trols the powers of the State and uses them to secure and entrench its position. Without such control of the State its position of economic power would be untenable. The workers must wrest the control of the government from the hands of the masters and use its powers in the upbuilding of the new social order · the coöperative commonwealth. The Socialist Party seeks to organize the working class for independent action on the political field, not merely for the betterment of their conditions, but also and above all with the revolutionary aim of putting an end to exploitation and class rule. Such political action is absolutely necessary to the emancipation of the working class, and the establishment of genuine liberty for all. To accomplish this aim, it is necessary that the working class be powerfully and solidly organized also on the economic field, to struggle for the same revolutionary goal; and the Socialist Party pledges its aid in the task of promoting such industrial organization and waging such industrial struggle for emancipation. The fundamental aim of the Socialist Party is to bring about the social ownership and democratic control of all the necessary means of production - to eliminate profit, rent and interest, and make it impossible for any to share in the product without sharing the burden of labor to change our class society into a society of equals, in which the interest of any will be the interest of all. As subordinate and accessory to this fundamental aim, it supports every measure which betters the conditions of the working class, and which increases the fighting power of that class within the present system. 1 78. Ultimate aims of American socialism The immediate aims of socialism are to secure the abolition of society as it exists to-day. In view of this fact, it is important to inquire into the constructive program of socialism, for it would obviously be unwise to destroy the present order without having ready a pretty well thought out system to substitute for it. Unfortunately, there is little or nothing in the way of a constructive 1 From the United Communist Party, Statement of Principles. Adopted in convention, 1920. socialist program. What is sometimes called a constructive program is generally nothing more than a socialist expression of desires, without any adequate proof of how these are to be attained. A fair sample of the ultimate aims of the socialists is the following statement by an American socialist group calling itself the United Communist Party: with re Under capitalism the very development of higher productivity Socialist is inevitably accompanied by an intensification of the bondage and desires oppression of the workers. The machines invented to serve humanity gard have become the instruments for enslavement of the producing masses. [Socialism] will release all the productive energies for the common to producwelfare of all the people. In place of profit as the animating im- tion, pulse to production must stand the needs and enjoyments of the producing masses. The right and the obligation to labor service toward the common enjoyment of all this shall be the basis of citizenship under the [socialist] régime. Education of the masses toward better social service and toward higher appreciation of the enjoyments of life is the foremost item in the [socialist] transformation. This education must go to the adult workers, who have so long toiled in darkness, as well as to all the children of the nation. and educa tion. bolshevism Education under [socialism], as already in process of development The exin Russia, takes account of the physical welfare of the children ample of along with their mental training. Under the blockade conditions in Russia. compelling the rationing of food, it has been the children who have always been given the preference. Tens of thousands of children of the poor in the big cities have been fed on a communal basis. . . The general educational system includes periods for all city children in the country, on the socialized agricultural estates, while the village children, in turn, will be brought periodically into the cities, and in this way education is made to include contact with every phase of the industrial, institutional and cultural life of the nation. Art, music, the stage all the cultural advantages which have been held aloof for the enjoyment of the privileged few, and in their more vulgar forms have been used to deceive and cajole the masses - become [under socialism] the institutions of the working masses. The promise of socialism. Art is thereby released from its prostitution to exploiting interests, and becomes imbued with new inspiration and vitality. In a word, the working class will have at its disposal all that civilization has thus far produced for the enhancement of individual and social life. The better organization of the industrial and social system can in a single generation, with the advanced technique and science of to-day, achieve more toward the eradication of disease, crime, depravity and superstition than has been accomplished in all the prior centuries together. Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. What theory constitutes the basis of all socialist doctrine? 2. What great socialist leader recognized this fact? 3. What, in essence, is Marx's theory of value? " labor-time. 4. Explain what Marx means by "socially necessary 7. Explain how the laborer produces a surplus. 