VOICES OF REVOL Cornell University Library HX 86.R98 Speeches and writings of Charles E. Ruth 3 1924 002 673 956 A^-'] CHARLEvS E. RUTOENBERG INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERSj Cornell University Library HX 86.R98 Speeches and writings of Charles E. Ruth 3 1924 002 673 956 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002673956 VOICES OF REVOLT SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF CHARLES E. RUTHENBERG VOICES OF REVOLT A series of small books in which are col- lected the outstanding utterances oj world- jamous leaders in revolutionary thought and action. Each volume contains a criti- cal introduction. The volumes already published are: I. Maximilien Robespiekke II. Jean Paul Maeat III. Ferdinand Lassalle IV. Kael Liebknecht V. Georges Jacques Danton VI. August Bebel VII. WiLHELM Liebknecht Vm. V.L Lenin IX. Eugene V. Debs X. Charles E. Ruthenberg INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS 381 Fourth Ave. New York SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF CHARLES E. RUTHENBERG WITH A mi YOHK s'^ATE mmi indl'sh::.'! m mm relations CORNELsLJONlVERSlTY NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1928, by INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS CO., INC. Printed in the U. S. A. This book is composed and printed by union labor. WX81 ? s .^ ^ \ CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 7 The Need for Social Insurance 19 Accident Insurance and Political Action 21 Capitalistic Chaos 23 The Incentive of the Profit System ... 26 Exalting the Party 29 The Basis of Our Faith in Socialism ... 32 Economic Emancipation 34 The Fight for a Teachers' Union .... 37 The Meaning of Company Unionism ... 38 Nationalization and Industrial Democracy . 39 Fight the War! 40 "Capturing Power" by the Ballot .... 42 Imperialism and the World War .... 43 War and Revolution 45 / A Case of Class Justice 48 The Development of Communism in the United States SO The Legalization of the Communist Move- ment 52 PROPERTYVOF LFBRARY [ XS2 NEW mi STATE mmi vi CONTENTS The Workers' Party and May Day . The Development of the Idea of Socialism Main Tenets of Communist Teaching The Nature of the Class Struggle The Use of Force in the Class Struggle Imperialist Wars and Revolution . . Revolution versus Reformism The Role of the Communist Party The Aim of the Communist Party . The Road to the Proletarian Revolution The Limits of the United Front . Communist Candidates in Elections . Why the Labor Party Slogan? . . . The Youth and the Labor Movement . The World Political Situation in 1926 The Economic Situation in the United PAGE S4 56 58 60 63 64 65 68 72 74 78 80 81 83 85 89 States, 1926 The Workers' (Communist) Party— What it Stands for and Why Workers Should Join it 91 Let's Fight On! 96 INTRODUCTION To speak of the development of the American Commu- nist movement is to spe^ of the role of C. E. Ruthen- berg in the class struggle in the United States. Ruthen- berg was the outstanding founder and the leader of the Communist Party in the most powerful imperialist coun- try. Ruthenberg was anathema to the bourgeoisie. To them his name and deeds are synonymous with all that the conscious, courageous, revolutionary workers, follow- ing the path of Marx and Lenin, are thinking and doing throughout the world. That is why Ruthenberg was the most feared and hated communist in the country. Lenin once wrote: "The Communists of America prove by their long prison terms to which the bourgeoisie sen- tence them for communist agitation and propaganda, what capitalist democracy reaJly means. They are tear- ing the masks from it and are exposing it as a reign of trust kings and speculators amid the subjection of the masses." Truly, no one symbolized this truth uttered by Lenin more than Ruthenberg did. He was thus often spoken of as the most arrested man in America. What makes Ruthenberg a revolutionary figure of paramount importance is not merely his tremendous abili- ties as shown in his service in the class war against the American capitalist class, but the devotion, self-sacrifice, courage and Leninist clarity characterizing his activities. Ruthenberg always emphasized the role of the Party as the only revolutionary leader of the working class. Characteristic of his fighting spirit is his statement in 1920 to the New York Court sentencing him to from five to ten years in Sing Sing Prison: "I have merely this to say for myself. I have in the past held certain 7 8 INTRODUCTION ideals for a reorganization of society on a new basis. I have upheld those ideals and gone to prison for them when they were connected with the late war. I have stood by those principles in which I firmly believe and I still stand for those principles irrespective of the result of this particular trial. I expect in the future as in the past to uphold and fight for those principles until the time comes for those principles to triumph and a new society is built in place of the present social organization. . . . I will accept the sentence in that same spirit of defiance, realizing that I go to prison because of support of a great principle that will triumph in spite of all the courts, in spite of ^1 the organizations of the capitalist class." If we examine the basic types of characteristics of lead- ers of great forward social movements, we will find them to be inspiration, intelligence and industry. In Ruthen- berg's whole revolutionary career we find these three fun- damental prerequisities of first-rank leadership standing out in bold relief. Ruthenberg left no theoretical works that have become standard classics in the international labor movement. All of his writings are manuals of tactics for the revolu- tionary movement in the United States in its various stages. Thus we will find in his writings before the pro- letarian revolution in Russia some of the hazy concepts and shortcomings which characterized the most militant and genuine Marxian kernels in the various socialist par- ties. In fact, Ruthenberg more than any one else sym- boUzed the developing stages of working-class militancy. He shows a constant growth in his clearness and imder- standing of the revolutionary struggle into the full Len- inist, Bolshevik viewpoint. We must keep in mind that the achievements and con- tributions of any individual revolutionary leader can be estimated properly and judged only on the basis of the conditions of his times and only in comparison with con- temporary leaders in the same movement. It is here that Rutifcienberg stood head and shoulder above the othra: leaders of the socialist movement in the pre-war days. It is here that Ruthenberg appears before the entire INTRODUCTION 9 American working class as the outstanding expression of communism in the United States. Ruthenberg learned much and quickly from the Rus- sian Revolution and the proletarian State of the Soviet Union. His indefatigable mastery of the principles and strategy of Leninism has gone a long way towards accel- erating the building of the Workers' (Communist) Party of America. What have been Ruthenberg's main contributions to the American labor movement? One: He was the first man in the various left wing movements to realize the value of organization, Ruthenberg always emphasized organization in a concrete, positive manner. Two: His heroic fight against the imperialist war. Here Ruthen- berg was a trail blazer for the American working class in a true Leninist sense. Third: He knew how to link up the smallest, immediate, most elementary everyday needs of the workers with the biggest, most fundamental and revolutionary objectives of the whole proletarian struggle. Fourth: He was the leading founder of the Communist Party in the United States. Ruthenberg — the Organizer Ruthenberg was an organizer par excellence. Imme- diately after he joined the Socialist Party in 1909, he assumed responsible organization work in the Cleveland organization as recording secretary of the City Central Committee. The Cleveland organization in the former Socialist Party sjmibolized strength, stability, and mass influence. Proportionately it far exceeded many local city organizations in this respect at the time. Ruthen- berg was quick and able to utilize the local issues for the purpose of building a Cleveland section of the national movement. It did not take long for Ruthenberg to become nation- ally known as an organization builder and an outstand- ing local political leader. From 1909 to 191 2 he served as recording secretary of the Cleveland Central Commit- tee of the Socialist Party. In 1910 he was Socialist can- 10 INTRODUCTION didate for State Treasurer of Ohio; in 191 1, candidate for Mayor of Cleveland; in 191 2, for Governor of Ohio. In 1913 Ruthenberg became the Secretary and City Or- ganizer of the Cleveland organization; he was also can- didate for United States Senator of Ohio during the same year; in 191S, candidate for Mayor; in 1916, candidate for Congress; in 191 7, again candidate for Mayor. In the last campaign Ruthenberg ran especially on a plat- form of opposition to the imperialist war, while he was appealing against his conviction for anti-war activities, and received 27,000 out of a total of 100,000 votes cast in Cleveland. In 1918 Ruthenberg was candidate for Congress and in 191 9 candidate for Mayor of Cleveland. The Cleveland City Organization of the Socialist Party, under Ruthenberg's leadership, had at its height a membership in excess of the national membership of the Socialist Party to-day. It was Ruthenberg who was primarily responsible for making the left vsring in the Socialist Party nationally organization-conscious. There were many who were ac- tive propagandists for the then left wing socialism, but a few, if any in 1919, realized sufficiently the need of crys- tallizing a definite left wing organization on a national scale. While he was still facing a charge of being accessory to murder, Ruthenberg assumed the arduous task of being the first secretary of the Communist Party of America. Under extremely difficult conditions he was infusing a spirit of drive and energy into the newly-born organiza- tion. Immediately after his release from Sing Sing Prison on the reversal of the decision of conviction by the lower court by the New York State Court of Appeals, Ruthen- berg became the second national secretary of the Workers' Party in 1922. Under his direction, the Workers' Party immediately made great progress in its membership rise and political influence. To the party membership, Ruthenberg appeared very clearly as the party bialder. In every campaign of the party he was the d3aiamic force lending push, plan and momentum to it with his un- INTRODUCTION 11 bounded energy and inspiration. The drive for the Labor Party, the campaign to root the party in the trade unions, the efforts to win the Negro masses for the Workers' (Communist) Party, the first attempts to secure a firm foothold among the exploited agricultural masses, were all marked by Ruthenberg's intelligence and industry. It is easily understandable then why the last words of Ruthenberg were: "Build the Party." As far back as 191 2, in his first years even in the Socialist Party, when in an atmosphere of Social-Democratic haziness and con- fuaon, Ruthenberg had a remarkably clear appreciation of the role of a revolutionary socialist party. For in- stance, in speaking of the treachery of Mayor Pape, elected as Socialist Mayor of Lorain, Ohio, Ruthenberg said: "A socialist official, who, accepting the nomination for office, refuses after getting into office to act in ciccordance with the wishes of the organization which trusted him, becomes a traitor to the party he pledged himself to sup- port, and is a man who should be dishonored in the eyes of every one but those representatives of capitalism who profit by such acts of perfidy. . . . Capitalism may buy an individual; it cannot buy the Socialist Party." Rtithenberg — the Enemy of Imperialist War From a Leninist viewpoint, the St. Louis Anti-War Resolution of the Socialist Party, adopted immediately upon America's entrance into the war, suffered from many serious shortcomings, but it was a barometer of the in- tense opposition to the imperialist war on the part of the great masses of the rank and file of the Socialist Party. Ruthenberg was the prime mover in the formulation and adoption of all that was revolutionary in the St. Louis Anti-War platform. It was he who sjmibolized the revolt of the proletarian elements in the Socialist Party against the pro-Germanism of Berger, the Social-pacifism of Hill- quit and the Social-chauvinism of the Spargos, Russells, Wallings, and others. His first imprisonment in the jail at Canton, Ohio, was for fighting the imperialist war and 12 INTRODUCTION the measures taken by the American ruling class to drive America into the war. At the very outset, Ruthenborg understood the imperialist character of the last war. No illusions about democracy or "German Kultur" oppressed him. Ruthenberg declared: "This is not a war for freedom. It is not a war for the principles of mankind. It is a war to secure the in- vestments and profits of the ruling class of this coun- try. .. . "The only reason we are in this war now is because it is in the interests of the ruling class, the capitalist class of this country to have us in the war." Rtetkenberg — the Lenimst Not only in his opposition to the imperialist war did Ruthenberg develop the full Leninist line but also in his attitude and practice in the daily struggles of the work- ing masses. He was a realist in the Marxist-Leninist sense of the word. The bourgeoisie were driving the masses into the imperialist war. Ruthenberg replied: "Down with the Imperialist War." There was an election campaign in Cleveland. Ruthen- berg said to the workers: "M^e this election count in your fight." Ruthenberg did not suffer from parliamen- tary illusions. He was not a victim of parliamentary cretinism. In April, 191 2, he said: "We are not in the business of electing mayors. The election of a mayor or any other party official is merely an incident in our work. It registers the increase in our strength and that is about all." By 1920 Ruthenberg's estimate of the official Socialist Party theory of capturing power by the ballot was this: "The Socialist Party emphasizes the participation in elec- .tions and the election of certain officials. It had become /more or less