The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 26, 1928, Page 4

Page Four : Fr rer U.S. reer" DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1928 aa re " Sar sf mperialist War -Flames 1 n Latin America; Imperialist World War Threatens the elections. of the classes on the eve of the 128 elections: (Continued From Preceding Page) States, a tremendous rationalization, an increase in the forces of pro- duction, which in its effects can be compared to a second industrial revolution.. etrification—The erection of super-power plants; extension of public utilities. Not only in economics but in polities public utili- ties play today t! ame dominatng role ralroads played in the first industrial revolution. 3 Development and Transformation of T ransportation.—New rail- Yoad lines; electrifications of raii.lines; the tremendous development of autobus traffic—autobus mileage already exceeds railroad mileage; inland waterways; commerc ¢ traffic; combination of air and rail- road lines. Establishment of New Industries, like the chemical and artificial silk industry tensified methods of utilizing coal and oil; the ex- tension of all methods of mass production from isolated industriés to all industries; mechanization and intensification of agriculture; shift- ing of industries to sources of raw material or power; industrial use of agricultural products. Capitalist Offensive Against the Workers.—To jower the stand- ard of living of the working cl; to wipe out the last remnants of trade unionism, to degrade the s into tools of capitalist ration- alization; increased exploitation of labor everywhere through a whole system of speed-up, stop-watch group piece-work, bonus system, ef- | cially in the basic industries; recently formed new unions small and weak. Although a steady growth in the vitality of the class-con- seicus section of the working class can be observed, this was not yet big enough to upset the effects of the eight years of relatively con- tinuous prosperity. The depressions in 1924 and 1927 were too short- lived to undermine the influence of social-reformism upon the work- ing class. 4. Changing class relations in the Scuth—The penetration of the South by capitalism, i industrial development, has estab- lished a modern indus sie in the South which is replacing the old ruling class, the plantation-owners, the latter merging with the former. A new industrial working class was called into life in the South, Deey-going changes have taken place in the life of the urban and rural petty-bourgeoisie of the South, brought about by the newly developed capitalist conditions. The above class relations reflected themselves in the féllowing way in the political situation and in the relations of the various political parties and factors: 1. The republican party appeared in the political arena as the party par excellence of finance capital. The republican party ma- chinery was completely merged with the business mechinery of big capital, The significance of Hoover's very nomination was the fact that it expressed the perfect blending of capitalist apparatus and political machine. Hoover's nomination was an expression of the deep-going rationalization—the putting of the efficiency expert, the ! 4, While the number of workers who consciously voted for the revolutionary party of their class—the Workers (Communist) Party —was larger than ever before, nevertheless the proportion of the total votes in the 1928 elections, for the parties claiming to be repre- sentative of the working class (the socialist party in reality a pett) capitalist party, and the Workers (Communist) Party—the sole part: of the working class) has not been so small sine 1904. 5. The unquestionably existing discontent which is growing : many sections of the working class, and even some sections of t! poorest farmers, did not assume a sufficient class consciousness ‘ break thru the framework of the two-party system. The big electi: vote for the democratic party showed the existence of a large volur of discontent. This discontent has not yet assumed the charact of a radicalization. In considering the attitude of the workers in t elections, attention must be given to the fact that parliamenta elections do not mirror the actual sentiments and moods of the mo proletarian sections of the working class. Millions of foreign-bo: and Negro workers and farmers are disfranchised and their ant capitalist attitude did not appear in the vote at all. Terror of th employers forced many workers to vote against their own conviction for the capitalist parties. Wholesale theft is also a factor of impor in lowering the vote recorded for the revolutionary party. Conse quently the extent of process of radicalization in the depths of th proletarian masses could not find expression in the election vote. The stubborn economic struggles of the miners, textile anc ° paign. Every Communist vote maant a vote for the overthrow of capitalism, for the transformation ef the imperialist war