The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 29, 1927, Page 6

Fa! : Page Six ‘THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1927 ~ 5 Results of the Plenary Session of the Executive Committee of Communist International | Bucharin. | | Speech by Nikol ued from last issue.) (Conti: i I am of th nion that in the first | place this mate is entirely wrong. There is of cou 10 thought of deny at ther > been defeats, | pt to place these de- | count of the so-called | ajority of the Central | large number of | s coincided with the cul-| of the leading role | Comrade Zinoviev in the and of the fairly im- in the Political | nd of the C. P. s who are no| longer members of tk Bureau. I am however not desirous of drawing attention to these matters. I only; wish to point out the incorrectness of drawing le conel as the st: t we are w at the pr » than formerly. There has been a certain regrouping of forces in Europe of late. This phenomenon has received due con-| sideration in the thesis on the “par- tial stabilization of capitalism.” The present period aracterized by a temporary firm footing of Euro-| pean capitalism, especially of central | European sm. | The utterances denying the partial | stabilization of capitalism are pure nonsense. The economics of Bacopean| capitalism have become stronger, es-| pecially the economics of German| capitalism. Enormous amounts of | capital have been invested in in-} dustry. The fact of an economic up- lift if further confirmed by the) literary data at our disposal, by the} index figures, and by the reports of | comrades coming from this country. | What will happen later is another| question. It probable that the limited capacity of the home markets will lead to a mighty collapse after the lapse of a certain time, but it is possible that the curve of develop- ment may continue to rise for the time being. There is no doubt what- | ever that German capitalism’ has a securer footing than before; and there is as little doubt that there is a@ simultaneous political consolidiza- tion of the forces of German capital- ism, a co-operation among the agrar- ians and industrialists belonging to every wing, a firmer establishment of the Fascist organizations, a con- solidization of these organizations and their united front, accomplished in the united front in combination} with the present German govern- ment. The assertions that Polish capital- ism is falling rapidly into decay, are not true by any means. On the con- trary, we see that Polish capitalism ing through a period of in- able temporary consolidiza- tion, both politically and economic- ally. This is based on a number of causes, In the first place, the Polish bourgeoisie was helped by the Brit- ish strike, and then by a large num- ber of loans and investments, es- pecially from American capitalists. There thus no possibility of throwing doubts on the regrouping of forces in the ection of a stabi zation of capi m, and a consolidi- zation an establishment of its is political po. s in Central Europe. And there s as little doubt that Zin- oviev was in error wh he lately tabilization had al- d. stated that the ready disapp The greatest peculiarity of the pres- ent situation is how the fact that that inequailty in the development of capitalism, referred to at the VII. Enlarged Plenum of the Executive Committee, has become more con- spicuous than before. The many- sidedness, diversity, and inconsistency in the development of the various de- partments of the world’s economics have found even clearer expression. And though on the one hand we must admit the advancing consolidization| of European continental | capitalism, | on the other hand we observe with! equal clearness the rising tempest of the Chinese revolution, which is Sweeping through the whole system| of international relations in our present state of society, shaking them | to their foundations. . When we take into account all these | facts of present day development, and when we duly estimate the im-| mensity of the Chinese revolution and its consequences, and the growing power of the Soviet Union, then we ean scarcely arrive at the conclusion “that we have become weaker.” It is true that our antagonist has become | stronger (this we admit when we recognize the “partial stabilization)s But a general comparison of forces does not show him to have gained any; advantage. The formula of our hav-| ing “become weaker” does not express the actual state of affairs. The general estimate laid before hy the Opposition is therefore ang New to the “definite proposals” de to us by the Opposition. It must | st be observed that all these pro- nosals have been accompanied by un-| heard of attacks on the C. C. of our) Party and on the Comintern. We have’ never before heard such utterances as these, so rude and insulting, so entirely adventurous, not