The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 19, 1935, Page 5

| Against the ‘New Deal’ of Hunger, Fascism and War For the Revolutionary Solution of the Crisis HE crisis of the capitalist system is becoming more and more a ca- tastrophe for the workers and toiling masses. Growing millions of the ex- ploited population are faced with in- creased difficulties in finding the barest means of livelihood. Unem- ployment relief is being drastically cut and in many cases abolished al- together. Real wages are being re- duced further every month, and labor is being speeded up to an inhuman degree. The vast majority of the poor farmers are slowly but surely being squeezed off the land and thrown on the “free” labor market to compete with the workers. The oppressed Negro people are loaded down with the heaviest economic burdens, espe- cially of unemployment, denied even the crumbs of relief given to the starving white masses, and further subjected to bestial lynch law and Jim-Crowism. Women workers and housewives are especially sufferers from the crisis, and from the fascist movements to drive them out of in- dustry. Millions of young workers are thrown upon the streets by the closing of schools and simultaneous- ly are denied any chance to earn their living in the industries. What the “New Deal’ Given the Workers The suffering masses have been told to look to Washington for their salvation. Mr. Roosevelt and his New Deal have been decked out with the rainbow promises of returning prosperity. But the bitter truth is rapidly being learned that Roosevelt and his New Deal represent the Wall Street bankers and big corporations —finance capital—just the same as Hoover before him, but carrying out even fiercer attacks against the liv- ing standards of the masses of the people. Under Roosevelt and the “New Deal” policies, the Public Treasury has been turned into a huge trough where the big capitalists eat their fill. Over ten billion dollars has been handed out to the banks and corporations, billions squeezed out of the workers and farmers by inflation and by all sorts of new taxes upon the masses. Under the Roosevelt regime, the main burden of taxation has been shifted away from the big Has capitalists onto the impoverished masses. The N.R.A. and the industrial codes have served further to enrich the capitalists by establishing fixed monopoly prices, speeding up trusti- fication, and squeezing out the smaller capitalists and independent producers. The labor provisions of the N.R.A., which were hailed by the A. F. of L. and Socialist leaders as “a new char- ter for labor,” have turned out in reality to be new chains for labor. The fixing of the so-called minimum wage, at below starvation levels, has turned out in reality to be a big effort to drive the maximum wage down to this point. The so-called guarantee of the right to organize and collective bargaining has turned out in reality to be the establishment of the com- pany unions. The last remaining rights of the workers they now pro- pose to take away by establishing compulsory arbitration under the~ Wagner Bill, camouflaged as an at- tempt to guarantee workers’ rights. Roosevelt has given official govern- mental status to the company unions, in the infamous “settlement” in the ‘auto industry. This new step toward fascism is announced as a “new course” to apply to all industries. All these domestic policies are openly recognized as identical in their content with the measures of pro- fessed fascist governments. This rapid movement toward fascism in the United States goes hand in hand with the sharpening of international antagonisms and the most gigantic preparations for war ever before wit- nessed in a pre-war period. More than a billion dollars has been ap- propriated for war purposes during this year. A large proportion of this has been taken directly out of the funds ostensibly appropriated for public works. Hundreds of millions are being spent on military training in the so-called Civil Conservation Camps, run by the War Department. The policies of the government in Washington have one purpose, to make the workers and farmers and middle classes pay the costs of the crisis, to preserve the profits of the big capitalists at all costs, to estab- lish fascism at home and to wage im- perialist war abroad. A. F. of L. and Socialist Party Leaders Support Roosevelt How can the workers and farmers fight against these policies which are driving them into starvation? The leaders of the A. F. of L. have open- ly identified themselves with the poli- cies of the Roosevelt administration. To the extent that these leaders con- trol the trade unions, they prevent or demoralize the struggles of the workers and deliver them helpless into the hands of the capitalists. The Socialist Party supports the A. F. of L. leaders and endorses and ac- tively supports every particular policy of the New Deal: inflation, N.R.A., AAA, P.W.A, C.W.A., C.C.C., Wagner Bill, etc., hailing these fascist and war measures as “steps toward Socialism.” It is clear that the workers and