The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-12-03
HAS LaFOLLETTE SWALLOWED
THE FARlNER-LABOR MOVEMENT?

the farmer-labor sentiment and de-
mand as political force.
1t is true that in the election cam
paign the farmer-labor movement was
swept along with the LaFollette tide.
The farmer-labor party sentiment had
for sundry reasons not yet been crys-
tallized strongly enough organizations
ally to be able to beat back the alli-
ance Of the petty bourgeoisie and
large portion of the trade union
bureaucracy. In a measure we, the
Communists, were responsible for this
organizational weakness of the farmer
labor movement thru our failure to
pursue an aggressive campaign of
organization over the heads ana oppo-
sition of the Fitzpatricks, Nockels,
and other so-called progressive labor
leaders.
But perhaps the outstanding force
OF the causes impelling this turn Of
the farmer-labor sentiment into the
channels of LaFollette's venture was
the belief among a great section Of the
farmer-labor masses that by their
lining up with the LaFollette combina-
ton in the election campaign they
would hasten, if not actually achieve,
the successful launching Of a farmer
labor party.
Meaning of the Alliance.
The fact that, during the election
campaign, the farmer-labor movement
did not put forward national political
standard bearers of its own does not
mean that the LaFollette campaign
organization has swallowed and di-
gested the farmer-labor elements to
such an extent as to enable one cor
recTly to pronounce the farmer-Iabor
movement dead, the farmer-labor SEN
timent extinguished beyond redemp-
ton. Only the politically purblind can
maintain that an election alliance can
swallow at once and paralyze for
many years at least, all of the farmer
labor sentiment that it took many
years to develop, political mass
sentiment that was developing unin-
terruptedly at an accelerating pace
especially since 1918.
The fact that so many farmer-labor
organizations lined up for LaFollette
and allowed themselves to be sub
merged during the few months of the
election campaign does not mean that
they have totally read themselves out
of the political life of the country.
Marxists view all political situations
as entities and not merely from the
immediate superficial appearances at
hand.
1t may be true that such an event
does not by itself tend to accelerate
the swift capitalization of a farmer
labor movement on a nationwide
scale. Yet no one who makes the
slightest pretense at the use of
MARKHAM historical method in aDalyz-
ing and evaluating the political and
economic movements of classes will
contend that setback or a defeat
now and then means the collapse of
an upward working class movement.
At most such setback may only delay
and make more difficult the develop.
ment of mass political consciousness,
but they do not eradicate the inherent
conditions Of American capitalism
making for the development of a
powerful united front of the workers
and poor farmers on the political field
Skeptlcism--A Menshevist Disease.
Thus Lenin in his Introduction to
Karl Marx, Letters to Kugelmann,
said: 1.-THE MARKHAM doctrine has
welded the theory and practice of the
class struggle into an INDIVISIBLE
WHOLE. He is no Marxist who, to
justify existing conditions, distorts
the theory which soberly confirms the
objective situation, who goes so far
as to adapt himself with the greatest
possible speed to any temporary lull
in the revolution %, to throw quickly
overheard his revolutionary illusions
and to set about collecting the
realistic shreds."
1t is truth long known to Bolshe
viks that only the ordinary empiriC
does not look at developing class con
fiicts and movements "any further