even during | the inner Party and Comintern dis- cussion of the last few years. And| yet Comrades Trotzky and Vuyovitch, | who have represented the Opposition in the Plenum of the Executive Com- mittee, have literally not brought forward one single definite proposi- tion, not one single word, with res- us } epoch which will put an end to our VIENNA WORKERS FORCE POLICE TO BEAT HASTY RETREA : Mass fury of workers against government protection of fascists bursts into street fighting. fleeing in disorder before workers. Photo shows police of Vienna pect to the problems which I have, touched upon here. And this although I questioned Comrade Trotzky most | urgently, in my speech, to deal with the most important questions con- cerning the preparations being made| for war. | During the imperialist war Com-| rade Trotzky was opposed to the de- feat slogan—is he conscious, or is he not conscious, of the error committed | by him in the years between 1914 and 1917? Is he conscious of having been in error in rejecting the defeat slog- an of “the conversion of imperialist | war into civil war?” Is he conscious | of this, or does he acknowledge being in the wrong in advancing the peace slogan as our central slogan? In asking these questions I am not referring to past times. We are con-| cerned with burning questions of the moment. It is an open secret that we are moving rapidly towards an “pause for breath,” and are entering on a period involving wars and at-| tacks upon the Soviet Union. We do| not know when the storm will break over our heads, but we know that it} is approaching, dark and threaten- ing. And now consider carefully! If we take this estimate of our situation | seriously, then we must be ideologi-| cally prepared for it; fully prepared for it, prepared one hundred per cent. Is it possible to take it less serious- ly? It is only right to speak of one hundred per cent. We are not deal- ing with a mere bagatelle; we have to adopt either one definite stand- point, or another; we have to adopt one central slogan, or another. Our) decision is of immediate practical im- portance, and not merely of p: importance for some seconda ter, but for a question of p: laying down the actual line of orien- | tation for our Communist Parties. | Have such problems as that of “d featism,” of the peace slogan, of ci war, etc., lost anything of th acuteness? Can we simply pass them by? Does not the most elementary poli- | tical conscientiousness de that | CG ‘ade Trotzky either acknowledge e has been in error in thes¢ ions, or that he i open opposition to Lenin? Is it so difficult to understand that an at- tempt to avoid this question at: the} present time would show utter lack of principle? ‘ (To Be Continued). Police Chief “Kited” Checks. TARRYTOWN, N. Y., July 28.— The resignation of Grover Moore as Chief of Police of Elmsford was ac- | cepted last night by the Elmsford board of trustees. Moore was sus- pended from duty on charges he had endorsed and passed _ worthless checks. Don’t Forget the Sustaining Fund! The Communist Academy at Nescow Is Not Worried by). Rebuff from Harvard “U”), By J. LOUIS ENGDAHL ARVARD UNIVERSITY, America’s proudest, blue- stocking center of capitalist learning, doesn’t de- | sire to maintain any relations with the Communist Acad- emy of Moscow, U. S. S. R. | Mrs. Henrietta Derman, Librarian of the Communist Academy, gave me this information during an interview in her office in Moscow. At the same time she smiled | a whimsical smile as if to say, “What does it matter? If necessary, we can get along without Harvard.” * * * At my earnest solicitation, she went to the files and brought out the letter from Harvard University, stating its effort to impose an “intellectual blockade” on the tet Union. The capitalist supporters and the coupon- clipping alumni of Harvard have been part of the va- rious drives that have been made with as many repeated failures, to establish the food, the economic and the finane blockades against the Soviet Union, not to mention the open war that was waged once, and is again ing. So the intelligentsia, that prostitutes ervice of the dollar subsidies that the uni- | s, feels that it, too, must follow suit in ver y its own way, * * * The letter was received from Charles J. Bullock, chair- man and director of the Harvard Economic Service, in reply to a letter sent him by Mrs. Derman, requesting that the two institutions exchange material to the mu- | tual benefit of both. The letter reads: I have your letter of Nov. 3, proposing an ex- change of publications with this organization, and in reply regret to say that, until the government of the United States informs us that the Government of Russia has ceased to encourage or carry on in the United States propaganda inimical to our gov- ernment and American institutions, we shall be un- zble to