BIRTH OF THE COMMUNIST AND COMMUNIST-LABOR PARTIES
On June 24, 1919, the Left Wing Conference assembled in New York City.
The purpose of the Conference was for the first time to unite the forces
of the Left Wing throughout the country and to decide upon a common plan
of action against the Right. For some time there had been a growing
desire among the members of the Left for the formation of a new party to
be known as the Communist Party. The Michigan State organization and the
different Russian-speaking federations, which had either been expelled
or suspended, were particularly anxious for a new party. Then, too, many
members of the Left Wing throughout the country believed that, even
though they were more numerous than those of the Right, it would be
useless to try to control the National Emergency Convention of the
Socialist Party, called for August 30, 1919, in Chicago. They feared
that the credentials of the still unsuspended and unexpelled Left Wing
delegates would not be recognized by the party machine in the hands of
the Right Wing, and, moreover, that even if they were, these Left Wing
delegates would not be in the majority because so many other Left Wing
delegates had been expelled from the Party.
Almost at the beginning of the National Conference of the Left Wing the
Michigan State delegates and the delegates of the foreign-language
federations insisted on the immediate organization of a new party to be
known as the Communist Party. The majority of the delegates, however,
were opposed to immediate organization, claiming that it would be much
more prudent to wait till the meeting of the National Emergency
Convention, at the end of August, as many Left Wing Socialists would
refuse to leave the mother party until it became evident that the
Convention could not be captured by the Left Wing. The majority of the
delegates decided to call a Communist Party Convention on September 1,
1919. The Michigan State delegates and the Russian-speaking federation
delegates thereupon broke with the majority of the Left Wing, causing a
serious split, which continued till about the end of July, 1919.
In that month, however, most of the members of the National Council of
the Left Wing who had been leading the faction of the Left Wing which
had refused the call for the immediate formation of the Communist Party,
went over to the minority faction, which included the Michigan State
organization and the Russian-speaking federations. A compromise had been
reached whereby the aforesaid members of the National Council agreed not
to insist upon attendance at the National Emergency Convention of the
Socialist Party, while the Michigan organization, together with the
federations, were willing to wait till September 1, 1919, for the
convention of the Communist Party.
Even on these terms John Reed, Ben Gitlow and some other leading members
of the Left Wing refused to go over to the Communist Party, having
decided to fight for the rights of the Left Wingers in the National
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party. This group of Left Wingers
later on, as will be seen, became the nucleus of a third party, the
Communist Labor Party. Several statements from the joint call for the
convention of the Communist Party, cited from "The Revolutionary Age,"
August 23, 1919, will interest the reader:
"The party will be founded upon the following principles:
"The present is the period of the dissolution and collapse of the
whole capitalist world system, which will mean the collapse of
world culture, if capitalism with its unsolvable contradictions is
not replaced by Communism.
"The problem of the proletariat consists in organizing and training
itself for the conquest of the powers of the state....
"This new proletarian state must embody the dictatorship of the
proletariat, both industrial and agricultural, this dictatorship
constituting the instrument for the taking over of property used
for exploiting the workers, and for the reorganization of society
on a Communist basis....
"The dictatorship of the proletariat shall carry out the abolition
of private property in the means of production and distribution, by
transfer to the proletarian state under Socialist administration of
the working class....
"The present world situation demands the closest relation between
the revolutionary proletariat of all countries....
"We favor international alliance of the Communist Party of the
United States only with the Communist groups of other countries,
such as the Bolsheviki of Russia, Spartacans of Germany, etc....
"The party shall propagandize class-conscious industrial unionism,
and shall carry on party activity in cooperation with industrial
disputes that take on a revolutionary character."
The national organ of the Communist Party was "The Communist" of
Chicago. In its issue of August 23, 1919, it thus criticises the
Socialist Party:
"The majority of the readers of 'The Communist' are familiar with
the form of organization of the old Socialist Party, with its state
autonomy and its bureaucratic officialdom. Every state is
practically organized as an Independent Socialist party. 'Official
socialism' of Milwaukee is entirely different from[6] 'official
socialism' in Ohio, both in regard to platforms and form of
organization. Every state has a 'Socialism' of its own brand, and
even dues are not uniform throughout the country. 'Official papers'
of the party are in most cases organs of independent associations,
not at all affiliated with the central party organizations. Such
important weapons in the struggle of the proletariat are left in
the hands of the petty bourgeois ideologists who, in reality,
prostitute the labor press. As examples, we have, for instance,
'The Milwaukee Leader,' the 'New York Call,' the Jewish 'Daily
Forward,' the 'Appeal to Reason,' and many others scattered
throughout the United States, and each contradicting not only the
others, but containing in each issue glaring contradictions that an
intelligent person who reads them becomes disgusted with the whole
muddled mess."
The fight among the revolutionists was a fight to the finish. The
leaders all wanted to become Trotzkys and Lenines, all wanted to be
bosses. It seems reasonable to conclude that if Bolshevism were ever
introduced into the United States, either by the mother Socialist Party
or by its offspring, the Communist Party or the Communist Labor Party,
the dictatorship of the proletariat, that wonderful piece of nonsense
which we hear so much about, would be grasped at by an amazing number of
competitors. In Russia Lenine and Trotzky seem to constitute the
Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In the Socialist Party of the United
States Berger and Hillquit, of the old National Executive Committee,
constituted a first-class dictatorship. In the Communist Party, Dennis
Batt, lately jailed, and Alexander Stoklitsky would surely give the
Communist rank and file plenty to do--everything of course being done
according to their wills. John Reed and Ben Gitlow would make an ideal
"dictatorship of the proletariat," if the Communist Labor Party ever
made Bolshevism the law of the land.
"Truth," one of the organs of the Communist Labor Party, published in
Duluth, Minn., in its issue of August 29, 1919, devotes nearly two of
its eight pages to bitter attacks on the Communist Party. Two short
quotations will suffice to show the spirit of envy that exists:
"'Tis said that distance lends enchantment, and perhaps that is the
reason why some of you in the East have responded to the
cuckoo-call of Michigan-Federations. Frankly, we see nothing
hopeful in the alignment presented by the Michigan-Federation
combine. We are fearful of the consequence of such leadership. The
so-called Communist Party, as it is now constituted and especially
with the accretion of a part of the National Council, presents the
prettiest bunch of 'eligibles' that man ever laid eyes upon. And as
I gaze upon this august array of talent, I wonder where the working
class is going to get off at. We of the left wing of Cook County
are reluctant to join with an organization under the guidance of a
few doctrinaires from Detroit and the would-be Lenine of the United
States.[F] We do not consider that the welfare of the revolutionary
movement would be zealously guarded in their hands."