a vote-getting machine to elect certain per- sons to public office rather than an organization which sought to bring about a fundamental change of the so- cial system." While acting as organizer in Cleveland, the struggle of INTRODUCTION 13 the teachers for the right to organize, the fight of the street car workers for an increase in wages, the battle for better housing and living conditions, better educa- tional opportunities for the children, consumed Ruthen- berg's attention as effective means of building the So- cialist Party. His Leninist viewpoint on the immediate struggles are thus clearly stated: "The policy of the Communist Party is to associate itself with the workers in the everyday struggles. The communists fight with wage workers and farmers in support of the demands which they make on the capitalists because it is in these struggles that the workers learn the character of the capitalist system, and there is developed a will to power of the workers, the determination to triumph over the enemy who exploits and oppressed them. "The everyday struggles of the workers create the most favorable condition for establishing the influence and leadership of the Communist Party. The workers learn by experience the character of the capitalist system. They learn by their experience in the struggle that the government of the capitalist system is merely an instru- ment of the capitalists for maintaining the system of ex- ploitation. . . . While fighting with the workers to realize their immediate demands against the capitalists it is the part of the communists to point out to them, at every stage of the development of the struggle, that these immediate demands cannot solve their problem. It is in the process of struggle that the revolutionary will of the workers develops and through these struggles they are leading, step by step, to the final struggle of the proletarian revolution. . . ." As a Bolshevik, Ruthenberg always kept in the fore- front the main objective of the commimists in the class struggle — to revolutionize the minds and struggles of the masses and to build a powerful Communist Party to lead the workers to final victory. In all his numerous activities in the daily struggles of the workers, Ruthen- berg never forgot that the primary purpose of the revolu- tionary working class movement in the United States is to overthrow American capitalism and to establish a pro- 14 INTRODUCTION letarian dictatorship. Here Ruthenberg was a Leninist. He understood the science of the world revolution. He knew how to link up the smallest, immediate, most ele- mentary everyday need of the workers with the biggest, most fundamental revolutionary objectives of the whole proletariat. Ruthenberg — the Founder of the Commimist Party Ruthenberg was the founder of the Communist Party in the United States. His leadership of the militant pro- letarian forces in the Socialist Party, his revolutionary opposition to the imperialist war, the inspiration and in- dustry characterizing his leadership of the left wing of the Socialist Party, the enthusiastic determination and energy with which he set about to build a strong Com- munist Party organization — all served to make him worthy of the title of "Founder of the American Com- munist Party." Being one of the first working-class revolutionists in the United States to draw the logical conclusions from the experiences of the working class during the war for the purpose of applying them to the concrete situation of the class struggle in the United States, Ruthenberg did not hesitate to break definitely with the opportunists, the reformists and social traitors dominating the Socialist Party. Ruthenberg's faith in the party was unbounded. In his tireless work for amalgamation of the craft unions into powerful militant industrial unions, and in his energetic direction of the Labor Party campaign, Ruthenberg never lost sight of the real role of the Communist Party. In Ruthenberg's eyes: "The amalgamation of the trade unions into industrial unions and the formation of a La- bor Party to fight the political battles of the working masses of this country are the first steps towards the ultimate goal of the workers' government and the com- munist society. . . . "It is because, after the first steps in the United States in the form of the organization of a Labor Party INTRODUCTION 16 and the amalgamation of the trade unions, there will still remain these great tasks, that there must be a Com- munist Party — a, separate distinct organization which will have in its ranks the best educated, disciplined and most militant workers such as the Workers' Party of America. "The role of this party is to be the battalion at the front leading the working class hosts — ^industrial workers and farmers — forward against the enemy in spite of all persecution, in spite of the efforts of the capitalists to destroy it, until the victory of the workers is won." Ruthenberg's courage in the class war was unbounded. Some of his best years were spent in jail. The splendid services Ruthenberg rendered to the American working class in his exemplary conduct in the Bridgeman trial in 1923 were the precipitating force for the "legalization," the right to work in the open, of communism in the United States. Ruthenberg died March 2, 1927, just as the United States Supreme Court was to pass judgment upon his conviction by the Michigan Courts for his par- ticipation in building the Communist Party. The tremendous objective difficulties confronting the American working class in their struggles never dismayed Ruthenberg. They only steeled his revolutionary pur- pose, intensified his communist ardor and enhanced his Leninist clarity and determination to fight on towards the development of a mass Communist Party in the United States. An Estimate of Ruthenberg Ruthenberg hated capitalism with an immeasurable vengeance. He hated capitalism for what it meant for the workers. He always wrote about the meaning of capi- talism and exploitation in simple but telling language. He wrote in 191 2: "The capitalist system means the existence of a master class and a dependent class. The wealth which the workers produce but do not receive is paid to an idle, parasitic class in the shape of interest and dividends. The evils of the capitalist system which are everywhere apparent in the squalor and misery of 16 INTRODUCTION the tenements in which millions exist, in the diseases re- sulting from poverty which yearly take the lives of thou- sands, with its consequent suffering for the unemployed and their families, in the general insecurity of the lives of those subject to the whims of the industrial masters, who know not whether on the morrow their means of livelihood may not be gone, are the by-products of the private ownership of industry and profit making through the exploitation of the workers." In 191 1 and 1912, while the Socialist official leader- ship was driving headlong to the right, Ruthenberg em- phasized Leninist faith in the masses which was a wel- come revolutionary antidote. "The rank and file are not subject to the influence which capitalism can bring to bear. They are the victims of capitalism. They suffer from capitalist institutions. They can be depended upon to remain an uncompromising opposition to capitalism until the organization which they are building up will have acquired the strength to transform existing social institutions into a new social organization which will realize the aim of socialism. "We socialists have faith in the working class. We believe the workers have advanced too far and are too subject to industrial slavery and therefore are confident that they will assert their power to bring into existence the only alternative to capitalist despotism. . . . The working class has the power and to save itself must estab- lish socialism." Ruthenberg was born at a time (July 9, 1882), when American imperialism was being reared. He imbibed the weaknesses, the haziness, as well as the spirit of mili- tancy which characterized the early movements of oppo- sition to the rule of monopoly capital in the United States. As imperialism grew, the clarity of revolutionary perspec- tive and program of the most advanced workers grew. Ruthenberg symbolized this growth in all its stages. The selections from his speeches and writings arranged chronologically in this little volume bring in bold relief Ruthenberg's steady and continuous development. From the very moment of his accepting Marxism as his guiding INTRODUCTION 17 principle, he progressed without any wavering or hesita- tion in his work of changing the Socialist Party into an effective and Marxian party of proletarian leadership. Unable to achieve this task, he became the leader in the foundation of the Communist Party. Vacillation, pes- simism, lack of faith, temporary reversion to paths de- viating from Marxism-Leninism are not to be found in Ruthenberg's inspiring revolutionary career. It can be said of Ruthenberg that he was the outstanding American proletarian revolutionary leader who followed the most! consistent and logical line of revolutionary development throughout his participation in the revolutionary labor movenient. Ruthenberg lent a certain Bolshevik poise and confi- dence to the party work and to those associated with him in this work. As a Leninist he fought courageously and consistently for revolutionizing the American labor move- ment, for developing its basic orgam2ations into militant organizations of the class war. His whole life is one of inspiration, intelligence, and industrious work and strug- gle in the interests of the revolutionary labor movement, in the interests of the whole proletariat. Death removed Ruthenberg from his revolutionary post while he was still comparatively young — at the age of forty-four. These lines are being written on the eve of the first anniversary of his death. As the years go by and the American revolutionary movement of which he was so much a part broadens and deepens among the American working class, a proper appraisal will be made of his place in the American labor movement, and the quality of his leadership will become more pronounced. But he will not only be a part of the revolutionary tradi- tions of the American labor movement. His incom- parable services to the cause of the emancipation of the workers of the world have made him a part of the tradi- tions of the world's proletariat. "We deeply grieve with you at the loss of Comrade Ruthenberg, leader of your party and of the international labor movement, whose ashes will rest beneath the Kremlin together with the heroes of the November Revolution," cabled the Central 18 INTRODUCTION Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the Workers' (Communist) Party of America, when they learned of Ruthenberg's untimely death. The rev- olutionary honor accorded his memory by burying his ashes in the Red Square in Moscow bespeaks the esteem in which the Russian workers held the activities of Ruth- enberg in the revolutionary movement of the international proletariat. Jay Lovestone. SPEECHES AND WRITINGS OF CHARLES E. RUTHENBERG THE NEED FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE (Prom the "Chicago Daily Socialist," August 8, 1910) The most glaring anomaly of our modem indus- trial system is the fact that those who produce the wealth of the worid are least sure of their subsist- ence. The men and women who by their efforts bring forth the necessities of life are least certain of securing enough of these necessities to supply their own needs. The lives of the workers are one constant uncer- tainty. They know not whether on the morrow an accident may not incapacitate them for further work, or whether illness, often the result of the work they do, may not make it impossible for them to continue to labor, and if they are lucky enough to escape both these they have still to fear the loss of their jobs and consequent unemployment. And should they be so fortunate as to have acci- dent, illness, and unemployment pass them by, they still have to face the problem of providing for their old age. When industry has squeezed them dry of strength and energy, when they can no longer keep up the pace set in modern machine production, com- 19 20 RUTHENBERG pete with the young and strong, they are cast out and left to face slow starvation or the poorhouse. In their declining years the soldiers of industry, who have given their all to society, must suffer the great- est misery and the most privations. Of course, the capitalistic minded will ask why, in the time of prosperity, the worker does not pro- vide for the time of adversity. Why in years of health and strength he does not save enough of his earnings to keep him in old age, illness, or when acci- dent has laid him low. Yes, WHY? Because he does not receive enough for his serv- ices even when regularly employed to keep himself and his family in common comfort. If he saves at all it must be at the expense of depriving himself of many comforts. . . . How can they provide for accidents and illness? How can they lay away enough to provide for old age? For them it is a struggle to secure a liveli- hood now, and they can give no thought to the fu- ture. And how often are their already small wages cut down by unemployment! They are ready and willing to work to secure for themselves food, cloth- ing, and shelter, but our crazy industrial system forces them to remain idle. . . . When the workers show they are really in earnest, when they really revolt, they may expect legislation which will provide against some of the insecurity which is now their lot. ACCIDENT INSURANCE AND POLITICAL ACTION {From the "Chicago Daily Socialist," August 15, 1910) A WRITER in Everybody's Magazine speaks of the United States as "the industrial slaughter house." "Men are run down ruthlessly by huge cranes, crushed almost beyond recognition under great masses of falling metal; fingers and hands are cut off in great shears; feet and legs are torn off and mashed in the dim light at night; bodies are mangled in belts and chains; injuries are almost a daily oc- currence." These are conditions which workingmen have to face in factories in this country. The industries of the United States kill, injure, and maim twice as many workers in proportion to* the number at work as any other civilized country. This is a statement which should challenge the attention of every American workingman. We ought to ask why twice as many accidents occur in this country as in Ger- many, France, England, or Austria. Why should the risk the workingmen in this country have to face be twice that in any other machine-using nar tion? . . . 