The Red Conspiracy Part 17

Eugene V. Debs has all along been the sincere friend of the I. W. W. In the February, 1918, issue of the "International Socialist Review," page 395, he says:

"Every plutocrat, every profiteering pirate, every food vulture, every exploiter of labor, every robber and oppressor of the poor, every hog under a silk tile, every vampire in human form will tell you that the A. F. of L. under Gompers is a great and patriotic organization and that the I. W. W. under Haywood is a gang of traitors in the pay of the b.l.o.o.d.y Kaiser.

"Which of these, think you, Mr. Wage-Slave, is your friend and the friend of your cla.s.s?....

"The war within the war and beyond the war in which the I. W. W. is fighting--the war of the workers of all countries against the exploiters of all countries--is our war, the war of humanity against its oppressors and despoilers, the holiest war ever waged since the race began."

"The Call," New York, April 19, 1919, published at the top of its editorial page, "Debs' Daily Message from Moundsville Prison:"

"Though Jailed, He Speaketh.

"The clear voice of the awakened and dauntless few cannot be silenced. The new unionism is being heard. In trumpet tones it rings out its revolutionary s.h.i.+bboleth to all the workers of the earth: 'Our interests are identical--let us combine industrially and politically, a.s.sert our united power, achieve our freedom, enjoy the fruit of our labor, rid society of parasitism, abolish poverty and civilize the world!'....

"There can be no peace until the working cla.s.s is triumphant in this struggle and the wage system is forever wiped from the earth."

In the May Day issue of "The Call," May 1, 1919, there is a very long article on Debs' Imprisonment by David Karsner, staff correspondent. He tells us that on the afternoon of April 28 he sat talking with Debs in his little room in the prison hospital at Moundsville, West Virginia, and that the many-times presidential candidate of the Socialist Party among other things said, when told of an intended visit by Karsner to the Leavenworth Federal prison to see William D. Haywood and the other 93 I. W. W. prisoners:

"I want you to take my love to Bill Haywood and all the other boys you see out there. We all stand shoulder to shoulder together."

The staff correspondent then goes on to say:

"The reference of Debs to Haywood and the I. W. W. brought vividly to my mind the little scene enacted between 'Gene' and 'Big Bill'

in the corridor of Judge Landis' courtroom in Chicago last August during the I. W. W. trial.

"'You and the boys are making a great and n.o.ble fight,' said Debs to Haywood at that time, patting the cheek of Big Bill. 'You are a born champion of the underdog.' Haywood clasped Debs' in his own great palm and said affectionately, 'You are the champion of the underdog, Gene, and you always will be.' There was something thrilling and inspiring in witnessing this friendly and comradely felicitation between two n.o.ble men, both of whom have never retreated one jot from their ideas of emanc.i.p.ation of the working cla.s.s.

"I recalled as I saw him this afternoon that seven years ago, or at the time of the Indianapolis Convention of the Socialist party, Debs pleaded for unity of the movement. He refused to be stampeded into any position that would compromise the n.o.ble work that confronted himself and the Socialist Party. Debs has always been for industrial unionism. His speeches and writings are filled with the spirit of organization and solidarity on the industrial field as well as on the political. But above everything else he has warned his fellow Socialists and industrialists that the thing to do is to keep united, to solidify their economic and political strength to the end that when our day comes we shall be ready to enjoy the fruits of our victory."

"The One Big Union Monthly," March 1, 1919, pages 14, 19 and 21, gives us some very interesting information about the I. W. W. att.i.tude toward Bolshevism and the two extreme groups of the Socialists:

"We have long predicted the revolutionary cyclone that is now sweeping over the world, even though few people cared to believe us. We asked them to prepare for it by building up the framework of the new society within the sh.e.l.l of the old, in other words to see to it that we had the new house ready to move into, before we dynamited the old one....

"Personally we are convinced that Russia will never again return to the old order. The workers have control and they will not let go of it. As the days go by, they will gradually organize production and distribution on the lines of industrial unionism, as Lenine a.s.sures us, and that will be their salvation.