From "Truth," of the same date, we also quote an open letter to Louis C.
Fraina, which reads in part as follows:
"Do you know how the Russian Federation is being ruled? Do you know
that a 'firing squad' is constantly on the job expelling members
and branches from the Federation who dare to disagree on anything
with the would-be bosses of the Russian Federation?...
"Do you know that a regular secret service system is being employed
by these 'bosses' to hunt down the undesirables?
"Do you know that a worse than military censorship is being
maintained in the domain of Stocklitzky (the Northwestern States),
where it is prohibited to the branches to communicate with each
other or to send out or receive any correspondence otherwise than
through the hands of the censors, the Executive Committee, and that
this censorship committee, like the imperialists in the world's
war, are holding up the mail of these branches and do not deliver
at all the 'undesirable' mail?"
August 30, 1919, the day for the assembling of the National Emergency
Convention of the Socialist Party, at last arrived. Delegates of the
Right Wing, and many of the Left, including John Reed, I. E. Ferguson
and Rose Pastor Stokes, were present. The Left Wing delegates, to the
number of about 84, arrived early at the place of meeting, Machinists'
Hall, 113 South Ashland Boulevard, Chicago. Trouble immediately began,
for the seats being occupied by the Left Wingers, the members of the
Right were crowded out.
Germer and Gerber of the Right seem to have lost their heads. "The
Chicago Herald and Examiner," of August 31, 1919, informs us that Adolph
Germer, National Secretary of the Socialist Party and one of the leading
members of the Right Wing, called in the police, who cleared the hall.
"The Chicago Tribune" of the same day tells us that everybody was
exchanging fisticuffs when the police arrived. Detective Sergeant
Lawrence McDonough, head of the anarchist squad, with the aid of a dozen
uniformed policemen, seems to have saved the day for the Right Wingers.
John Reed, of the Left Wing, was furious, and "The Call," New York,
August 31, 1919, tells us that he issued a statement which he addressed
to the delegates of the Emergency Convention:
"We address you to inform you of occurrences this morning which
every Revolutionary Socialist on the floor of this convention will
protest against.
"Delegates from Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Ohio,
Nebraska, California and other states entered the convention floor
and took their seats in readiness for the opening of the
convention.
"At nearly 10 o'clock Gerber of New York and Goebel of New Jersey,
who were at the door and attempted to refuse the above named
delegates admission, called the police and these delegations were
ejected from the hall by police power, many of them being roughly
handled."
Press reports inform us that after the belligerents had calmed down the
meeting was again convened, and that Victor Berger, in referring to the
Lefts, said: "They're just a lot of anarchists; we are the party."
Berger did not say whether or not by the word "we" he meant the old
National Executive Committee, which should have gone out of office in
July,[G] but seemed to have given itself a "mandate" to run the National
Emergency Convention.
On August 31, 1919, the hot-heads and sore-heads again assembled, and a
dispute arose as to who called the "cops." As a result the Left Wingers
next met by themselves downstairs, on the first floor of the hall, while
the Right Wingers remained higher up on the second floor. On the same
day the Minnesota group was seated by the Convention, but was denied a
vote.
On September 1st the high climbers of the Right Wing purged the party
still more by unseating the Washington State delegation and expelled
Katterfield "for the good of the party." The California delegates then
threw a bomb into the Right Wing Convention by announcing that they
would not take their seats until all of the contested delegations were
seated and the police were withdrawn from the hall. These delegates
finally went down to the first floor and joined ranks with the Left
Wingers there, this section henceforth being known as the Communist
Labor Party.
On the same day the Convention of the Communist Party assembled at
Smolny Institute, 1221 Blue Island Avenue, Chicago. Red flags were
displayed and Bolshevist songs were sung until the police of the
anarchist squad finally demanded the removal of the blood-colored
standards of revolt.
"The Call" informs us that on the next day, September 2nd, the Communist
Party, composed of the Michigan crowd, the Russian Federation and the
former Left Wing National Council, nearly split in two when, at a
concerted signal, there resigned from the emergency committee of the
convention, Louis C. Fraina, C. E. Ruthenberg, I. E. Ferguson,
Maximilian Cohen, S. Elbaum and A. Selakowich, and, from other offices,
A. Paul of Queens and Fannie Horowitz. It seems that these members were
anxious to have the Communist Party amalgamate with the Communist Labor
Party, but that the foreign federations, fearing that they would be
outnumbered by the English-speaking members, were very much opposed to
the union.
On this same day Dennis Batt, one of the principal leaders of the
Communist Party, was jailed.
Moreover, on the 2nd of September the Communist Labor Party--the group
that had first met with the Right Wing, and, later on, down stairs on
the first floor of the hall on South Ashland Boulevard--assembled at the
I. W. W. Hall at 119 Throop street. This party, heart and soul, is in
favor of the propagation of Bolshevism and I. W. W.'ism in the United
States, and if not completely broken up by the Government, seems
destined to become more numerous than either the rapidly disintegrating
Socialist Party or the Communist Party, which is principally made up of
foreigners who speak the various Russian languages. The principal
leaders of the Communist Labor Party are John Reed, William Bross Lloyd,
formerly known as the millionaire Socialist, and Benjamin Gitlow.[H] It
seemed likely, too, that Fraina, Ferguson, Ruthenberg and Cohen,
prominent "Reds," who resigned from the emergency committee of the
Communist Party, would soon be found among the leaders of the Communist
Labor Party. At the time of the convention no national organ of the
Communist Labor Party had yet begun publication, but "The Voice of
Labor," edited by Reed and Gitlow, and "Truth," formerly the Socialist
paper of Duluth, were local organs.
Both the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party are strongly
Bolshevist. The Communist Labor Party is decidedly more in favor of the
I. W. W. than the Communist Party; but the main differences between
these two parties seems to be a matter of race, language, and especially
of personal jealousy and dislike among the leaders.