exchange publications with any organization under the direct or indirect control of the Russian Government.” letter was dated Nov. 22, 1926, and since then vard University, that is best known because of its cams, rather than thru any intellectual achieve- has not seen fit to change its position. I found st Academy, at Snamenka II, Moscow, U. * * * The Library of the Communist Academy is at present housed in the spacious mansion that was once the pri- vate property of a rich Moscow merchant. He left hastily after the Bolshevik Revolution and has not been heard of since. Needless to say the place has, since his departure, been put to better uses than it ever gerved before czarism fell. * * * Just to show that even all capitalist institutions of learning do not adopt the same attitude as Harvard Uni- | versity, Mrs. Derman pointed out that connections are | being maintained with 150 universities, colleges, libraries in other countries. Some of these are the Chicago Public Library, the Ford Research Institute, the American Political Science | in this country. | in Massachusetts, and was for four years a member of | | fact alone thateit is Communist, but also im the fact | members of the Acad: Association, the Carnegie Endowment, Clarke Univer- | pieces. | 2., prospering in spite of the rebuff, | of the merchant prince under the czar have become | sity, at Rochester, Mass.; the National Economic League, at Boston, Mass.; the Institute for Research of Land Economics; the New York Public Library, the Reis In- stitute, Texas; Foreign Affairs Committee, New York, and the United States Department of Agriculture. It is interesting, therefore, to learn that while Har- vard University, fearing for the United States Govern- ment, turns its back on the Communist Academy, the | government at Washington, thru its agricultural depart-| ment, maintains relations with the feared Bolsheviks. * * * Perhaps the Harvard professors themselves would be shocked to know that Mrs. Derman received part of her education and experience in library methods right here She is a graduate of Simmons College | the staff of the Congressional Library, at Washington, a government institution. She was the first to the dictionary catalogue methods to libraries in | The Communist Academy .is not a university in the usually accepted definition of that word. It is unique among the world’s educational institutions, not in the that it has no students, | It is, in fact, a college of professors—‘Red Professors” | —as they are called in Moscow. Membership in the Communist Academy is limited exclusively to those who have already produced some original work. This is best | shown, of course, by the writing of some book that has | been published. The Communist Academy is a center of Marxian thought. * * * | Thus the library becomes the laboratory where the} my work. It is here that the books, pamphlets, magazines and newspapers are gath- ereg for the use of those carrying on intensive research into any given subject. The giant task of assembling this library began in 1918, almost on the very heels of the rise to power of | the Soviets in November, 1917. In this period many | private libraries were nationalized and turned over. to} the Academy, which also became the heir of the libraries | of many private and public institutions of learning that | flourished under czarism, but were liquidated by the | revolution. | At the same time, however, entire libraries were pur- | chased abroad, in England, Germany and France, espe- cially during the years 1919, 1920 and 1921, and brought} to Moscow. “Tf you have any libraries, or private collections of books of any value, running around loose in the United | States, we shall be glad to learn about it,” said M Derman, with a smile. Literature on the social science, on economics, on la- bor and socialist parties and on the proletarian revolu- tions, is especially in great demand. The Library of the Communist Academy at the present time number 800,000 The two buildings that once made up the home ts, much too small. Plans have already been gone over carefully for an entirely new building of imposing pro- portions. The architects are busy. But actual building | operations have not yet been started. * * * The Communist Academy has its own publications, including the Messenger of the Communist Academy, a quarterly; The Agrarian Front, a monthly, with a cir- culation of 5,000, and The Magazine of World Politics and World Economics, also a monthly, circulating 2,500 copies. Two books issued are “Law and the Theory of the State,” and “The Revolution of Law.” But this is only the beginning. Tomorrow: Engdahl will review some of the huge tasks undertaken by the Communist Academy in collabo- ration with the Soviet Government. hones [fs Sorseair aed eis Endeavoring to save the ornate building called