"The plight of the Russian people is a warning to other peoples to immediately start building the new society, by building industrial unions right now, before the structure of the old society topples over. Industrial unions are the only social apparatus that will make abolishment of wage slavery possible....

"The Bolshevik Revolution has emphasized this sad fact. Socialism in Russia, facing for the first time in Socialist history, the problem of inaugurating a working cla.s.s state, found itself paralyzed by the existence of a parliamentary form of Democracy.

The Revolution was at stake. In order to destroy capitalism it was necessary to destroy parliamentary Democracy, and Lenine destroyed it. In its place he reared a new form of Democracy--the Dictators.h.i.+p of the Proletariat, which is Socialism.

"And yet, so misled is the thinking of our European Socialists that in the very presence of a living, accomplished Socialist commonwealth, they hastened to repudiate it because it was not 'Democratic.' Plekhanov betrayed it. Kautsky reviled it. Albert Thomas called upon the capitalists of France to send their soldiers there and crush it. Mr. Walling, Mr. Spargo and Mr. Russell baptized themselves into a 'Socialist' crusade to destroy Socialism. Could idiocy be more abject?

"The alternative is presented, to choose between Socialism or Democracy. Or perhaps it would be better to put it--between industrial Democracy and parliamentary Democracy. And our pitiable Spargos, duped by a stale phrase, abandon their Socialism because it is not 'Democratic.'

"In America, it is this same issue of Democracy which has long been the dividing line between the Socialist Party and the I. W. W. Like the Bolshevists of Russia, the I. W. W. have championed Democracy but we have refused to allow the capitalist thinkers to define it for us. We have practiced Democracy in our organization and we have sublimated it into the most perfect of Democratic organizations.

But always, it has been a Democracy only of proletarians. We have built the framework of a new society which says that those shall not vote who do not work. And this, indeed, is Socialism.

"But the political Socialists have feared to draw this distinction.

They have not built themselves upon the proletarian rock. Into their ranks they have admitted, not only the butcher, the baker and the candle-stick maker, but also the lawyer, the doctor, the merchant, the sky pilot, yes, and even the capitalists--known as millionaire Socialists. Out of such a medley, a medley philosophy was sprouted. Democracy, to the political Socialists, could not be rigidly proletarian, because the political Socialists, themselves, were not proletarians. And their ideals paled into evasion and compromise.

"Again, the I. W. W. being proletarian, spurned a parliamentary action which would have drawn it together with the exploiting cla.s.s. It realized, before Spargo took that fatal dodge, that, from parliamentary Socialism to parliamentary Democracy it was but a step. Hence we spurned politics and parliamentarism, and subst.i.tuted a Democracy, grouped around unions, and not around parliaments.

"But the political Socialists, immersed in parliamentary hack work, stifled the Socialist concept of Democracy by recognizing and partic.i.p.ating in the capitalist form of Democracy. Entering the parliaments, they dreamed that they could transform these parliaments into Socialist republics. Only too soon they discovered that the parliaments had transformed them into 'Democratic'

apologists. Like a poisoning strain, parliamentarism spread out over Socialism. And so, when Socialism came at last in Russia, without the aid of the foolish parliaments, deluded Socialists cried that Bolshevism was not Socialism."

The year 1919 witnessed a very marked drawing together, in the United States and throughout the world, of I. W. W.'ism, or Syndicalism, and all the bodies of radical, revolutionary Socialism. The Moscow Bolshevists gave a great "boost" to the I. W. W. principle of industrial unionism by endorsing it and declaring that Russia was being reorganized economically along similar lines. Bolshevism in Russia, in fact, has had the help and counsel of I. W. W. experts from the United States, and I. W. W. leaders in America have naturally been elated. John Sandgren wrote in "The New Solidarity," April 12, 1919:

"The immortal gains of Bolshevism for humanity lie on the political field. When it comes to economic reconstruction, the Bolsheviks are going to find that it cannot be made from the top through laws and regulations. Any attempt to make the people the real owners of the means of production and distribution must start with the industrial organization of the workers themselves as outlined in the I. W. W.

program. In the meantime, let us hope that Bolshevism will sweep victoriously over all such parts of the world where it still has a mission to perform. After that, begins the I. W. W. period in human history."