For years the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party have
remained separated from each other, so that now, with the two new
parties, the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party, there are
four parties of rebels, all plotting a revolution against our National
Government, while the great body of the American people sleep and dream.
Quite a number of educated people in the United States, including the
editors of some of our leading dailies, seem to think that the remnant
of the Socialist Party is not at all a Bolshevist organization and not
at all revolutionary in character. They are very much deceived, having
let the crafty, deceptive, hypocritical leaders of the Right Wing fool
them badly. The Left Wingers have indeed been much more open in
admitting their intentions to overthrow our government by force of arms.
They are dangerous, but perhaps not nearly so much so as the slippery
"Yellows," cunning weasels of the imported Russian Hillquit type, who,
though they do not talk as openly as the "Reds," are spreading their
subversive principles on every side, and especially among the less
educated classes of our people, into whose minds they instil the spirit
of hatred between employers and employees, while at the same time
encouraging strikes, wherever they can, with the hope of overthrowing
our Government when conditions become sufficiently critical. Both
parties of the Socialists and both parties of the Communists, along with
the I. W. W., are all revolutionary in the strictest sense, and the
sooner the American people wake up to the fact and take some intelligent
action to stamp them out, the better it will be. It is not yet too late,
but soon may be.
The Bolshevist Socialists of Russia and the two new parties of
Socialists that at Chicago in September, 1919, seceded from the mother
party, have all adopted the name, "Communist," which "The Call," New
York, July 24, 1919, informs us was used by Marx and Engels, the
founders of modern Socialism, adding that though the name is somewhat
confusing, inasmuch as the word has another and a distinct meaning in
English, still, "wherever it is used it means revolutionary Socialists
as distinguished from Social patriots and mere parliamentary
Socialists." Is this definition an alibi for Hillquit and Berger?
Many persons have hastily assumed that the main reason why the Left and
Right Wings of the Socialists fought each other like cats and dogs was
that the Right Wing members of the party are opposed to Bolshevism. This
is nonsense. The Socialist papers of the country, Right and Left, with
the possible exception of the once powerful "Appeal to Reason," which in
recent years has fallen into great discredit among Socialists because it
favored our entrance into the World War--have been and still are
advocating Bolshevism every day. If anyone has any doubt, let him read
any of the rebel sheets.
The Socialist Party of St. Louis, in its appeal for party unity,
published in "The Call," July 19, 1919, informs us that the Socialist
Party is whole-heartedly with the Russian Bolshevists and their cause:
"Promptly, and notwithstanding all obstacles and persecution, the
Socialist party hurried to the front in defense of the cause of our
Russian Comrades. Mass meetings were held, demonstrations in behalf
of Soviet Russia were arranged, our Socialist press gave all
possible support to counteract the sinister work of the American
capitalist press."
Eugene V. Debs, many times the presidential candidate of the Socialists
and the idol of "Reds" and "Yellows" alike, has all along been an ardent
Bolshevist. Listen to these words of his in his article, "The Day of the
People," published in many Socialist papers in the early part of 1919,
and taken by us from the March number of "Party News," the official
organ of the Socialist Party of Philadelphia:
"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
world-wide emulation. Let us, like them, scorn and repudiate the
cowardly compromisers within our ranks, challenge and defy the
robber-class power, and fight it out on that line to victory or
death!
"From the crown of my head to the soles of my feet I am Bolshevik,
and am proud of it."
The report of the Right Wing majority of the old National Executive
Committee of the Socialist Party, made to the National Emergency
Convention, and here quoted from "The Call," September 3, 1919, contains
the following defense of their Bolshevism, against the aspersions of the
Left Wing leaders who had challenged the committee's attitude toward
Russia:
"Ever since the revolution in Russia, the party has hailed it as
the first great gift of the International. At every meeting of the
National Executive Committee held since the second revolution in
Russia [the revolution which put Lenine and Trotzky in power] the
committee has issued some ringing declaration in favor of the
workers' and peasants' government in Russia....
"Rarely has a meeting been held under party auspices that our
speakers have not taken advantage of it to present the claims and
achievements of the Russian revolution. The party's position may be
easily ascertained by consulting the party bulletins and the party
press."
The Executive Committeemen who signed this defense of the committee's
Bolshevist complexion were Victor L. Berger, Seymour Stedman, James
Oneal, A. Shiplacoff, Dan Hogan, John M. Work, Frederick Krafft and
George H. Goebel. These, with Morris Hillquit, were the men who had
violently expelled or suspended tens of thousands of members of the
party without warrant of the party Constitution and without granting a
trial or the right of self-defense to those thus dealt with; who had
maintained themselves in office after July 1, 1919, in express violation
of the party Constitution, having suppressed announcement of the result
of the referendum vote by the rank and file to elect executive
committeemen, by which vote Left Wing committeemen had been elected, as
the report to the National Emergency Convention of the Right Wing
committee appointed to investigate this referendum had to acknowledge;
and who, by these devices and a similar high-handedness committed by
themselves and friendly delegates had seized control of the National
Emergency Convention and organized it in their own interest.
In their report to the convention they further defended themselves
against the Left Wing charge that this majority of the Executive
Committee had allied itself with the Berne Conference. Under this head
the above-mentioned committeemen say:
"While no definite date may be set for the beginning of the present
party dissension, it is certain that they began to be generally
noticeable in January of this year [1919], when the National
Executive Committee elected delegates to the Berne Conference owing
to the fact that the delegates elected by referendum could not
serve, and the assembling of the Berne Conference in March made
necessary the election of delegates by the National Executive
Committee.
"The so-called Left Wing members of the National Executive
Committee participated in the election, nominating and voting for
candidates. None of their nominees were elected, and shortly after
the election an organized attack was made against the international
delegates by the Left Wing....
"The National Executive Committee, in session, decided that if our
delegates arrived at Berne in time and the conference failed to
take the position of the party on war and imperialism, we were to
withdraw with any other elements favoring a genuine working-class
International. It was agreed that we would not affiliate with any
International that excluded the Russian Comrades, who were fighting
world imperialism, or the Comrades opposed to the Ebert-Scheidemann
regime in Germany.
"Before our delegates could leave the country, the National
Executive Committee learned that the Berne Conference had failed to
respond to its opportunity.... Learning this, the National
Executive Committee decided to send one delegate abroad to impart
information to the Comrades in Europe, informing them of our
attitude on international questions."[I]....
