The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-02
Laski on "MarXism Today"

THE weapons now at the dis
posaI of violence are more catas
trophic in their nature than at
any previous time. Applied in
tensivelyJ or over a long period,
they may even destroy exactly
the machinery upon which the
successful consummati ton of the
revolution depends; they may
even make impossible the main
tenance of civilization. We have
also to bear in mind the qualities
produced, both in governors and
governed, by a long habituation
to methods of violence. 1t is
difficult to see that a regime
built on the use of hatred and
fear and calculated relentless
ness can give birth to a society
distinguished by fraternity.
Nor is it fair to predicate that
social justice is unattainable
peacefully through the normal
channels of representative gov
eminent.
1T is worth while to remem-
ber-and the experience of Rus
STA has only reinforced this
truth - that a dictatorship,
whether or not it is proletarian,
is in simple fact the exchange of
one tyranny for another
The future of our (well said,
you miserable lackeyD society
depends very largely upon the
Willingness of those who now
control the instruments of pro
duction to make large conces-
sions to the proletariat."
How exquisite! How exceedingly
nice! What profundity, what exalt.
ed sentiments!
There is one question that irresist
ably arises: When and where anc
under what conditions, in all the
history of the world, has there evel
been time that the slave master
sought the liberation of his slaves
who made possible his wealth? Ii
vain we await an answer to this
The mouldy walls of effete OXFORD
are silent on this point. Bloody
murderous Harvard has nothing tt
offer. From the dark chambers o.
the University of London Their,
comes only the whimpering anc
snarling of the bastardized litter O.
grovelling whelps called the facul
ty.
Only the revolutionists, the Marx
lists, the Leninists whom Lask,
hates and fears with the same in
tensity that all his class tremble
before the revolution, face tn
facts of history. We state emphati
cally that liberation from wage
slavery will come only through tn
revolution of the working class, no
through the goodness of the CAPT
talist class.
Also we wish to inform Professo
Laski and all the other liberals an,
fabians and anarchists who pratt
about the sacredness of the indi
vidual and the debasing effects O
violence that we are fully aware o
the mighty weapons of destruction
that have been perfected for use to
day. But we also know that i
imperialist wars of conquest and i
attempts to suppress revolutionar
activity the ruling class depend
upon conscript armies that, at Ger
tain stages of development of crise
that will inevitably be generated a
result of the irreconcilable con
Predictions of capitalism, will g
over to the side of the revolutio
with these marvellous weapons O
destruction in their hands.
! Laski and the preachers of pa
cifism would have US renounce tn
revolution and accept slavery (whic
he calls "civilization') so that
and his kind may be able indefinite
ly to continue their sermonizing.
He would have the workers an
peasants of the Soviet Union SUI
render state power so the impel
ialist butchers could turn that Ian
into a vast slaughterhouse wher
the determination of the revolution
aries could continue undated.
Just what role the Laskis woul
play in a revolutionary situation wa
revealed by their position in tn
days preceding the general strik
in England. During the nine month
that the Baldwin tory government
and every agency of British reae
ton was preparing to smash tn