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012 - Danger Ahead · Labor and Freedom

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  Speaker 1: Danger Ahead by Eugene V. Debs. This Librivos recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. International Socialist Review, January nineteen eleven.
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  Speaker 1: The large increase in the Socialist vote in the late
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  Speaker 1: national and state elections is quite naturally hailed with elation
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  Speaker 1: and rejoicing by party members. But I feel prompted to remark,
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  Speaker 1: in the light of some personal observations made during the campaign,
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  Speaker 1: that it is not entirely a matter of jubilation. I
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  Speaker 1: am not given to pessimism or captious criticism. Yet I
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  Speaker 1: cannot but feel that some of the votes placed to
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  Speaker 1: our credit this year were obtained by methods not consistent
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  Speaker 1: with the principles of a revolutionary party, and in the
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  Speaker 1: long run, will do more harm than good. I yield
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  Speaker 1: to no one in my desire to see the party
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  Speaker 1: grow and the vote increase, But in my zeal I
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  Speaker 1: do not lose sight of the fact that health, thee
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  Speaker 1: growth and a substantial vote to pen upon efficient organization,
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  Speaker 1: the self education and self discipline of the membership, and
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  Speaker 1: that where these are lacking, an inflated vote secured by
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  Speaker 1: compromising methods can only be hurtful to the movement. The
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  Speaker 1: danger I see ahead is that the Socialist Party, at
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  Speaker 1: this stage and under existing conditions, is apt to attract
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  Speaker 1: elements which it cannot assimilate, and that it may be
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  Speaker 1: either weighted down or torn asunder with internal strife, or
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  Speaker 1: that it may become permeated and corrupted with the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of bourgeois reform to an extent that will practically destroy
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  Speaker 1: its virility and efficiency as a revolutionary organization. To my mind,
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  Speaker 1: the working class character and the revolutionary integrity of the
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  Speaker 1: Socialist Party are of first importance. All the votes of
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  Speaker 1: the people would do us no good if our party
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  Speaker 1: cease to be a revolutionary party, or came to be
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  Speaker 1: only incidentally so, while yielding more and more to the
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  Speaker 1: pressure to modify the principles and program of the party
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of swelling the vote and hastening the
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  Speaker 1: day of its expected triumph. It is precisely this policy
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  Speaker 1: and the alluring promise it holds out to new members
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  Speaker 1: with more zeal than knowledge of working class economics, that
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  Speaker 1: constitutes the danger we should guard against in preparing for
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  Speaker 1: the next campaign. The truth is that we have not
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  Speaker 1: a few members who regard vote getting as of supreme importance,
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  Speaker 1: no matter by what method The votes may be secured,
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  Speaker 1: and this leads them to hold out inducements and make
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  Speaker 1: representations which are not at all compatible with the stern
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  Speaker 1: and uncompromising principle of a revolutionary party. They seek to
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  Speaker 1: make the socialist propaganda so attractive, eliminating whatever may give
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  Speaker 1: offense to bourgeois sensibilities, that it serves as a bait
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  Speaker 1: for votes, rather than as a means of education. And
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  Speaker 1: votes thus secured do not properly belong to us, and
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  Speaker 1: do injustice to our party, as we will, well as
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  Speaker 1: to those who cast them. These votes do not express socialism,
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  Speaker 1: and in the next ensuing election are quite as apt
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  Speaker 1: to be turned against us, and it is better that
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  Speaker 1: they be not cast for the Socialist Party, registering a
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  Speaker 1: degree of progress the party is not entitled to, and
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  Speaker 1: indicating a political position the party is unable to sustain.
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  Speaker 1: Socialism is a matter of growth of evolution, which can
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  Speaker 1: be advanced by wise methods, but never by obtaining, fore
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  Speaker 1: it a fictitious vote. We should seek only to register
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  Speaker 1: the actual vote of socialism, no more and no less.
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  Speaker 1: In our propaganda. We should state our principles, clearly, speak
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  Speaker 1: the truth fearlessly, seeking neither to flatter, nor to offend,
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  Speaker 1: but only to convince those who should be with us,
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  Speaker 1: and win them to our cause through an intelligent understanding
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  Speaker 1: of its mission. There is also a disposition on the
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  Speaker 1: part of some to join hands with reactionary trait trade
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  Speaker 1: unionists in local emergencies and in certain temporary situations, to
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  Speaker 1: affect some specific purpose which may or may not be
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  Speaker 1: in harmony with our revolutionary program. No possible good can
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  Speaker 1: come from any kind of a political alliance express or
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  Speaker 1: implied with trade unions or the leaders of trade unions
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  Speaker 1: who are opposed to socialism and only turn to it
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  Speaker 1: for use in some extremity the fruit of their own
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  Speaker 1: reactionary policy. Of course, we want the support of trade unionists,
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  Speaker 1: but only of those who believe in socialism and are
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  Speaker 1: ready to vote and work with us for the overthrow
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  Speaker 1: of capitalism. The American Federation of Labor, as an organization,
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  Speaker 1: with its civic federation to determine its attitude and control
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  Speaker 1: its course, is deadly hostile to the Socialist Party and
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  Speaker 1: to any in every revolutionary movement of the working class.