"Yet, despite all this, a systematic campaign of falsehood has been
waged against the party by a faction within the party. This faction
has falsely claimed that the party is allied with the Berne
Conference.... They have denounced the party and its officials as
an organization of 'Scheidemanns' and 'Noskes,' asserting that if
the party were intrusted with public power it would murder our own
Comrades with machine guns and hand grenades....
"These slanders have been accompanied with a similar propaganda
regarding Russia. The party and its officials, especially the
members of the National Executive Committee, have been charged with
being 'Kolchaks' and 'counter-revolutionists,' the implication
being that the party has been committed to counter-revolution in
Russia, allied intervention, and support of Kolchak in Siberia.
"As in the case of Germany, so in the case of Russia, the National
Executive Committee and the party in general have opposed
intervention in Russia or support of Kolchak and have supported the
Russian Comrades at the head of the Soviet power against a campaign
of international lying.
"There has never been a single utterance of the National Executive
Committee quoted by the Left Wing to support these slanders. The
Comrades may rest assured that this faction would quote the
National Executive Committee if it could."
It is technically true that the Left Wing writers were not able to quote
the Executive Committee as such; but they could and did quote the
dominating leaders of the Right Wing majority of the Executive
Committee, Hillquit and Berger, through their organs, the "Call" and
"Leader"--"The Call" as characterizing the Bolsheviki as "anarchists"
and Berger as proclaiming his solidarity with the Mensheviki--and we
have nowhere seen any evidence that these leaders could purge the record
of these charges. That these leaders _were_ the Executive Committee, to
all intents and purposes, seems abundantly shown by their ruthless use
of it to smash the party, going so far as to cast out nearly two-thirds
of the entire party membership to get rid of their accusers, the Left
Wing leaders.
This scandal and disaster to a cause they pretended to serve are logical
outcomes of a double hypocrisy--an effort to fool the voting public and
our Government officials by a pretense of moderation in papers and
electioneering speeches, while at the same time fooling the dues-paying
rank and file of their party with expressions of loyalty to radicalism.
The significant facts in estimating the revolutionary character of the
American Socialist Party, as recruited and indoctrinated by its
double-faced leaders are two: the fact that as lately as September,
1919, some 70,000 of their pupils graduated into the open course of
revolutionary violence adopted by the Communist Party of America and the
Communist Labor Party, and the fact that the more manageable 40,000
remaining with these leaders were so much like their seceding Comrades
that their leaders were compelled to defend their own radicalism in the
fashion above shown, and were also compelled, as we shall soon see, to
take an open stand for revolution and I. W. W.'ism in order to keep even
the remnant of the party from deserting them.
Thus a serious mistake has been made by the many who fancy that the
"Yellow" Socialists--Hillquit's Right Wing which still constitutes the
Socialist Party of America--are not plotters who work for a revolution
to overthrow our Government. Of course they are, and any one who has
read the Socialist papers and publications, even to a very limited
degree, may easily see that these alleged "moderates" appear such only
in contrast with the more rabid "Red" rebels of the Left; and that the
one object of Right and Left alike is to stir up discontent and foment
hatred of class against class precisely in order that a rebellion may
some day break out.
True it is that the crafty leaders of the Right do not act as
imprudently as the hot-headed leaders of the Left, for they fear lest
rashness should precipitate them in a premature and unsuccessful
outbreak; yet they are sowing the seed of revolution as certainly as are
the Communists, and perhaps with much more success, because they proceed
more prudently. Once in a while, when they are off their guard, the "cat
escapes from the bag." As an example we quote from an article that
appeared in the May Day, 1919, issue of "The Call," the paper founded
and controlled by Hillquit, the foxy leader of the Rights:
"The world revolution, dreamed of as a thing of the distant future,
has become a live reality, rising from the graves of the murdered
millions and the misery and suffering of the surviving millions. It
has taken form, it strikes forward, borne on by the despair of the
masses and the shining example of the martyrs. Its spread is
irrepressible. The bridges are burnt behind the old capitalist
society and its path is forever cut off. Capitalist society is
bankrupt, and the only salvation of humanity lies in the uprising
of the masses, in the victory of the Socialist revolution, in the
revolutionary forces of Socialism.
"The World War, which is now about to be officially closed, has
slid into a condition neither war nor peace. However the war of
nations has been followed by the war of the classes. The class
struggle is no longer fought by resolutions and demonstrations.
Threateningly it marches through the streets of the great cities
for life or death."
Yet the Right Wing papers, on the whole, are much more reserved than
those of the Left. As an example of the openness with which the Left
Wing or Communist papers instigate rebellion, a quotation from "The
Communist," Chicago, April 1, 1919, will interest the reader:
"The Communist Propaganda League of Chicago came into existence on
November 7, 1918, first anniversary of the Russian Soviet Socialist
Republic, and the very day of the German Revolution.
"A group of Socialist Party officials and active party members came
together for consultation as to ways and means for giving the
American Socialist movement a revolutionary character in harmony
with all the significance of November 7th, the most glorious date
in all history. At the hour of that little meeting bedlam reigned
in the streets of Chicago by premature celebration of peace. The
calling of this meeting during the mass tumult of November 7th is
prophetic of the revolutionary vision which brought these Comrades
together. On that day the seething proletariat ruled Chicago by
sheer force of numbers. One thing alone was needed to give this
mass expression identity with the proletarian uprisings of
Europe--one thing: the revolutionary idea!
"The Communist Propaganda League is an organization for the
propagation of the revolutionary idea. The civilization of tomorrow
is with unorganized masses who greeted the news of peace and
revolution in Germany with what may be safely described as the
greatest spontaneous expression of mass sentiment ever witnessed in
America. To give direction and inspiration to the advancing and
irresistible army of the preletariat is the mission to which this
League is dedicated."
This League, with the millionaire Socialist, William Bross Lloyd, at its
head, became part of the Communist Labor Party.
The indications are that the Communist Labor Party, had it been left
undisturbed by our Government, would soon have surpassed in numbers the
remnant left in the old Socialist Party, whose dues-paying membership
dwindled from 109,589 in January, 1919, to 39,750 by July of the same
year. Evidently, when the Left Wing secession occurred, a few real
rebels came out of the Socialist Party, which used to boast in election
campaigns that it was merely a party of evolution, not of revolution.