into civil war, and for the dictatorship of the proletariat. The past struggles of the miners, the textile and needle trade vorkers, will be followed by new strike struggles in these and other rdustries. The forces of the new unionism will grow in this struggle gainst wage-cuts and speed-up, and will serve as a mass basis for a iture labor party. Those Negro city masses (Chicago and New York) wha vote? r the democratic party, breaking with their republican traditions id issuing the slogan: “To Hell with the Republican Party,” to- orrow will take the second step and will say: “To Hell with all pitalist parties.” The resistance cf the peoples of Latin America and of the other lonies to United States imperialists will grow. The jailing of rey- utionary workers to prevent mass demonstrations against Hoover, ‘e foremost representative of American imperialism, and the anti- \perialist strike in Colombia are but a few signs of this increased sistance, The resistance of the European states to the world hegemony of .e United States is 2 process of steady increase and is arousing pow- ‘ful forces against American imperialism. The Hoover election—the big reactionary victory of finance cap- tal—is an index of the sharpening outer and inner conflicts on the ficiency en ng, conveyor trav wage cuts, needle trades workers, are a more adequate evidence of the amount of [lapel hla ches b ; ee champion of the open shop, the exponent of intensified struggle for | fae are take te ; o vhole front, will itself serve in i i Ne cea spy system, open-shop drive, company unions, trade union eoommunaette ocld iuawvetcue tha MoAdigr iuereeea nee ike Sere nee poeeee moe Seely Tyee ue oe antagonisms of Pegs vip abv ds Boy alg Raaden tis alism. : fers gees 3 s alee national and general, is, however, the most promising sign of the 8588 ant ae 7 i patel i oe Accumulation, Concentration and centralization of Capital is tak- | DP Hoover whe never bene Bel oe eee atice nearer tie? | growing class consciousness of important sections of the working | Within the United States, and is a big step on the road towards the ing place at a greater tempo than in any other capitalist country. : 3 as: class. ieee Unceasing trustific on in the form of mergers not only in individual corporations into trv but of the largest trusts into gigantic super- trusts, investment trusts. Trustification of production goes hand in hand with the trustification of communication and transportation. Growing extension of rationalization and trustification in the field of distribution, which amounts to a revolution in the methods of dis- tribution in the form of chain stores and chain department stores. New Kind of Competition—-Not so much within the individual industries as between the ind es, steel vs. lumber; electricity and oil vs. coal; aluminum vs. iron; rayon vs. silk. The development of two kinds of rate of profit--a lower rate for small undertakngs and a higher rate for the large trusts, as brought out in bold relief by the last income tax figures or corporations. Installment selling in retail trade and hand-to-mouth buying in wholesale trade—Hand-to-mouth buying was made possible by the recent acceleration of methods of communication and transport. One of the most significant features of the present economic life of the United States is the organization of a world trade apparatus (branches of American banks and manufactories assembly plants) in all countries. The basic tendency of the present-day economy of the United States is the extension of finance capital in the form of trustification of banking, establishment of branch banks of natigmal banks, the en- trance of industries into banking, the appearance of industrial cor- porations on the stock exchanges as money-lenders, the tremendous Rarowth of insurance, the factcory-owned banks, inyestment trusts, the ganization of coordinated expori bodies competing with European and international trusts and cartels. The development of a growing rentier class through the wider distribution of stock ownership, extension of ownership of bonds, and _of participation in the profits of foreign investments, as well as of participation in the speculation on the stock exchange. A growing stratum of parasites is thereby created completely divorced from production, reaching out from the most pewerful bankers into the tanks of the labor aristocr: building the class backbone of the new aggressive imperialist po s of the United States, ORGANIC, CHRONIC UNEMPLOYMENT. The very technical revolution, organizational progress and ration- alization of American industry is responsible for the creation of a new organic, chronic, unemployment. The development of new machinery, the increased produc! y of labor becomes under capitalist condi- tions a source of growing unemployment, The introduction of new machines has been decreasing the number of workers. The opening up of new markets cannot keep pace with the speedy development of technique. The introduction of machinery makes the skill of the workers superfluous. killed workers can take the place of the skilled. The time of apprenticeship is being greatly shortened. Young workers and even children can tukg the place of adults. A growing number of women are entering into industry. 