The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-21
The Forward Crowd Too Much Even For
]. Ramsay Macdonald
By H. M. WICKs.

THIS is the age of internationalism.
Face to face with the intena-
tional bourgeoisie and its most loyal
and valued flunkeys, the second in
ternational, stands the international
proletariat. But as capitalism itself,
even within given country, does not
enjoy uniform development, there
arise antagonisms within the ranks
Of the two historically opposed clas-
ses, so the unequal development on
an international scale gives rise to
groups and grouplets within the in
ternational organizations of the CAPT.
talist class and its auxiliaries, such
as the socialist international.
In countries where capitalism is
weakened because Of memorable econ
omic and political forces the social
democratic parties and their leaders,
the heroes of the second inter-
national, are catapulted into posi-
lions of responsibility where their
task is to save what they can of the
wreckage in order that capitalism
may have a new, if short, lease Of
life.
Such was the condition in Germany
after the world war, when the
Scheidemanns, Eberts, Noskes and
others launched murderous attacks on
wholesale scale against the working
class in order that their masters, the
capitalists, might maintain control
of the governmental machinery and
thereby protect their right to the
private ownership of industry. In
England the ruling class also has to
rely upon their good and faithful
servants of the second and
Amsterdam internationals to aid
them in their fight against the in
creasing militancy of the working
class. The rule is that in those coun-
tries where the impact of the class
struggle has weakened the capitalist
class the social-democrats play i'm
portant roles as defenders of things
as they are.
In the United States, because of
the fact that the ruling class here is
powerful and arrogant and feels it.
self capable of dealing with its own
slaves, it doesn't require the aid of
the MacDonalds or Thomases or
Clines or Scheidemanns to maintain
power. In the European situation the
capitalist class is firmly convinced
that it needs the aid of the reaction
airy leaders of the second interna-
tional in order to maintain power.
In the United States the capitalists
feel that they are for the most part,
powerful enough to do without such
aid, or if it is required the Greens,
Wolls and Lewises serve their pur-
poses. So the main task of the yell
low socialists today is to try to per-
suade the capitalists that they need
them to hold the working class in
chains. Since the onIy remnant of
the old socialist party extant in the
United States, aside from Victor Ber-
gers outfit in Milwaukee, is that
group around the Jewish Daily For
ward and since the masses of Jewish
workers are swinging to the left and
deserving the American representa-
tives of the second international,
there is grave danger that the last
vestiges of the discredited socialist
party will be wiped out before its
leaders have a chance to prove to the
capitalists that they can be depended
upon to more or less heroically de-
fend capitalism when it can no longer
stand on its own feet. Through
theoretically pledged to carry out in
this country the policy the parties
of the second international carry out
in Europe, historical development
has relegated the American So
cialists to the miserable role Of boot
lickers of labor aristocracy that
developed independently of the al
legged political parties of labor and
that plays the role Of agent of the
capitalists that the socialists in
other countries play.
IN New York the socialists are do
ing the dirty work of the Greens
and Wolls, by leading the attack
against the rank and file of the
labor movement. But they are not
meeting with marked success; the
petty bourgeois elements that sup
port the Forward gang have no
roots in the working class--they
have long ago graduated into all
sorts of businessmen. Aside from
the petty bourgeoisie, only paid
thugs and gangsters still follow in
the wake of the Forward, and re-
cent events point unerringly to the
fact that long before the socialists
here have a chance to defend the
master class in its last extremity
the workers themselves will have dis
posed Of them.
In waging a fierce fascist cam
paign against the left wing in the