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  Speaker 1: To cow taw to this organization and join hands with
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  Speaker 1: its leaders to secure political favors can only result in
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  Speaker 1: compromising our principles and bringing disaster to the party, not
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  Speaker 1: for all the vote of the American Federation of Labour
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  Speaker 1: and its labour dividing and corruption breeding craft unions. Should
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  Speaker 1: we compromise one jot of our revolutionary principles, and if
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  Speaker 1: we do, we shall be visited with the contempt we
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  Speaker 1: deserve by all real socialists who will scorn to remain
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  Speaker 1: in a party professing to be a revolutionary party of
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  Speaker 1: the working class while employing the crooked and disreputable methods
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  Speaker 1: of ward healing politicians to attain their ends. Of far
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  Speaker 1: greater importance than increasing the vote of the Socialist Party
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  Speaker 1: is the economic organization of the working class. To the
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  Speaker 1: extent and only to the extent that the workers are
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  Speaker 1: organized and disciplined in their respective industries, can the socialist
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  Speaker 1: movement advance and the Socialist Party hold what is registered
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  Speaker 1: by the ballot. The election of legislative and administrative officers
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  Speaker 1: here and there where the party is still in a
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  Speaker 1: crude state and members economically and politically unfit to assume
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  Speaker 1: the responsibilities thrust upon them as the result of popular discontent,
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  Speaker 1: will inevitably bring trouble and set the party back instead
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  Speaker 1: of advancing it. And while this is to be expected
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  Speaker 1: and to an extent unavoidable, we should court no more
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  Speaker 1: of that kind of experience than is necessary to avoid
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  Speaker 1: a repetition of it. The Socialist Party has already achieved
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  Speaker 1: some victories of this kind, which prove to be defeats,
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  Speaker 1: crushing and humiliating, and from which the Party has not
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  Speaker 1: even now after many years, entirely recovered. We have just
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  Speaker 1: so much socialism that is stable and dependable, because securely
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  Speaker 1: grounded in economics, in discipline, and all else that expresses
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  Speaker 1: class conscious solidarity. And this must be off augmented steadily
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  Speaker 1: through economic and political organization. But no amount of mere
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  Speaker 1: votes can accomplish this. In even the slightest degree. A
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  Speaker 1: vote for socialism is not socialism any more than a
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  Speaker 1: menu is a meal. Socialism must be organized, drilled, equipped,
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  Speaker 1: and the place to begin is in the industries where
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  Speaker 1: the workers are employed. Their economic power has got to
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  Speaker 1: be developed through efficient organization, or their political power, even
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  Speaker 1: if it could be developed, would but react upon them,
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  Speaker 1: thwart their plans, blast their hopes, and all but destroy them.
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  Speaker 1: Such organization, to be effective must be expressed in terms
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  Speaker 1: of industrial unionism. Each industry must be organized in its entirety,
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  Speaker 1: embracing all the workers and all working together in the
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  Speaker 1: interests of all, in the true spirit of solidarity, thus
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  Speaker 1: laying the foundation and developing the superstructure of the new
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  Speaker 1: system within the old from which it is systematically evolving
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  Speaker 1: and systematically fitting the workers step by step to assume
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  Speaker 1: entire control of the productive forces when the hour strikes
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  Speaker 1: for the impending organic change. Without such economic organization and
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  Speaker 1: the economic power with which it is clothed, and without
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  Speaker 1: the industrial cooperative training, discipline, and efficiency which are its corollaries,
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  Speaker 1: the fruit of any political victories the workers may achieve
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  Speaker 1: will turn to ashes on their lips. Now that the
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  Speaker 1: capitalist system is so palpably breaking down, and in consequence,
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  Speaker 1: its political parties breaking up the disintegrating elements with vague
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  Speaker 1: reform ideas and radical bourgeois tendencies, will head in increasing
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  Speaker 1: numbers toward the Socialist Party, Especially since the greatly enlarged
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  Speaker 1: vote of this year has been announced and the party
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  Speaker 1: is looming up as a part possible dispenser of the
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  Speaker 1: spoils of office. There is danger, I believe that the
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  Speaker 1: party may be swamped by such an exodus and the
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  Speaker 1: best possible means, and in fact, the only effectual means
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  Speaker 1: of securing the party against such a fatality, is the
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  Speaker 1: economic power of the industrially organized workers. The votes will
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  Speaker 1: come rapidly enough from now on without seeking them, and
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  Speaker 1: we should make it clear that the Socialist Party wants
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  Speaker 1: the votes only of those who want socialism, and that,
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  Speaker 1: above all, as a revolutionary party of the working class,
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  Speaker 1: it discountenances vote seeking for the sake of votes, and
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  Speaker 1: holds in contempt office seeking for the sake of office.
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  Speaker 1: These belong entirely to capitalist parties, with their bosses and
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  Speaker 1: their boodle, and have no place in a party whose
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  Speaker 1: shibboleth is emancipation. With the workers, efficiently organized, industrially bound
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  Speaker 1: together by the common tie of their enlightened self interest,
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  Speaker 1: they will just as naturally and inevitably express their economic
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  Speaker 1: solidarity in political terms and cast a united vote for
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  Speaker 1: the party of their class, as the forces of nature
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  Speaker 1: express obedience to the law of gravitation. End of danger
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  Speaker 1: ahead