Those who still remain in the old party are rebels, too, but the rank
and file is restrained by seasoned leaders, who are more prudent but
less honest than the hot-headed Communists.
The Socialists now have in the country four revolutionary organizations:
the Socialist Party, the Socialist Labor Party, the Communist Party and
the Communist Labor Party. The scum of the land, the wrecks and wreckers
of civilization, deluded ignoramuses, thus find ample opportunity for
selecting an organization of rebellion in which there is "no political
corruption." The members of these parties find fault with everything
under the Stars and Stripes, and yet hesitate to pass over to Russia and
live under the bloody standard of Lenine and Trotzky. If these four
rebel parties do not suffice for some of the rebels, there still remains
the I. W. W. All are pretty much the same, their principal differences
being the varying degrees of hypocrisy, boldness and lust for power of
their leaders.
The open and pronounced revolutionary character of the I. W. W.,
Communist Party and Communist Labor Party, evidenced in their
inflammatory utterances and tactics, had established their criminal
status with our National and State police and legal departments, while
startling wholesale arrests, deportations and indictments of these three
classes of law-breakers soon impressed a recognition of their criminal
status upon the public mind. It is important to establish the further
fact, if it be one, that the only difference between the rank and file
of these organizations and the rank and file of the remnant still
attached to the Socialist Party of America is the difference between
tweedledee and tweedledum.
The late inquiry into the qualifications of five suspended Socialists to
sit as law-makers in the New York Assembly created an astonishing
furore, disclosing amazing ignorance concerning American Socialism among
our most intelligent citizens. The confusion of the public mind was
still further increased by the Attorney-General of the United States,
whose convincing characterization of the two Communist parties, given
out on January 23, 1920, contained the following sentence:
"Certainly such an organization as the Communist Party of America
and also the Communist Labor Party cannot be construed to fall
within the same category as the Socialist Party of America, which
latter organization is pledged to the accomplishment of changes of
the Government by lawful and rightful means."
But can the facts so far brought out in this book "be construed" as
indicating any substantial difference between the 39,000 or 40,000
Socialists who have kept their old party name and the 70,000 or 72,000
who separated from them in September, 1919? Up to the moment of
separation were not all alike under the same "pledge" to use "lawful and
rightful means?" But if this public profession of lawfulness meant
nothing to 70,000 of them, why think it means more to the rest?
We have the further striking evidence, shown above, that the leaders who
had compromised their attitude toward Bolshevism felt compelled, in
order to hold any of the rank and file, to argue that "the National
Executive Committee and the party in general" had "supported the Russian
Comrades at the head of the Soviet power." Yet in spite of this defense
the old National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party was rebuked
and kicked out of office during the Emergency Convention, even by
delegates who were friendly to the compromised leaders. The "Call,"
September 5, 1919, gives some of the details:
"The rebuke of the National Executive Committee was in the form of
an amendment to the original motion to adopt its report. The
amendment carried by 63 to 39....
"Perhaps Frederick Haller expressed the general sentiment of the
convention when he said:
"'We must endorse this supplemental report of the National
Executive Committee, but we must go back to our constituents and
tell them that we gave the National Executive Committee hell.'"
These "constituents," the rank and file, determine the character of the
party, and not the thimble-rigging games of their political leaders, who
support themselves and have "made a good thing" out of Socialism by
carrying water on one shoulder for gullible voters, and on the other for
their credulous disciples. This is not the first time that self-serving,
hypocritical teachers, in compassing sea and land to make proselytes,
have made them twofold more the children of hell than themselves.
The National Emergency Convention of 1919 affords still other evidence
of the mind of the rank and file of the Socialist Party in the report of
the committee which investigated the referendum vote of 1919 which the
old National Executive Committee had suppressed. The "Call," September
1, 1919, says:
"The report states that on the face of the returns, referendum B
and D were carried by large majorities, and a National Executive
Committee, consisting of Louis Fraina of New York, Charles E.
Ruthenberg of Cleveland, Seymour Stedman of Chicago, Patrick S.
Nagle of Oklahoma and L. E. Katterfeld of Cleveland was elected.
The returns also showed on their face that John Reed and Louis
Fraina had been elected as the party's international delegates and
Kate Richards O'Hare its international secretary."
Thus the party was "Red" or Left-Wingish "by large majorities," and was
distinctly Bolshevist, as we learn from the "Call's" explanation of
"referendum B and D," which "were carried by large majorities."
"Referendum B put the question of holding a National Emergency
Convention up to the membership. Referendum D asked the membership
to decide whether the party should record itself as being opposed
to entering any other international Socialist alignment than that
of the Third National [International?] which held its first
conference at Moscow early in March.
"Its adoption means that the Socialist party will not take part in
any international conference from which the Bolsheviki of Russia
and the Spartacans of Germany are excluded, or in which they refuse
to participate."
Thus at the Emergency Convention of August-September, 1919, the
Socialist Party of America was tied to the will of the Russian
Bolshevists and the German Spartacides, who held the powers of approval
and veto in deciding what internationals the members of the Socialist
Party of America might associate with! A more anomalous product of the
double-faced generalship of Berger and Hillquit it would be hard to
imagine.
But this is not all. The Moscow Manifesto of March, 1919, was before the
Emergency Convention. This Russian Communistic Manifesto is addressed
"To the proletariat of all countries" (see Chapter IV) and reads: "We
Communists, representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of the
different countries of Europe, America and Asia, assembled in Soviet
Moscow." Would the Socialist Party of America accept its inclusion among
those in "America" thus designated, or refuse? The committee which
considered the matter split, bringing in majority and minority reports.
The majority report, favored by Berger, considered the Third
International as not yet constituted, thus hanging the Socialist Party
of America in the air, without fellowship with Moscow, Berne or any
other thing--a trapeze performance truly Bergeresque. The minority
report, voted for even by a third of the machine delegates in the
Emergency Convention, favored affiliation with the associates of the
Moscow Conference as constituting the Third International. It was
decided to submit both reports to a referendum vote of the party, which
should have been taken in January or February, 1920, if the requirements
of the party Constitution were followed.