1 Mass production with its murderous competition is ruining the Tower middle class and is driving ‘its memhers as workers into the industries. Monopoly capitalism is ruining the farmers and is forcing them to sell their labor power 2s industrial workers in the city. Mass production opens up hitherto backward agrarian regions industrially. The large-scale industrialization of the South has driven hundreds of thousands of Negroes into industry. Despite all prohibition of im- Migration there is an annual inf! of hundreds of thousands of workers from other countries Under present capitalist conditions it is inevitable that there should be a constant industrial reserve army of jobless. The new feaure of the present unemployment consists in the fact that even in times of pros y industry is unable to absorb the unemployed, that hand in hand with the powerful increase of production there goes on a diminution in the amount of labor power employed by capital in industry. The present unemplcyment has two sources: the lesser one is a remnant of the 1927 depression; -the major one is the present prosperity itself, which creates a state of “chronic and imereasing unemployment” and is giving us a “permanent jobless class” (Secretary of Labor Davis). In many basic industries the number of workers employed is not only relatively but absolutely decreasing. It is unclear today whether this tendency will further develop uninterrupted or will be checked by new extensions of markets for American capitalism. Capitalism is able to regulate this process to a certain degree, Prohibition of ~ imniigration to America, possibilities of emigration from America to other younger capitalist or semi-capitalist countries may put a tem- porary end to the tendency of diminishing the absolute numbers of the working class. The charge that the analysis which takes into consideration the facts of permanent unemployment, the absolute decrease in the num- bers of the working class in America, leads to opportunism is abso- lutely unfounded. Millions of ‘kers permanently disemployed, out of the process of production.—that does not mean the complete elim- imation of the working class, does not mean the solution of the prob- lems of capitalism on a capitalist basis. It does not mean harmoni- ous development, but it does mean bringing nearer the revolutionary situation. The workers who are thrown out from the process of production, even if they do not produce, are still proletarian elements, who will resist starvation. The “creeping paralysis” of chronic, or- ganic unemployment leads to a growing resistance on the part of the workers which will not permit that capitalism shall push out the bulk of the worling class from the process of production, leads to an increasing arpness of the s struggle, and will be an im- crystallizing the class-consciousness of the American SCTION—A VICTORY OF CAPITALIST REACTION, ction marks a new era in the imperialist domestic es of the UnitedStates. Increased reaction at home, ‘increased aggressiveness in the World markct—this is the outcome of The following were the main features of the relations 1. Complete hegemony of finance capital over the ranks of the bourgeoisie. Not only the various strata of the bourgeoisie, but also See aralk of the facmers, tho petty bourgeoisie, and the labor aristoc- ‘racy accepted the leadershi» of finance capital to a greater degree than before 192!. Within the bourgeoisic a growing stratum of cap- talists depending on interest from exported capital, and finance capital appeared as the leader of the imperialist policies of the country. A 2. Decline of the traditional, numerically important political role ‘of the farmers, due to the steady but rapid decrease in number of the agricultural population and to the decrease in economic importance of agriculture in the life of the country. &@. In relation to the increased power of finance capital, of trus- tiMed industries, tue working class, as a class, entered more weakly into the political arena than in 1924. The working class in 1928 is less homogeneous and less organized than in the immediate post-war period. The following factors are responsible for this: the widened gap between the labor aristocracy and the proletariat proper; the influx of new elements into the working class—such as Negroes, ruined farmers, Mexicans, new foreign immigration from Europe—creating new tem- porary divisions in the ranks of the working class; the organized sections of the worlting class, faced with the new super-trusts, have grown weaker, due to its craft unions and fo the growth of the state capitalist tendencies of the government; at the same time the overwhelming majority of the working class is unorganized, espe- { growth of the executive branch of the government, and exposes it all the more clearly as the open agent of finance capital, The campaign issues of the republican party constituted the platform of finance ital; unceasing prosperity, aggre: e imperialist expansion; ex- tremely high tariff; prohibition as part of capitalist rationalization; “farm relief” in the form ofthe creation of a farm board with a re- volving fund, in order to draw the farmers more completely under the domination of finance capital, the fake slegan about the “conquest of poverty” (progress from the full dinner pail to the full garage). 