The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-11-12
A FABIAN MUDDLEHEAD WRITES ON
COMMUNISM.

fhOf ESSOR OF pontlcal science IN Ihe university Oh
London has written contribution to Henry Holt
and Companys "Home University of Modern Knowl-
edge" book on Communism" which is more fu-
tile attempt of the intellectual scavengers of capitalism
to rdicule the revolution and particularly it's theoretical
founder Karl Marx
Harold j. Laski contributes nothing new in his book as
far criticism of Marx goes. He merely repeats the
old wheezes of the Austrian school, perverted and vul
CARRIED to lay the theoretical basis for attack upon
Bolshevism and the Communist International.
Like all apostles of fabiansm this professor begins
with what he arrogantly magines to be refutation Of
MARKHAM economics. Laski states that the economic
system of Marx is ain small degree sef-contradic-
tory and then proceeds to the most fppant and vapd
criticism He tries to refue the fact that the
of socially necessary labor-me required to reproduce
commodity determines it's value and asks why it is
that certain things have value that required little
any, labor to produce. On page SO of his book Las
says the MARKHAM theory of value "hardly explains with
out strain exceptional cases. like First Folio of Shakes
peare, or precious stone discovered by chance This
argument ancient that history does record who
first presented it, but every nincompoop who started
an antiMar1cst crusade has repeated it in form
another
We will blast that to start with and then proceed tc
other imbecites of the author. In the first place
Shakespeare not a wage-worker and although his
work unquestionably social product of the period
IN which he lived it certainly was not product Of
sociay-necessary labortme; his first folos t.
they have price. Many things can have a price with
out being commodities. Among these are, Marx OBJ
served when dealing with just such specimen as Laski
professors, who sell their talents and consciences for
price, but certainly they cannot be said to have value
determined by the amount of socially Unnecessary labor
time required to reproduce them. AS to the "precious
stone," the diamond falling from the sky and such like
astronomical and geological monstroses, it would have
value just the same diamond that becomes useful
mankind in the usual process of extraction from the
earth. The value of such a diamond is determined by
the amount of socially labortme required to
reproduce one of equal weight and brilliancy.
From this insipd analysis of value, Professor Lask
then proceeds to rehash the illusion of the Austrian
school Of economic faaces and repeats the dirge that
the third volume of Marx contradiction of the first
volume He is too Supplied with fabian prejudices tc
perceive the fact that the contradictions which he i'm
AGNES he sees in Marks economics in reality con-
tradct1ons the capitalist system of wealth production
itself. In scientifically recording and anavzne these
contradictions Marx, in his monumental work. Capital
gave to the world splendid example of diaectcal ma
terasm, that to this day battles the most erudt
Of the professional wise of the university chairs
in spite of the fact that they are so COMPREHENSIVE
dealt with by Marx that thousands of intelligent work
understand them
The stupidties of Lasks economies are only equaled
by his crude conception of the history of Marxism In
stead of viewing Marism itself as product of given
period of history this fabian apologist of capitalism
views 1t as vagary of individual who based his
work solely upon that of other economstsAdam Smith
Ricardo and the classic school of economies He ex-
plains the collapse of the First International not on the
basis OF the material conditions existing after the Paris
Commune, but the ground that Marx was i'll and dis
uslcned There Is not sentence about the fright
full reaction in Europe and the chaotic conditions in the
labor movement that stimulated anarchism and threat
ened the international with the blight of Bakuninism
Just as Lash proves that he is mentally incompetent
to deal with Marx so he displays his astounding g-
norance when he tries to deal with Hegel Says Lasd
"Progress--which for Hegel is the movement toward
perfect freedoms thus the contradiction of one as
pect by another" Just Lask ignored the historical
conditions that enabled Marx to achieve his wor-the
appearance upon the stage of history Of the proetarat
as the carrier of the revolution of the futureso he
failed to perceive that Hege was limited by his times
and that in his system progress supposed to come
to close with the realization Of the absolute idea
personified in the limited monarchy of Frederick William
III Like all of his cabre, Lask is unable to separate
the reaconary political conclusion of the Heges system
from his thoroughly revolutionary method of
ing-hs diaectic
But the distortion Of Hegelianism Is done by Lask
with purpose. 1t Jays the basis for him to say
thing kindly about Bolshevism; that is that the Com
munists by opposing certain Objectionable features
capitalism negative force compel the positive force
Capitalism and its agents in the second socialist inter-
nationally to carefully consider their shortcomings
and overcome their defects.
This Of learned sophistry concludes with de-
nuncaton of the Boshevks because they view the state
instrument of coercion in the hands of one class
to hold another class in subsection To him the state
is not Lenin declared, product and manifestation
Of the rreconcilability of class anagonisms On the
contrary according to the London fabian "where demo
cratic prevails the state in the hands
the people to mold as they will"
His conclusion is the banal comparison Of democracy
opposed to dictatorship and ignores the fact that
open and avowed dictatorship of the proetarat such