The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 14, 1932, Page 6

—=— WATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY>14, 1932 “The Class Struggle Will Move Faster, Just Like Everything Else in America’’--Engels Fy A million workers demonstrated on May ist. The militant tradi- tions of the American working class of the first stormy days of American capitalism are being revived. But not just merely revived. The earlier militant traditions in this period of crisis, in this period of wars and revolutions, are enriched by a deep- er revolutionary content. Led by the Communist Party, armed with Marxism-Leninism, the present day militant struggles of the American working class assume purposeful- ness and consciousness. It is well to recall now some of the statements of Marx and Engels “on the developnient of the Ameri- SAM DON can working class. The ideas bear | testimony to their profound insight in the driving forces of the class struggle in America and their faith in the Américan working class. in 1892 Engels said: “When the Americans once-begin, they will do so with an energy and virulence in comparison with which we in Europe will b2 children.” And the American working class has, begun, % s 2 2 In the brief period of “prosperity” the Second Socialist International declared -Marxism dead. From Hoover .through Hillquit to Love- stone and Cannon, American capi- talism was presented as the proof of the fallacy of Marxism. Atypical expression of the atti- tude which pronounced Marxism dead is the (following statement made in 1928 by one of the leading German. Socialists and trade union- ists, .Mr. Tarnov, who said: “We must distinguish two epochs in the development of capitalism, the epoch of British capitalism, which was limited in its possibil- ities of expansion, and the epoch of American capitalism, which on the | basis of the latest technical ad-! vances can unendingly expand and | develop. For the first epoch Marx | and Lassalle were typical, They | maintained that wages are deter-' mined by certain economic laws, that they depend upon the cost of | second | Jabor power, etc. For the epoch Ford is typical. He proved that capitalism can prosper while the workers need not at the same time remain poor.” Here the mass murderer Ford is substituted by the Second Socialist International as the savior of the working class in place of Marx. But it did not take long for ecapital- ism itself to tear to shreds the “fine” theories Second Socialist International. The present world economic crisis, which began in 1929, demonstrated before the toiling masses throughout the world that it is not Ford, that it is not Kautsky and Hillquit, but Marxism and Leninism which they should choose as their guide to action. In the beginning of 1930, Hilfer- ; ding, the theoretician of the Ger- man Socialist Party could still muster courage to say: “Modern capitalism is overcoming and removing everything which made. for the anarchy of capitalist production.” Let us compare this statement of Hilferding’s, gf his unlimited faith in the stability of capitalism, with the foilowing statement which ap- peared in one of the last issues of the Annalist: “We have all hoped that the de- pression in business had spent its force. 1930 was bad. 1981 was worse. And now 1932 seems gen- erally worse than 1931, but the’ most alarming feature right now is that there seems to be few signs that 1933 will be much better.” “hus we see how capitalism fis “®vercoming” its anarchy of produc- tion when its leading capitalists cannot even see signs of an im- provement in the situation in the year 1933 when we aré still in the midst of 1932, In 1928. jthe American Socialist Party eliminated the class struggle clause from its constitution. #t cemonstrated its complete sey- | Marxism. erance with the basic principles of Lovestone and Cannon have unlimited faith in the strength |of American capitalism. Lovestone spoke of the Victorian age of Amer- ican capitalism. That is, compar- ing American capitalism with the period of British capitalism when it enjoyed unchelienged monopoly on |the world. market,.'and when the British working class was in its most conservative period of history. But is there anyone today who would ‘still dare openly to sing the praises of the strength and power of American capitalism as was done a few years 270? The present crisis | dealt.a body blow to the theories of the. stability of capitalism and American exceptionalism, theories ; which attempt to replace Marxism with liberal “Socialism” and orzan- ized. |capitalism, and to substitute ord for Marx. Now more than ever the teach- jings of Marx and Lenin must be- jcome-the torch light for the strug- | gle. of the workers against the loffensive of the bourgeoisie. It “is ,on the basis of a strict Marxian- | Leninist analysis that the Commu- ! | nist International, with penetrating wisdom and Boish evik foresight, told our Party at the beginning of | , 1929: . “With a distinctness umprece- dented in history, American capital- ism is exhibiting now the effects of | the inexorable laws of capitalist de- | velopment, the laws of decline and downfall of capitalist society.” (From the opening address of the CO; 13 This analysis of the C. IL. which jis now strikingly confirmed, gives our Party a leading historical role. » Marx and ° {Engels studied with | which at the time made the