2. The democratic party had never before been so completely and so openly under the domination of big capital as in 1928, Tam- many Hall, the organization of petty-bourgeois grafting, was trans- formed into the organization ef big-bourgeois corruption, A section of the biggest manufacturers and bankers (Raskob, DuPont, Sabin, etc.) constituted the new leadership of the democratic party. The campaign policies ofthe democratic party were the following: break- ing with the oldest democra' tariff; open advocacy of imperialist relations; taking essentially the same attitude toward the water-power trust, farm relief and immi- gration as the rcpublican party; on prohibition representing the other capitalist side of the issue, taking a stand against it, because it tends to break down “law and order.” The policies of the democratic party had never before been so deeply permeated with the interests of finance capital as in 1928, and the democratic party had never re- ceived such a large amount of financial and moral support from big capital as in the last elections. The nomination of Al Smith marked the shift of power in the democratic party from the southern planta- tion-owners to the northern capitalists. 3. Unlike 1924 no third openly capitalist party appeared in the 1928 elections.—All the so-called “rebels” went back meekly into the two big capitalist parties, despite the fact that both the repub- lieans and democrats were more frankly reactionary in 1928 than they were in 1924. The so-called “progressives” (Bcrah, Brookhart, Wheeler, LaFollette, etc.) showed the picture of a complete and mis- erable-surrender to the biggest finance capitalists, 4, There was no lahor party movement on a mass scale on foot in 1928, and there was a manifestation of complete political bank- ruptcy of the farmer-labor parties. 5. The American Federation of Labor and the Railroad Brother- hoods, which are under the full domination of the labor aristocracy, appeared more reactionary than in 1924, when they supported LaFol- lette’s third party. In 1928 they were almost equally divided between the two capitalist parties. The official trade-union movement, under the leadership of the most treacherous and corrupt labor bureaucracy, did not show any signs of an independent political force, and even as an agent of the bourgeoisie played a diminished role. Their plat- form contained only one plank: class collaboration. 6. The Socialist Party showed the effects of its all-around and complete transformation into a petty-bourgeois party. The leadership of the Socialist Party shifted into the hands of middle-class intel- lectuals, wiping out all remnants of working-class traditions: in place of Debs, Norman Thomas. The Socialist Party did not present any challenge to capitalism. Its platform was restricted to the shallowest reforms. It officially dropped the meaning and even the word of proletarian class struggle. It replaced it with rank pacifism and with empty amendments, aimed at the peaceful transformation of the bourgeois constitution. The whole “fight” of the Socialist Party centered around the extension of state capitalism. It dropped the slightest claim to the 1920 Debs vote, which represented in a large measure a working-class protest against the war and against the effects of the war, and officially declared itself the heir of the 1924 petty-bourgeois LaFollette vote. 7. The Workers (Communist) Party of America was the only force in the election campaign representing the interests of the working class, putting forward openly the program of the overthrow of capitalism. Its platform was the platform of the class struggle. It fought the whole election fight in the sign of the struggle: Class against Class. It raised the basic issues of the present situation: the struggle against imperialist war, the abolition -of wage slavery, the fight against the oppression of the Negroes, uncompromising war on social reformism, the exposure of fake capitalist democracy, and the defense of Soviet, Union. The Communist Party was the only party which had as its banner-bearers members of the working class. The main causes for the big victory of republican reaction can be enumerated as follows: 1. A considerable improvement in the economic situation of the country during the last few months which strengthened the illusions of the masses as to “Republican prosperity.” 