farmers cannot fight back the capital- ist attacks unless they break away from the policies of the A. F. of L. and Socialist Party leaders. As against the united front which these leaders have set up with the capi- talist government, the toiling masses must establish their own working class united front from below, against the capitalist class and the Roosevelt administration. Only the Communist Party Fights for the Workers Only the Communist Party has consistently organized and led the re- sistance to the capitalist attacks. The enemies of the Communist Party try to scare away the workers and farmers from this struggle by shout- ing that the Communist Party is in- terested only in revolution, that it is not sincerely trying to protect the living standards of the masses. They do this in order to hide the fact that they, one and all, pursue the single policy of saving the profits of the capitalists, no matter what it may cost in degrading the living standards of the masses. The Communist Party declares that wages must be maintained no matter what is the consequence to capitalist profits. The Communist Party declares that unemployment insurance must be pro- vided at the expense of capitalist profits. The Communist Party declares that the masses of workers and farmers must not only fight against reduction in their living standards, but must win constantly increasing living standards at the expense of capital- ist profits. The Communist Party declares, if the continuation of capitalism re- quires that profits be protected at the price of starvation, fascism and war, for the masses of the people, then the quicker capitalism is destroyed the better. Only Unemployment Insurance | Bill Is Thot of the Com- munist Party It is no accident that the only seri- ous project for unemployment insur- ance that has come before the Con- gress of the United States is the Workers Bill, H.R. 2827, which was worked out and popularized among the masses by the Communist Party. Only the Communist Party has made a real fight for unemployment insur- ance and by this fight finally forced before the Congress the first and only bill to provide real unemployment in- surance, It is no accident that the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill is be- ing bitterly fought not only by the Republican and Democratic parties, but also by the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist Party lead- ers, as well as by little groups of their satellites, Musteites, Trotskyites, and Lovestoneites. It is no accident that whenever a big strike movement breaks out, the capitalist press shrieks that it is due to Communist influence, and the A. F. of L. and Socialist Party leaders wail that the masses have gotten be- yond their control. It is true that all struggle for daily bread, for milk for children, against evictions, for unemployment relief _,and insurance, for wage increases, for the right to organize and strike, etc., are directly connected up with the question of revolution. Those who are against the revolution, who want to maintain the capitalist system, are prepared to sacrifice these struggles of the workers in order to help the capitalists preserve their profits. Only those can courageously lead v \ | | | DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK. SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1935 and stubbornly organize the fight for the immediate interests of the toiling masses who know that these things must be won even though it means the destruction of capitalist profits, and who draw the necessary conclu- sion that the workers and farmers must consciously prepare to over- throw capitalism. The crisis cannot be solved for the toiling masses until the rule of Wall Street has been broken and the rule of the working class has been estab- lished. The only way out of the crisis for the toiling masses is the revolu- tionary way out—the abolition of capitalist rule and capitalism, the es- tablishment of the Socialist society through the power of a revolutionary workers’ government, a Soviet gov- ernment. Example of the Revolutionary Way Out The program of the revolutionary solution of the crisis is no blind ex- periment. The working class is al- ready in power in the biggest coun- try in the world, and it has already proved the great superiority of the Socialist system. While the crisis has engulfed the capitalist countries— at the same time in the Soviet Union, where the workers rule through their Soviet power, a new Socialist society is being victoriously built. The Russian working class, from its own resources and its Socialist system, restored -the national econo- my which had been shattered by six years of imperialist war and inter- vention. It overcame the age-long backwardness of Russia and brought its industrial production to the first place in Europe, to more than three times the pre-war figure. It rooted out the last breeding ground of capi- talism by the successful inclusion of agriculture in the Socialist system. It completely abolished unemploy- ment and tremendously