors the democratic and peaceful road...
...Judge: He is nn undesirable citizen...
...While the masses looked sullen and defiantly at the pompous funeral of the slain soldiers and Heimwehr men, next day's funeral of Frau Sever was turned into a tremendously moving and silent street demonstration...
...Question: You have no other claim to this property...
...Both in Italy and in Germany fascism was the road I chosen by people who were disturbed by Socialism...
...Question: Then you are a parasite...
...Those who have been robbed ? Have we not built it and paid for it in dividends many times over...
...It does not favor a third party mless it be a genuine labor party...
...George against the dragon on behalf of China...
...A further and fatal defect in the present alignment of the proPosed Labor Party is that it has k> platform other, than a vague intention to further legislation beneficial' to labor...
...British Labor Party to oppose war budgets and to declare a general strike against war mobilization, and the pacific policy of Soviet Russia...
...But he feels (page 22!>) that "we should lose our supreme opportunity were* we to turn away from a genuine mass movement because it did not precisely follow the lines dear to our heart...
...The funeral of a working woman, Frau Sever, who was killed during the street fighting, is a case to the point...
...Iflger to Join Pa...
...Viennese Muses Honor Skin Woman Worker VIENNA.—All attempts of the Austro-Fascist dictatorship to win the working- people over to its cause are falling on barren ground...
...He eoncedes (page 200) that "a Socialist government might conceivably use violence sharply and decisively against a ruling class which refused a surrender of power or which sabotaged the new order...
...We then also observed the gratifying fact that prior to this legalization the Socialist candidates polled almost 00% of all the recorded votes in the general elections to the shop and factory councils that the semi-dictatorship of King Alexander was forced to call...
...We can show that it is used as a means of extortion...
...We worked a day and produced ten dollars in value...
...Question: You do not propose to pay for it...
...More than five thousand persons took part in the funeral...
...He rejects the belief that the tribalism and anti-Semitism of Hitler is the essence of fascism, rather he holds that fascism is "the notion that in an age when the labor of men of all races and nations gives us not only our culture but our daily bread, one nation can sum up all man's loyalties and all his devotions" (page 50...
...it is a perpetual threat of war...
...Answer: I do...
...it is hostile to the creative spirit...
...Question: Then upon what do you base your claim...
...you paid us six dollars and kept the rest...
Vol. 27 • April 1934 • No. 15