The concern of the Socialist Party managers to keep the facts from the
general public, evidenced by their tactics in the case of the five
suspended Socialist Assemblymen at Albany, might have led to another
unconstitutional delay or manipulation of a referendum. But this was
immaterial in determining the mind of the rank and file, as we have
documentary evidence showing that the only opposition within the party
to a clear-cut Bolshevik committal sprang out of fear either of legal
prosecution or of the loss of votes through public condemnation. The
following illuminating discussion is extracted from a letter of
Alexander Trachtenberg, a conspicuous Socialist, as printed in the
"Call" of November 26, 1919:
"The members of the Socialist Party now have before them two
referenda--Referendum E, consisting of the various changes in the
party Constitution which were decided upon at the Chicago
Convention, and Referendum F, on international Socialist
relations....
"The question of international affiliation is at this moment
probably the most important before the Socialist Party. The two
reports which emanated from the convention, known as the majority
and minority reports, will no doubt receive very careful
consideration by the members....
"A close examination of the two reports reveals that the condition
laid down for the International, with which the Socialist party
cares to affiliate itself, are the same. Both reports agree that:
"a. The Second International is dead.
"b. The Berne International Conference hopelessly failed in its
indeavor to reconstitute the International.
"c. The New International must consist only of those parties:
"1. Which have remained true to the revolutionary International
Socialist movement during the war.
"2. Which refused to co-operate with bourgeois parties and are
opposed to all forms of coalition.
"In short, _both_ reports agree that the Socialist Party will go
only into such an International the component parties of which
_conduct their struggle on revolutionary class lines_. The
difference between the two reports is, that while the majority
report leaves the matter of the reconstruction of the International
hang in the air, the minority report has something tangible to
offer. It also more specifically outlines the Socialist policy on
the question of international affiliation, and gives several
reasons for joining the Third (Moscow) International....
"The Socialist Party of America cannot afford to remain amorphous
at the present stage of the building of the new International. It
has refused to go with those elements who have either betrayed or
were unwilling to remain true to their professions. It belongs
among those parties which have remained true to International
Socialism and who alone have the right to build the edifice of the
new International.
"By voting for the minority report the Comrades will give
expression to _what they have professed and believed in_ during the
past critical years in the life of the international Socialist
movement."
A letter on the same subject, by Benjamin Glassberg, appears in the
"Call" of December 4, 1919, from which we take extracts showing the
Bergeresque argument of Hoan, Berger's mayor of Milwaukee:
"The most important question before the members of the Socialist
Party just now is the referendum on the majority and minority
reports on international relations. Comrade Trachtenberg has argued
in the columns of 'The Call' in favor of the minority report, and
Hoan of Milwaukee for the majority, and Comrade Warshow has argued
against both.
"A careful examination of the position taken by both Hoan and
Warshow fails to reveal why the minority report should be voted
down. Comrade Hoan is naturally very much concerned at the
possibility that 'in the coming political battles the capitalistic
henchmen will flaunt in your face that the above is the program of
the Socialist Party' (referring to the statement in the governing
rules of the Communist International that the revolutionary era
compels the proletariat to make use of mass action).
"The important thing, according to Hoan, is not whether the
minority report is right or not, but rather what will the effect be
at the next election. In this respect he is typical of the pure and
simple political Socialist....
"In one breath Comrade Warshow calls for a new International to
which shall be admitted all Socialist parties of the world who
believe in the class struggle, and in the next he defends the
Socialists supporting a coalition government. How can one subscribe
to the doctrine of the class struggle and at the same time approve
of Socialists joining in a coalition government, which of necessity
will not be the agent of the workers but of the class with which
the workers are at all times at war?....
"In all our official declarations, including the Chicago manifesto,
we have voiced our support of the Bolsheviki. In our meetings and
in our literature we have taken our stand solidly with our Russian
Comrades, our friends, the Left Wingers to the contrary
notwithstanding.
"Why, then, hesitate to affiliate with them?"
Thus, whether or not Berger's policy of dissimulation prevailed--and his
wholesale slaughter of dues-payers with the ax of the Executive
Committee had shown all who opposed him what they might expect--it
remained true that identification with the Bolshevist principles and
tactics of Lenine and Trotzky was what the present members of the
Socialist Party in America "have professed and believed in during the
past critical years" and was in accord with "all" their "official
declarations," their "meetings" and their "literature."
The base ingratitude of Berger toward those who have followed and
supported him; the gross, incredible savagery of his egotism in turning
to rend those he had discipled into revolutionaries the moment their
allegiance to the principles he taught them stood in the way of his
cowardice and ambition; his butcher insensibilities in making his
party's Constitution a "scrap of paper" and the party a shambles for the
hewing down of two-thirds of his "Comrades;" his burlesque effrontery in
posing in the convention as a law-and-order man, railing at his own
victims as "anarchists"--these daubs of color paint the cubist portrait
of Wisconsin's mock hero, one of the meanest caricatures of human life
that ever swaggered on a political arena.
When the two Wings of the Convention raised the question, "Who called
the cops?" Berger's pale and innocent figure rose with the trembling
remark: "If they had not been here yesterday morning we would not be
here now. The two-fisted Reed and the other two-fisted Left Wingers
would be here." He took pains to have the delicate pathos of his
martyrdom sketched into the Executive Committee report he signed,
"Victor L. Berger, in addition to a sentence of 20 years, has four more
indictments pending against him, besides being refused his seat in
Congress. All the Socialist candidates for Congress in Wisconsin and the
State Secretary also are under indictment. No mail whatever is permitted
to be delivered to the 'Leader,' the party daily in Milwaukee," etc. On
the other hand, against the terrible "anarchs" who had so outraged his
own gentle spirit and sense of order, he even fulminated outside the
Convention Hall, as in the interview which we take from the "Call" of
September 4, 1919:
"Ever since the Socialist movement has existed there have been two
very distinct tendencies apparent--the Social Democratic tendency
and the Anarcho-Syndicalist tendency....
"But the revolution in Russia and Hungary, which had been predicted
by us, as well as in Germany, has had a peculiar psychological
effect on many of the rank and file of the party, especially upon
those who had come from Russia and Hungary. They really believe
this revolt can be repeated today in America.
"The revolution in Russia and the psychological effect of it
penetrated into the foreign federations affiliated with the
Socialist party of America and gave the Anarcho-Syndicalists, who
have joined us in great numbers in the last six months, a chance to
split up the Socialist party of America into three groups.