The April 1, 1919, issue of "The One Big Union Monthly," published the Russian Communist Party call and invitation to the Moscow Conference [see Chapter III for a copy of this doc.u.ment], remarking that "as to the general demand for the overthrow of Capitalism, the dis-establishment of private owners.h.i.+p and making the working-cla.s.s the rulers of the world, there is apt to be little if any dissension." However, noting that "the I. W. W. of this and other countries" had been invited to the conference, it declared that "we have no reason to get excited over the invitation," since, "with the exception of the I. W. W., there is hardly any of the thirty-nine invited bodies who seriously endorse industrial unionism as the basis of a new society.... The proposed communist conference would consequently be a congress of radical political Socialists to consider the question of discontinuing the use of the ballot and adopting the methods used by the Russian communists in the past in overthrowing capitalist society." The I. W. W. world-scheme is then outlined:

"The I. W. W. has given up all thought of using the machinery of the present state for its purposes. It proposes to create an entirely new machinery of administration in which not even a particle of the old shall enter as a const.i.tuent part. We propose to re-group all mankind on industrial lines in industrial organizations which we hope will make superfluous and crowd out the political groupings which const.i.tute the state. We propose to make the unit of industry, the place of work, the shop, the mill, the field, the s.h.i.+p, the basis of our new social organization. These units will combine in two different manners. From a purely industrial standpoint, they will unite with other units into large industrial unions, calculated to embrace the whole world, each and every one of them. For the purpose of local administration, we propose that the local industrial units shall form a district industrial council or local administrative body to take care of local affairs. As we propose to order all branches of human activity along these lines and include them in a world scheme of industrial co-operation, we must conclude that our program, although fundamentally aiming at the same thing as the program of the Communist Party, somewhat differs from the program proposed as a basis of unity."

An editorial in the same issue on "Soviet Government in the U. S." says:

"The papers have informed us that the police and the secret service have unearthed a gigantic plot among the Socialists of this country to gather up all the radical elements with a view to establis.h.i.+ng a Soviet government in this country.... We do not deny that this agitation is useful, for it stirs people to thought and excites contradiction, ... but when that is said, we have said all the good we can about it....

"The Russians made their revolution not because they had Soviets, but because the people willed it.... The I. W. W. has at least on paper an inst.i.tution corresponding to the Soviet, namely, the District Industrial Council, ... a local representative body of the various industrial unions in each locality. So far, it lacks all practical significance because we are not numerous enough, but whenever there is to be a radical change in this country, the change will have to be made through these councils locally. They will take over the functions which were taken over by the Soviets in Russia."

Another editorial in the same issue treats of the overtures of the Left Wing Socialists:

"Of late we have noticed an ever-increasing tendency to hush us up in the name of unity. We are being told not to show up political Socialism; we are told not to attack Anarchism. We are asked to be more lenient toward the A. F. of L. [American Federation of Labor.]

We mustn't touch on church and religion....

"It appears that political Socialists, anarchists and other labor elements feel that the bottom has fallen out of their programs and they want us to keep quiet about it, and as a reward we will secure their friendly services. The I. W. W. is not willing to enter into any such bargain."

Another editorial gives further light on the "boring in" process begun by theoretical Socialists with an itch for revolution--paper soldiers anxious to get a-straddle of the great strike-conducting war-horse of I.

W. W.'ism and ride into "the dictators.h.i.+p of the proletariat." This is thus dealt with:

"There is a large element in this country who want a radical change if not a revolution. This element would like to see the change made to suit them with the smallest possible cost to themselves.