the “Palace workers, the fire brigade found its efforts baffled because the hose lines had been cut. The building was destroyed and now the bourgeoisie are having a hard time settling property claims because all property records were burned during the great mass uprising of last week. : 20 aceith FIRE BRIGADE TRIES TO SAVE PALACE OF “JUSTICE” FROM FLAMES of Justice” in Vienna from the flames kindled by the enraged Re * cee A MARXIAN BLAST AGAINST THE PROFESSORS OF BOURGEOIS ECONOMICS. THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS. kharin. Intrnaf$onal Publishers. Price $2.50, Every aspiring bourgeois economist starts his career by writing what he modestly calls a refutation of the fundamental economic theories of Karl Marx, but it is noteworthy that each one of them admits that all previous attempts to annihilate Marx have failed and that he, alone, has succeeded. But after analysis at the hands of Marxist the theories of the latest as- pirant to shine as the annihilator of Marxism goes the way of all his pre- decessors—contributes one more stone to the monument that testified to the impregnability of Marxism as the one scientific approach to an analysis of the capitalist system of production. The fact, however, that the theories of the bourgeois economists are dis- credited by Marxists before the ink on the first editions of their work is dry does not prevent their being widely taught by the sychophants of the uni- versity chairs. By far the most powerful opponent of Marxism and the one that has gained the most general approval of the university chairs is that of Bohm- Bawerk, the leader of the Austrian school of political economy. Particularly is his work used as the chief text-book in many of the leading American uni- versities and the average product of these universities, having been assured by his professor of economics that Marx has been superseded by Bohm Bawerk, takes it for granted that it is so. In the many debates the present writer has had with American univer- sity professors on the subject of the Marxian law of value, there has never been a single opponent who did not rely entirely for his theoretical arguments upon the Austrian school, with its theory of marginal utility as opposed to the Marxian law of value, The prevalence of this school as the dominant note in all American colleges and universities and its wide acceptance by our leading professors of economics made essential a comprehensive refutation of the whole theory of the Austrians. Unfortunately the condition of the revolutionary move- ment in the United States has not been favorable to the*production of theo- retical works of the character required to combat this insidious teaching. Louis B. Boudin, in his “Theoretical System of Karl Marx,” endeavored to deal with Bohm-Bawerk, but his own understanding of Marxism was so mechanical and limited that he failed utterly to portray the economic basis of the theory of marginal utility—the idea that the value of commodities is determined by their utility to the consumer. Bukharin, probably the foremost theoretician in the revolutionary move- ment today, a thorogoing Marxist-Leninist, approaches the question of the Austrian school by first placing it in its historical perspective and explaining that the psychology of consumption is the psychology of the rentier, the coupon clipper, the holder of national and municipal bonds, real estate mort- gages and other securities affording fixed interest on investments. This purely parasitical creature, separated from industry, who is not even a trader and who frequently hires people to cut coupons, who is only a consumer of commodities and has no connection with production, naturally looks upon commodities only from the standpoint of the consumer and if he speaks of work at all “means the ‘work’ of picking flowers or calling for a ticket at the box office of the opera.” A product of the decline of the bourgeoisie, know- ing nothing of the social life and standing apart from it the economic theory of the coupon-clipper is bound to be strongly individualistic, a theory that rejects evolution and fears the future. His position in society isolates him even from the ordinary trials and tribulations of the rest of the capitalist class and he loses all interest in social questions. OOKSH By Nikolai Bu- * * * The proletariat is the antithesis of this coupon-clipping strata of society. In direct contact with the great forces of production carried out on a social seale, perceiving the rapid changes that take place in the sphere of produc- | tion, the proletariat “swiftly discards the individualistic garb of the classes from which it takes its origin, the urban and rural petty bourgeoisie.” It evolves in a direction just the opposite of that taken by the coupon-clippers. After dwelling upon the details of the differences between the school of Kerl Marx and that of Bohm-Bawerk, Bukharin summarizes these differences as follows: Karl Marx Bohm-Bawerk 1—Objectivism. Subjectivism. 