21 22 RUTHENBERG The capitalist class knows no other law than the law of profits. . . . The workers have the power to place on the statute books a compulsory insurance law, but they cannot secure such a law by voting for the candidates nominated by parties owped and controlled by their employers. They must have their own political organizations to fight their po- litical battles just as they have their own industrial organizations to fight their industrial battles. CAPITALISTIC CHAOS (From the "Cleveland Citizen," Febntary 18, 1911)' The most damning charge which can be brought against the existing system of production and dis- tribution is that with the means of supplying the wants of all the people at hand, a large proportion of the inhabitants of this country receive insufficient food, are clothed in rags and forced to live in un- sanitary hovels. We have sufficient land and raw material and the laborers and machinery to produce enough for all of the people, but we permit the land to lie idle, the machinery to rust and become useless through dis^ use, and our workers to eat their hearts out in idle- ness while their families cry for food. We have raw material in our forests, workers and machinery ready to cut it and turn it into finished lumber, the mechanics to transform the lumber into homes, aiid the land on which to build the homes, and thousands, yes, millions, of people living in squalid, unhealthy tenements, — ^and yet the homes are not built and the victims of our anarchistic sys- tem continue their dreary existence crowded to- 23 24 SPEECHES OF gether in rooms which the great stretch of the imagination cannot call homes. We have thousands of acres of unused land and thousands of men to till it, the mills to grind the grain into flour, bakeries to produce the bread, and yet millions to-day have been unable to satisfy their hunger. We have everything necessary for production and distribution and many consumers ready to use what is produced, and yet these are not correlated. We do not use the raw material, labor remains idle, the goods are not produced and many people are forced to deny themselves things necessary for them to live happy, healthy lives. When we turn from the consideration of the pos- sible to the actual, we find existing production and distribution carried on in the same higgledy-piggledy, helter-skelter, anarchistic and planless manner. There is no correlation between the end in view and the method used to reach this end. Anarchy is the principle which governs. Capitalism stands for in- dividualism gone to seed. . . . Capitalist anarchy leads to the establishment of double the number of plants necessary to supply the market in any line of manufacture, and conse- quently none of these establishments are able to run at full capacity and to make effective use of their buildings and machinery. Capital is invested in the buildings and machinery and must produce profits, and the result is that the consumer is forced to pay RUTHENBERG 25 profits on twice the capital actually required to carry on the manufacture of clothing effectively. . . . What society wastes to-day through lack of a conscious effort to make the means serve the end in view would raise the millions who live in the quag- mire of want and misery to a plane where they might enjoy some of the comforts of life. To eliminate this waste, to organize society for the purpose of efficient production and distribution, to make the purpose of work to supply the wants of all, and to supply these wants with the least possible expendi- ture of labor and material, this is the object and aim of socialism. It is this end that socialism seeks to accomplish through ownership by the people of land and raw material and the machinery of production and dis- tribution, for until private ownership gives way to public ownership, and the motive force behind pro- duction is changed from the desire for profits to a conscious effort to supply the requirements of so- ciety, production and distribution will never reach the highest point of efficient organization. THE INCENTIVE OF THE PROFIT SYSTEM {From the "Cleveland Citizen," May 27, 1911) That socialism would kill incentive is one of the objections frequently made by opponents to social- ism. This objection carries with it the suggestion that under capitalism there is an incentive for every one to live such a life as is of the most benefit to society as a whole. The fact that this objection is offered presupposes that the incentive under exist- ing conditions is ideal. It is only necessary to ex- amine the motive force which drives men to action under the present system to turn the objection from an argument against socialism to a criticism of the profit system. The incentive which moves men to action to-day is the incentive which drives the tiger to prey upon the other creatures of the jungle. The capitalist system says in effect to every individual: The world is before you. In it are many people who are weak, who lack craft and guile. If you are strong, if you are crafty, if you are ready to crush out of your heart any sense of justice, of honesty, of helpful- ness for the weak and unfortunate, you may take all that you desire. You may grind your f ellowmen under foot. If you can get possession of something 26 RUTHENBERG 27 the multitude needs in order to live, you can force them to toil for you and enrich you. You may live in luxury and splendor while they suffer for the necessities for an existence. The actions of every man who enters business as an employer of labor under the profit system, are determined to a large extent by the competitor who has the least regard for his employees. The incentive of the capitalist is profits, and to increase profits he employs women at low wages and works them long hours. In the struggle for business children become the victims of those employers whose standard is low- est, and, in order to survive, every other employer is forced to adopt the cheaper mode of production, and thus to rob the coming generation of health and strength by chaining the children to the ma- chine. Capitalism judges business ability and suc- cess by profits produced only, and offers no reward to the humane or altruistic employer. The profits go to the most ruthless. The motive force of capital- ism is greed. To the wage-worker capitalism offers as an in- centive either a life of drudgery, at wages which scarcely enable him to provide an existence for himself and family, or one chance in a hundred thousand or so (the chances are decreasing as our industries concentrate) that he may climb on the backs of his fellow-workmen and live off their efforts. If a workingman possesses those qualities which 28 RUTHENBERG capitalism rewards — selfishness, arrogance, egoism, if he can keep himself free from all other-regarding qualities — then he may be set over his fellow-work- men to drive them to greater efforts. But his work will always be judged by the profits he produces. He must not determine his actions by deciding whether they are right, fair, just, but by whether this or that action will produce more profits. To the extent that he eradicates from his nature all regard for the rights of others, to that extent will he be successful. Theoretically, capitalism preaches the "golden rule" as the ideal of right action, but in practice it rewards those who come nearest to the realization of the tooth and fang rule of conduct. For profits, as an incentive, socialism would sub- stitute the reward for service. It would give to all the opportunity of living happy, healthy lives, which would be an incentive to each individual to give the best that is in him to the service of society. It would make its appeal to all those qualities which capitalist ethics glorify theoretically but ignore in practice. Capitalism makes its appeal to selfishness and greed, and rewards those qualities. Socialism will appeal to the other-regarding quality and the deep desire in every man and woman to be of some serv- ice to mankind. Does capitalism or socialism offer the ideal in- centive? EXALTING THE PARTY {From the "Cleveland Socialist," April 6, 1912) It is hard for people brought up in the school of old party politics and accustomed to the reverence usually accorded elected officials to imderstand the socialist attitude toward the men they place in office. Habituated by custom to holding up the man placed in a position of prominence as a little god, and to permit him to assume dictatorial powers, they cannot conceive of an organization which exalts the rank and file and uses its elected officials as servants. These thoughts are inspired by the drivel ap- pearing in capitalist papers anent the proposed pres- entation of the resignation of the socialist mayor of Lorain to the City Council of that city. When the socialists nominated Mayor Pape they did so with the understanding that if elected to office he would hold the position merely as the representa- tive of the party. Mayor Pape knew, as every other socialist nominated to office knows, that at all times and in every situation the party organization re- serves the right to govern. Mayor Pape knew this 29 30 SPEECHES OF because he signed, in addition to the resignation to be presented to the council, a letter addressed to the members of the party, authorizing them to use his resignation in case he failed to obey the maiidates of the E>arty. A socialist official, who, accepting a nomination for office on these plain and definite terms, refuses after getting into office to act in accordance with the wishes of the organization which trusted him, be- comes a traitor to the party he pledged himself to support, and is a man who should be dishonored in the eyes of every one but those representatives of capitalism who profit by such acts of perfidy. We are not to be scared by the facts asserted that our effort to enforce party discipline is "mak- ing it difficult to ever give Lorain another socialist mayor." We are not in the business of electing mayors. The election of a mayor or any other party official is merely an incident in our work. It registers the increase in our strength, and that is about all. We do not decline the responsibUity when en- trusted with the administration of the affairs of a city. It is not pleasant work to clean up the Augean stable of graft, maladministration, and misrule which we usually inherit, but we are ready to do it. But we will do it only on our own terms. We know the wiles and the temptations with which capitalism besets public officials. Therefore, we are not going to place in the hands of an individual the power to RUTHENBERG 31 wreck our work. Capitalism may buy an individual ; it cannot buy the socialist organization. We insist upon that account that the organization shall control. The doors are open for every one who accepts our principles to become a member of our organization. We have no ring or close cor- poration. We urge every man or woman who can honestly pledge himself or herself to the one condi- tion of membership, to work for the abolition of the capitalist system, to join the party and help mold its actions. We exalt our organization, too, because our or- ganization is imbued with the ideal which is our raison d'etre, the reason for our being. Our pur- pose, the object of our organization, is to abolish capitalism. Individuals, under the influence of the sordid motives which capitalism exalts, may forget our ideal, but there is no danger of the organization's doing so. The rank and file are not subject to the influence which capitalism can bring to bear. They are the victims of capitalism. They suffer under capitalist institutions. They can be deF>ended upon to remain in uncompromising opposition to capi- talism until the organization which they are building up will have acquired the strength to transform ex- isting social institutions into a new social organiza- tion which will realize the aim of socialism. THE BASIS .OF OUR FAITH IN SOCIALISM {From "Columbm Socialist" June 22, 1912) The concentration and consolidation of industry give greater and greater power to a few individuals over the lives of the workers, and in the mad greed for profits the exploitation eind oppression of the workers becomes worse. The chasm between the producing class and the exploiting class widens and the struggle between them becomes fiercer. For the workers there is only one way to secure relief from this situation. If they are not to submit to further enslavement, if they are not to become the victims of an industrial plutocracy, they must organize in- dustrially and politically and prepare to assert the power of their class and apply the only solution which will insure economic justice for them. The concentration of industry will go on. The industrial power of the master class will increase. This concentration and increased industrial power is the logical and inevitable result of our industrial development. And here is the basis of our confidence in the coming of socialism. 32 RUTHENBERG 33 The development of industry points to only one way in which industrial despotism can be avoided and all the benefits of trust production insured to the workers. We cannot turn back the hand of time. We cannot go back to the days of hand production. To do so means to sacrifice the splendid achievements of the most wonderful era in the history of the world. We must go forward. The same process which has brought into exist- ence the present situation has developed the intel- lectual powers of the working class. It has placed them in a position which makes future progress and the birth of a new society based upon new ideas of justice and equality dependent upon them, and given them the knowledge how to use their power. We socialists have faith in the working class. We beheve the workers have advanced too far to submit to industrial slavery, and therefore our confidence that they will assert their power to bring into exist- ence the only alternative to capitalist despotism, which is the social ownership of the already social- ized means of production. The working class has the power, and to save it- self must establish socialism. ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION (From "OMo Socialist Btdletin," October, 1912) The struggle against capitalism is a struggle for economic emancipation. The capitalist system stands for industrial slavery. In past ages we have had despots whose will ruled whole nations. The kings and emperors of the past were forced to surrender their power to the rising capitalist class, and now this capitalist class has established an industrial despotism with greater power than that of the mon- archs of the past. We have not yet reached the stage where all industrial power is concentrated in the hands of one man, but the industries of the nation are today controlled by a. small group of men. We are living under an industrial oligarchy. Through control of industry a numerically small capitalist class is able to control the lives of many millions of workers. There is no freedom for those whose toil makes possible the production of wealth. In order to live they must labor. To labor they must sell their labor power to the capitalist class. The latter can give or withhold employment. When not face to face with a strong economic organiza- 34 RUTHENBERG 35 tion of the working class it dictates what the wages of the workers shall be. The capitalist system means the existence of a master class and a dependent class. The master class uses its power over the lives of the workers to extract profit from their efforts. Through control of the things the workers must use in order to live it is able to rob them of the lion's share of the wealth they produce. The wealth which the workers produce but do not receive is paid to an idle, parasitic class in the shape of inter- est and dividends. The evils of the capitalist sys- tem which are everywhere apparent, in the squalor and misery of the tenements in which millions exist, in the diseases resxilting from poverty which yearly take the lives of thousands, in the labor of children, in unemployment with its consequent suffering for the unemployed and their families, in the general insecurity of the lives of those subject to the whims of the industrial masters, who know not whether on the morrow their means of livelihood may hot be gone, are the by-products of the private owner- ship of industry and profit-making through the ex- ploitation of the workers. Socialism proposes to emancipate the working class from the bondage of capitalism through abol- ishing the private ownership of the means of pro- duction. It proposes to take out of the hands of the industrial masters who now own and control the mills, factories and workshops, the railroads and other means of transportation, the means of produc- 36 RUTHENBERG tion and distribution and to establish in the place of private ownership by the master class the collec- tive ownership by the people. Through establishing the social ownership of the means of production and distribution socialism will abolish the exploitation of the workers and all the other evils of capitalism. It will insure to the work- ers the right to work at all times and the equivalent of the social value of what they produce. This social revolution which will transform our industrial system from an industrial plutocracy to an industrial democracy cannot be brought about through the Republican, Democratic, or Progressive party. There is nothing in the platforms of these parties which will remedy the fundamental injustice of the capitalist system. These three parties alike support and uphold the capitalist system, and whether one or the other is in power, exploitation, unemployment and poverty will be the lot of the workers. The emancipation of the working class can only be won by the working class itself. The workers must use their industrial and political power to free themselves from the blighting powers of capitalism. THE FIGHT FOR A TEACHERS' UNION {From "People's College News," October, 1914) . . . Those who see in the teachers' union a move- ment toward industrial democracy are hoping that when the schools open, the teachers will proceed with the work of perfecting their organization, and that the first demand of the union will be that every one of the teachers who has been dropped must be reinstated. If the teachers have the courage to take this step, and to enforce it, if need be, by a strike, they will have the enthusiastic support of the entire working class of Cleveland. A refusal to surrender on their part, a demand that they be given protection in their profession and some measure of control over the conditions of their employment, will be an inspiration to the workers of Cleveland which will give the working class movement an impetus such as it has never received before. It is this that the employing class fears, and it is because of this that its tools in control of the schools are using their power to head off the organization of a teachers' union. 37 THE MEANING OF COMPANY UNIONISM (From "Are We Growing Toward Socialism," 1917) The pressure of the industrial movement is al- ready great — so great that the capitalists themselves are org^zing the workers within various indus- tries and giving them some small share in the man- agement. According to a recent survey several hxmdred in- dustries have taken this step. They have organized committees, senates, and houses of representatives and similar bodies and these bodies have been em- powered to voice the workers' demands in carrying on the management. The purpose of such organization is, of course, to forestall or weaken the independent organization of the workers. They purpose to substitute for work- ing class organizations controlled by the workers and freely voicing their demands, organizations un- der the thumb of the capitalists. The tendency for these organizations, however, to assume greater and greater power and independ- ence is already apparent. 38 NATIONALIZATION AND INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY {From "Are We Growing Toward Socialism," 1917) While the evolution of production has brought about large scale production and is now bringing about a greater integration of industry through gov- ernment ownership, the danger exists that the col- lectivism which is thus being produced may weld the chains of industrial slavery tighter, in place of bringing freedom for the working class. The struggle of the future will not be over the question whether the industries shall be left in the hands of the individual capitalists or taken over by the government. The issue will be whether the cap- italists shall maintain their autocratic control over industry through the government and with It the exploitation and oppression of the working class, or whether the workers shall control the industries. Should the government take over the great in- dustries and the capitalist class remain in control of the government, it would mean merely that the power of the exploiting class had been increased by making the government, with its great power, the agency through which the workers were exploited. 39 FIGHT THE WAR! (Delivered in the Cleveland Federal Court, Jidy, 1917, reproducing speech delivered at the Public Square, May 27, 1917) Comrades and Friends: We have witnessed here this afternoon an incident such as has happened in Russia on many occasions. No doubt, under the reign of the Czar there have been many times when attempts have been made to stop the telling of the truth. There have been many occasions when those who are the servants of the ruling class in society have tried to prevent those who were fitting for the liberties of the people from uttering the things that they desired to state, and this afternoon we have herein the United States witnessed a thing which we have so often condemned in Russia, the land of darkness and dread things. But, in spite of this having taken place, I will proceed with my sp>eech just as I proposed to make it to you before it hap- pened. I am going to present to you my ideas, my thoughts, in regard to the present war and the things which the people of this country face at the present time. This is not a war for freedom. It is not a war 40 RUTHENBERG 41 for the liberties of mankind. It is a war to secure the investments and profits of the ruling class of this country. . . . The only reason we are in this war now is be- cause it is to the interests of the ruling class, the capitalist class of this country, to have us in the war, and I am going to show it to you. . . . I am speaking to you as Karl Liebknecht spoke in the German nation, as he spoke in the Parliament of that country, when he denounced the war as a war of the ruling class and stated his unalterable opposition to that war. And I say to you that if you are inspired by this ideal ... if you are in- spired with that which will bring about a better world, then you must stand up and fight for that ideal. You must fight side by side with those who are fighting this war. . . . We of the Socialist Party are carrying on this fight. We are here to carry on this fight. We are here to organize the workers of this country for this struggle. We are working towards this end, that out of the chaos of this war there may come a new so- ciety, a new world, a new organization of the people, which will end the cause of war by ending the pri- vate ownership of the industry which brings war into existence. . . . "CAPTURING POWER" BY THE BALLOT (Delivered during the trial in New York, March, 1920, and deals with the position of the Left Wing in the SocuMst Party on the qtiestion of parliamentary elec- tions) The Socialist Party emphasized the participation in elections and the election of certain officials; it had become more or less a vote-getting machine to elect certain persons to public offices, rather than an organization which sought to bring about a funda- mental change in the social system. . . . It was the position of the Left Wing that, under the existing political and social conditions in the various capitalist countries, that with the control of the newspapers, the control of the educational in- stitutions, the control of all the means of informa- tion in the hands of the dominant class, the capitalist class, that the effort to achieve political control through election campaigns was fruitless; that the working class should rely upon the point at which its power could be organized and used directly through organization and through the use of that power as would develop under the change in the social system and the social development 42 IMPERIALISM AND THE WORLD WAR {Delivered during the New York Trial, March, 1920) Imperialism is that stage of the development of capitalism when the state becomes the agent of the capitalist class in seeking avenues for investment, avenues of exploitation, raw materials and other forms of capitalist action. It is that period of cap- italism when, through the development of the cap- italist system, the perfection of the machinery of production, the surplus in a country has taken on a certain character, that of the exportation of capital, of steel and iron, and making the requirement to secure markets for the use of this material, for the disposal of this surplus. In this effort to secure markets for the sale of this material unexploited territories are sought and the governments become the agents of the capitalist class in securing conces- sions, securing opportunities for investment, which, in turn, create the nmrket for the sale of these products. The tendency of capitalist production is that with the creation of greater and greater surplus, the re- turns of capital invested at home become less 43 44 RUTHENBERG and less, and necessarily the capitalists seek other avenues of investment where the returns will be greater. They seek the unexploited territory. They seek the countries which have not yet been de- veloped, such as Mexico or China, or part of South America, and invest, seek concessions there and in- vest their capital for larger and quicker returns, and these investments take the form of the development of that territory through the building of railways, etc. . . . We find at the beginning of the war in 1914 that there had developed during the preceding decades the imperialist policy in all the great capitalist na;- tions, notably in England and in Germany. The struggle for concessions, the struggle for what we now might call "mandatories," or colonies, had been going on for a long term of years. We found re- peatedly that the governments came into conflict with each other, as, for instance, France and Ger- many over Morocco. The questions at stake were questions of which country should have the ri^t to exploit this unexploited, undeveloped territory. These conflicts in which the governments fought the battles, through diplomacy, of the capitalist class, reflected the imperialist process, the development of imperialism, the securing of these concessions for the benefit of the home capitalist. It was out of this process that the War developed. It is out of this process that other wars will develop in the fu- ture, from the standpoint of socialist analysis. WAR AND REVOLUTION (Delivered during the New York Trial, March, 1920) Capitalist production in its development brings about its own decay, its own decline, its own break- down; capitalist production inevitably through its own conditions of existence produces such a situa- tion as the World War; a world war, an imperialist war, brings about the breakdown of capitalist pro- duction. It also brings about the increase in prices, the increase of the cost of commodities, and thus intensifies the struggle between the workers who must gain the necessities to live and the owning class. I might illustrate this: As a result of the war prices have doubled, and we have had a large number of strikes on the part of the workers> trying to catch up with the cost of living. Such a strike, for instance, was the outlaw railroad strike. Thus, in the development of the capitalist system, its own contradictions bring about a situation in which the machinery of production breaks down. For ex- ample, war. Imperialism brings the great capitalist classes in conflict with each other. This conflict in the beginning takes the form of a diplomatic con- 45 46 SPEECHES OF troversy and ends in war. War brings about the disintegration of the capitalist machinery of pro- duction, as has been the case in Europe. It also brings about inflation, the increase of prices, and the working