The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement
Berenberg, David P.
The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By David P. Berenberg This is one of a series of articles—six groups of six articles each—to appear in The New Leader in cooperation with the...
...organizations, the [Labor Alliance also includes the anarcho-syndicalists and the Left Communists...
...Soon it, too, will be ready to fall—as did the slave masters of Rome, and the feudal lords of the Middle Ages— because it, too, has failed to solve the great historic question, "How are the masses to be fed...
...Its members, and more particularly jjs children, will become workers...
...It invites all proletarian creators to contribute...
...Who, knowing even a little of man, doubts that he will solve them...
...EVEN UNDER CAPITALISM UflTH present industrial plant " capacity and labor power now available, every family that received, less than $2,000 in 1929 could get that income, and family incomes below $3,500 could be increased 42 per cent with proper organization of the industrial system...
...The forces of history fight against capitalism and its upholders...
...It will be done by ending for all time the relationship of worker and employer...
...No ruling class has ever held on forever...
...Will the victorious workers repeat the error of all ruling classes of the past...
...he was at the mercy of the elements...
...But this society without classes will have at its disposal the accumulated wealth and the knowledge of the ages...
...As the real power of the capitalist weakens, the menace of the workers grows...
...they are en' listed in behalf of the workers and Socialism...
...After setting his affairs in order and putting his tropical clothes in mothballs, Comrade Waldman very promptly packed up and left for Detroit, where he is a delegate to the national convention...
...Then come the inevitable weakening and the fall...
...It is mired in a world-wide industrial depression, from which it is struggling to raise itself—with very little success...
...Industry can produce twice what it is producing today and 20 per cent more than was produced in the most prosperous period before the great crash in 1929, says the report...
...Ray Newkirk Dies Word has just been received of the death of Ray Newkirk of Utica, N. Y., an old-time, loyal and utterly devoted Socialist...
...many years...
...When this is accomplished, mankind will enter on a new- phase of development...
...The underground Socialist centre, According to another correspondent, refused the olive branch of the fascist government and,'in face of Biatrial law, organized a score of mass demonstrations in all the working-class districts...
...For a while its arrogance and its prestige maintain it even after its day is done...
...Marching under the red banners of Socialism, they' booed the government and protested against the extension of martial law...
...The magazine will be a cultural reflection of the class struggle, in graphic art and fiction, poety and drama, comment and criticism...
...6. The Goal tti the great struggle of the classes there can be * only one ultimate victor—the working class...
...There is irony in the Times cable from: Vienna telling about the Impressive street demonstrations the local Socialists staged last Saturday in all the suburbs of the Austrian capital...
...The working class may suffer more than one defeat before the struggle is over...
...These estimates are based upon the existing wage system with its wastes and cross purposes...
...It will be Socialist and labor, but non-controversial in the field of Socialist tactics...
...In the name of the textile workers of Austria the delegate made a solemn pledge that they will struggle without fear and relaxation until they reconquer the lest liberties, when they will again take their place in the International...
...The struggle against fascism and the establishment of a federal Socialist Republic are the [objective of the new Alliance...
...He was a member of the State Executive Committee of New York «of...
...Where, In the first days of its rise to power, a new ruling class prides itself on its real achievements and its real contributions to the general well-being, in its decaying old age it forgets that even a ruling class cannot forever demand something for nothing...
...i At the Textile International *1*WELVE countries were repre-* sented by 70 delegates at the 14th world congress of the International Federation of Textile Workers, held on May 7-8 in Luthei n, Switzerland...
...Other out-of-town editors will be added...
...The most dramatic moment, it seems, was when the international president, Tom Shaw of England, introduced a fraternal delegate from Austria, a former leader of the Textile Union, whose name the delegates were pledged not to divulge...
...It invites all who can contribute financially to do their share that way...
...not by calling upon worker and employer to cooperate...
...Society is at this moment learning what the weak spots in capitalism are: For several hundred years capitalism performed real service, first by breaking up and sweeping away the decaying feudal system of the late Middle Ages, and later by constructing— at tremendous cost to the workers—the industrial system of our day...
...Comrade Waldman, who undertook Osman's defense without charge after the Jewish Daily Forward had undertaken to raise I funds necessary for expenses, i brought home Panama newspapers with stories of the trial that indicated that his defense of the accused soldier was a masterly piece of legal workJFor weeks the court martial was the principal topic of conversation on the Isthmus, and his successful defense was a sensational event...
...The worker will become his own employer, and the class of /(private employers will pass out of history, as did the medieval feudal barons...
...Publication offices will be at Rebel Arts headquarters, 22 East 22nd St., New York City...
...Inquiries should be addressed to the Rand School, 7 East 15th Street, New York, and if possible a few postage stamps should be enclosed, so as partly to pay the cost...
...TO APPEAR JULY FIRST rNTATIVELY entitled Arise!, a new magazine, filling a long-felt it ant in the Socialist and labor movement, will be launched July 1. It will be issued by Rebel Arts, the organization of artists in all fields affiliated with or sympathetic to the Socialist and bona fide labor movement...
