The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-11-21
CONTINUED from page %


struggle Of each class for power.
We think it obvious, as we said at
the beginning, that when the forces
of production produce something be-
sides commodities-a social crisis,
the working class is a part of this
crisis and must act or perish. We
repeat Every class struggle is
a political struggle struggle for
power, in which both classes, to a
greater or lesser degree according to
necessity, turn aside from the forces
of production and the manufacture of
commodities, to the political struggle
for power, to gain by seizure of gov
ornamental authority. the prize-the
ownership Of the machinery of pro
duction.
With the conflict taking this char
acter, we contend that the unions,
while positively necessary to the
struggle turnout it's course and neces-
sary to carry on production when
capitalism shall have been over
thrown" are not sufficient by them
selves to accomplish the overthrowal
tho in the heat of class war their
coordination with the revolutionary
political organization is imperative.
This is true because the unions, if
they are really unions, must be in
elusive of all workers of every shade
of opinion, both advanced and back
ward, and cannot by this diversity at
tain the needed unity of every mem
Der in aim and action in the long,
sacrifcial and complicated struggle
which requires strict but voluntary
discipline for an ideal all unionists
do not comprehend.
A REVOLUTIONARY party is alb
= soluteIy necessary to fulfill this
distinct function, to weld together
that part-and only that part-of the
working class most conscious Of the
aims and tactics of class war, those
in the unions necessarily among
them X Moreover the revolutionary
party of this character views the in
terests of the working class as a
whole, while unions incline to stress
their sectional interests-as we see
by the so-called industrial union pa
triotism" even in the revolutionary
i. w. W.
There is no question of DONNA
ton" of one necessary organization
by another equally necessary. poll
tics is concentrated economics"-and
the necessary coordination. not or
ganic unity. now existing between the
Communist International and the Red
International of Labor Unions is a
firm strengthening of revolutionary
labor unity against the world capital
list class and should be no bar to the
utilization Of the l. w. w. to the R.
/. L. u.
A strange misunderstanding has
arisen, diligently cultivated by the
anarchist element, that if the l. w. W.
affiliated to the r. l. l.. u, members
would be forced to join the Commun-
list Party and vote in elections. Such
is not the case. But we do not mean
to say that we oppose participation
in elections on principle. It is only
one and not always the most import
ant one of many useful tactics to
stir class consciousness among the
masses.
THE l. w. w. was justified in its
4 opposition to the politics" of the
yellow socialist parties, which regard
getting elected as an end in itself.
Communist workers, on the other
hand, have repeatedly made clear in
action that they reject the servile and
futile dependence upon capitalist par
hamentary forms as means Of eman-
cipation. They enter elections only
to expose the sham of capitalist de-
mocracy to its trusting dupes. They
enter parliament only to discredit and
destroy it from within. That great
strategist of class war, Vladimir Len
n l. -