The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-25


Kautsky says of the Communists,
Its adherents insist, to be sure that
their cult Of violence is ancient wis
dom, and the outcome of the re-
searches of the most profound of our
thinkers, Karl Marx, they say,
preached force" This dotard himself
said at a more honest moment, in
1910 or so, MARX and Engels ham
mered out the idea of the dictatorship
of the proletariat, which Engels
stubbornly defended in 1891, shortly
before his death--the idea that the
political autocracy of the proletariat
is the sole form in which it can real
ize its control of the state" (Trotzky,
Defense Of Terrorism" London,
1921, p. 2D. Kautsky had to admit
this because Engels wrote him let
ter on June 20, 1891, urging this tao
tic upon him in place of the dan
gerous opportunism" of the Erfurt
Programme. How pleased Kautsky
was with this advice can be seen from
his characterization of it as political
autocracy. The rule Of the working
class as autocracy, foresooth!
Marx further shows how seriously
he meant this theory in an article
sent to an Italian socialist review in
1873. Let our Galahads of democracy
take what comfort they can from his
firm belief in the armed overthrow
of the bourgeois state, in the revolu-
tionary proletarian dictatorship, and
in the transitional proletarian state
(instead Of the syndicalist idea Of inn
mediately abolishing the state and
substituting for it that patented in
dustrial uni0nism of the Socialist
Labor Party Marx writes, 'If the
political struggle of the working class
assumes a revolutionary form; If the
workers, in place of the dictatorship
of the bourgeoisie, set up their own
revolutionary dictatorship, then they
commit terrible crime and offer an
insult to principle; because, fore
sooth, the workers, in order to meet
the miserable, gross requirements of
the moment, in order to crush the re-
sistance of the capitalist class, cause
the State to assume a revolutionary
and transitional form, instead Of lay
ing down their arms and abolishing
the State" (Neue Zeit, 1894, Year
Dictatorship of Proletarlat.
Now let us take up Marks famous
"only" reference to the dictatorship
in the Gotha Programme letter tc
Bracke, in 1875. He says in the pre-
vious paragraph that he will speak Of
the changes the State will undergo in
the future, that he will proceed "sci
entifcally," and he then tells us that
during the transition period the State
"can be nothing else but the revolu
tionary dictatorship Of the probe
tariat" (bold-face Marx's). Attic
Marx and Engels repeatedly propa
gated the theory of proletarian dicta
torship from 1S47 to 1891, our friends
of the Socialist Party, the Socialis
Labor Party, and the Social Demo
Gratis insist that there exists only ;
1 Il
give a brief historical survey of the
theory, which runs like a red thread
thru the writings of both, l shall
quote from their works written with
in this period, 1S47-"the struggle O.
class against class means com
plete revolution; "the Communist
/. openly declare that their endi
can be attained only by the forcibl'
overthrow of the ruling classes
The proletariat established it
rule by means of the violent over
throw of the capitalist Glass;" 9TH
first step in the revolution by thu
working class is to raise the prole
tariat to the position of ruling class.
1S4S-"there is only one means o
shortening, simplifying and concen
trating the torturing death agonies o
society-only one means-revolutior
airy terrorism" 1S5O-see quotation
from "Class Struggles in France.
1S52-see quotation from letter t
Weydemayer. In 1871, in 1873, il
1875 Marx reaffirmed his belief in tn
dictatorship. Paul Lafargue in 1885
Kautsky himself in 1899, the Russian
Social Democrats, Bolsheviks an
Mensheviks, in 1903 all have state
their adherence to the theory of Pre-
letarian Dictatorship. And then GU
Kautskys come along and tell us tina
Marx once accidentally mentioned
phrase, which the Russian Commur
lists seized upon to justify their vi
democratic rule.
Paris Commune.
shall end my quotations with on
or two by Engels, who is now bein
used by the reactionary socialists I
cloak their treason. In 1891 h
wrote that the German philistine ha
lately been thrown again into whole
sale paroxysms by the expression
dictatorship OF the proletariat." Ho'
prophetic a statement would this
we're Engels living today to see tn
commissions of our philistines of tn
Yellow International. He went OF
Gentlemen, do you want to kno'
what the dfctaforahfn of fha nroI,