class is driven to a more bitter and antago- nistic struggle against the capitalist class. In this country we saw that illustrated in the various strikes, like that of the coal miners, which last year brought a stoppage of industry in certain places, — ^the strike of the outlaw railroad workers, which brought about disintegration of the railroad service and brought about a situation in which the industries could not function effectively. This process going on ulti- mately brings about a condition in which the workers are compdled to strike more frequently, more widely. In the process the government acts as the agent of the capitalist class for the suppression of the workers ... as for example, in the coal miners' strike last year, the government used the injunction, it used federal troops, it tied up the treasury of the imions. This directs the attention of the workers against the capitalist state, as the agency of the capitalist class, and their struggles begin to develop against the government. At the present moment the English strike of the coal miners is an example of that development. In this process there comes a point where the capitalist government is no longer able to function and in such a crisis the working class will establish its workers' councils which be- come the government and function as the govern- RUTHENBERG 47 ment in order that production may be established on a new basis, carried on for the benefit of the people. For a period there may be, as there were in Russia, two governments, one becoming the gov- ernment and the other disintegrating and going out of existence. In such a situation, too, the larger part of the army, as was the case in Russia, would support the workers in their efforts to establish their government. The working class will establish a; government in the form that will be suitable for the exercise of working-class power, a Soviet gov- ernment. A CASE OF CLASS JUSTICE {Delivered upon being sentenced to from five to ten years' imprisonment at the conclitsion of the New York Trial, March, 1920) I HAVE merely this to say for myself, that I have in the past held certain ideals for a reorganization of society on a new basis. I have upheld those ideals and gone to prison for them when they were con- nected with the late war. I have stood by those principles in which I firmly believe, and I still stand for those principles irrespective of the result of this particular trial. I expect in the future, as in the past, to uphold and fight for those principles until the time comes that those principles triumph, and a new society is built in place of the present social organization. I realized from the beginning of this trial, as I have in any other trial that I have taken part in as defendant, that this court, and all the instruments of this court, are merely a part of that organization of force which we will call the capitalist state; and I expected no other result from an organization of the capitalist class to protect the capitalist system, than the result that has been re- turned by this court in this particular case; and, 48 RUTHENBERG 49 of course, accepting this as a case of class justice, a case of the use of the organized force of the state in order to suppress the desires of those who to-day are suffering under the oppression of the present system, I will accept the sentence in that same spirit of defiance, realizing that I go to prison because of support of a great principle that will triumph in spite of all the courts, in spite of all the organiza- tions of the capitalist class. . . . PROPERTY OF UBRARY NEW ym mi£ mmi ^66^ mmmhi m labor relations CORNELL UNIVERSITY THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES (From "The Liberator," February, 1923) A LITTLE over three years ago the words "Soviets" and "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" appeared for the first time in the program of a political party in this country, when the Communist Party of Amer- ica was born in Chicago, in September, 19 19. For three years the ideas which these words statid for have been taboo so far as open expression in the program of a political party is concerned. They came to life in the open again in the program adopted by the second convention of the Workers' Party of America, held in New York, December, 1922. While the Chicago convention of 1919 and the New York convention of 1922 wrote the same ideas into the programs adopted, there is a great difference in the movement behind these ideas. The Communist Party of 19 19 came to life on a wave of enthusiasm inspired by the Russian Revolu- tion. It was a spontaneous outburst in this country of the forces generated by the first proletarian rev- olution. The 1919 convention was satisfied to make 50 RUTHENBERG 61 its declaration of communist faith. It did that with fervor and enthusiasm, but the practical application of the communist principles to the life of the Amer- ican workers was not undertaken. . . . In the three years that have passed since the open communist convention in 19 19, the communist move- ment in this coxmtry has undergone a transforma- tion. It is no longer a spontaneous outburst of en- thusiasm. It has not lost its enthusiasm, but it has learned during the three years to direct this en- thusiasm into the task of creating support for the communist principles among the working masses of this country. While it again publicly announces its faith that the Soviets and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat are the instruments through which the proletarian revolution will achieve its ends in this cotmtry as well as elsewhere in the world, it does not expect to convert the workers to a belief in the Soviets by merely holding up the example of Euro- pean experiences. It proposes to teach the neces- sity of Soviets and the Proletarian Dictatorship to the workers through their own experiences in their struggles against the capitalists; and its campaigns and programs of action are therefore based upon the actualities of the life of the workers in the United otates. THE LEGALIZATION OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT {From "The Liberator," March, 1923) When the communist movement in the United States was first organized it was not an underground movement. The Communist Party and the Com- munist Labor Party were organized at public con- ventions held in Chicago in September, 19 19. . . . The Palmer raids at the end of 19 19 compelled the communists to retreat temporarily. . . . The truth about these raids has only recently been told. The facts are hidden away in the Congressional Record in the report made this year by the Senate Committee which investigated Palmer's record. This report will be the justification of the Com- munist Party for being an underground organi- zation and for meeting in secret convention at Bridgeman. The communists have no particular love for underground life or for working in secret. They have nothing to hide. They desire nothing more than to proclaim their principles openly and publicly. They had to exist imderground in order 52 RUTHENBERG 53 to exist at all. Under similar conditions they would have no choice but to do the same. . . . The whole history of the Palmer raids, which drove the communists underground, shows that these raids did not have as their object prosecution for crime, but persecution to destroy a movement which was feared by the capitalists who control the gov- ernment of the United States. . . . Palmer succeeded in driving the communists undier- ground through his "red raids" of 1919. Daugherty and Bums expected to destroy that underground communist movement through their "red raid" of 1922.^ The communist answer to the Daugherty raid was to challenge the persecution of communists before the labor movement of this country. This challenge has added to the support which the com- mtmists had already won in the labor movement and has aided it in gaining what it desires most — the ri^t oF>enly to advocate its principles in the United States. ^ The laid of the Communist Party Convention, held at Bridge- man, Michigan, August, 1922. THE WORKERS' PARTY AND MAY DAY {From "The Worker," Ne^ York, April 28, 1923) May Day — the day which inspires fear in the hearts of the capitalists and hope in the workers — the workers the world over — ^will find the communist movement this year stronger in the United States than at any time in its history. Three years ago the communists of the United States were driven xmderground, their organization destroyed. They were outcasts, despised and ignored. May Day of 1923 will find all this changed. The communist movement, which Palmer and the various state governments which participated in the 1920 persecution thought they had destroyed, is again carrying on its work in the open. Through the Workers' Party it is publicly advocating the princi- ples of communism and winning the support of the workers for these principles. The communists organized in the Workers' Party are no longer the outcasts of the labor movement. Through their work in the everyday struggles of the workers, through their programs of action and 54 RUTHENBERG 55 leadership they have won the confidence and sup- port of an ever-widening circle of sympathizers. To-day the communist movement is on the road to becoming that powerful influence in the labor movement of this country which will influence the millions of workers and give them leadership and direction in the struggle against capitalism. The inner changes which have taken place in the party have been a vital factor in achieving this re- sult. The communist movement in this country is no longer satisfied with dogmatic reiteration of fundamental communist principles. It holds fast to this principle: it will never compromise on the question of publicly advocating these principles. But it has also learned to apply them. It has learned to make its beginning with the present mental atti- tude of the workers of the United States. It has learned to realistically study the workers of this coimtry and the facts of their life and to base its policy and tactics, its methods of teaching the Amer- ican workers that their road to freedom from ex- ploitation and oppression lies through communism, on the conditions as they exist in the United States. Every worker who is a communist can celebrate May Day this year secure in the confidence that the movement he supports has made great strides for- ward, that the road is clear for greater achievements, that in the United States as elsewhere in the world the future belongs to communism. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF SOCIALISM {Delivered during the Bridgeman Trial, May, 1923) When under the capitalist system in its early stages a few men only worked together in the shop, then naturally there would not arise the idea of collective ownership or social ownership of industry. When two or three men worked together they were more or less equal and stood in the same position; but when, in the development of machine production under the capitalist system, the capitalist system brought together in a single industry ten thousand workers, each of them doing some part of the work of production, the thought of collective control of the processes of production arises out of the very fact of their being thus associated in industry. Under the capitalist system, because of the need for mak- ing a living, large masses are brought together in factories, in mills, in mines, working together, cooperating in producing wealth — there arises out of such association the idea of collectively owning those industries in which they produce the wealth, work- ing together. The class struggle, together with the 56 RUTHENBERG 67 processes developed in capitalist collective industry, give rise to the idea that industry should not be owned by a few and operated to make profit for themselves but that industries which are socially necessary — those industries upon which the common life of the people depends — should be owned in common by all the people and should be carried on for social service, to satisfy the needs of the people — ^rather than to make profits for the few owners of industry.. This idea is not a scheme or plan de- veloped by the communists but is something which grew up and is the product of the social production under the capitalist system itself. MAIN TENETS OF COMMUNIST TEACHING (Delivered during the Bridgeman Trial, May, 1923) The philosophy of the Communist Party has three different phases, growing out of an analysis of the conditions existing at the present time. . . . The first of these is in relation to the class struggle. It is a doctrine of the Communist Party that the history of man, as written in the histories of the world, is a history of the class struggle. The second point of communist teaching is based upon what is called the materialist conception of history. This is the viewpoint that the form in which men obtained their livelihood determined their associations, their political ideas, their methods of action in relation to the social system under which they lived. . . . The third point in communist teaching is the fact of exploitation and its effect upon the capitalist system itself. Under the capitalist system the worker who produces the wealth receives in return for it only a small part of what he produces; he does not receive in wages a full equivalent of what he brings into existence through his labor power. . . . Those are the fundamental teachings of the com- 58 RUTHENBERG 59 munists. Based upon these teachings the Communist Party endeavors to organize and educate the work- ers, first to an understanding of how the capitalist system works, and to organize them into a party which would carry on a struggle for the emancipa- tion of the workers from capitalist society and the establishment of a communist society. THE NATURE OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE {Delivered during the Bridgeman Trial, May, 1923) In every period of written history there has been a struggle between contending classes — that is, an economic division — the way men gain their liveli- hood breaking them up into different groups, with different group interests. And in one phase the his- tory of this struggle presented itself in the form of a struggle between master and slave; the produc- ers of wealth were chattel slaves, owned by the master class which held them