"First, the old Socialist Party, which will remain longer to aid
the old ideals of Social Democracy, even though there may be a
change in tactics required by changed conditions.
"Then there are the Communist Socialists, led by John Reed and a
few hysterical men and women, who try to bring about a Russian
revolution or God knows what other things, they themselves don't
know tomorrow morning.
"And, finally, there is the Communist Party, led by Louis Fraina,
which consists mainly of Russians, Ukrainians[7], Slovenic races
and other foreign federation members, who have been suspended for
stuffing ballot boxes in the last referendum, and who also want
revolution of some kind, the wherewith and howwith they haven't
been able to explain so far."
Do we exaggerate the humbuggery of leadership uncloaked in this
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party of America? Let the reader
judge from the supreme example of it, the motive of which we present in
the words of the organ of one of the chief conspirators, Hillquit's
"Call." The issue of August 31, 1919, declared: "The convention will
adopt a stand, expressed in a manifesto that is expected to satisfy all
those in the Left Wing who are contending for what they believe to be
revolutionary principles." In the issue of September 3 we read:
"There will be a restatement of party principles which is expected
to cut the ground from under the feet of the former members and
organizations of the party who have read themselves out and will
remain suspended in mid-air between the newly formed and still more
newly revised Communist-Labor Party and the Communist Party."
In the "Call" of September 5, which published the manifesto, we also
have this comment on it by James Oneal: "The American movement can
congratulate itself on having produced such a splendid document. It will
tend to rally members who have been uncertain of the outcome of the
convention, and will eventually bring to us many who are sick of the
hypocrisies, the shams and the illusions that have held them in chains
for nearly three tragic years."
What hypocrisies, shams and illusions are referred to? Who were their
authors? In another column of the same issue we are told: "With every
delegate on his feet and cheering, the National Emergency Convention of
the Socialist Party unanimously adopted its manifesto this afternoon.
[September 4th.] It was the big moment of the convention. The document
is regarded as the most revolutionary the party has ever drawn up, and
one certain to bring back into the organization thousands of members
temporarily outside of it, either because their local organizations were
expelled or by reason of what Lenine has called 'the intoxication of the
revolutionary phrase.'"
Thus this manifesto was adopted by the wreckers of the Socialist Party
to hold the "revolutionary" rank and file still left them and to draw
back the revolutionary seceders--minus their leaders, of course.
Nevertheless the manifesto is truly revolutionary--"most
revolutionary"--the revolutionary creed of a revolutionary organization.
It is, of course, carefully worded, so as to deceive if possible that
public whose intelligence the cynical Socialists despise at the same
time that they appeal to it for votes, and this careful wording we can
understand from a comment in the "Call" of September 5, 1919: "Before
reading the manifesto, Block told the convention the manifesto was
largely based upon one suggested by Morris Hillquit, now ill at Saranac
Lake, N. Y."[J]
Seen through its mask of verbiage, however, the manifesto of the
Emergency Convention of the Socialist Party of America joins with the
famous Preamble of the I. W. W. and the manifestoes and programs of the
Communist and Communist Labor Parties in advocating the plundering of
mankind by proletarians, the elimination of the private ownership of
natural wealth and the machinery of production, and the _wresting_ of
"the industries and the control of the government of the United States"
out of their present ownership and control so as "to place industry and
government in the control of the workers."
This revolutionary document incites "American labor" to "break away"
from its present leadership, called "reactionary and futile," and "to
join in the great emancipating movement of the more advanced
revolutionary workers of the world"--the I. W. W.'s and Bolshevists. It
is "the supreme task" of "the Socialist party of America," its "great
task," to which its members "pledge all" their "energies and resources,"
to "win the American workers" from their "ineffective" leadership, "to
educate them to an enlightened understanding of their own class
interests, and to train and assist them to organize politically and
industrially on class lines, in order _to effect their emancipation_,"
namely, "to _wrest_ the industries and the control of the government of
the United States from the capitalists _and their retainers_" and "place
industry _and government_ in the control of the workers."
Furthermore, "to _insure_ the triumph of Socialism in the United States
the bulk of American workers must be strongly organized politically as
Socialists, in constant, clear-cut and _aggressive opposition to all
parties of the possessing class_" and "must be strongly organized in the
economic field on broad industrial lines, _as one powerful and
harmonious class organization_, co-operating with the Socialist Party,
and _ready in cases of emergency_ to _reinforce_ the _political_ demands
of the working class _by industrial action_." (See, a few pages further
on, the manifesto itself, from which we have quoted in the three last
paragraphs.)
Is this the thing which Berger and Hillquit have let loose--after
blocking a much less compromising resolution of long-distance
affiliation with Moscow? Does Berger think the people of Wisconsin such
blockheads that they will shy at a word like Bolshevism, but are unable
to understand the plain, bold English of a conspiracy to bring about
industrial organization "to wrest the industries and the control of the
government of the United States" out of the hands of the American people
and into the hands of a special class? Indeed, if the "workers" take
everything, what will become of the drones--the Socialist political
hacks?
While we reserve the details for Chapter XVI, we add here in passing
that on February 10, 1920, it was acknowledged in testimony at the trial
of the five Assemblymen at Albany that affiliation with the Third
(Moscow) International had been carried by referendum vote in the
Socialist Party of America with a large majority.
Before giving the reader the text of that part of the Emergency
Convention manifesto which we have been discussing we must call
attention to another piece of evidence--Morris Hillquit's letter in his
paper, the "New York Call," shortly after the Emergency Convention, in
which he says:
"The split in the ranks of American Socialism raises the question: What
shall be the attitude of the Socialist Party toward the newly formed
Communist organization?" His letter answering this important question
was read out of the "Call" into the record of the New York Assembly's
inquiry into the qualifications of the five suspended Socialists to act
as law-makers and will be found in the "New York Herald" of January 29,
1920, from which we take it:
"Any attempted solution of the problem must take into account the
following fundamental facts:
"First--The division was not created arbitrarily and deliberately
by the recent convention in Chicago. It had become an accomplished
fact months ago, and the Chicago gatherings did nothing more than
recognize the fact.
"Second--The division was not brought about by differences on vital
questions of principles. It arose over disputes on methods and
policy.
