The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 1, 1924, Page 9

il THE LEADERS G INCE the rise of the British La- bor Party to power the Amer- ican liberal and labor press, as well as the organs of capitalism, have de- voted columns of space to it. There has been a decrease in the articles on Russia for here is something that American writers think they under- stand—it has a homelike flavor and there is no great hostility to the British Labor Party as yet. It is, say most of the publicists, the apotheosis of democracy and the crowning proof that in Anglo-Saxon nations no other weapon than the bal- lot need be used by the workers, In the liberal press, particularly, does the comment reach an ecstatic A Neglected Fact. None of the commentators seem to have taken into’ consideration one fact that is obvious to the most ca- sual observer of the British labor movement—that the Labor Party is not a homogenous entity but a huge amorphous body in which all shades of opinion from the Manchester school of liberalism to the advocates of social revolution thru the dictator- ship of the workingclass are repre- ‘sented. No criticism or comment which does not stress this fact is worth the paper it is written on. The British Labor Party is the exact op- posite of the Communist Party of Russia in every respect except that both number workers and farmers among their supporters. The Communist Party can be crit- icised as a party but the British La- bor Party cannot and this, I think, accounts for the enthusiasm of the liberal. brethren; each can find some proof that his pet hobby is embodied in its program, - Communist Criticism. It can be ascertained quite easily that the criticism of the British La- bor Party by Communists is in strik- ing contrast to that of all other writ- ers on the subject; that, as a matter of fact, Communist criticism is not criticism of the British Labor Party as such but of its leaders and their policies, . More even than the now almost de- funct social-democratic party of Ger- many is the British Labor Party a party of leaders, but with this differ- ence—the Labor Party leaders have no such control over their followers as had the officials of the German organization. This is a blessing for the British workingclass. The leadership of the British Labor Party is now in the hands of parlia- mentarians, that is to say that those who speak for the party are commit- ted to a belief in the eternal efficacy of present parliamentary forms as the only means necessary to abolish capitalism and establish a social sys- tem free from exploitation. There is not the slightest evi- dence to support the contention made by their admirers that MacDonald, Snowden, Webb, Brailsford and other intellectual leaders of the British Labor Party have any different con- ception of the role of the working- class other than that of the “full-bel- ly” philosophy of the members of the Liberal party. The Tone of Respectability. True, their appeals are directed to the workers; they glorify the work- ingclass in public spéeches but their official and private acts show them to be dominated by the middle-class craving for respectability that has been the curse of the British labor movement and that cannot be escaped by party which sets as its goal a foe Hae Ft majority. The rise of the Labor circ does not mean, ag so many liberal observ- ers contend, that the British work- ingclass has been converted suddenly to perfect confidence in parl\;menta- “ry action or that the left wing of the labor movement has seen the error of its ways and abandoned the strike and in favor of conciliation note; the dictionary is plundered to4revoluti ty i : embellish the adjectival eulogies of | of the goog eee wee the aims and methods of the British} It may mouth, thru its leaders, the Labor Party. phrases of the social revolution, but the parliamentarians consider a la- bor party government such a victory for the workers that everything should be subordinated to strengthen- ing its hold on the parliamentary ma- chinery, Objection to This Policy. There could be little objection to this if there was any reason to be- lieve that with such a majority the leadership of the labor party would be spurred to a real assault on Brit- ish capitalism. The strength of any workingclass lies in its economic organizations and no political party which, previous to the overthrow of the capitalist state, minimizes the necessary activity of the trade unions is a workingclass or when it discourages because it fears for its parliamentary prestige—an- other phrase for the favorable or neutral attitude of certain capitalist strata—the use of the strike weapon against sections of the capitalist class, it confesses that it differs from its capitalist competitors for parlia- mentar honors in minor details alone. Discouraging Strikes. The leadership of the British La- bor Party, in addition to lauding par- liamentary action to the exclusion of all other meané, expressing its firm conviction in the basic goodness of modern democratic institutions in- cluding government, before and dur- ing election, has, since it assumed of- fice, discouraged to an extent not yet fully known in America, the new spirit .of militancy that has shown itself in two great strikes—the rail- waymen and the dockers. It is from the official organ of the Independent Labor Party to which the intellectual leaders of the British Labor Party belong that we gain an accurate estimate of their. knowledge of and loyalty to the principles and tactics of the class struggle. Writing in the “New Leader,” just before the railway strike, Brailsford accuses the union of betraying the Labor Party because it proposed to strike to resist a reduction in wages. It is hard to discern any difference between this official egpression of the British Labor Party leaders and that of any employers’ publication in the United States: The Leaders’ Position. “It would have been difficult,” Says Brailsford, “to invent a di- version so nicely calculated to up- set public confiden¢e (in the Labor Party.—Ed. note) and to foster a mood of panict * * What is at stake is the whole future of this machinery of conciliation* * * No one can question the abstract right of the Associated Society to reject a decision with which they are dis- satisfied, But it ig clear that if they do so the moral authority of these decisions is destroyed. The real sanction for the working of conciliation igs public opinion. * * * Sooner or later the discipline of service must replace the disci- Pline of the class struggle. * * * -This strike, if it kes place, will dea} the Labor Party in public opinion a blow which no Rothermore or Beaverbrook could have inflicted * * * If we are fit to govern, we must learn in the industrial as well as the political field to master our jealousies, to suppress our egoists and to organize ourselves in the workshop as in the party for the triumph of the common cause.” In other words, while British cap- italism remains in full possession of the factories and the food, the parlia- mentary leaders of the British Labor Party strive to inaugurate an era of industrial peace in which a striking worker is to be branded as a traitor to the “public welfare.” -Ye gods! HIP OF THE BRITISH LABOR PARTY