The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-17

F2DIICkS NOIE: The following review of
Butharins great theoretical work, appeared in
the August issue of THE Communist" theoreti-
cal organ of the Communist Party of Great
Britain. The need for intensified theoretical
study is pressing in the Workers (Commun-
ist) Party of America AS in the c. P. of G. B.
The leaders Of the Russian Revolution never
missed opportunity TO add to their store of
theoretical knowledge and this book of Bulk
harms first published in 1919 while civil
ragged thru Europe.
nA!O revolutionary theory no revolutionary move
- ment," says Lenin in one of his famous pole
mics against the Menshevills. It were well if such
text could be hung up in the bedroom of every
British socialist, that aims at passing for revou-
tionary For the proletarian movement of this coun-
try, except for very small circle still maintains
its traditional aversion to theory. How much this
aversion to theory is responsible for the confusion
and pessimsm that is rampant everywhere at pres
ent is matter for some hard thinking to be done
before our movement strikes the high road to revo-
lutonary action, and ceases to prattle about de-
Tending, overthrowing capitalism
Lenins text is of particular Importance to Com
munists There is section of the working class
movement jealous and indefatigable in the fight
against capitalism and the capitalists as the Com
munst Party. But this very zeal has its disadvan-
tages, especially for numerically small Party like
ours. There is the danger--a very real danger, we
thnk-in pursuing the manifold mundane tasks
all of which necessary and important of ignor-
my IneOfy ana CneOfetlcal SeIt-Sudy preference
to what is called practical work" The lack of time
and opportunity and poverty amongst the workers
may be added to the handicaps, but these in no
way invalidate the warning, the danger.
1t was the fashion when the Communist Party
Of Great Britain being set up some seven years
ago. this month"; to talk of being realsts and to extol
the virtues of practice over theory and there was
some justification for that fashion at that time The
socialist movement passing through a critical
period, Thrones and governments were in the dust,
or in the balance. The test upon the socialists had
to be Clear simple and straightforward. The test
then was, for against revolutionary action syn-
boized in the Russian revolution; Boshevism or
bourgeois democracy and consttutionasm
But adhesion to the Soviet Republic and the re-
volution brought to the ranks of Communism
than those genuine proletarians who had no use
either for the bourgeois democracy or its supporters
who were leading the workers movement A eoodlv
number of sentimentalists, careerists and phrase
mongers were caught up in the tide towards Com
munism, chiefly from the side of the ntellectuals
We could name number of these who have passed
through the ranks of Party each of whom can
be placed IN one or the other of the above cate
gores In all of these cases t is not necessary to
give names) we had great deal of lip-service to
Communism, but understanding of Communist
theory.
1t is curious fact that the vest slanderers of
the Communist Party are the renegades How often
do we hear reproaches hurled at our members for
their Ignorance and stupidity? How often do we
near INC rarity leadership traduced and the insinua-
tons made that the Communist Party would be all
right If it wasn't for its leaders? Meaning by that
we suppose if the leaders We're made up of amiable
fellows with whom they would never be called upon
TO have theoretical quarrels, there would be room
for them. The fact is that all these exc Communists
have been tested at the bar of theory and found
wanting. That however, does not excuse our mem
bers from removing all grounds for the stigma of
Ignorance and stupidity" The way to do that is
to cultivate sefstudy, hard thinking and more the
DRY.
useful contribution to the material for theo-
retical thinking is being added to the library of
Marxist literature issued by Martin Lawrence in the
translation into English of Bukharin's Economic
Theory of the Leisure Class" This book the author
tells us, was completed in 1914, and after an ad-
Venturous career, occasioned by the war; the MS.
found its way to Moscow, to be published in Febru-
airy, 1919. 1t is trenchant and logical criticism
of the famous Bohm Bawerk the Austrian economist
who was peddled about much in this country a
decade ago by the I. L. P and ant-Marxists, as the
destroyer of the Marxist system Our readers who