The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-17


deserted the movement.
But most Of all the defeat of the La
Toilette movement can be attributed
to its own character. Like all move
ments of the middle class, its was hes
itating, Facilitating, and unclear. It's.
parts was to fight the rule of the big
capitalists while protecting capitalism.
1t had no aggressive, ringing slogans
to mobilize the workers in its support.
The working masses, rather than take
any chances in voting for movement
which offered nothing very definite.
stuck with the capitalist dictatorship
which promised them prosperity.
The defeat of the progressive move
ment will very likely to seized upon
by Gompers to try to lead those work
ers who supported it back to the old
parties. We may even expect that
some of the ex-republican and ex-dem-
ocratic politicians who took the lead
ership of the progressive movement,
to scurry back to their mother parties
TIC WOIhOAS anu pOOISI ldl ulSiS
must not pemit the defeat Of the La
Toilette progressive movement and
the desertion of Gompers and the lead
ers of this movement to turn them
back into the old parties or to create
an anti-political attitude in their
minds. The road for the workers who
want to fight the capitalists lies not
back into the old parties, but forward
out of the LaFollette-progressiv party
into a class party of workers which
will make an aggressive, working class
fight against the capitalists.
The Coming Attacks Upon Labor.
The overwhelming victory which
the capitalist dictatorship has won in
electing Coolidge and Dawes ~ Cool
idge, the strikebreaker, and Dawes,
the open shop head Of the Minute Men
of the Constitution, will encourage the
capitalists to open a new offensive
against labor We may expect soon
to see the capitalists again striking
out in an effort to destroy the un-
ions, and thus to open the way for
wage reductions. frightening the
hours of labor and intensifying the
exploitation Of the workers.
Labor's experience in the struggles
against similar efforts of the capital
lists during the period since the war, in
which they openly and brutally used
fho oovarnrnapfoI ,Ou,ar aooiv.+ 10 h.
which they again triumphantly WELD
thru Coolidge and Dawes, turned the
effort Of the most conscious among the
workers toward organizing labor's
power for independent political action
This movement which expressed itsel'
in the struggle to create a farmer-la-
Dor party was, during this campaign,
poisoned and diverted from its pur-
pose by the LaFollette-progress
movement. With the development OF
the new bitter struggles which will
come out of the capitalist offensive
under the Coolidge-Dawes regime, we
may look forward to the movement
taking on new life.
In such struggle as will grow out of
new offensive against labor by the
capitalists the LaFollette-progressive
movement will not and cannot fight
the battles of labor. The petty bour-
geoisie is always on the side of the
capitalists when it comes to a straight
out fight of property owners and profit
makers against wage earners. The
new struggle will therefore create the
situation in which the most conscious
and militant workers can be torn away
from the LaFollette-progressive move.
ment and modified for a class party
of labor.
The Role Of the Workers Party.
The Workers Party comes out of the
election campaign a stronger and
more powerful force in the working
class movement. II does not estimate
its strength by the number of votes
It receives under capitalist democracy
1t knows that capitalist democracy
will cheat it OF votes wherever II can
and that IT is Just the workers. who
because of their bitter exploitation
and oppression under the capitalist
system first rally to the Communist
standard, who are most often disfran
chised.
The victory which the capitalist die