The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-11-02
Workers Democracy in the Union
of the Socialist Soviet Republics

"Proletarian dictatorship is like
the dictatorship of other classes {
in that it arises from the neees-
sity of suppressing. the armed re-
sistance of the class that loses it's
political supremacy. The funda-
mental difference between the
proletarian dictatorship of the
great landowners of the Middle
Ages and that of the capitalist
class in all civilized capitalist
countries is simply that the two
last named relationships were a
foreible suppression of the resist
ance of the exploiters, lie, of an
insignificant minority of the pop
ulation-the landlords and the
capitalists. Hence it follows that
the proletarian dictatorship must
inevitably bring with it not only
q change in the forms and insti-
tutions of democracy, generally
speaking, but also precisely such
a change as will bring hitherto
undreamt-of extension in practice
of the use of democracy by those
who have been opposed by CAPT
talism, i.e., by the working
classes" Thesis submitted to the
working classes" (Thesis sub
mitted to the first Congress of
the Communist International by
V. |. Lenin.)
The favorite charge heraided by
the official Federation Of Labor and
their socialist party allies, by the
social reformists of all countries, and
broadcast by the capitalist press, is
that mo democracy exists in the
Soviet Union" The more skilled of
these agents Of imperialism in the
ranks of the working class broaden
this accusation and charge that not
only has democracy in the sense of
the formal right to vote for all
classes been destroyed, but that the
working class itself has no voice
in determining either wages and
working conditions in industry or in
selecting governments officials and
determining government policies.
The direct opposite is the truth.
In no country in the world does such
a large proportion of the toiling
masses ia Ike part directly in the
various branches of government and
in the management of industry. The
trade unions with their more than
100000 members are the founda-
ton of the Soviet power. Without
the support of the masses OF work
ers in the trade unions the govern
ment could not last twenty-four
hours.
Real Majority Rule.
The Soviet system is the most
democratic of all governmental sys-
tens. 1t is the first governmental
system in which the majority of the
population, which, of course, con-
sists of the industrial workers, the
telling masses of the countryside
and their families, and working in
tellectuals has been able to fully ex-
press it's class interests as against
thost of small minority of capital
list and agrarian exploiters.
Capitalist writers, historians and
philosophers have written whole IL
braries telling of the wonderful
democracy of ancient Greece and of
the democratic governmental meth
DDS of the Saxons, Norsemen, ETC.,
in olden times. Especially is it en-
phasized by these press agents of
the ruling class, that democracy in
so-called A.. glo-Saxon countries,
blooms so luxuriantly that every
person, be he worker or capitalist,
can pluck bouquet, and that this
is the result of the heritage handed
down from a democratic Nordlc
ancestry.
Marx and Engels long ago ex-
ploded this myth. They showed that
all societies are class societies and
will continue SO until the working
class, under the leadership of the
Communist Party, takes power, es-
tablishes the proletarian dictator
ship, makes the working class the
ruling class and begins the transit
ton period which ends in Commun-
list society-classless society. The
democracy of Greece was a democ-
racy only for the aristocratic slave
holders. The great majority OF the
population-the helots-were chat
tel slaves and had the social status
of beasts of burden. The so-called
Anglo-Saxon democracy was a DEM
ocracy of the nobility. The majority
of the populction-the thralls-had
no rights of any kind. Their mas
tiers had the power of life and death
over them.
apitalist Democracy!
| What does American capitalist
democracy mean to the American
working class? 1t is true that nemi-
nally all citizens have the right to
vote 1t is likewise true that the
working class in the United States
is the majority of the population.
The working class and the work
ing population Of the farming dis
tricts together constitute an over
wheIming majority of the population.
But in the e ntire history OF the
United States there has never been