The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-04-04
BY PAUL MERKER (Berlin).

"
the United States of America, the proletarian
masses are confronted with the problem of
the means and methods of conducting the
revolutionary class struggle. There is being
repeated upon higher basis the disputes be-
tween the followers of Marx and Lenin and
the opportunists and liquidators, just as they
took place in the years from 1904 to 1912, re-
gardng the form of the proletarlan revolt
tionary mass struggle, of the unchainng and
spreading of the revolutionary mass move
ments.
At that time it was before all from the
struggles of the Russian proletariat that the
international working class derived their eX-
periences of the revolutionary class struggle.
Today, after the victory of the Russian prole-
tariat over the bourgeoise, it is the strug-
giles of the Chinese, the American, German
and Indian proletariat and of the working
masses of other countries which are being car
red on in ever increasing number.
The decisive fighting methods of the pres
ent phase of the revolutionary class struggle
are the revolutionary strikes and demonstra-
tons Strike struggles, organized and con-
Quoted in a revolutionary manner, mass DEM
onstrations, carried out with zest and deter
mination in spite of police suppression, are all
important means for intensifying the class
struggle and the means for developing the
fighting will. the fighting activity and the
maneuvering capacity of the proletariat. These
are the means for developing the proetarian
mass struggles up to the armed insurrection
against the bourgeoisie for the establishment
of the proletaran dictatorship.
Therefore the central question for the revo-
lutionary advance troop in the present phase
is, how and under what slogans can the prole-
tartan masses be most effectively modified and
led into the fight. What are the methods for
developing the numerous struggles which are
taking place into great mass movements.
These were the questions for the clarified
ton of which Lenin and Luxembourg waged the
fiercest fight against all opportunsts and
lquidators and these questions were answered
by Lenin plainly and clearly, in far-reaching
agreement with Rosa Luxembourg. so that the
present generation possesses in the teachings
of Lenin the key to the development of the
proletarian mass struggle
Lenin conducted an irreconcilable fight
against the representatives of the view of
the purely economic struggle. and against
those who pay no regard to the struggle of
the working masses for wages and bread and
characterize it as being incidental. Lenin
waged a ruthless fight against those who
saw in the spOntaneity of the prOetarian
masses the lever for unfolding gigantic mass
struggles, and insisted again and again on
the absolute necessity of systematic and
comprehensive organization and carrying
out of mass struggles.
Comrade Lenin followed with the greatest
attention every strike struggle, no matter how
trifling it might appear, and every workers
demonstration. He drew important conclu-
sons from the statistics regarding the extent
and duration of strike struggles, regarding the
fiob+f o,. do
mands, and proved on the basis of his con-
scientious Investigations the dalectial recipro-
cal effect between the struggles for economic
demands of the workers and the struggles of
the working masses for political ends in de-
veoping the proletarian mass struggle.
To-day it is quite obvious" wrote Lenin
already in the year 1905, what actually are
the reciprocal relations between economic
and political strikes: without their being
closely linked up really broad movement,
bearing a real mass character, is impossible;
the concrete form of this linking up con-
sists, however on the one hand, in that. at
the commencement of the movement and in
drawing new sections of workers into the
movement, the purely economic strike arOuses
backward elements and brings them into
movement generalizes and extends the
movement and raises it to higher level"
In another passage Lenn repeats this die
tum. He writes
Consequently political and economic
strikes support each Other. The one form of
struggle forms a of strength to the
other. Unless these two kinds of strike are
closely linked up there can be no really broad
mass movement, movement of nationwide
Importance. At the beginning of the move
ment the economic strike is not infrequently
capable of awakening and rousng the mass
Of the backward, of generalizing the move
uent and raising it on to higher level
Lenin specially emphasized again and again
lat it is the task of the revolutionary advance
uard, to champion the interests of the broad
st, most badly paid strata of the toilers The
light for the interests of these strata is at the
anne time the fight against the bribed and
corrupted upper stratum of the labor arsto-
.racy, which has been bought by the bour-
geoisie and which tries to represent its fur
therance of its own interests as being the
fight for the interests of the proletariat. Lenin
said:
For this purpose it was of course neces-
sary that under the demands of the workers
under the class struggle there should be I'M
derstoOd, not the fight for the interests of
small upper stratum, as the reformists too
often try to make out to the workers, but
that the prOletariat really comes forward as
the advance guard of the majority of the
exploited, and draws this majority itself into
the fight as happened in Russia in 1905 and
as it must and will undoubtedly again happen
in the coming proletarian revolution in Eu-
rope" (Lenin, Collected Works, VOL s. page
s, Russian editon.)