"Third--The separation of the Socialist Party into three
organizations need not necessarily mean a weakening of the
Socialists. They are wrong in their estimate of American
conditions, their theoretical conclusions and practical methods,
but they have not deserted to the enemy. The bulk of their
following is still good Socialist material. When the hour of the
real Socialist fight strikes in this country we may find them
again in our ranks.
"Our quarrel is a family quarrel, and has no room in the columns of
the capitalistic papers, where it can only give joy and comfort to
the common enemy. The unpardonable offense of the
Simons-Russell-Spargo crowd [which withdrew from the Socialist
Party of America on account of its unpatriotic and un-American
opposition to the people and Government of the United States at
war, as expressed in the Socialist Party's St. Louis Convention
utterances in April, 1917] was not so much their social-patriotic
stand during the war as the fact that they rushed into the
anti-Socialist press maliciously denouncing their former comrades
as pro-German and deliberately added fuel to the sinister flame of
mob violence and government persecution directed against the
Socialist movement.
"We have had our split. It was unfortunate but unavoidable, and now
we are through with it. Legitimate constructive work of the
Socialist movement is before us. Let us give it all of our time,
energies and resources. Let us center our whole fight upon
capitalism, and let us hope our Communist brethren will go and do
likewise."
Thus all three organizations, Socialist Party of America, Communist
Party of America and Communist Labor Party, have merely had "a family
quarrel" and are still one kin, one blood, one "family," without
"fundamental" "differences on vital questions of principles," so that
the Socialist Partyites and their "Communist brethren" can go on doing
"likewise" against our present Government and institutions until, "when
the hour of the _real_ Socialist fight"--the Great Rebellion--"strikes
_in this country_" the members of the Socialist Party "may find" the
members of the two Communist parties "again in" their "ranks." Thus by
Hillquit, at least, all three parties can only "be construed" to be in
one and the same "category."
We end this chapter by reproducing from the "New York Call" of September
5, 1919, a considerable part of the Socialist Party's Emergency
Convention manifesto. This offspring of Hillquit's brain declares
"solidarity with the revolutionary workers of Russia" and "radical"
Spartacides of Germany and Communists of Austria and Hungary. Let the
reader carefully weigh this document's meanings, comparing them with the
call for and manifesto of the Moscow Conference, the definition of
"industrial unionism" and "mass action" in the Left Wingers' writings,
the Communist and Communist Labor manifestoes and programs, and the
principles and tactics of I. W. W.'ism as set forth elsewhere in this
volume, and then ask himself if the latest official utterance of the
Socialist Party of America can in any way "be construed" as placing that
party in any "category" which does not also contain the Communist
organizations and the I. W. W. The salient parts of the manifesto
follow:
"The capitalist class is now making its last stand in its history.
It was intrusted with the government of the world. It is
responsible for the prevailing chaos. The events of recent years
have conclusively demonstrated that capitalism is bankrupt, and has
become a dangerous impediment to progress and human welfare. The
working class alone has the power to redeem and to save the
world....
"It now becomes more than ever the immediate task of international
Socialism to accelerate and organize the inevitable transfer of
political and industrial power from the capitalist class to the
workers. The workers must recognize the economic structure of human
society by eliminating the institution of the private ownership of
natural wealth and of the machinery of industry, the essence of the
war-breeding system of international commercial rivalry. The
workers of the world must recognize the economic structure of human
society by making the natural wealth and the machinery of industry
the collective property of all....
"The workers of Great Britain, France and Italy, the workers of the
newly created nations, and the workers of the countries which
remained neutral during the war, are all in a state of
unprecedented unrest. In different ways and by different methods,
either blindly impelled by the inexorable conditions which confront
them, or clearly recognizing their revolutionary aims, they are
abandoning their temporising programs of pre-war labor reform. They
are determined to control the industries, which means control of
the governments.
"In the United States capitalism has emerged from the war more
reactionary and aggressive, more insolent and oppressive than it
has ever been....
"But even in the United States the symptoms of a rebellious spirit
in the ranks of the working masses are rapidly multiplying.
Widespread and extensive strikes for better labor conditions, the
demand of the 2,000,000 railway workers to control their industry,
sporadic formation of labor parties, apparently, though not
fundamentally, in opposition to the political parties of the
possessing class, are promising indications of a definite tendency
on the part of American labor to break away from its reactionary
and futile leadership and to join in the great emancipating
movement of the more advanced revolutionary workers of the world.
"Recognizing this crucial situation at home and abroad, the
Socialist Party in the United States at its first national
convention after the war, squarely takes its position with the
uncompromising section of the international Socialist movement. We
unreservedly reject the policy of those Socialists who supported
their belligerent capitalist governments on the plea of 'national
defense,' and who entered into demoralizing compacts for so-called
civil peace with the exploiters of labor during the war and
continued a political alliance with them after the war.
"We, the organized Socialists of America, declare our solidarity
with the revolutionary workers of Russia in the support of the
government of their Soviets, with the radical Socialists of
Germany, Austria and Hungary in their efforts to establish working
class rule in their countries, and with those Socialist
organizations in England, France, Italy and other countries, who,
during the war as after the war, have remained true to the
principles of uncompromising international Socialism....
"The great purpose of the Socialist Party is to wrest the
industries and the control of the government of the United States
from the capitalists and their retainers. It is our purpose to
place industry and government in the control of the workers with
hand and brain, to be administered for the benefit of the whole
community.
"To insure the triumph of Socialism in the United States the bulk
of the American workers must be strongly organized politically as
Socialists, in constant, clear-cut and aggressive opposition to all
parties of the possessing class. They must be strongly organized in
the economic field on broad industrial lines, as one powerful and
harmonious class organization, cooperating with the Socialist
Party, and ready in cases of emergency to reinforce the political
demands of the working class by industrial action.
"To win the American workers from their ineffective and
demoralizing leadership, to educate them to an enlightened
understanding of their own class interests, and to train and assist
them to organize politically and industrially on class lines, in
order to effect their emancipation, that is the supreme task
confronting the Socialist Party of America.
"To this great task, without deviation or compromise, we pledge all
our energies and resources. For its accomplishment we call for the
support and co-operation of the workers of America and of all other
persons desirous of ending the insane rule of capitalism before it
has had the opportunity to precipitate humanity into another
cataclysm of blood and ruin.
"Long live the International Socialist Revolution, the only hope of
the suffering world!"