2. The effects of the industrailization of the South, which made it possible for the republicans to break into the Solid South, hitherto the undisputed domain of the democrats, and under the reign of a virtual one-party system. The plantation-owner’s fear of the Negro masses had kept the democratic party in power as the undisputed political ruler of the South for the past two generations. For the first time since the Civil War the republican party carried Florida Virginia, Texas and North Carolina, and also received a large vot in the other Southern States, The new, modern industrial bourgeois! of the South went over to the republicans. It was not withou significance that the first action of Hoover on November 7th was : letter of thanks to the editor of the Manufacturers Record, the officiz organ of the Southern industrial bourgeoisie. At the same time,— as a paradox of political life—the mass discontent of the Southerr petty-bourgeoisie, which suffers under the new capitalist conditions turned the impetus of its discontent against the traditional ruling party of the South and went over, under the leadership of the medieva) forces of the Methodist Church and the Ku Klux Klan, to the re- publicans, to the party of the trtts, of finance capital. 8. The partial liquidation of the agricultural crisis and the growth of the purchasing power of the farmers, which in 1920-21 was 69 per cent of what it had been before the war, and in July, 1928, 95 per cent. 4, The tremendous pressure exercised by the manufacturers and other employers on the workers in favor of the republican party. Manufacturers even organized factory committees embracing hun- dreds of thousands of workers as their political machinery for Hoover. 5. The superior organization and finances of the republicans as compared with the democratic party. 6. The direct and increased participation of the state apparatus on the side of the republican party. 7. The ability of the republican party to mobilize the forces of the Protestant Church and the Ku Klux Klan. The big temporary victory of capitalist reaction, “the conserva- tive landslide,” is characterized and emphasized by the following fea- tures of this victory: 1. No ruling party had ever received so many votes, ever been able to mobilize such large masses for participation in the elections and on the basis of strengthening parliamentary illusions as did the republican paxty of finance capital. The republican party, and especi- ally its conservative elements, has a better hold on both houses of congress than formerly. The so-called “balance of power” of the “progressive” group, composed of “liberal” elements of both repub- lican and democratic parties, no longer exists, 2. The democratic party had never received such a big vote, despite the fact that it had never been so indistinguishable from the republican party and had never appeared so openly as a pro-capitalist party as in the last election. 3. The victory of capitalist reaction is brought into bold relief by the fact that no capitalist third party challenged the monopoly of the two-party system, that no labor party appeared on the scene, that the Farmer-Labor parties had lost their political indenendence, and that there was a general flowing back of the masses of workers and poor farmers into the capitalist parties. 4 Ee ne tradition and coming out for high. 6. The reactionary character of the domination of finance capital was emphasized by the big role which bigotry, religion, and the churches played in the elections. The Hoover election reveals the changing class basis of the vari- ous political parties and points out certain changes in their role anc function. The republican party, which since the Civil War had been a coal! tion of eastern capitalists and western farmers under the hegemony c the capitalists, mustered in the 1928 elections the support of Easter capitalists, the Western farmers, the new industrial bourgeoisie c the South, and the petty bourgeoisie in the rural sections and sma towns. The victory of the “regular” party machines over the “rebels,’ over the various genuine and staged “farm revolts” means a mori complete domination of the republican party by finance capital than ever before. The democratic party had been, since the Civil War, a coalition of the Southern plantation-owners and the petty bourgeoisie of the big cities of the East, in whcse wake marched the bulk of the labor aristocracy as organized and led by the American Federation of Labor. Today the democratic party shows essential changes. It is today under the leadership of a section of the big Eastern capital. And if the republican party got the support of the petty bourgeoisie of the small towns, the democratic party was able to line up the petty bourgeoisie of he big Eastern cities (a comparison of votes shows that in the big cities Al Smith got comparatively many more votes than in the national average). The democratic party got an