The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-04-16
The Lesson Of ALBANY
Confined from page 81

ifen be no liberal element capable of
stemming the sweep of Capitalism
gone mad with its own excesses. That
means long siege Of White Terror
ism for we must not blind ourselves
to the fact that the workers Of this
country are far from being organized
Ia take over control of industry, AMI
vet too imbued with the idea that
they are freemen to mcekly submit
to tie Iron Heel. Hence. they will re-
volt, spasmodically and in small groups,
and be as ruthlessly repressed as un-
der the Gear in Russia or Noske in
Germany.
SO, returning again to the point
that there are many thousands of good,
Ieyal Socialists who cannot as yet
take the advanced stand that we do,
and to whom must come the bitter ex.
poriences of the proletariat of Russia
and Germany under false Socialists, it
is perhaps the better and less painful
method TO give every aid and assist
snce to the political aspirations Of the
Socialist Party that we are capable CT
giving. They VIII hang themselves in
dne course of time, but in the mean'
time we will have avoided the worst
features of White Terrorism.
There IS another method we might
pursue which appeals to my sense of
kumor as well as strategy. In many
states candidates are nominated by
primaries. Let us enter these prim'
aries and nominate Communists on
he Socialists ticket. If Hillquit, Sted-
man and Company do not like the
candidates we place on their tickets
let them take the fight to the courts
or nominate independent candidates of
their own. Tn either case they pro-
claim their colors to the workers,
Ii Capital is rs sure of its grounl
in this country as it now appears 10
be, it will have no hesitancy in ruth
lessly spppressing even Socialist po'
litical activity, but the passage of
time is against us, and we must stem
the tide of repression until we are
better enabled to teach the workers
Industrial solidarity, the lessons so
dlsastrously neglected by the Socialist
Party in their fear of hurting the
tender feelings of Gomper's A. F. of
l..
The leaven of industrialism is fast
permeating Sammy's pet unions and it
is only question of time when the
A. F. of L. will officially drop its
10Th century attitude and take up IFS
rightful place in Goth century union
ism. But they, too, like their proto-
tvpes in the Socialist Party, must 90
through the fire of baptism before
they will be purified and ready to
enter the new society properly equip
ped TO manage it.
As COMMUNIST LABOR states N
tho issue of March 25th, we are ra-
Idly adapting ourselves to the chang
ing conditions under Capitalist I'm
peria.sm, and this is as true of the
attitude we may from time to time
he compelled to take with the Social
list Party and the A. F. of i. as 1t
is of our own organization methods.
This article is written more for plr-
poses of argument and comment than
for n decisive plan Of action. We
must al act according to the plans
that seem best adapted to the needs
of the moment in a given locality or
district. But at the same time there
should he a we'll defined general plan
ground and into which all minor act.
ion should fuse.
While the lessen of Albany is plain
to all of us, it is particularly ap.
plicable to New York City where all
five of the defendants were elected.
New York City Communists and Com
muIist Laboritcs, therefore, must meet