in slavery. At a later stage, the same class struggle presented itself as a struggle between the feudal lords and the serfs who tilled the land. In that system there developed also a struggle between the aristocracy, the feudal lords, and the growing commercial class which became the capitalist class of our times. In each of these eras the class struggle between the ruling class — the master class — and the exploited class has re- sulted in the overturning of the existing sjrstem of society. The capitalists of the sixteenth, the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries carried on a bitter struggle against the aristocracy for power. In that 60 RUTHENBERG 61 struggle it developed first through the organization of their power and finally it came to a struggle — develc^d into a struggle of force. There exists to-day in the capitalist system a divi- sion of classes, based upon the economic interests of the classes. On the one side we have in the United States, and in every other capitalist country of the world, a class which owns and controls the machinery of production. They are the owners of capital; they own the railroads, they own the fac- tories, they own the mines, they own the land in some measure. And this class is using its ownership of these productive forces to enrich itself. Through its possession of power, through the fact that it controls the opportunity of the masses of workers and farmers to gain a livelihood, it is able to take from them, through the machinery of the capitalist system, a large part of what they produce. In in- terest and dividends they secure more than the workers in the factories and on the land receive for their labor in producing wealth. Out of every dollar produced by the workers in the factories and on the farm, at least fifty per cent goes to the owners of capital — those who control the machinery of pro- duction. This fact of the exploitation of the work- ers and farmers brings into existence a conflict — a class struggle — ^which manifests itself, in the case of the industrial workers, in the great strikes which take place from time to time; in the case of the farm- ers in such a movement as the Non-Partisan League. 62 RUTHENBERG in such a movement as the Farmer Bloc in Congress. This struggle which manifests itself to-day in this form in present-day society will grow more bitter — will grow sharper. In the processes of the struggle the workers and farmers will organize themselves to attain control of political power. They will find in the experiences of this struggle that whenever the industrial worker uses his industrial power — that is, goes on strike — to attain better wages and working conditions, he will find arrayed against him the power of the government which is dominated by the capitalist class, as in every such struggle the government aligns itself with the capitalist as against the worker and uses the governmental power to enforce the will of the capitalist against the worker. This also applies to the farmer. In the legislation of Congress the interests of the bankers and the financial oligarchy of Wall Street are considered; laws are made in the interests of this capitalist group, strengthening its position to maintain its ex- ploitation of the agricultural worker. And these two facts, the use of the governmental power against the industrial workers and the use of the legislative power against the farmer and the agricultural worker, will build up a movement of these two ex- ploited groups to attain control of the government power and to use that power in their own interests. THE USE OF FORCE IN THE CLASS STRUGGLE (Delivered dtiring the Bridgeman Trial, May, 1923) Based on the lessons of past history it is the teaching of the Communist Party that when the class struggle comes to its final issue, when there has grown up a great movement of workers and farmers to take out of the hands of the capitalists their control of the government and to abolish the capitalist dictatorship — -that is, the control and the use of the government in the interests of the cap- italists — ^then, when the capitalists sense the major- ity of the workers and farmers intent upon securing relief from this exploitation, the capitalists, in the final struggle, will resort to force to protect their privileged position and maintain their power to ex- ploit the workers and farmers, and then this strug- gle will develop into a struggle in which there will be armed force and civil war. . . . The question of force in this class struggle is the outcome of the clash of social forces. From past history the infer- ence is clear that such armed struggles do result from these class struggles. And the likelihood is that the present class struggle will have a similar result. 63 IMPERIALIST WARS AND REVOLUTION (Delivered during the Bridgeman Trial, May, 1923) Imperialist wars are the inevitable outcome of the capitalist system of production — ^not only a single war but many wars, recurring from time to time. ... In this process of capitalist imperialism there is the threat of the destruction of our civiliza- tion. In the wars which will come from time to time there will be great destruction of wealth; there will be the breaking down of the productive forces. The people of the capitalist countries will find themselves impoverished, will find themselves suffering because the war has taken from them the possibilities of pro- ducing wealth as they previously produced it. In this process of imperialism and the destruction of productive power there will be uprisings of work- ers who bear the brunt of the sufferings, to endeavor to relieve themselves from the misery and sufferings which the capitalist system brings upon them. These struggles will result in revolutionary struggles, in attempts by the workers to abolish the capitalist system and to establish the collective ownership of industry and production. . . . 64 REVOLUTION VERSUS REFORMISM {From "The Liberator," July, 1923) Fbom 1889 until 19 14, two groups lived side by side in the parties of the Second International. One of these groups believed and acted upon the belief that the abolition of capitalism and the emancipa- tion of the workers was to be achieved through a slow process of legislation. . . . The other held the Marxian view that the climax of the class strug- gle between contending economic classes was a transfer of political power from one class to an- other class, and that the first step in the abolition of capitalist society must be the achieving of politi- cal power by the working class. Once the workers achieved political power, that is, the governmental power, then the process of abolishing capitalism and the establishment of socialism would begin. These two groups were able to remain in the same organization until a crisis came which required that theory be put into action. When the crisis came there was an inevitable sundering and the socialist movement the world over split into the right wing and the left wing. This crisis came with the beginning of the war in 1914. 65 66 SPEECHES OF The reformist right wing leaders in the socialist movement the world over betrayed the workers and supported the capitalist governments in the imperial- ist war. The left wing endeavored to rally the workers for the struggle against imperialist war and to turn this war into a struggle against the capital- ist system. This division which the war precipi- tated was sharpened during the process of the war. When the workers of the various countries became disillusioned, when their wrath began to flame against the capitalist order, the right wing reformist socialists refused to lead them into action against their exploiters. The left wing in every country assumed the leadership of the mass struggles of the workers and in these struggles they foimd that they were no longer arrayed only against the cap- italist governments but that shoulder to shoulder with the capitalists stood their former "comrades." The bitter experiences of the German revolution, the murder of Liebknecht and Luxemburg by the agents of the capitalists supported by the leaders of the Second International, the betrayal by Kerensky in Russia, the surrender of the right wing socialists to the capitalist governments in the various Euro- pean countries, opened between socialists and com- munists a gulf which cannot be bridged. Since the end of the war the divergence between the two groups has continued and become even deeper. The right wing socialists continue to act upon the theory that the social revolution is a mat- RUTHENBERG 67 ter of reforming the capitalist order through the legislative establishments of the capitalist state. Their policy therefore is that of compromise and betrayal. Everywhere the right wing socialists are the chief bulwark of existing governments, having turned their attack against the revolutionary work- ers under the leadership of the communists. THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY (From "The Liberator," July, 1923) What is the goal of the Communist Party? Wherein does it differ from other labor political parties? What is the role of the Communist Party — in this country the Workers' Party — in the strug- gle for the emancipation of the workers? . . . The communists accept as their guiding policy that the world imperialist war was the beginning of the decay and disintegration of the capitalist sys- tem. Although the capitalists, financiers, and states- men have striven mightily since 19 18 to find a solution to the financial and economic problems brought upon them by the war, the process of dis- integration still goes on. At times there are slight improvements only to be followed by worse condi- tions. Financially and economically Europe draws nearer and nearer to the brink. The commimists point out to the working class that the capitalist system has outlived its day, that it cannot be reformed or reconstructed, that the misery and suffering which are the lot of the workers can only be ended by the workers establishing their 68 RUTHENBERG 69 rule and proceeding with the work of rebuilding the economic system on a communist basis. The communists are under no illusion that this can be done over night. The struggle against the capitalist system may still last for decades, and even after the workers achieve power will go on for years. The communists do not attempt to de- ceive the workers by teaching them that the social revolution is a pink tea affair to be achieved in the legislative halls of the capitalist government. The lesson of the one country in which the workers have attained power — Soviet Russia — shows that after the workers' government is established, an iron dic- tatorship must rule as the instrument through which the struggle against the exploiters is carried for- ward there. The communists recognize the historic truth that no privileged class has ever given up its special position, its power to live in luxury through the exploitation of the oppressed class, without a bitter struggle in which it has resorted to every means within its power to retain its privileged posi- tion. Everything points to the fact that the struggle against capitalism in Europe and America will not differ from the class struggles of the past and that the workers in the fight to emancipate themselves must be ready for this struggle. In the United States the communists to-day are advocating as their chief immediate proposals the amalgamation of the trade unions into industrial 70 SPEECHES OF unions and the formation of a Labor Party. While the communists in the United States are the leaders in the struggle to bring about amalgamation and the formation of a Labor Party, this does not mean that when this goal is achieved the task of the com- munists is at an end. For the communists, the amalgamation of the trade imions into industrial unions and the forma- tion of a Labor Party to fight the political battles of the working masses of this country are but the first steps toward the ultimate goal of the Workers' Government and the communist society. When these means of struggle are achieved there will still remain for the communists the task of bringing to the masses of the workers of this country the realization that the struggle against capitalism must be a struggle to abolish the whole capitalist order. It must teach them that the problem which the working class faces under the capitalist system cannot be solved through ameliorative measures won in the legislative bodies of the capitalist government or through victories won in the fight on the indus- trial field for better wages and working conditions. The commimists will still have the task of educat- ing the working masses to the necessity of their establishing the rule of the workers in place of the rule of the capitalists. They will still have before them the work of bringing to the masses of the work- ers and farmers the understanding that the exist- ing capitalist government is an instrumoat for the RUTHENBERG 71 service of the capitalists, that it cannot be the form of government through which the workers may rule, but must be supplanted by a government growing out of the experiences and struggles of the workers, that is, a Soviet government. The communists will still have before them the task of educating the working masses of this country to the need of their establishing Soviet government and with it the rule of the workers — the Dictatorship of the Proletariat — which will use the governmental power in the interest of the workers as openly as it is now used in the interests of the capitalists. It is because, after the first steps in the United States in the form of the organization of a Labor Party and the amalgamation of the trade unions, there will still remain these great tasks, that there must be a Communist Party — a separate, distinct organization which will have in its ranks the best educated, disciplined, and most militant workers, such as the Workers' Party of America. The role of this party is to be the battalion at the front leading the working class hosts — indus- trial workers and farmers — forward against the enemy in spite of all persecutions, in spite of the efforts of the capitalists to destroy it, until the vic- tory of the workers is won. THE AIM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY {From "The Farmer-Labor United Front," 1923) What is the aim of a Communist Party? For what purpose is it organized? When we answer these questions we will lay down the principles which must guide us in all our work. As a Communist Party we are fighting to bring about in the United States the proletarian revolution, establish a Soviet government and the dictatorship of the proletariat. That aim is the reason for our existence and all our policies must lead us to the achievement of that aim. If they lead us in that direction then they are correct Communist policy. Lenin said, in one of his articles, that the condi- tions for a proletarian revolution were: first, that the capitalist class could no longer rule, and second, that there must be a will to power on the part of the working class. . . . The inability of the capitalists to rule is not something which grows out only of the work of our party, but this condition comes into existence as a result of the development of inner economic forces of the capitalist system. 