Ameri- of the leaders of the | Thus | can working class move slower and | ; not act as an independent class in | comparison with European workers. hey therefore carried on a sharp! ht against those elements in the | United States who, while professing | | to be Marxists, were sectarian and | separated from the American labor | movement, ! Marx ina letter written Novem- | ber 23, 1871, to a member of the! |New York, Provisional Federal Coun- | cil of the First International spoke of the need to “put an end to all! sectarian and amateur groups and | 3 a! in case of need to expel them.”, Engels spoke up very sharply against | those who in the American labor | |movement “have not been able to } use their theory as a lever to se the American masses in motion,’ against those for whom theory is “credo, not a guide for action.” Now that the American working | Class, with the changed situation of American capitalism, lis beginning to play a leading revolutionary role in the international working class movement, we must free ourselves from the old sectarian traditions. To the extent that we free ourselves from these traditions, to the extent that we use theory as a lever for setting the masses in motion, to that extent will we fulfill the role as Marxist-Leninists, as the leaders of the American working class, Engels and Marx already foresaw the severity jand sharpness of the class struggle in the United States. Engels said: they so brazen-faced and tyrannical as over there (America) where the battle is fought by the borugeoisie with such weapons that decisions arrive quickly.” In order to meet these decisions, , Resolution) we must | Off when a revolutionary crisis | develop in America, great interest the specific features | § “Nowhere in the whole world are | — take to heart the following statement of Comrade Stalin. Comrade Stalin ‘in 1929 said: “I think, comrades, that the American Communist Party is one of those few Communist Parties in the world upon which history has laid tasks of a. decisive character from the point of vew of the world revolutonary mwvement. I think that the moment is not far will and when a revolutionary ‘crisis develops in America it will be the beginning of the end of world capitalism as a whole.” [t-is in*the spirit of this statement of Comrade Stalin, which is pere meated with Marxism and Leninism, that we celebrate the anniversary jof Marx, | of By OTTO HALL Karl Marx, in his study of the historic development of capitalism in America, ruthlessly exposed the source of the great fortunes accu- mulated by the pious capitalists in England and America engaged in the slave trade. He pointed out, in the first volume of “Capital” in the chapters dealing with the source primitive’ accumulation wealth, that these hypocrites, in their greed for gold, did not hesitate “to turn’ Africa, into’ a warren -for the cofamercial hunting of black- skins” and that this “signalized the : rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.” Marx not only. exposed the vici-, ousness of slavery, and the slave trade, but as the founder of the First International, he led a stern anq uncompromising fight for the complete abolition of the -vicious system of chattel slavery. He wrote Many articles for the “New York Tribune” in the.years preceding and during the Civil War, supporting Stalin on Marxism, Leninism Leninism is the Marxism of the epoch of imperialism end of the proletarian revolution. [9 be more precise: Leninism is*the theory and the tactic of the proletariah revolu- tion in’ general, and the theory and sactic of the dictatorship. of the proletariat in particular, Marx and Engels lived in a pre-revolutionary oeriod, when imperialism. was. still in an embryoniec- condition; when the workers were only preparing for which arrive quickly, our Party must merge itself with the masses, arm itself with the theory of Marx ! and Lenin, so that in the. shortest space of time it can overcome its isolation from the decisive sections ofthe American working class. . When we are faced at the présent time with the war situation, in which the American proletariat is called upon to play a leading role in the struggle for the defense of the Soviet Union (14th og The latest pictere of the leader of the Communist International, Comrade Stalin, in his office in | Moscow. in revolution, when the. proletarian revolution hed not yet become an immediate and practical necessity. Lenin, the disciple,.of Marx .and Engels, lived in a period of fully developed imperialism; in a period when ‘the proletarian revolution was ! already under way; in a period when the proletarian revolution ‘had already triumphed in one country, had made an-‘end. of bourgeois democracy and had begun the era ef proletarian democracy, the era of soviets. That.is why I describe Leninism as a development of Marxism. It is usual to point out that Len-; inism is preeminently combative and revolytionary. There are two reasons why Leninism has these pe- culiar characteristics. First. of all, Leninism issued from the proletar- ian revolution, and therefore neces- sarily bears the imprint of that revolution. Secondly, Leninism orig- inated and grew strong in conflict with the opportunism of the Second | International—a, conflict essential to success in the struggle against cap- italism. between the Engels and the epoch of Lenin came the epoch when the opportunism