raised the material well-being and cultural stand- ards of the toiling masses. Upon the basis of its Socialist system, the So- viet Union has become the most pow- erful influence for peace in an other- wise war-mad world. Its victories are an unending source of inspiration and encouragement to the toiling masses of every country. | They are the living example of the | testing of the Bolshevik road in the | | the Socialist Parties of the Second | | power in the hands of the Socialist possibility of finding a way out of the crisis in the interests of the toilers. The experience of the victorious workers of the Soviet Union before, during and after the seizure of power, throw a brilliant light showing the path which must be followed in every land, the path of Bolshevism, of | Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, The Workers Took the Wrong | Path in Germany and Austria | In the same period of successful Soviet Union, we have also the ex- | ample of the results of the policies of | International. The Socialist Parties | stood at the head of the majority of the working class in Germany and Austria. The revolutionary upheavals of 1918 in these countries placed Parties. Their leaders repudiated the Bolshevik road, and boasted of their contrasting “civilized,” “peaceful,” “democratic,” “gradual transition to Socialism” through a coalition gov- ernment together with the bour- geoisie on the basis of restoring the. shattered capitalist system. To this end they crushed the revolution in 1918. They followed the policy of “the | lesser evil,’ supported the govern- ment of Bruening with its emergency | decrees against the workers, disarmed | the working class, led the workers to vote for Field Marshal von Hinden- | burg, and finally crowned their infamy by voting in the Reichstag for Hitler | after having paved the way for fas- cism since 1918, In Austria they sup- ported the Dollfuss fascist govern- ment as the “lesser evil,” until the | moment when Dollfuss turned his cannons aainst the homes of the Aus- trian workers. Their “civilized” methods opened wide the gates for the most barbarous regime in the modern history of Eu- rope. Their “peaceful” methods gave birth to the most bloody and violent reaction. Their “democracy” brought forth the most brutal and open capi- talist dictatorship. Their “gradual transition to Socialism” helped to re- | THE GENIUS OF REVOLUTION By JOSEPH STALIN Lenin was born for revolution. revolutionary outbreaks and a great master in the art of revolution- ary leadership. Never did he feel so free and happy as in the epoch of revolutionary upheavals. By that I do not want to say that Lenin equally approved of all revolutionary upheavals, or that he advocated revolutionary outbreaks at all times and under all conditions. Not in the least. I merely want to say that never was the profound foresight of Lenin revealed so fully and distinctly as during revolutionary out- In the days of revolutionary uprisings he blossomed out, as it were, became a prophet, foresaw the movement of classes and the probable zigzags of the revolution, saw them like the lines on the palm of his hand. It was not for nothing that it used to be said in our Party circles that “Ilyich is able to swim in the waves of revolution like a breaks. fish in water.” First fact, The period before the October uprising, when millions of workers, peasants. and soldiers. lashed by the cris at the front, demanded peace and liberty; when the militarists and the bourgeoisie were preparing for a military dictatorship in order to 1 ; when the whole of so-called “public opinion,” all the so-called “social parties” were opposed to the Bol- sheviks, charged them with being “German spies”; when Kerensky tried, and to some extent succeeded, in driving the Bolshevik Party underground; when the still powerful, disciplined army of the Austro- German coalitics stood. confronting our weary and disintegrating armies, and when the West European “socialists” lived in happy al- liance with their governments for the purpose of pursuing the “war pursue the “war to the bitter end ” to final victory... . What did raising a rebellion mean at that time? Raising rebel- lion in such circumstances meant staking everything on this one card. But Lenin did not fear to take the risk, because he knew, he saw with his prophetic eye, that rebellion was inevitable, that rebellion would be victorious, that rebellion in Russia would prepare for the end of the imperialist war, that rebellion in Russia would rouse the tortured masses of the West, that rebellion in Russia would transform the im- perialist war into civil war, that rebellion would give rise to a republic of Soviets. that a republic of Soviets would serve as a bulwark for the revolutionary movement of the whole world. Second fact. During the first five days after the October Revolu- tion, when the Council of People’s Commissars tried to compel the mutinous general, Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin, to cease military operations and open negotiations for a truce with the Germans. I remember that Lenin, Krylenko (the future Commander-in-Chief) and T went to General Military Headauarters in Petrograd to speak by direct wire to Dukhonin. The situation was very tense. Dukhonin and the General Staff categorically refused to carry out the orders of the Council of People’s Commissars. The army officers were entirely in the hands of the General Staff. As for the soldiers, it was. impossible to foretell what the twelve-million army, which was subordinate to tne so-called army organizations which were hostile to the Soviet government, would say. In Petrograd itself, as is well known, the mutiny of the Junkers was maturing. Moreover, Kerensky was march- ing on Petrograd. I remember that after a slight pause at the tele- graph wire, Lenin’s face lit up with an extraordinary light. evident that he had come to some decision. “Come to the radio station,” he said, “it will render us a service: we will issue a special order dismissing General Dukhonin and appoint Krylenko in his place as Commander-in-Chief and appeal to the soldiers over the heads of the officers—to surround the generals, stop military operations, establish contact with the Austro-German soldiers and take the cause of peace into their own hands.” Brilliant foresight, the ability rapidly to catch and appreciate the inner sense of impending events—this is the feature of Lenin that enabled him to outline the correct strategy and a clear line.of conduct He was, in truth, the genius of s in the rear and It was store the uncontrolled rule of finance capital, the master of Fascism. The German and Austrian working class, after 16 years of bitter and bloody lessons of the true meaning of the” policies of the Socialist Parties, of the Second International, have now final- ly begun to turn away from them at last to take the Bolshevik path. U.S.A, Is Ripe for Socialism In every material respect, the United States is fully ripe for Social- ism. Its accumulated wealth and pro- ductive forces, together with an inex- haustible supply of almost all of the raw materials, provide a complete material basis for Socialism. All ma- terial conditions exist for a society which could at once provide every necessity of life and even a degree of luxury for the entire population, with an expenditure of labor of three or four hours per day. This tremendous wealth, these gi- gantic productive forces are locked away from the masses who could use | them. They are the private property of the small parasitic capitalistic class, which locks up the warehouses and closes the factories in order to com- | pel a growing tribute of profit. This paralysis of economy in the interests of profit, at the cost of starvation and degradation to millions, is en- | forced by the capitalist government with all its police, courts, jails and military. There is no possible way out of the crisis in the interest of the masses ex- cept by breaking the control of the State power now in the hands of this small monopolist capitalist class. There is no way out except by estab- lishing a new government of the work- ers in alliance with the poor farmers, the Negro people, and the impover- ished middle class. There is no way out except by the creation of a revolutionary democracy of the toilers, which is at the same time a stern dictatorship against the capitalists and their agents. There is no way out except by seizing from the capitalists the industries, banks and all of the economic institu- tions, and transforming them into the common property of all under the di- rection of the revolutionary govern- except by the abolition of the capital- ist system and the establishment of a Socialist society, What Is “Americanism” ? The necessary first step for the es- tablishment of Socialism is the set- ting up of a revolutionary workers’ government. The capitalists and their agents shriek out that this revo- lutionary program is un-American But this expresses not the truth, but only their own greedy interests. Today, the only party that carries for- ward the revolutionary traditions of 1776 and 1861, under the present- day conditions and relationship of classes, is the Communist Party. Today, only the Communist Party finds it politically expedient and working masses of how, in a previous crisis, the way was found by the path of revolution. Today, only the Com- munist Party brings sharply forward and applies to the problems of today dence. Applying the Declaration of Inde- pendence to present-day conditions, the Communist Party points out that never was there such a mass of people blance of “the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.” Never upon these rights by “any form of government,” as that exerted today by the existing form of government in the United States. Never have the exploited masses suffered such a “long train of abuses” or been so “reduced ' under absolute despotism” as today under capitalist rule. The “principle” which must provide the foundation of the “new government” mentioned in the Declaration of Independence is, in 1934, the principle of the dictator- ship of the proletariat; the new form is the form of the workers’ and farm- ers’ councils—the Soviet power. The “new guards for their future secur- ity,” which the workers must estab- lish, are the installing of the working class in every position of power, and the dissolution of every institution of capitalist class rule. What a Workers’ Government Would Do The first acts of such a revolution- at the turning points of the revolutionary movement. ary workers’ government would be to open up the warehouses and distribute \ ment. There is no way out, in short, | that old basic document of “Ameri- | canism,” the Declaration of Indepen- | so completely deprived of all sem-| was there such “destructive” effects ’ the | necessary to remind the American | | | Page 5 / Cd ! e among all the working people the enormous unused surplus stocks of food and clothing. It would open up the tremendous accumulation of unused buildings— now withheld for private profit—for the benefit of tens of millions who now wander homeless in the streets or crouch in cellars or slums. Such a government would immedi- ately provide an endless flow of come modities to replace the stores thus used up by opening up all the factor- ies, mills and mines, and giving every person a job at constantly increasing wages. All former claims to ownership of the means of production, including stocks, bonds, etc., would be relegated to the museum with special provisions to protect small savings. No public funds would be paid out to anyone except for services rendered to the community. Unemployment and social insurance would immediately be provided for all, to cover all loss of work due to causes outside the control of the workers, whether by closing of factories, by | sickness, old age, maternity, or other- wise, at full wages without special costs to the workers. Such a government would immedi- ately begin to reorganize the present anarchic system of production along Socialist lines. It would eliminate the untold waste of capitalism; it would bring to full use the tremendous achievements of science, which have been pushed aside by the capitalist rulers from consideration of private profit. Such a Socialist reorganiza- tion of industry would almost imme- diately double the existing productive forces of the country. Such a revo- lutionary government would secure to the farmers the possession of their land and provide them with the neces- sary means for a comfortable living; it would make it possible for the farm- ing population to unite their forces in a co-operative socialist agriculture, and thus bring to the farming popu- lation all of the advantages of mod- ern civilization, and would multiply manifold the productive capacities of American agriculture. It would pro- ceed at once to complete liberation. of the Negro people from all oppression, secure the right of self-determination of the Black Belt, and would secure unconditional economic, political and social equality. ! With the establishment of a Social- © ist system in America, there will be such a flood of wealth available for the country as can hardly be imagined. Productive labor instead of being’ a burden will become a desirable privi- lege for every citizen of the new so- ciety. The wealth of such a society will immediately become so great that, without any special burdens, tre- mendous surpluses will be available which can be used as free gifts tethe economically more backward nations, in the first place, to those which have | suffered from the imperialist exploi- tation of American capitalism, Cuba, Latin America, Philippines, China. to enable these peoples also to build a Socialist society in the shortest pos- sible time. Fight for Bread Is a Fight Against Capitalism The capitalist way out of the crisis lies along the way of wage cuts, speed- up, denial of unemployment insurance, fascism and war. The revolutionaty way out of the crisis begins with the fight for unemployment insurance, against wage cuts, for wage increases, for relief to the farmers—through demonstrations, strikes, general strikes, leading up to the seizure-of power, to the destruction of capital- ism by a revolutionary workers’ goy- ernment. The Communist Party calls upon the workers, farmers and impover- ished middle classes to unite their forces to struggle uncompromisingly against every reduction of their live ing standards, against every back- | ward step now being forced upon them by the capitalist crisis, against the growing menace of Fascism and war. The Communist Party leads and or- ganizes this struggle, leading toward the only final solution—the establish- ment of a workers’ government. | The establishment of a Socialist so- ciety in the United States will be at the same time a death blow to the whole world system of imperialist op- pression and exploitation. It will mark the end of world capitalism. It will be the decisive step towards a classless society throughout the world, towards World Communism! Manifesto of the Eighth National Conyen- tion of the Communist Party of the United States,