The Northwest worker. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1915-1917, 1917-06-14
POLITICAL POWER

Cronstadt, the island defense Of
Pctrograd in the Gulf Of Finland. is
one OF the few fortified places on
the earth's surface that has always
far as we know it has never been
taken by force Of arms though both
Gibraltar and the Dardanelles have
been conquered by physical force.
But this e-than-Gilbraltar of
the north has at last met its doom
The British fleets vainlv bombarded
it in 1855, the Germans found it i'm
pregnable in the present war, but
what both Germans and British found
impossible has been accomplished by
Russian workmen, and though not
a single life has been lost, or
single shot fired, the heretofore I'M
conquerable fortress has fallen. The
ballot, not the bullet, was the weapon
Of offense before which the proud
est fortress on earth has capitulated.
The Council OF the Workmen's and
Soldiers Delegates decided to take
it. And they used neither dread
naught, mine, torpedo nor storming
party. Their decision was recorded
as a matter of voting, and was car
ried by vote of 210 to 49, The
vote carried the fortress, also. The
workingmen and soldiers simply said
that they did not recognize the con-
troll of the provisional government
over the fortress, and that recogni-
ton was enough; the control Of the
provisional government passed auto
maticallv.
Why did it not fight? Because it
couldn't.
What has our capitalist press to
say about the matter? Does it
taunt the P. G. with cowardce-wit'l
a too-easy surrender? 1t does not.
1t says nothing. 1t has nothing to
say. Like the provisional govern
ment of Russia, it is silent and ac-
quiesces.
This was political action" The
regular, orderly triumph of the bal
lot which has behind it the will, in
telligence and determination of la
Dor.
There is but one word to speak;
We will it: And what is the foe
man but the dreamstrong, Weakened
and weak?
And there was not a single gun
less in Cronstadt than there ever
was; probably more. There was
powerful garrison, stores of arms,
piles of mighty shells, fleets Of ships,
shipyards, naval schools, food; the
entire equipment proper to one of
the strongest fortresses in the world.
And it fell. 1t was carried not by
deluges of shot and shell and as
saults of storming parties, but by
the freemen's ballots-210 to 40.
There is a lesson here for the
American working class; for the
working class of the whole world.
Divided, they are poWerless; The
frowning Cronstadts threaten to
sweep them off the earth. United,
they have world to gain. Cron-
stadts are only minor and incidental.
cone stroke Of thy strong arm, 0
labor!" cried the poet, Victor Hugo,
when, in a rhapsodical flight of
poetic ecstacy, he drew his wonderful
picture of the breaking up of the
ice in the Neva, the same ri7er that
pours into the Finland gulf which
contains the impregnable fortress Of
Cronstadt Great as was the vision
of the poet. it proved too limited.
The strong arm of labor with one
stroke broke up the ice of the N"va
when it hurled the car and his rot
ten, corrupt government into oblivion,
and now it reaches out to sea, far
beyond the sweep of the Neva cur
rent, and grasps the mighty Cron-
stadt, not with a stroke Of its strong
arm. but with a stroke Of its pen
the ballot, 210 to 40-and Cronstadt
automat ically falls.
Let the American workingmen take
notice! Let the workingmen of the
world see and know
zone stroke of thy strong arm, o
labor!-New York Call.