The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-01-19

the political expression Of this ter
rible bankruptcy and misery When,
under these circumstances, comrades
persist in declaring that we must sit
comfortably on our dogmas which
prescribe Gas they imagine) that the
crisis of the industrial side Of Inn
perialism must come first, without
seeing the existing agricultural
crisis, It shows that these comrades
do not understand the most elemen-
tary duty Of revolutionary Marx
lists, namely, to analyze, and reckon
with, facts as they are.
The Farmers and the Proletarian
Revolution
We can arrive at the correct esti-
nation of the Importance of the far
mers for the communist movement
only if we connect it with the ques-
ton of the seizure Of power by the
working class. We must understand
that as long as the capitalist class
can maintain political leadership over
the farmers, the working class has
no possibility or even hope of COM
ing into power.
That is true for every country,
but especially for the United States.
We should not forget that the United
States is not as thoroly INDUSTRY
allied as Germany or Great Britain.
Industry in the United States is the
most highly centralized and concen-
trated in the world, but it covers
only certain parts of our country.
The United States is at the same
time the greatest agricultural coun-
try of the world. The United States
has a tremendous agricultural popu-
lation. In this respect our country
resembles Russia more than It does
Great Britain which has no agricul-
tural population to speak of. And
we ought to bear in mind that the
overwhelming majority Of industrial
workers In our country are foreign
born, who, just because they are for
eign-born are greatly handicapped In
their role Of political factor. The
Workers Party, as a faithful mirror
Of the composition Of the American
working class, with its $4,000 MEN,
bers would play a seventeen fold
greater political role il it had not
contained by necessity seventeen
foreign language declarations. The
bulk of the native-born workers are
skilled workers and foremen, and be-
long to the labor aristocracy. 1t Is
Of vital interest to our party to win
over and influence as great a mass
as possible of native-born English
speaking workers. But it is highly
improbable that we can win over in
the near future the majority of this
labor aristocracy corrupted by impe-
ri~'i--r Th~ Formers rs a class pre-
cent different picture than the
working class. We have many for
eIgn-DOrn farmers, especially Ger
mans and Scandinavians, but the
bulk of the farmers are native-born
Americans.
A revolutionary movement in the
United States which embraces only
the foreign-born proletarian workers
of the basic industries and only .
narrow stratum of the native-born
workers, has no real hope Of gaining
power without the support of the
millions Of native-born, working far
mers. Nor should we forget this
fact, that in no country with the ex-
SCRbAOiA Va ANuooAd) nave buc
such an old political tradition, or
have made SO many attempts at poll
teal upheaval against capitalist
leadership (Greenback Party, Popu-
list Party, Non-Partisan League) as
In the United States. It is an uncon-
tested fact that with the exception
Of Russia) In no other country Il
there such an old and deep-rootcd
tradition of political cooperation be-
tween farmers and city workers as
In the United States. 1t would be
political blindness not to see the
gigantic importance Of the fact that
all these numerous farmer-labor par
ties, spontaneously sprung up, are
everywhere ,the,expression Of a poll
tical alliance between city workers
and farmer.
Guild Interests or Revolution?
It Is not revolutionary Marxism,
but on the contrary, a caricature Of
Marxism for communists to reject