...The Sew Leader has enlisted the assistance of the Rand School of Social Science, whose staff have undertaken to help readers who wish to get the utmost value out of the series, by answering questions that may arise in their minds as they read, and directing thsm to sources of information, advising them as to further study, and so form...
...The answer of the dying capitalism to the threat is the same as the answer of all perishing ruling classes to the rising class: oppression, force, brutality, mass-murder...
...Victory may be delayed...
...Belgium and Norway, having joined the Textile International after the congress of 1981 in Berlin, were represented for the first time...
...And new industries are not* invented at will...
...Classes came into being when one tribe conquered and enslaved a weaker group...
...Now the cycle is complete...
...This is the conclusion reached by the trustees of the Brookings Institution based upon a two years' study < f American capacity of production...
...On the board of editors are Ben Belsky, Samuel A. DeWitt, Bruno Fischer, Samuel H. - Friedman, Gertrude Weil Klein, Harry Herzog, Fairfield Porter and John Rodgers...
...We are on the edge of a new historic era, which will see classless society return...
...Then the new class sweeps to power...
...For it came on top of the announcement of the release of 80 imprisoned Socialist leaders, by which Dollfuss hoped to calm the anti-governmental animosity of the Socialist population Of Vienna...
...The Basic Principles of the Modern Socialist Movement By David P. Berenberg This is one of a series of articles—six groups of six articles each—to appear in The New Leader in cooperation with the Committee on Education of ths Socialist Party...
...So long as it could keep its complicated structure of production and exchange going at least well enough to employ, to feed and to clothe the workers, so long capitalism remained strong enough to maintain its power...
...Be-sides the Socialist Party, its unions and Y.P.S.L...
...After a period of power its hold relaxes...
...The production that was possible in 1929 would have increased the "national income" fifteen billion dollars...
...Waldman Welcomed Home from Panama Louis Waldman, New York state chairman of the Socialist Party, was given a warm welcome at a luncheon Tuesday afternoon upon hie return from Panama, where he successfully defended Corporal Harry Osman in court martial proceedings on a charge of espionage...
...The Catalonian Socialist leaders, on the other hand, warned the central government at Madrid against the reactionary plan to return 82 large estates to theirfaristocratie owners, who were deprived of their property for their' participation in the counterrevolutionary uprising of August, 1932...
...It is becoming involved in a series of murderous wars, brought about by fierce competitors among rival groups of capitalists...
...But in the simple days of primitive classless society, man was poor...
...A Socialist society that would eliminate them would substantially increase the incomes mentioned above and in addition abolish industrial crises and insure security for all...
...There are no new markets to be opened, no new lands to be developed...
...This will be done, not by empty decrees that leave the realities untouched...
...The next group of articles in this series will be by Haim Kantorovitch, to begin next week...
...All these efforts will be in vain...
...Freed from the incubus of the class struggle, man will for the first time turn his full attention to the great unsolved problems that lie before him...
...The official Commu-nist Party, on advice from Moscow, refuses as yet to join this united labor front against fascism and Counter-revolution * * * The conservative national government at Madrid is continuing its Stubborn opposition to the radical Agrarian Law recently adopted by the Left-Socialist government of Catalonia...
...The ruling class, in its despair, may resort to- brutal violence in its efforts to maintain its power, as in Austria, Germany and Italy...
...Comrade Newkirk died after a long siege of tuberculosis...
...In the end the hands of the master grow too weak to wield these weapons...
...What then...
...Where, in former industrial crises, it managed ^o escape by opening new markets, by developing new territories and by inventing new industries, today it lies prostrate...
...The fate that overcomes all ruling classes - is rapidly overtaking the capitalist class...
...The Workers Abroad The United Front in Spam rl efforts of Largo Caballero, head of the Socialist Party and of the powerful Trade Union Federation, to create in Spain a real centre of'labor u:.i.y was Anally crowned with success...
...But the "desertion" of Germany and Austria worked against the increase in membership...
...The result was a loss of 828,000 in dues-paying members (640,787 instead of 868,851 in 1931...
...These may win a momentary victory...
...It especially invites subscriptions at $1 a year...
...All that slave labor has made through countless generations for the masters will be our inheritance...
...Then its class enemies And the weak links in its armor and begin to pound away at them...
...A Labor Alliance Committee of "The tyipe now in existence in the autonomous Republic of Catalonia was organized in the national capital, Madrid...
...It will be the aim of the victorious working class to abolish all classes...
...The advisory editors comprise a notable list of figures in the labor education movement, including Norman Thomas, Ernest Sutherland Bates, Maynard Krueger, Kirby Page, Devere Allen, James Oneal, William M. Feigenbaum, John Sloan, Art Young, David P. Berenberg, Haim Kantorovitch, Joseph T. Shipley, Joseph Lash, Jessie Wallace Hughan, and others...
...Tens of thousands of years ago there were in simple tribal society no classes...
...he had but a small store of knowledge that would help him to survive...
...ARISE...
...Not if they understand history—and for the first time a revolution of this sort is being undertaken by a class that does know history...
...Today it is no longer so certain that capitalism can continue to perform its functions...
...Its services to society grow less important while its demands on the wealth of society grow greater...
...The complete report will be published early in June...
Vol. 17 • June 1934 • No. 67