of the Second International held un- restricted sway; and that a ruthless fight with this opportunism was one of Lenin’s chief tasks. Theory movement of all countries, taken in its general aspect. Theory becomes, naturally, objectless, if it is not con- nected with revolutionary practice, just as practice becomes blind if it] fails to illuminate its path with revolutionary theory. But theory may become the greatest power of the workers’ movement if it is in- dissolubly connected with revolu- tionary practice. Theory, and only theory, can add to the movement certainty, the power of orientation, and understanding of the inner con- nection of surrounding events; theory, and only theory, may enable practice to understand not only how the classes are moving at pres- ent, but also how and to where they must turn in the nearest future. —From es —_ “Leninism.” ‘THE 2nd 5-YEAR PLAN] AND THE ABOLITION OF CLASSES The fundamental political task of the second Five Year Plan is the final liquidation of the capitalist elements and of classes in general, the complete removal of the causes which produce class® differences and exploitation, the overcoming of the remnants of capitalism in economy and in the minds of the people, ithe conversion of | the whole of the working popu- lation of the country into con- scious and active builders of the ciassless Socialist society, KARL MARX ON THE NEGRO QUESTION of ' We must never forget that | epoch of Marx and} is the experience of the | the abolition and mobilizing public sentiment against this vicious sys- tem of human bondage and was an important factor in mobilizing the | workers, both in Europe and Amer- ica, against slavery. He pointed out back in 1859, that “Labor in. the white skin cannot emancipate it- self as Jong as it is degraded in the black.” When the British: testile barons who were accumuiating great, for- iunes by securing cheap cotton thru the existence of the slave planta- tions in America, tried, during the carly years ot the Civil War, to +mobilize sentiment in England fa- voring ~recognition -of the Confed- erate States, Marx carried on a vig- orous fight on the lecture platform, and through the.columns.- of. the Vienna “Free Press” against them. | He ‘succeeded in mobilizing the workers in England and other Eu- topean countries against the slave system, Marx, who was living in London at this time, whote to Las- salle on April 28, 1862 that: “The English middle class (and aristoc- . racy) has never more ‘shamelessly cisgraced itself than in the great struggle that is taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. ‘The English working class, on the other hand, which is suffering most under the bellum ivile (Civil War), has never proved iiself more heroic and popie. All the more is this to be adivired when one knows as I do, all the.-ineans which were set in . motion here (Londen).and in Man- chester in order to get it to dem- onstrate, ‘The only organ that they still had, the newspaper of the scoundrel Reynolds, has been bought up by the Southerners; - likewise their most important lecturers: But all in vain.” It can easily be seen that through the agitation carried on by Marx, which resulted in the failure of the Southern confederacy to obtain mor- al and financial support of the principal European countries, was 2 great factor in bringing about its early defeat. Thus the struggles of the revolutionary white and Negro workers under the leadership of the Communist Party against the vici- ous campaign of lynch terror and suppression again§t the most ex- ploited section of the working class becomes one of the most important tasks facing the workers at this itime, The vigorous campaign car- ried on by the Communist Party |for the self-determination of the Negro toilers in the “Black Belt” of | the South and for their equal rights everywhere is not, as the social fas- | cists and their friends of the N, A. A. C. P. claim, a new scheme of the Communists for self-advertise- ment, but the logical carrying thru of the teachings of Karl Marx. j The great majority of the Negroes in the United States are still on the land, and are living in actual sla- very, in spite of their supposed emancipation, in the section of the South known as the “Black Belt.” The vicious character of their ex- ploitation, their . re-enslayement on the plantation after the Recon- struction period when they were systematically deprived of the most elementary rights enjoyed by other workers, the super-profits extracted from their toil, definitely deter- ‘mines their class position as op- pressed Nationals. Marx understood this very clearly when he wrote to Engels on July 25, 1877, comment- ing on the Hayes-Tilden conipro- mise, which marked the end of the Reconstruction Period and the be- trayal of the Negroes by the repub- lican party. He stated that: “The policy of the new President (Hayes) | will mae the NEGROES, and the great expropriations of land (ex- actly the fertile land) in favor of railways, mining, ete., companies, will make THE PEASANTS OF THE WEST, who are already very dis- erg aera OF THE WORK- Weeds tlien,’ that an understand: ing of revolutionary Marxism gives the workers, the means. ‘through which they can achicye their final emancipation from the yoke of capi- talist lace J “Labor i in the white skin cannot be free while labor i in ihe vdhe lack skin i is branded?” Marx