essential part of the farmer vote in the north-west, which means an increased support of the lowest stratum of the farmers of that region. It lost a big portion of the South, though it retained those states where the Negroes form the bulk, or are near to being the majority, of the population, and where the fear of the Negroes by the white ruling class is still strong enough to bar the progress of the republican party. The 1928 elections show the reign of the infamous two-party system in full swing. The American bourgeoisie is still able to utilize the two-party system—which is “one of the most powerful methods of preventing the foundation of an independent labor, that is, genuine socialist, party” (Lenin)—to bar the crystallization of class-conscious- ness in the bulk of the working class. There has never been so little differentiation between the two big capitalist parties. The lack of any real differences in policies is a powerful force for the disintegration of the two-party system, but we must emphasize that the forces making for the continuation of the coalition of the various classes within the oid parties (in both under the hegemony of the capitalists) are today still strong enough to prevent the immediate breakdown of the two-party system. The Roosevelt attempt in 1912 succeeded in shaking up the two-party system, but the World War brought about the collapse of this effort. The LaFollette third-party movement in 1924 was able to mobilize large masses, but was terminated by the strengthened world hegemony postion of the United States, The inevitable sharpening of the class antagonisms and the next crisis will break up the present coalition of classes. The petty bourgeoisie, the farmers, and, first of all, the masses of workers will no longer be willing to accept the political leadership of finance capital, and that will produce the disruption of the two-party system. The 1928 elections show that the Farmer-Labor parties of the Northwest—which were blocs of differenct classes (well-to-do and poor farmers, city petty-bourgeoisie and workers, under the leadership of petty-bourgeois and even bourgeois elements)—had lost all sig- nificance for the working class and had become petty-bourgeois tools in the hands of the capitalists. The Socialist Party—which in the past attracted the adherance of the class-conscious section of the workers of the cities and a con- siderable portion of the poorest farmers—has now lost the farmers completely, and has lost the largest portion of its working class following. On the other hand, it has gained a certain amount of sup- port among the small business men and especially among the pro- fessionals and clericals of the big cities. It is of great significance that after the elections this party dropped its last pretenses of being a socialist party. It new leader, Norman Thomas, stated clearly that the socialist party no longer appeals to the labor movement but rather to the “liberal” elements in the republican and democratic parties, and even went so far as to propose to change the party name either to “liberal” or “progressive.” ‘ To sum up: The election of Hoover means that trustified capital, throwing away all its former veils and subterfuges, has taken the helm of the government openly and frankly into its own hands. The big, though temporary victory of capitalist reaction leads to an un- precedented increase of imperialist aggressiveness, to a vehement struggle for a greater share of the world market. The determined attempt of United States imperialism to com- plete the conquest of Latin America has, since Hoover's election. already assumed much sharper and more vicious forms, as evidence¢ by Hoover’s trip, the Cumberland plan for the permanent occupatio: of Nicaragua, the plans to build a Nicaraguan canal, the new clas’ ‘vith Sandino’s troops, the bloody suppression of the Colombia strike he Pan-American conference at Washington, the role of the Unite: States in the Bolivia-Paraguay conflict. The antagonisms between America and Europe, and especially be ween America and Great Britain, have already been sharpened to ar mheard-of degree since the Hoover election. Coolidge’s ultimatum t: Gurope was answered by a new attempt to form alliances of the various European powers against the United States, to shift the blame ‘or the burden of reparations to America. The big navy program is being consummated. The basic tendency of merging the business and government apparatus will be strengthened by the forces which are represented by Hoover. Hoover will now complete the job, and will transform th whole governmental apparatus into a board of directorates of the super-trusts. Trustification and rationalization will go ahead with greater speed. Already there are proposals before congress to empower the Interstate Commerce Commission to grant railroad mergers, plans to revise the Sherman Act, which already today is being used not for the prevention but for the promotion of the organization of