2—Historical standpoint. 3—The point of view of production, Unhistorical standpoint. The point of view of consumption. Bukharin’s analysis of the forerunners of the Austrian School and its translation into English is a real contribution to economic literature in the English language as no other work in this language even attempts such a criticism. * * * Another real contribution is the reference in this work to the American | school whose most prominent spokesman is John Bates Clark. This school is supplanting even Bohm-Bawerk’s theory of marginal utility and its economic base is to be sought in that class that dominates the great combinations of finance capital. “The economic process of the transformation of capital into finance capital’ is again incorporating in the sphere of production a portion of the bourgeoisie that had held aloof (in so far as banking capital is being absorbed in industry and thus being made an organizer of production)—for instance, the organizers and managers of the trusts, an extremely active type whose ideology is a militant imperialism and whose philosophy is an active pragmatism. * * * Accordingly the ideology of this type is somewhat different from that of the rentier; it counts on production; it even applies | the ‘social-organic’ method of investigation to the entirety of the social- economy. The American school is a product of a progressive and by no means a declining bourgeoisie; of the two curves now to be observed—that of progressive ascent and that of progressive disintegration—the American school expresses only the former.” © * * Pursuing the dominant schools, with particular attention to the Aus- trians, Bukharin takes up one by one the fallacies of the bourgeois econ- omists and exposes them to the penetrating and devastating light of Marxism. No worker or propagandist or agitator who wants to equip himself to meet and defeat the apologists of either the coupon-clippers or the imperialists can afford to be without this book, and many who are inclined to neglect the ideological fight should heed the wise advice of Comrade Bukharin wherein he declares: “As for the actual theoretical work of the bourgeoisie, the example of Bohm-Bawerk has revealed it to be a barren desert. But that does not follow that Marxists should entirely ignore this field, for the process of evolution of the proletarian ideology is a process of struggle. Just as the proletariat advances on the economic and political field by means of countless struggles against hostile elements, so it must be also on the higher levels of ideology. ideology does not descend from the sky, a system perfect in all its parts, but is gradually and painfully built up in a hard and toilsome process of evolu- tion. By means of our criticism of hostile views, we not only ward off the enemy’s attacks, but also sharpen our own weapons; a criticism of the sys- tems of our opponents is equivalent to a clarification of our own system.” —H. M. WICKS. A BRITISH IMPERIALIST TELLS DULLY OF THE CONQUEST OF ARABIA. REVOLT IN THE DESERT. By T. E. Lawrence. Jonathan Cape, London. $7.50, This much-touted book is about as dull a piece of reading as this writer ever dragged his eyes thru. Tho highly praised even in such an advanced magazine as the “New Masses”, Revolt in the Desert is nothing but a tedious account of how Great Britain, chiefly thru the instrumentality of the self-styled political and military genius, T, E. Lawrence, defeated the Turks 'in Arabia, during the World War, deceived the Arabs that could be bribed and murdered those that could not be bribed or deceived. that creeps in occasionally and which, suggests that all men are rogues. Lawrence got this way from his association and service with the imperialist rogues of Great Britain, His contempt for the Arabs preaks out thru every page. The book is written very much in the style of the monthly report of a travelling salesman, giving the names of the towns he covered and of the various foreladies he took to the theatre and the amount of money he spent on them in the interest of bigger and better orders. Lawrence had a generous expense account and when the sheiks and sheriffs indicated by various signs that their devotion to the allied cause was suffering from attacks of pernicious anemia, the imperialist agent took them aside and greased their palms. The victims were the tribesmen who thot they were taking it out on the Turks for the oppressive rule of the ¢ t' |tetr i They did not realize they were exchanging masters and sacrificing their lives for the change. They know it now. —T. J, O’)FLAHERTY, If there is any saving grace in this book it is in the touch of cynicism ,