The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-05-18

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afraid Of 1t. Altho they denied re-
peatedly that the strike was revolu-
tionary, they knew that if 1t continu-
ed it would become revolutionary.
The general strike could not long con-
tinue under the direction of the con-
servatives. They had to end the
strike or surrender their leader
ship"
So the strike leaders, again re-
vealing themselves as lackeys of the
British capitalist state, joined with
Baldwin in what even w. N. Ever,
foreign editor of labor's own official
publication, The Daily Herald, terms
"A confidence trick Of the crudest
nature"
It might be pointed out that on
the day after the general strike was
called off by the officialdom, ]. H.
Thomas, of the railwaymen's union,
had to admit in the house of COM
mons that the strikers numbers
had increased from 100000 to
full four million. That indicates the
strength of the so-called minority"
against the capitalist democracy
that the socialists so ably champion.
1t was this mass militancy in the
British labor movement that had
previously forced a delegation of its
officials visiting the Union of Soviet
Republics to return an exceedingly
favorable report of conditions I'M
der the first workers government,
giving an emphatic lie to the Ber-
gers, Cahans and Hillquits, the
echoes of Hendersons, MacDonalds
and Thomases on this side of the
water, that the victory of soviet rule
sets back "the progress of labor for
many years."
1t is only thru thus classifying the.
real situation that the socialists
hope to convince some Of their
dwindling following that, 1.-THE gen.
eral strike called by the British
Trades Union Congress has resulted
In the most stupendous victory
scored by the working class in the
history of the modern labor move
ment," in the words employed by
James Oneal, the editor of The
Leader, New York socialist weekly
organ.
Socialists oppose the Russian VIC
tory of labor. They have proclaimed
themselves in favor of what they
call "The British way" Not the way
of the British workers, but the road
of their "class peace" officials who
still hold to their saddles not yet
torn from the backs of the working
class. The treason of the British
strike leadership must therefore be
hailed by these American socialists
as a "stupendous victory greater
even than the triumph of the Rus
sian workers and peasants in their
1917 Bolshevik revolution.
Morris Hillquit, during the recent
convention Of the socialist party at
Pittsburgh, addressed a bourgeois
audience in the exclusive Fort Pitt
Hotel declaring that he hoped for
greater democracy" in the Soviet
Union. The experiences of the Brit
ish general strike, coupled with the
American socialist acclaim of its
disastrous results, must convince
American workers of socialist de-
sire to deliver Russian labor to
world reaction just as their British
counterparts have again unmasked
themselves as loyal allies of labor's
class enemies.
The lesson of the British strike to
American workers is the building Of
a powerful left wing in the trade
union movement rooted in the
fundamental principles of class
struggle. Only then will 1t be able
to cast off the traitor leadership
that is ready to betray 1t at the first
opportunity in its most crucial