trusts. The high protective tariff will go through a general upward revision. There will be a definite change in the direction of the export of capital, lessening the amount of export of capital to Europe and concentrating to a greater degree on Latin America and Asia. The industrialization of the South will be accelerated by conscious policies of the Federal Government. There will be a sharper attack against the workers. The open- shop drive will asume more of a national character. The New Orleans conyention of the A. F. of L., which took place after Hoover’s election, already shows the A. I’, of L. as a completed military machine in the service of capitalism and against the working class. A sharpening: of imperialist relations, a more aggressive mili- taristie policy, which brings the war danger nearer than ever before since 1914, and a sharpening of inner class relations, growing reaction against the working class—this is the perspective for the near future. But the tremendous triumph of capitalist reaction is only tem- porary. It already contains an increasing resistance against itself. The increased fighting mood of the working class is emphasized by. the fact that, though the votes of the Socialist Party were reduced to one-fourth of their former number, the Workers (Communist) Party was able to increase its votes considerably, despite all the persecutions, despite stealing of votes, breaking-up of its meetings, ‘jailing of its speakers and organizers and candidates. The source of the Communist votes in 1928 was to a greater extent the industrial proletariat than it was in 1924, The bulk of the v%&es the Party received came from the industrial centers. The Communist vote was cast on the basis of an uncompromising, revolutionary election cam- | | | STATE-CAPITALIST TENDENCIES, One of the basic trends of present-day American imperialism is the crystallization of state capitalist tendencies: Proposals to extend the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission; government sub- sidy for the development of a merchant marine; establishment of a yew farm board with a huge revolving fund; increased intervention sf the Federal Reserve Bank in the financial life of the country; the Toover plan to establish a $3,000,000,000 reserve fund, with the pre- axt to check unemployment, in reality to increase the grip of the vustified state apparatus on the economic life of the country; flood ontrol; big subsidy to aviation; plans to construct an inland water- vay canal system; the pending bills about Muscle Shoals and Boulder Dam; the contemplated Coal Board; the increased hold of the State department on foreign loans, as manifested by the threat of Coolidge to stop export of capital to Europe. The trustification of industry, finance, communications and dis- tribution goes hand in hand with the merger of business and govern- ment apparatus, with the trustification of the state machinery. This process is going on in most of the imperialist countries, but it is de- veloping more rapidly and thoroughly in America than in almost any other country. Hoover’s election as president symbolizas and increases all these state capitalist tendencies. The Magazine of Wall Street expressed the class meaning of Hoover's election from the point of view of the capitalists in a classic way: “A business ration at Jast has a busiress chief... . No hard- boiled business directorate could have chosen more sagaciously. . .. Political and business leadership are united in the Chief Ex- ecutive of the nation.” ! Trustification und concentration of business and state apparatus means, on the cne hand, an increased possibility of bribing large sections of the labor aristocracy; on the other hand, that every strike, every act of resistance of the workers meets not only the individual trusts, but the rower of the whole bcurgeoisie, the power of the state. Jn other words, it tends to assume c political character. The crystallization of state capitalist tendencies is one of the most im- portant factors bringing about a deepening and sharpening of the class struggle within the United States and increasing the effective- ness and aggressiveness of American impcrialism abroad. THE “CONQUEST OF POVERTY.” “Prosperity” was the main weapon of the master class in the 1928 election campaign, Hoover promised the “final triumph over poverty,” the “vanishing of the poor-house,” “ihe day when poverty will be driven from the nation.” The capitalist “prosperity” propa- ganda undoubtedly is effective on a large scale and comes to a head in the proposal to set aside three billion dollars for the construction of publie works during periods of depressivn in order to “make un- employment on a large scale impossible.” The Hoover scheme tries to foster the illusion that unemploy- ment and industrial crises can be prevented under capitalism. Actu- ally, the Hoover scheme means only the intensification of the basic contradictions of capitalism growing out of mass production and mass underconsumption. It means only a further strengthening of the governmental strikebreaking machinery. It will only serve to strengthen the tendency towards the mergirg of the apparatus of big business with the government under the guise of government super- vision of the construction of public works in such periods when the working class organizations and the workers themselves are up against it in the worst way—in the periods of depression. The spokesmen of the capitalists have been propagating the no- tion that because of special “peculiar” democratic development of American capitalism (increasing ownership of automobiles, radios, homes, diffusion of stock ownership, union-management, co-opera- tion, profit sharing schemes) mass production can wipe out poverty under capitalism, the werkers can be transformed into capitalists and the standard of living of the whole American working class can be bourgeoisified. ‘This whole theory is but a glorification of capi- talism and through developing the myth of general high wages in the United States, the growth of savings and life insurance of the workers and the so-called American general high standard of living, it helps to prevent the crystallization of their class ideology and or- ganization and to enslave the workers completely. High wages are restricted to the labor aristocracy. The growth of savings and life insurance of workers is offset by the lack of so- cial legislation (sickness, old age, unemployment) in the United States. The standard of living of the American working class is today higher than that of the Eurcpean working class. The Ameri- can working class today occupies a privileged position. In no country in the world is there such a broad labor aristocracy as in the United States. “America’s labor aristocracy is the labor aristocracy within he labor aristocracy of the whole world. But in no country on sarth is there such a gap between the labor aristocracy (native, high vages, political rights, privileged positions in industry) and the real vroletariat (relatively low wages. foreign born, disfranchised polit- ‘cally, doing the dirty and hard work in industry). The skilled layer which is sharing in the superprofits of the imperialists and which has been bourgecisified even materially, should not be confused with the whole proletariat. The labor aristocracy and the reactionary and the reactionary trade union bureaucracy with its ideology of social reformism still dominate the American labor movement, but it is a fact that America also has a genuine proletariat in the steel, coal, textile and other company towns, in these veritable centers of modern industrial feudalism, living in slums, tenements, in segregation like the Negro masses, subject to the dictation of capitalist tyranny, Pov- erty is a mass phenomenon in the depths of the American proletariat. The slogan for the “conquest of poverty” is a capitalist fraud. Poverty can be conquered only by the Communist society. In no country in the world are workers used up so rapidly or age so quickly, as in the United States. Millions of exploited children and young workers are only additional evidence of the falsity of the whole theory of “capitalist workers.” The oppression and degredation suf- fered by the great mass of unskilled and semi-skilled workers at the hands of the increasingly centralized state power, with its tremen- dous bureaucracy and militarism, is growing. ‘Prosperity” means the taking away of ihe most elementary rights of the bulk of the work- ing class, the right to strike, picket, freedom of speech and assembly, through court decisions, injunctions end the use of military forces, Though the whole American working class is as a class politi- cally under-developed and is in a large measure ideologically bourgeoi- sified, it would be a dangerously erroneous conclusion to say that the whole American working class is materially bourgeoisified. The ma- terial bourgeoisification is limited primarily to the upper stratum of the labor aristocracy, and it is not an absolute, a fixed quantity; it changes with economic conditions and even a relatively small reduction of the standard of living of the American workers—not at all to the level of the other capitalist countries—can serve as the basis for the further wider radicalization of the workers, for the shaking of the bourgeois influence on the working class—and further development of great mass struggles. The reactionary trade union bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. and the Socialist Party leadership are not only accepting, but’ energetically supporting the whole system of the corruption of the labor aristoc- racy of imperialism. These “labor” defenders of American capitalism are propagandizing the “Americanization of labor” as an antidote to the Socialists and the reactionary trade union bureaucracy, is based | Bolshevism. The whole theory and practice of class collaboration of Continued on Next Page = f. meme En