The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-08-13


article from the pen of VIM. Foster
published in Moscow" of May 31st.
The title of the article is American
Labor Movement. Mr.. Fosters ex-
perience in the American labor move
ment has been Of great value to him
in untangling the cause of American
labor's backwardness in the economic
and political field of the class strug-
gle. The backwardness of the Amer
lean workers is topic discussed as
much in Europe as it is in America.
That the most advanced capitalist
country in the world, should possess
the weakest and most reactionary
trade union federation is a problem
which violates both the MARKHAM prin-
ciples Of the class-struggle and the
materialistic Interpretation Of history
apparently.
For according to Marx, the develop
ment Of the capitalist mode of produc-
tion is inseperable from the develop
ment of an industrial proletariat. To
expect one without the other is to ex-
pect sunlight without the sun. Furth-
ermore, the elimination of competition
in the basic industries and the con-
sequent formation Of centralized
trusts in the hands of an ever de-
creasing fraction Of the bourgeoisie
makes it imperative for the workers
to fight greater and more powerful
combinations of capitalists. Hence the
struggle takes on a wider field Of
activity in which greater masses of
the workers on one side battle against
a handful Of capitalists assisted by the
armed forces of the capitalist State
| on the other. AS the struggle progress
ses wider and broader masses Of the
workers are brought into battle cul-
minating in fight for political power
between the producers as class and
the exploiters as a class. On the sur
face if you apply this doctrine to the
United States, the American Labor
movement should be the most ad-
vanced in the world. However, a
closer examination will reveal the ap-
parent contradiction which has brought
forth many curse from both Amer
lean and European workmef.
Erroneous Tactics.
Says Foster, According to MARKHAM
principles, countries having advanced
types of capitalism should also have
highly advanced labor movements
and this is true practically all over
the world. The one important excep-
tion is the United States" He then
asks himself Whence arises this
4
seeming paradox?" and proceeds to
inform US that the cause is to be
traced to the wrong tactics employed
by "the entire left-wing of the Amer
lean Revolutionary Movement. In.
stead of boring within, they invaribly
left the reactionary trade-unions and
thus gave free reign to the unprinci-
Piled careerists to degrade labor into
the morass where it finds itself today
AS a further illustration Of this point
Foster asks us where the English
Labor movement would stand today
if the revolutionary elements had
adopted the tactics of the American
left-wing twenty FIVE years ago?
To those who have worked in the
labor movement this conclusion is ir.
resistible but it seems to me that
there is at bottom an economic cause
for the aloofness Of the American left,
wing up to the present time. While
here and there revolutionary work.
er in the trade-unions will abandon .
reactionary union from sheer disgust
yet it is scarcely conceivable that
tens Of thousands of workers should
| art in this fashion without so,ne door
economic cause influencing their ac'
tions.
While prior to Marx, battles
epidemics and unrest were either at
tributed to the whims Of the Almighty
or the caprices of individual monarchs
today the materialist conception Of
history has relieved us of the neces'
sity Of doing 50. Do you want to know
why the Roman Empire collapsed