72 RUTHENBERG 73 The task of our party as a Communist Party is to create the second condition for the proletarian revolution; that is, the will to power on the part of the working class. In order that such a will to power may exist we must win the support of the majority of the working class for the proletarian revolution. How can this be done? This is the problem which faces us as a Commimist Party. THE ROAD TO THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION {From "The Farmer-Labor United Front," 1923) By what methods can we win leadership over and the support of a majority of the working class for our program of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat? There are two methods through which it might be conceived that this could be done. The first of these is the method of propaganda; that is, that we should present to the working class our indict- ment of the capitalist system, facts about the ex- ploitation of the working class, the theory of sur- plus value, the class struggle and the materialist conception of history, and by publishing books, newspapers, pamphlets on the subject and through agitation at meetings, convert a majority of the working class to a belief in our analysis of the exist- ing capitalist social order and the way in which the evils of this system can be abolished. This method of propaganda to win the support of a majority of the workers is the method which has been employed by the Socialist Labor Party. It is the method now 74 RUTHENBERG 75 advocated by the Proletarian Party. These organi- zations believe that through a theoretical presenta- tion of the fundamental communist principles a ma- jority of the working class can be won for the support of these principles and that some fine day the pro- letarian revolution will come about. Such a method, however, will never bring about the proletarian revolution. If we were to depend upon propaganda alone we could wait for another million years and there would be no proletarian revolution nor a dic- tatorship of the working class. We must carry on educational work in our party. We must carry on educational work among sympa- thizers of our party. It is our task to educate as many workers as possible to an understanding of the fundamental principles of communism but we cannot rely upon that method alone to achieve the proletarian revolution. The method which has been adopted by the Com- munist International and the communist parties the world over is quite a different method. The method of the communists is one of the things which distin- guishes the Communist Party from previous work- ing class organizations which have sought to bring about the proletarian revolution. As communists we know that the capitalist sys- tem brings about continual conflicts between eco- nomic groups in the present social order. The wage workers come in constant conflict with the capitalists over questions affecting their daily lives. The work- 76 SPEECHES OF ers desire higher wages. They want shorter hours of labor. They want improvement in their working conditions. Struggles over these questions and even broader questions grow out of the fundamental con- flict of the wage workers and the capitalists. These conflicts are not matters of theory. They are hard, bitter, everyday struggles which decide the stand- ard of living of the workers and their families. Similarly the exploited farmers find themselves in conflict with the exploiters from day to day. The farmers struggle against the bankers who hold the mortgages on their land. They are in continual con- flict with the marketing organizations to which they sell their products. Their interests are in opposition to those of the railroads which transport their goods. Thus both wage workers and farmers are engaged in a continual struggle with the capitalists. The policy of the Commtmist Party is to associate itself with the workers in the everyday struggle. Communists fight with the wage workers and farm- ers in support of the demands which they make of the capitalists because it is in these struggles and through these struggles that the workers learn the character of the capitalist system, and there is developed the will to power of the workers, the de- termination to triumph over the enemy who exploits and oppresses them. The everyday struggles of the workers create the most favorable condition for establishing the influ- ence and leadership of the Communist Party. The RUTHENBERG 77 workers learn by experience the character of the capitalist system. They learn by their e3q)erience in the struggle that the government under the cap- italist system is merely an agency of the capitalists for maintaining the system of exploitation. They learn this, not through theoretical presentation and proof of the facts, but through the hard knocks of their experience with the capitalists and with the government which supports the capitalist system. While fighting with the workers to realize their immediate demands against the capitalists, it is the part of the communists to point out to them at every stage of the development of the struggle that these immediate demands cannot solve their problems. Thus in the process of the struggle itself, the work- ers become more conscious of their class interests and of their class enemy. It is in the process of struggle that the revolutionary will of the workers develops, and through these struggles they are led step by step to the final struggle of the proletarian revolution. THE LIMITS OF THE UNITED FRONT {From "The Farmer-Labor United Front," 1923) A minority of the District Executive Committee of the Workers' (Communist) Party in Michigan pro- posed that the party, if it did not support, should at least not fight against a candidate in the Republican Party primaries, because he had the support of the labor movement of Detroit and of the State of Michigan. How far can we go in the united front? What are the limits of the united front? The test of any united front movement for us as conununists is whether the movement develops the class conscious- ness of the workers and tends towards class action. If a imited front serves this purpose then we, as communists, can enter into it and fight with other workers. But if the united front, in place of devel- oping class consciousness and creating the basis for class action, leads away from these things, it is our duty to fight against it and endeavor to build a united front which will develop class consciousness. What did the proposal of the Michigan comrades mean? The Republican and Democratic parties are class instruments of the ruling class. They are the 78 RUTHENBERG 79 organizations through which the capitalists control the government. The capitalists use these parties to establish their class domination, to keep the workers in subjection. The capitalists foster the illusion that the Repub- lican and Democratic parties through which they maintain their class domination represent the inter- ests of the whole people. It is our task to destroy these illusions. The destruction of this illusion is part of our work of developing class consciousness among the workers. From the foregoing it appears very clearly that under no circumstances can our party support can- didates on either side of the old party tickets. To do that would be leading the workers back into the parties of their enemies. In place of developing class consciousness we would be helping the capital- ists to maintain the illusions which we are endeav- oring to destroy. COMMUNIST CANDIDATES IN ELECTIONS (From "The Liberator," Augmt, 1924) The decision of the Workers' Party to run Com- munist presidential candidates in this year's elections has been hailed in some quarters as an abandonment of the policy of the United Front. This interpreta- tion of the decision of the Workers' Party is not correct. On the contrary, the decision of the Work- ers' Party to place Communist candidates in the field is a continuation of its application of the United Front policy in the United States. . . . The Workers' Party does not by this action aban- don the United Front and the Farmer-Labor cam- paign. It will make this one of the central slogans of the campaign, the idea of the formation of the class Farmer-Labor party. Against the program of the "Conference for Progressive Political Action" and La Follette, and against the acceptance by the workers and farmers of the leadership of and col- laboration with the small business men of this country, the Workers' Party will place the program for the organization of a mass party fighting a class struggle ag^nst capitalism. 80 WHY THE LABOR PARTY SLOGAN? {From "The Liberator," December, 1924) The forces which develop class political action by labor are the experiences of labor in its fight for more of what it produces and for better working conditions. It is a fundamental of Marxism that the development of capitalism brings about the in- tensification of the class struggle, that this intensi- fied class struggle involves the open use of the state power against the workers and forces the workers into a political struggle as a class in their own de- fense. . . . In 1922, when the united front labor party policy was adopted by the Commimist Party, it was ap- parent that we had reached the stage of develop- ment in the United States which would produce a class political struggle by the workers on a mass scaJe. The development of capitalism in the United States, as a result of the war, has brou^t about an intensification of the class struggle here. The great industrial revolts of 1919 and 1922 were the expres- sion of this situation. The more open use of the state power against the workers developed the idea 81 82 RUTHENBERG of labor political action to take this weapon out of the hands of the capitalist exploiters. The demand for such labor political action took the form of a movement for a Farmer-Labor party. It was thus no artificial slogan created by our Party which was the basis for our united front farmer-labor policy, but the Sctual developments of capitalism and the workers' struggle in the United States. Our Party adopted the slogan "For a Labor Party" as a means of crystallizing the sentiment for independent political action by labor which had grown up through the life ejqieriences of the workers. Therefore, the slogan "For a Labor Party" was not based upon mere ephemeral conditions, but upon the rock foundation that the development of capitalism intensifying the class struggle, bringing with it the use of the state power against the workers, inevitably forces them into a class political struggle against the capitalist state power. THE YOUTH AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT {From the "Daily Worker," December, 1925) The older generation in the trade unions is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Gompersism. On the new generation of workers, which is just learning from bitter experiences the character of the existing system of exploitation, rests the hope of creating a; working class movement in which Gom- persism will be succeeded by the spirit of class pride, and the consciousness that it is the destiny of the workers to create a new social order, that it is their task to take control of the productive forces of so- ciety and so order and organize them that they will serve the interests of those who produce wealth in place of for the enrichment of a small class of ex- ploiters. The work of imbuing this spirit in the young work- ers who will be the militant fighting center of the working class movement to-morrow, is the task of the Young Workers' (Communist) League. In di- recting the work of the League into these channels in an effort to reach and influence the young workers in industry, teaching them the necessity of their organizing to fight against the capitalists to make of them militant trade union fighters, the Yoimg 83 84 RUTHENBERG Workers' (Communist) League is taking up one of the most important problems of the working class movement. It is through establishing contact with the young workers in industry, furnishing them with the spirit of class struggle against the master class, that the Young Workers' (Communist) League will become a powerful force in the American labor movement. These tasks are now being taken up by the Young Workers' (Communist) League in earnest. The work of establishing its iniluence has been begun. The future promises achievements and success, in- spiring the fighting spirit in the young workers, and bringing them under the influence and leadership of the Young Workers' (Communist) League. Our party must give earnest and enthusiastic sup- port to this work of the Young Workers' (Com- munist) League. The task of spreading our ideas and our campaigns among the yoxmg workers has not been supported to the full extent that the party is able to give support. We have not built the Young Workers' League wherever there are units of the Workers' (Commimist) Party. The energetic campaigns now being undertaken by the Young Workers' (Communist) League must receive the fxill support of every party imit. The party members must study the proposals, organization plans, cam- paigns initiated by the Young Workers' (Com- munist) League and devise ways and means of aiding them in carrying out the campaigns. THE WORLD POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1926 (From the "Workers' Monthly" June, 1926) At the Session of the Enlaxged Executive (of the Communist International) held