The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-01-24
Lenin and Macdonald

attempt to use the parliamentary machinery of
capitalism for the overthrow of its inventors
must end in establishment and defeat of the
workers. is dead. The capitalist press of the
world gloats over the good fortune that is their
masters.
Ramsay Macdonald the advocate of a futile
parliamentarianism, adherent Of the bankrupt
Second international and foe of Communism,
takes his place as the head of the British En-
pire on the same day that Lenin dies. In the
capitalist press of the world are expressions
only of benevolent neutrality for the Mac
Donald government
Sir Arthur Balfour chairman of the associa-
ton of British Chambers of Commerce, Eng
lands real rulers speaking yesterday, said:
al am not frightened by the Labor government
and so long it is not dominated by Communists
willing to give every support in my power"
On business matters, he said the chambers services
always at the disposal of the government.
Here is mighty contrast The Soviet gov
eminent of Russia, headed by Lenin, has been
in power for seven years, yet every capitalist
government in the world is it's enemy. 1t has
had to fight for its existence since the day it
was born of the struggles of the Russian work
ers and peasants and hundreds and thousands
of these same workers and peasants gave their
lives on a dozen fronts in the struggle against
the armies of world capitalism.
No sooner had the Soviets-the form of gov
eminent in which the power of the masses
crystallizes in revolutionary periods-led by
Communists, taken over Russia then every
embassy of foreign governments became
center of counter-revolution plotting. In Lon
don, the daughter Of Ramsay Macdonald is
welcomed to Number 10, Downing street, by
the wife of Stanley Baldwin, whom Macdonald
replaces
ic al, IN
presSions of approval of McDonalds cabinet.
Even the Tory papers say "it might easily have
been worse"
The opportunists and the advocates of class
collaboration have a ready explanation for
these striking contrasts They say that they
are due to the difference in the Russian and the
English method, that the English have had
long training in democracy. Like most ready
explanations this one is superficial where it is
not consciously hypocritical.
The capitalist class is not composed of fools.
Even tho it were, it could hire servants with
brains to warn it of danger. The almost
fatherly attitude of world capitalism toward
the reformistic Macdonald government is ex-
planned only by the fact that it endangers not
even an outpost of British and world CAPT
talism.
The capitalist class and its advisors know
better than do the none Communist workers and
their leaders that, no matter what pretensions
it may make, no party presuming to express
the interests of the workers can do anything
other than destroy itself and endanger the
Iworking-class by attempting to overthrow
capitalism with parliamentary government
built by the capitalists themselves-as their
only instrument.
The capitalist class of Great Britain knows
that while some embarrassment for their more
brazen exploitation enterprises may result
from the labor party government the founda-
tons of their system and the basis of their
lcontrol-their ownership of natural resources,
machinery, press and financial institutions
will not be seriously threatened
The parliamentary process is slow one |;
the capitalist class itself scraps it when an
emergency arises; should any measure to
which British capitalism has strong objection
be proposed it will sabotage by Tightening up
on credit, by closing of factories by campaigns
in the capitalist press, by disaffection and
bribery, by the thousand and one means pos
sessed by class still in control of the nations
wealth of defeating any attack on their an
cient privilege of robbing the masses.
The MacDonalds believe, or profess to be-
lieve, that capitalism can be tricked and ca
joed into surrender. This is the basis of the
position of the parties of social reform.
Lenin believed, and the events of the last
seven years have proven his contention to the
hilt, that capitalism will never surrender; that
it will fight to the death and see civilization
destroyed rather than allow the workers to
come into power.
The Communist parties of the world, the
parties of world revolution, organized in the
Third Communist internationally alone recog-