"The most insistent agitators belong to the upper-cla.s.s radicals, and their object seems to be to stir the working ma.s.ses into some sort of revolutionary activity, not clearly defined. It seems they built great hopes on the partic.i.p.ation of the I. W. W. They know we are a compact ma.s.s of industrial workers, able to manipulate such great affairs as the general strikes in Seattle and b.u.t.te, the strike of the silk workers, the strike on the Mesaba Range, and so on, and we are just what they need for their purpose.

"For this reason we have met with an unusual amount of courtesy and consideration of late, but we are sorry to say that we do not consider it disinterested. If these revolutionists were sincere in their friends.h.i.+p for us, they would throw everything aside and help us build up industrial unionism, but that is exactly what they are not doing to any considerable extent. Their activities are directed on aims that are strange and foreign to us. Some of their adherents in overalls are getting into our ranks because they work in the industries we have organized or because our recruiting unions are open to them, and their activity is frequently annoying to us, as it has little or nothing to do with the industrial organization of the workers."

The same issue contains an article by a Left Winger, I. E. Ferguson, a "Little Corporal" ready to step to the front of I. W. W.'ism and lead it to glory. He complains:

"The attempt to 'hog the market' of propagandizing the Russian Revolution in the United States for the I. W. W. is leading to excesses which ought to be checked right now, else these excesses will accomplish injury to the American Socialist movement. This does not mean to repudiate the claims of the I. W. W. to any extent, but to controvert the negative proposition that all of the American revolutionary socialist movement is and necessarily must be within the folds of the I. W. W....

"The I. W. W. is the livest thing in the American Socialist movement, therefore, truly, the Greatest Thing On Earth for the American working cla.s.s. But ... when the same organization carries on the business of unionism and the business of revolution at the same time, it is more than likely, when it becomes overburdened, to throw overboard the more remote job in favor of the more immediate one. Revolution is a political proposition, or, if you please, anti-political. Its direct task is the overthrow of the capitalist state, the bulwark of capitalist industrialism. There is no question in the world but that the I. W. W. form of labor organization is the most powerful possible weapon for the overthrow of the capitalist state, because of its adaptability to great ma.s.s protests and ma.s.s movements of the proletariat. But only an organization with the sole aim of revolution can take the responsibility for leaders.h.i.+p in this fight."

Granting some truth in the above argument, it is not probable that a great practical organization like the I. W. W., which _does_ things, and very rough things, will invite theorists, non-working drones, to come in and take charge of it. Nor is it willing to be borrowed, and diverted into an engine to run toy revolutions. This is the substance of the reply to Ferguson made by Harold Lord Varney in the same magazine. We quote its pith:

"Like the Left Wingers of the Socialist Party; like the editors and the writers of the Revolutionary Age and the Cla.s.s Struggle; like the Eastmans, the Nearings and the Frainas of our American movement, my critic is obsessed with Russia. To him, the Bolshevists and their ma.s.s action revolutions are like dazzling, fiery suns which blind and obscure all rivals....

"As proletarians, I. W. W.'s rejoiced at the Lenine triumph. As proletarians, we have unwaveringly supported the Bolshevist regime in all our propaganda. Those of our members who happened to be in Russia when the October Revolution came (and there were thousands of them) were all found in the Bolshevist army. Bill Shatoff, Volodarsky, Martoff, Kornuk and others who have been leaders in the Bolshevist army were all old members of the I. W. W. In brief, then, were we in Russia, all I. W. W.'s would be Bolsheviki. But from this it does not necessarily follow that in America the I. W.

W. must turn Bolshevist also....

"Mr. Ferguson's proposition is that after all these years of struggle we should now discard this One Big Union goal and unite with political Socialists to create an American Bolsheviki. And in that proposal he demonstrates the impractical artlessness of the Left Winger. The I. W. W. is a Socialist who is a materialist. The Left Winger is a Socialist who is an ideologist. The I. W. W. seeks for verities and for concrete, ponderable power. The Left Winger follows the intoxicating dreams of his own imagination....