ssi their policy of class collaboration and parliamentary futility and in the end will denounce the workers as ig- norant ingrates; dull hopelessness will be their outstanding character- istic and the more bitter ones will finally become the advisers of the most reactionary section of the Brit- ish capitalist élass. There are those persons who will say that this is bitter criticism and untimely; that the leaders of the The federation of British industries} British Labor Party have not had and the unemployed and starving British workingclass are lumped to- gether as mutual beneficiaries of the “cause.” Reason For Tolerance. Is it arly wonder that there is no -pani¢ in the ranks of the British cap- italists?. No enmity, but only kindly tolerance for leaders whose industrial policy consists of the establishment of conciliation boards to which the workers will humbly appeal when conditions become too onerous and who denounce the workers’ impa- tience with such tactics as “egoism” and disregard of the “discipline of service.” The duty of a revolutionary party in capitalist paSaments is to arouse the workers against the capitalist system; to stimulate all of their ac- tivities, to mobilize them for the final struggle, to destroy the last vestige of respect for and fear of capitalism in the minds of the work- ers, to furnish a program that by its clearness and uncompromising character stands out as the next step which the workers must take on the road to victory. The Labor Party leaders deny the need for any strug- gle except that for “public respect.” Self-Deception. The British Labor Party is deceiv- ing itself as well as the working- class. It apparently does not under- stand that the stagnation of British industry, unemjfoyment, loss of economic power the uniong and consequent defeats have had _ the visual result in countries where the workers possess the franchise— they swing to parliamentarianism as the only available method of securing any immediate relief. They hope the government will:be able to do what they could not do with their unions alone while the factories were closed —put an end to the increasing tyran- nies of the employers. They expect the Labor Party gov- ernment to take the side of the workers in the strikes that are ine- vitable and if the leaders were not of the type that values the smug ap- proval of the middle class more than the esteem of the workers, they would, as a political tactic sure of success, use the government as lever with which to pry maximum conces- sions in the form of wages and work- ing conditions from the employers. A government with a policy of this kind need not long remain a minori- ty bloe in parliament in a country where the majority of the population are members of the workingclass, Unable To Lead. But the leadership of the British Labor Party is constitutionally un- able to have confidence in the driv- ing power of the masses or to mobil- ize that power. The left wing of the party may get sontrol of the organization but never of the leaders. Their route is al- ready charted. They will adhere to Communist Party Gains in Leading Saxon Cities Shown in Tabulation The following table illustrates the gains made by the Communist Party and the losses of the Social Democratic Party in the recent communal ae i ee ey Magda with the elections in 1922. of the capitalist parties which, however, was not a veny great advance over the last elections, and was only made possible by the apathy of a great part of the masses who did not vote at all, due to the bitter disillusionment caused by the treachery of the Social The table gives the number of Party, the Social Democratic Party, in the principal and cities and towns of Saxony. places the ptured the Com jist “Combined Capitalist, Parties f ++ +4+++4+ | eone Tem OD + +tt++4++ ~ wSantrr time to prove themselves and predic- tions ag to their end are unwarranted. Not Individuajg But Types. To those I say that I am not crit- icising MacDonald, Snowden and the rest as individuals but as a type— a type in which there are few if any variations. They are lgstorical products thrown up by the clash of forces in the class struggle and whether they come to the surface in Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Germdhy or England matters but very little. They strive to cure the evils of a struggle that can be ended only by aecentuating the struggle, thru a re- conciliation of warring classes and in this they serve the beneficiaries of the system. Capitalism claims them for its own and the manner of their end can be predicted with almost ma- thematical accuracy. Not in its present leaders but in the left wing elements of the labor movement who reject the policy of conciliation and class collaboration lies the real leadership of the Brit- ish workingclass,; When they take their place as the acknowledged vanguard of the Brit- ish movement they will find the pres- ent leaders in the camp of the ene- my. The Road To Ruin. Belief in the identity of interest of all classes in the British Isles, grouped around the standard of the British empire, conviction that the state is or can be made an impartial agency, complete confidence in parlia- mentary machinery as an ?ostrument that can wipe out the cause of class antagonisms, lead straight to the betrayal of the revolutionary movements. If it does not, the his- tory made in the last seven years : devoid of meaning for #he working- class. “Norm-oil-cy” By SCOTT NEARING (Federated Press Staff Writer) The oil expose is not a scandal in any accurate sense. It is a lesson in realism. Senators Lenroot and Walsh have merely exposed to public view the ordinarily accepted transactions between business men and publie offi- cials, in the course of which busi- ness men exploit American resources and plunder the American people. Mr. Daugherty does not regard the matter as scandalous. Mr. Coolidge has not, in any one of his public ut- terances, displayed the least indigna- tion or ever surprise. Men high up in American public life are evident- ly quite accustomed to this kind of thing, and are annoyed—not scan- dalized—when it comes to light. Read Imperial Washington (R. F. Pettigrew); turn the pages of Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Co.; run over the works which Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens land Charles Edward Russell turned out in the muckraking days that pre- ceded the war, and you will find this story repeated again and again, in chapter after chapter of American business history. / Nor is it incongruous that these very men were the arch patriots of the war days. The war, like Teapot ‘Dome, was a business proposition. The same men who profiteered be- fore and during the war have been profiteering since the war, and will continue to profiteer so long as the profiteering system remains. It may be difficult to explain to ‘those patriots who fought and bled in the war why a few men should get away with millions, and this will prove particularly embarrassing dur- ing the coming months in audiences of bankrupt farmers and workers on time. But with the press flour- g, the movies in full swing and the radio broadcasting, it will be pos- sible to persuade the American mass- es to forget even tho they cannot forgive,