8. Explain how the capitalist secures this surplus produce. 9. What does Marx say as to wages under capitalism? 10. What does he mean by saying that the laborer is a slave? proletariat? 13. What is the relation of history to the doctrine of class struggle? 14. What part have the bourgeoisie played in the class struggle? 15. What is the function of the laboring class with regard to the class struggle? 16. Explain the aims and methods of Communism (or socialism), as stated by Marx and Engels. 17. What group does the Socialist Party of America claim to represent? 18. For what purpose does this party urge the political and economic organization of the working class? 19. What is the fundamental aim of the Socialist Party of America? 20. What is the nature of the "constructive program of socialism? 21. Outline the desires of the socialists with regard to production and education. 22. What claim is advanced by the United Communist Party with reference to the ability of socialism to improve the lot of humanity? CHAPTER XIV MILITANT SOCIALISM: THE I.W.W. 79. Why the I.W.W. organization was formed 1 The letters I. W. W. are a convenient abbreviation which is used Origin of to designate a group of militant socialists calling themselves the the I.W.W. Industrial Workers of the World. This socialist group was organized in Chicago in 1905, by a number of radicals who felt that the workers had little or nothing to gain from either trade unionism or political socialism. This point of view is illustrated in the following extracts from the manifesto which in 1905 called a convention to organize the Industrial Workers of the World: ... wage slavery. The worker, wholly separated from the land and the tools, with The worker his skill in craftsmanship rendered useless, is sunk in the uniform reduced to mass of wage slaves. . . . Shifted hither and thither by the demands of profit-takers, the laborer's home no longer exists. In this hopeless condition he is forced to accept whatever humiliating conditions his master may impose. Laborers are no longer classified by differences in trade skill, but the employer assigns them according to the machines to which they are attached. These divisions, far from representing differences in skill or interests among the laborers, are imposed by the employers that workers may be pitted against one another and spurred to greater exertion in the shop, and that all resistance to capitalist tyranny may be weakened by artificial distinctions. While encouraging these outgrown divisions among the workers, the capitalists carefully adjust themselves to the new conditions. They wipe out all differences among themselves and present a united front in their war upon labor. Through employers' associations, they seek to crush, with brutal force, by the injunction of the judi1 From the Manifesto Calling a Convention to Organize the Industrial Workers of the World. Chicago, January, 1905. In the class struggle, the employers present a united front, while the workers are divided. An illustration of this lack of unity. The division of workers into a large number of trade unions has injurious results. The true solution of the workers' difficulties ciary, and the use of military power, all efforts at resistance. The employers' line of battle and methods of warfare correspond to the solidarity of the mechanical and industrial concentration, while laborers still form their fighting organization on lines of long-gone trade divisions. The battles of the past emphasize this lesson. The textile workers of Lowell, Philadelphia, and Fall River; the butchers of Chicago, weakened by the disintegrating effects of trade divisions; the machinists on the Santa Fe, unsupported by their fellow workers subject to the same masters; the long-struggling miners of Colorado, hampered by a lack of unity and solidarity upon the industrial battlefield, all bear witness to the helplessness and impotency of labor as at present organized. This worn-out and corrupt system offers no promise of improvement and adaptation. . . . This system offers only a perpetual struggle for slight relief within wage slavery. . . ... It shatters the ranks of the workers into fragments, rendering them helpless and impotent on the industrial battlefield. Separation of craft from craft renders industrial and financial solidarity impossible. Union men scab upon union men; hatred of workers for workers is engendered, and the workers are delivered helpless and disintegrated into the hands of the capitalists. . . . ... Craft divisions foster political ignorance among the workers, thus dividing their class at the ballot box, as well as in the shop, mine and factory. Craft unions may be and have been used to assist employers in the establishment of monopolies and the raising of prices. . . Previous efforts for the betterment of the working class have proven abortive because limited in scope and disconnected in action. Universal economic evils afflicting the working class can be eradi is one great cated only by a universal working class movement. industrial union, ... A movement to fulfill these conditions must consist of one great industrial union embracing all industries — providing for craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally, and working class unity generally. It must be founded on the class struggle, and its general adminis |