early in 1925, the Communist International gave as its estimate of the situation of world capitalism that in comparison to the situation which it faced in the years im- mediately following the end of the imperialist world war, capitalism had achieved a certain measure of stabilization. This frank admission was hailed by the capitalist statesmen and the social-democratic supporters of capitalism as an admission by the Communist International that world proletarian revolution was an illusion and that capitalism had overcome the forces let loose by the war and was re- established on al firm foundation. The thesis of the 1925 Enlarged Executive of the Comintern, of course, was not what the capitalist and social-democratic enemies of the world revolu- tion tried to make it out to be. The Enlarged Ses^ sion of the Communist International did not say that capitalism had succeeded in overcoming the 85 86 SPEECHES OF forces of disintegration brought into existence by the world imperialist war and that the period of world revolution and the overthrow of capitalism was at an end. What the Enlarged Executive Com- mittee of 1925 did say was that relatively to the situation which existed in the five-year period im- mediately following the war, capitalism had achieved a breathing spell through partial and temporary stabilization. This estimation of the situation of world capitalism was confirmed by the 1926 Session of the Enlarged Executive Committee. However, the Enlarged Ex- ecutive Committee, while confirming the estimate of the year before, took note of new developments of capitalism, which, though not indicating the end of the period of partial stabilization, indicated a weak- ening of the stabilization. This weakening of the stabilization of capitalism found its expression in the economic and financial condition which existed in a number of the major capitalist countries. . . . Another factor weighing against the temporary stabilization of capitalism is the revolt of the im- perialistically exploited colonies against capitalist domination. The successes registered by the peo- ple's revolutionary movement in China and. the struggle against French imperialism in Morocco shpw how insecure is the basis of capitalism. The continued favorable progress of the Soviet Union in rebuilding its economic structure and giv- RUTHENBERG 87 ing a higher standard of life to the workers is also a powerful factor operating against world capital- ism. . . . The exception noted to this general viewpoint in regard to the situation of international capitalism was the United States. The Enlarged Session of the Executive Committee of the Comintern . . . will be notable for the fact that for the first time the r61e which the United States is playing in relation to world capitalism was given adequate considera- tion. The Enlarged Executive Committee recognized the fact that, so far as the United States was con- cerned, capitalism was still on the up-grade, that it is still developing and strengthening itself. The role which American imperialism is essajang in Europve is that of the savior of capitalism. More and more, the European capitalist coimtries are de- pendent on the loans and investments of the Ameri- can capitalists. Their financial dependence upon American captialism has its reverse side in the growth of the influence of the United States as the dominant imperialist power. As a means of fighting the imperialist domination by the United States the Enlarged Executive Com- mittee raised the slogan: "A Socialist United States of Europe." The economic and financial strength of American capitalism and the fact that American imperialism is now looting the entire world has found its express 88 RUTHENBERG sion also in the working class movement of the United States. The labor movement of this country has taken great strides toward the right. In ex- pressing this opinion the Enlarged Session did not overlook the fact of crises in certain industries due to special developments in these industries, such as textile, mining, needle trades, and consequent left tendencies among the workers in these industries. However, the main line of the development of the labor movement in the United States has been towards the right and the Communist Party in this country must reckon with this in formulating its policy. THE ECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1926 (From the "Workers' Monthly," July, 1926) In order correctly to formulate our policies and tactics in relation to the present situation, we must take as the basis the economic situation and the prospects for the immediate future. Without such an estimate we cannot lay down the correct line for the Party. Capitalism in this country has been enjoying a period of economic prosperity. What are the indica- tions so far as a continuance of this prosperity is concerned? There are signs that we have reached the peak of the present period of high production and big profits for the capitalists and that the trend from now on will be downward and not upward. This does not mean an immediate period of eco- nomic crisis but rather that the tendency is towards a period of depression such as we had, for instance, in the year 1924 and during part of 1925. Capitalism in this country has had a number of ups and downs since the end of the war. The cycle 88 90 RUTHENBERG of these changes has been in much shorter intervals than before the war. The period of great prosperity following the end of the war was succeeded by the deep-going crisis of 1921-22, which was accompanied by widespread unemploymrait, the open shop drive and great industrial conflicts. Then, in 1923, there was an upward movement, bringing fairly good con- ditions for a period of something over a year. This was succeeded by the depression of 1924, which ex- tended into the spring of 1925. This latter depres- sion, however, was not of the deep-going character as the crisis of 192 1. In 192 5 industry again reached a high level. Thus we see that during the years since the end of the war and since the exceptional prosperity of the immediate post-war period, American industry has gone through a quick succession of depressions and high levels of production. The present indica- tions are that industry is again tending downward and that possibly within a year we will have another period of depression. . . . The general estimate which we can draw from this analysis of the situation is that, while at present industry is still producing at a high rate and while it will probaibly continue to do so for some months, yet production is heading towards a depression. . . . THE WORKERS' (COMMUNIST) PARTY What It Stands For and Why Workers Should Join It {From a pamphlet of the same title published in 1926) The Workers' (Communist) Party is organized upon the basis of the analysis of the capitalist sys- tem and the class struggle. In the Workers' (Communist) Party are or- ganized those workers who understand the character of the struggle which the workers are fighting, and who are ready to unite their strength to give leader- ship to that struggle and to direct it along the road that will carry the workers forward to the Workers' and Farmers' Government and victory for the new social order. In our country the class struggle has not yet de- veloped to that sharp form which places the workers before the revolutionary struggle for power. The Workers' (Communist) Party therefore has formu- lated policies for the immediate struggles for partial demands which will build up the power of the work- ers and prepare them for the revolutionary struggle. To achieve this end, the Workers' (Communist) Party declares itself in favor of the following poli- cies: The Workers' (Communist) Party supports and 91 92 SPEECHES OF participates actively in every struggle of the work- ers and fanners against the capitalist class. The Workers' (Communist) Party enters into every fight which the workers make for higher wages, better working conditions, better conditions of labor. It endeavors to give leadership to these struggles, broaden them by bringing other workers to the support of those engaged in the struggle. The Workers' (Communist) Party fights with the farmers in their effort to secure relief from the unbearable conditions to which the capitalists are subjecting them. It is through these struggles for their partial de- mands that the workers and farmers learn the na- ture of the capitalist system, the part which the government is playing in the struggle and the neces- sity of organizing their power for the fight against the capitalist class and the capitalist government. The Workers' (Commimist) Party supports all genuine labor unions and endeavors to strengthen them throu^ urging the workers to join them. At the same time it carries on al struggle within the existing unions to transform them into militant fighting organizations for the workers' interests and to amalgamate the trade unions into powerful indus- trial unions which can more effectively fi^t the workers' battles against the great trusts and corpora- tions which to-day control industry. But to-day in the United States there are only four million workers organized in the trade unions, RUTHENBERG 93 while fifteen million industrial workers and many agricultural and other workers are outside of the trade unions, in the ranks of the unorganized. The organization of the great mass of unorganized work- ers in the basic industries of this country into labor unions is one of the big problems before the workers. The Workers' (Communist) Party will carry on a persistent campaign for the organization of these workers. It will raise this question inside of the existing labor unions and at the same time carry on a direct campaign for the organization of the workers where no organizations now exist. The organization of the workers in the steel in- dustry, the metal-mining and smelting industry, the automobile industry, the great manufacturing indus- try, the textile industry, the rubber industry and the strengthening of the existing imions in other indus- tries must be achieved in order to place the workers in a position to make their strength effective against the capitalists in their struggle for a higher standard of life. The workers and farmers of this country still, to a large degree, are supporting the political parties t>f the capitalist class — ^the Republican and Demo- cratic parties. The next step in developing the class conscious- ness of the workers is the organization of a mass labor party of the workers who, in alliance with the farmers, will carry on a struggle against the capi- talist parties in the workers' interests. 94 SPEECHES OF To achieve this end, the Workers' (Communist) Party is actively carrying on a campaign for the formation of a Labor Party (in some states, a Farmer-Labor Party exists which the Workers' (Communist) Party supports) . Such a party should unite all existing workers' organizations, trade unions, workers' political parties, workers' fraternal organizations and cooperatives and should be formed by the calling of conferences of delegates from these organizations. The Workers' (Communist) Party supports the formation of local and state labor parties with the view of eventually crystallizing a national labor party. While the labor party will fight for the im- mediate political interests of the workers, there must be an organization of those workers who are fully conscious of the nature of the struggle against the capitalist class and capitalist government, and who are prepared to carry the struggle forward to its final victory. The organization of these workers is the Workers' (Communist) Party. The Workers' (Commimist) Party will affiliate with the labor party, maintaining at the same time its right to carry on its work in support of its full Communist program as outlined in this statement. The Negroes are not only a pa.rt of the most bit- terly exploited section of the working class, but they are, in addition, oppressed as a race. The Workers' (Communist) Party supports the organization of the Negroes for their fi^t against RUTHENBERG 96 exploitation as a part of the working class and against the special discrimination to which they are subjected. It demands complete social equality for the Negro. The Workers' (Communist) Party will aid in or- ganizing the struggle against American imperialism by the oppressed peoples who are being exploited by the capitalists of the United States. It will aid in uniting the people of Porto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, of all Central and South America, the Philippines in a struggle for freedom from the American capitalist exploiters. The Workers' (Communist) Party is affiliated with, and is a section of the Communist Inter- national. The Commimist International is the world-wide leader of the class struggle of the work- ers. It is an association of the Communist parties of aJl the countries of the world. The Workers' (Communist) Party invites every man and woman who is ready to accept the above program of struggle against the capitalist class and capitalist government, both as to its immediate forms and the ultimate revolutionary struggle for a Work- ers' aiid Farmers' government, to join the Workers' (Communist) Party. It is only through building a powerful Communist party which can imite and lead aJl phases of the struggles of the workers and farmers that the victory of the Workers' and Farmers' Government can be won and the communist society established. LET'S FIGHT ONI {On March 2, 1927, Charles E. Rtithenberg, Sec- retary of the American Communist Party since its organization in 19 19, except for the period he spent in prison, breathed his last, Consciotts of approach- ing death he gave his last thoughts to the party and the movement to which he devoted the best years of his life. He asked those who were at his bedside to convey the following message to all his comrades in the commimist movement.) TELL THE COMRADES TO CLOSE THEIR RANKS, TO BUILD THE PARTY. THE AMERICAN WORKERS UNDER THE LEAD- ERSHIP OF OUR PARTY AND THE COMIN- TERN WILL WIN. LET'S FIGHT ON! The End 98 Date Loaned 'rt/ilL^^^I^ 1 f^!ijj^-Hpi4 FEB 2-:^ ?» — ~ F^- ' •■ >' '•' L^, 0^ ^R» ..- • • — H Remington Rand Inc Cat.no, 1139.2 PFJOPERTY OF LIBRARY H i^ ft io INDi*Slf 5AM LAh:SiR RELATIONS CORNELL UNIVERSITY VOICES OF REVOLT INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS