"Labor and the War," by Morris Hillquit [July 6, 1918] Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit makes clear that the world was paying a terrible price through war for the continuation of capitalist hegemony: "The millions of human lives that have been destroyed and wrecked, all the misery of the nations of the world, would have been spared if the people, the working class, had ruled instead of their employers." Even greater than the war in world historical terms, according to HIllquit, was the Russian Revolution. "I believe I am safe in saying that for the historian of the future the revolution in Russian will be of greater importance than the war itself," Hillquit states: "The war will pass some day! It cannot last forever. But the fact that one of the greatest countries in the world has broken away from the old capitalistic moorings, has turned a new page in history and proclaimed the rule of the people instead of the rulers - this cannot pass without the most vital effect upon the whole future of the human race. The present regime in Russia may change, but whether or not there is any chance in the administration, on thing is certain - autocracy, capitalism, and oppression are dead in Russia."

 

"A Dream No Longer," by Abraham Cahan [July 13, 1918] Given his later vehement and vocal opposition to the regime in Soviet Russia and its American adherents, this article by renowned Yiddish Socialist editor Abraham Cahan rings ironic: "A statue of Karl Marx in the Kremlin! A monument to the father of the Socialist movement in the "holy of holies" of Russian darkness and Russian despotism! It sounds incredible, but it is true nevertheless. It is a gorgeous piece of historical reality.... What has been one of our golden dreams has become an inspiring reality. It seems to me that in view of that glorious monument to Marx which now stands in the Kremlin, the most bitter opponent of the Bolsheviki among our comrades should forget his former feeling and become inspired with affection and enthusiasm for them.... We have criticized them; some of their utterances often irritate us; but who can help rejoicing in their triumph? Who can help going into ecstacy over the Socialist spirit which they have enthroned in the country, which they now rule?"

 

"Cop Pictures Dodge at End of Rope, the Victim of Mob: Associate Protests Innocence of WIIU Leader Who Comes to Trial on Monday on Charge of Evading the Draft," by Philip S. Kerr [events of June 22-28, 1918] On June 22, 1918, a Socialist Labor Party activist mounted a soapbox on the corner of Mohawk and Main Streets in Buffalo, New York, where he spoke on behalf of the Workers International Industrial Union. "William Dodge, the speaker, pointed out that as long as the capitalist system continued there would be an endless struggle between the working class and the employing class. He explained the manner in which the capitalist class came into power and the methods by which they retained their power. Only by cooperating upon the political and industrial field could the workers hope to cope with the ever-growing power of capitalists." Dodge began to be heckled by a conservative in the crowd, who he parried with his words. "In a rage the skunk went up the street and, as was afterwards learned, told a couple of sailor boys whom he met that a soap-boxer was down the street criticizing the government. He advised them to beat the speaker up." This effort at inciting violence failed. Finally, a policeman showed up and yanked Dodge off the platform with the words, "Come, get out of here with that pro-German stuff." Dodge and his comrade Philip Kerr were arrested, and 2 others who protested the falsity of the arrest were held for 4 hours before being released. Kerr was ultimately released (an effort to immediately conscript Kerr failing when he could not pass the army physical exam), but Dodge was held for purported seditious statements made to a police spy. "Dodge is entirely innocent of the charge against him, but there are forces at work that seek to weed out every active member of the labor movement," Kerr declares.

 

"Shiplacoff is Indicted with John Reed for Bronx Speech: Socialist Assemblyman Who is Candidate for Congress and Famed Writer Charged with Violation of Espionage Act -- What Offending Words Were." (NY Tribune) [event of Sept. 23, 1918] On Sept. 23, 1918, nearly 2 weeks after armistice was declared in the European war, indictments were returned against New York Assemblyman Abraham Shiplacoff and radical journalist John Reed for comments which each made at a Sept. 13 meeting in the Bronx held under the auspices of the Socialist Party. Shiplacoff's purported offense was making the following statement about the American military occupation of Soviet Russia: "You will remember with what bitter feelings your teachers have tried to plant in you a sort of hatred toward the Hessians, those soldiers who came from the other side, hired to do the work of King George III against the American colonists, and those were only the ragtag off the people; they were the hired murderers who came to do the bidding of King George III -- think how much better the Russian people of today have a right to feel against the people who in the name of democracy, in the name of everything that seems sacred, come there to hand out the same dose to Russia today that was handed out by the Hessians to the American Republic." As for John Reed, his so-called crime was making the following: "This intervention that I am talking to you about is here not allowed to be spoken about in any way other than the government wants it to be spoken about, but in every other country in the world -- in France, in Italy -- this intervention is characterized very boldly as a direct adventure of brigands."

 

"The Common Laborer," by Eugene V. Debs [Nov. 11, 1918] This article by Socialist Party orator and publicist Gene Debs extols the place of the so-called "common laborer," the of-scorned "chief prop in the social fabric and the main support of all civilization." Debs charges that among the worst offenders in the marginalization of "unskilled" labor are certain "insolent" and snobbish trade unions, with high initiation fees barring the way to admission. However, the leveling influence of mechanized production was rapidly eliminating the distinction between skilled craft and "unskilled" labor. "The common laborer today is no longer ignored or treated with scant decency by the labor movement," writes Debs. "He may still be ostracized in certain select craft union circles but he is taking his rightful place in the great industrial movement that is spreading over the world. The common laborer is the chief sufferer and the most aggrieved victim of the capitalist system.... The fate and destiny of not only the whole working class but the whole of humanity are irrevocably bound up in the common laborer and his emancipation is the condition of the emancipation of the race." Debs exclaims: "All hail the common laborer wherever he may be found! He is the stuff of which the revolution is made, the revolution which will lift common labor out of common slavery and make it the common glory of mankind."

 

"The Day of the People,' by Eugene V. Debs [Feb. 1919] "From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik, and proud of it," famously declares Socialist Party leader Gene Debs in this article from Ludwig Lore's quarterly magazine, The Class Struggle. Debs salutes the Left Wing Socialist leaders of Germany, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, in their struggle against "Ebert and Scheidemann and their crowd of white-livered reactionaries," acting in concert with German reaction against the revolutionary movement in that country. Now "the battle is raging in Germany as in Russia, and the near future will determine whether revolution has for once been really triumphant or whether sudden reaction has again won the day." says Debs. "Scheidemann and his breed do not believe that the day of the people has arrived. According to them the war and the revolution have brought the day of the bourgeoisie," Debs notes, arguing that instead, "The people are ready for their day.... Who are the people? The people are the working class, the lower class, the robbed, the oppressed, the impoverished, the great majority of the earth. They and those who sympathize with them are the people..." Debs declares that "in Russia and Germany our valiant comrades are leading the proletarian revolution, which knows no race, no color, no sex, and no boundary lines. They are setting the heroic example for worldwide emulation. Let us, like them, scorn and repudiate the cowardly compromisers within our own ranks, challenge and defy the robber-class power, and fight it out on that line to victory or death!"

 

"Manifesto of the Workers', Soldiers', Sailors' and Farmers' Council of Buffalo and Erie County." [adopted March 4, 1919] On March 4, 1919, a short-lived Soviet called the "Workers', Soldiers', Sailors', and Farmer's Council" was established in Buffalo, New York, producing this manifesto on behalf of 35,000 unemployed workers of the area. A set of "immediate demands" are put forward, including institution of the 4-hour workday; the abolition of the collection of rent, taxes, and interest from unemployed workers; and the provision of office space and meeting halls for use of the Soviet. These were presented as transitional to "the ultimate aim" -- "the only solution to prevent a nationwide revolution is to make provision for plans to socialize all industries of America." A nationwide call was to be issued to all workers to organize on the same plan as the Buffalo Soviet. A total of 38,000 copies of this document were produced and distributed.

 

"Jobless Face Shotguns in Hands of Police: Meeting of Unemployed in Niagara Square is Ruthlessly Suppressed: Soldiers', Sailors', Workers' and Farmers' Council Denied Right of Assemblage -- Many Thousands of Hungry Toilers Throng Streets Converging on McKinley Monument." [events of March 6-10, 1919] The confrontation between the civic authorities of Buffalo, New York and the short-lived Buffalo Soviet proved to be a one-sided affair, as is documented in this article from The New Age, weekly organ of Local Buffalo, Socialist Party. A demonstration was called by the Workers' Council for March 10, 1919, to be held at the McKinley Monument in Niagara Square, downtown. The gathering was announced in advance in a letter to Mayor George S. Buck (reproduced here), and a request for facilities for a meeting of the demonstrators was made; Local Buffalo, Socialist Party was called into action to facilitate the demonstration on behalf of the Soviet's organizing committee. However, no such accommodation was made and the meeting of the Buffalo Soviet was banned by the city council and Mayor Buck, and a cordon of shotgun-bearing policemen were dispatched to prevent the planned meeting. Although thousands of workers milled in the streets surrounding the plaza in response to the distribution of 38,000 leaflets announcing the meeting (an unlikely estimate of 40,000 is reported here), police prevented a concentration at the plaza with little trouble or opposition.

 

"After the War - What?" by C.E. Ruthenberg [serialized Dec. 1918-March 1919] Serialized over a 3 month period, this article represents the longest single work written by Cleveland Left Wing Socialist leader C.E. Ruthenberg -- rightfully remembered by history as a skilled organizational administrator rather than a theoretician. Written originally for the Ohio Socialist (complete runs of which have not survived), this work was preserved en toto as a reprint in the Buffalo, NY New Age. Ruthenberg argues that "the halo of capitalism has been smashed by the war" and the de facto socialist organization of key industries by government due to wartime expedience had shattered the myth of the economic structure's permanence and unchangeability. A widespread demand had emerged for a fundamental retooling of American economic society in the immediate postwar period -- a program of the working class opposed by a capitalist class which sought a restoration of the economy to the status quo ante bellum. Ruthenberg outlines at length the instability, inefficiency, and injustice of the old capitalist form of organization and contrasts the efficiency of wartime collectivism, to which Ruthenberg proposes the addition of democratic social control. Ruthenberg declares that the government's action during the war with regard to the transportation and communications industries had demonstrated the correctness of the Left Wing Socialist declaration that "When we get ready to take over the industries, we'll just take them" -- this was exactly what the government had done during wartime, according to Ruthenberg, albeit temporarily. Whether the former owners of industry were compensated with Liberty bonds to be taxed out of existence in 10 years or industry to be expropriated without compensation was a matter of little import to Ruthenberg. He asserts: "Industry must no longer be conducted as a private business for profit, but must become a coordinated, collective process for the purpose of supplying human needs and comforts. Such a transformation can only be accomplished by taking the ownership of the national resources and means of production and distribution out of the hands of the present owners and vesting the ownership in the people collectively." Ruthenberg soft-pedals his belief in the ultimate necessity of revolution as opposed to parliamentarism to achieve the fundamental reorganization of the economy, only noting in his final installment that "the idea that Socialism would be established through a series of legislative acts extending possibly over a decade or two, has been shown to be an illusion. Socialism will not be legislated into existence but will be established by a mass movement of the workers in the industries. The legislative acts will merely give the accomplished fact the stamp of approval as the will of the majority. The struggle of the working class will henceforth be a political struggle for control of the state because it must gain control of the government before it can hope to establish democracy in industry."

 

"Socialists of Buffalo as One Man Swing Over to Left: The Largest Meeting of Party Members Ever Held Endorses Program Promulgated by Left Wing of Local New York." [event of April 13, 1919] This article from Buffalo Socialist Party weekly The New Age chronicles the move of the Buffalo party into the ranks of the fledgling Left Wing movement at a meeting held April 13, 1919. A special meeting held to consider the Left Wing program of Local New York, which was approved by a unanimous vote according to the article. The resolution sought the elimination of social reform agenda, declaring instead that "the party must teach, propagate, and agitate exclusively for the overthrown of capitalism, and the establishment of Socialism through a proletarian dictatorship." Demands were made for a party-owned press, repudiation of the Berne international in favor of a new international incorporating the Bolshekiks of Russia and the Spartacans of Germany, and for the immediate convocation of an Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party.

 

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REVISED FILES

"Unemployment." (leaflet of the Communist Party of America) [circa Jan. 15, 1921] ** REFINES ESTIMATED DATE OF PUBLICATION AND ALTERS TYPOGRAPHY. ** This leaflet of the "illegal" underground CPA observes that "a terrific industrial slump has hit this country." Retailers were overstocked, manufacturers were unable to get orders and were cutting back production and jobs accordingly, and farmers were forced to dump their products on the market at prices below the actual cost of production. "The working class could very easily consume more food, more clothing, more of all the products that they have produced. But under the present capitalist system of production commodities are produced for profit and not primarily for use. The workers get back in wages only about one-fifth of what they produce. The rest, after deducting the portion used by the capitalist class and their henchmen, is held for export to foreign markets. This surplus must be sold for profit to foreign countries." However, foreign markets were in disarray and were unable to absorb this surplus production and a major crisis was impending. There was only one solution, the leaflet states: "The only way in which you can put an end to this profit system which keeps you in poverty, misery, and degradation, and gives all the good things of life to the rich, is to conquer political power for your class, and make the working class the ruling class in society. You must first destroy the present capitalist government and establish a workers' or Soviet government in its place by force -- just as did the workers and peasants of Russia!" The call for the use of armed force by the working class is repeated: "The capitalist government cannot be destroyed by peaceful means, such as the ballot box. The ballot box is itself an instrument of capitalist domination, cleverly developed so as to fool the workers into believing that they gain their ends through parliamentary action. Nor can you abolish the capitalist system by seizing the factories without at the same time seizing the political power.... The only way to overthrow the capitalist government is by means of MASS ACTION -- demonstrations, protests, mass strikes, general strikes, political strikes, and culminating finally in open collision with the capitalist state -- armed insurrection and civil war."

 

"Don't Be So Sure of Your Job!" (leaflet of the United Communist Party) [circa May 1921] ** REVISES ESTIMATED DATE OF PUBLICATION. **Aside from publishing newspapers and giving speeches to one another at various meetings and conventions, the only "revolutionary" activity conducted by the underground Communist movement of the early 1920s involved the periodic mass distribution of cheaply printed newsprint leaflets. These were printed in runs running into the hundreds of thousands and then stealthily scattered around various industrial cities of the north over the course of one or a few dark nights. This "leaflet no. 2" of the United Communist Party from the spring of 1921 attempts to turn the fear of unemployment into mass strike action: "Force the government to take care of [the unemployed]! Fight for shorter hours with no reduction of pay, so they can get back on the job! Fight for opening up trade with Soviet Russia, so there will be work!" These strikes would be met with opposition, the leaflet noted: "Of course, the courts will issue injunctions against us. The government will send troops against us. Soldiers, police, thugs, legionnaires, and vigilantes will be lined up against us." There was a solution, however, painted in rosy hues: "The Russian workers showed us what to do. They overthrew their BOSSES' government and set up a WORKERS' Government. They took over the industries and ran them ONLY for the workers. They threw out all idlers and bloodsuckers! They put an end to unemployment. They became the OWNERS OF THEIR JOBS!"

 

 

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