The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-07-23


exercises over sections of the work
ing class.
Following on this characterize
ton, the Communist Party must con-
form its tactics to the conditions of
the new period. 1t must lead the
developing struggles of the work
ing class, and, in particular, must
intensity the battle against Social
Democracy, and finally, must inten-
sify the struggle against the oppor-
tunist line revealed in its own ranks
as a reflection of the influence of
Social Democracy.
Lovestone's Distortion of the Line
of the Sixth World Congress.
What is Lovestone's conception of
the line of the Sixth World Con-
gress? In his speech on October 2,
printed in '"The Communist" of No
vember, 1928, Lovestone enumerates
eight main features of the new peri
cd. He begins with:
IA sharpening of the bitter
antagonism amongst the imperialist
powers.
"2.-Impending war between the
two mightiest imperialist giants
the United States and Great Britain.
"3.-The ever-growing acuteness
of tension in the struggle between
capitalist powers and the Soviet
Union.
"4.-The completion of war prep
arations against the Soviet Union"
That is to say, Lovestone begins
with the sharpening external antag-
onisms of imperialism. This is his
first point. 1t is also his second,
his third, and his fourth point. In
stead of explaining the sharpening
internal contradictions, the contra
diction between the productive ca
pacity and the contracted markets,
he lays all stress on the external
contradictions. Nowhere in his
eight main features does he men
ton this fundamental discrepancy
between the productive forces and
the shrinkage of markets. Neither
does he mention naturalization, and
when he does mention rehabilitation
of the working class, it is something
which he sees only as happening in
France or in Germany.
"5.-We are now in the throes of
maturing decisive class battles. Ca
bic dispatches in this mornings press
declare that there are already be-
ginnings of a wave of important
strikes in such industrial countries
Of continental Europe as France
and Germany"
This distortion of the line of the
Sixth World Congress energies also
in the thesis presented to the Sixth
Party Convention, for which Love-
stone was largely responsible. This
thesis, the essentials of which he
still maintains, instead of empha-
sizing the contradictions of the
Third Period, the struggles that it
brought, speaks of a new wave of
prosperity ("the depression did not
develop Immediately into a crisis
but was transformed into a new
wave of prosperity."). The thesis
furthermore overestimates the posi-
ton in the United States when it
speaks of the effects Of the changes
in technique as second industrial
revolution" This phrase, Second
industrial revolution" and the whole
of the ideology connected with it,
is part of the opportunist propa-
ganda carried on both, in Ameica and
in Europe by the social democrats.
In this they are showing themselves
to be open supporters of capitalist
Reconstruction. This over-estimation
Of American imperialism shows the
influence of its opportunist apollo
getics. Inside the Communist Party
of the U.S.A., especially in the line
of Lovestone, Pepper, and others, it
has become part of the opportunist
theory of exceptionalism.
The Opportunist Theory of
Exceptionalism.
This theory of exceptionalism-
which keeps recurring in explicit or
implicit form in all of Lovestone's
writings mot only in the theses,
where the questions of American
imperialism are put separately from
questions of world capitalism, but
in numerous characterizations, such
as Lovestone's Victorian Age" of
American imperialism)--is based on
the historical fact that in the past
American capitalism developed main
| ly on the basis of it's internal mar
ket, just as at the present day the
Socialist society of the USSR is de-
veloping mainly on its immense in
ternal market. This period of
American capitalism is now passed
away with the march of the i'm
perialist epoch, but since social con-
seriousness ever lags behind social
conditions, there can still flourish
this theory based on a situation
which no longer exists.
Secondly, the theory of exception
alism is derived from the direct
propaganda of the bourgeoisie and
the reformists, of the vulgar econo-
mists already mentioned above.
Thirdly, the theory of exception
alism is based on the so-called
American prosperity" which is also
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