The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-19

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destruction" Of industry, the un-
employment, the lack of food. Can
there be anything more hypocritical
than such accusations from people
who greeted and supported the inn
perialistic war and made common
cause with Kerensky when he con-
tinued the war? Is not this i'm
perialistic war the cause of all our
misfor+un The revolution that was
borne by tho war must necessarily go
on thru the terrible difficulties and
sufferings that war created, thru this
heritage Of destruction and reaction
airy mass murder. To accuse us of
"destrleticn" Of industries and ter
Her" is hypocrisy or clumsy pedantry,
and shows an ineapability Of UNDER
standing the most elemental funda-
mentals Of the raging, climactic force
Of the class struggle called revolu-
ton.
In words our accusers recognize"
this kiad Of class struggle, in deeds
they revert again and again TO the
middle class utopia Of "class-har-
mony'' and the mutual ~mterdepend-
ence" Of classes upon one another.
In reality the class struggle in revo-
lutionary times has always inevitably
taken on the form Of civil war, and
civil war is unthinkable without the
worst kind of destruction, without
terror and limitations of the form of
democracy in the interests Of the
war.
Anerica's' Revolutionary Tradition
The best representatives of the
American proletariat-those repre-
sentatives who have repeatedly given
expression of their full solidarity
with us, the Bolsheviki-are the ex-
preston u this revolutionary tradi-
ton in the life of the American peo-
pie. This tradition originated in the
war Of liberation against the English
in the Eighteenth and the civil war
in the Nineteenth Century. Industry
and commerce in 1870 were in a
much worse position than in 1860.
But where can you find an American
so pedantic, so absolutely idiotic as
to deny the revolutionary and prog
ressive significance of the American
civil war in 1860-1665?
The representatives Of the bour-
geoisie understand very well that the
overthrow of slavery was well worth
the five years of civil war, the
depth of destruction, devastation and
terror that were its accompaniment.
But these same gentlemen and the
reform socialists who have allowed
themselves to be cowed by the bur
geoisie and tremble at the thought
of a revolution, cannot, nay, will not,
see the necessity and righteousness
of a civil war in Russia, tho it is fac
ing far greater task, the work of
abolishing capitalist wage-slavery
and overthrowing the rule of the
bourgeoisie.
Bourgeoisie Used Terror
We are accused of having brought
devastation upon Russia. Who is it
that makes these accusations? The
train-bearers of the bourgebisie, of
that same bourgeoisie that almost
completely destroyed the culture of
Europe that has dragged the whole
continent back to barbarism, that has
brought hunger and destruction to
the world. This bourgeoisie now de-
mands that we find a different basis
for our revolution than that of
destruction, that we shall not build
it up upon the ruins of war, with
human beings degraded and brutal
lied by years of warfare. o, how
human, how just is this bourgeoisie
Its servants charge us with the use
Of terroristic methods. -. Have
the English forgotten their 1649, the
French, their 1898? Terror was
just and justified when it was en-
ployed by the bourgeoisie for its own
purposes against feudal domination.
But terror becomes criminal when
working men and poverty stricken
peasants dare to use it against the
bourgeoisie. Terror was Just and
justified when it was used to put one
exploiting minority in the place of
another. But terror becomes horri-
BILE and criminal when it is used to
abolish all exploiting minorities, when
it is employed in the cause of the
actual majority, in the cause Of the