The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-02

frequent losses of their, wages
(Which is their only form Of in
Gomez in case of sickness or other
causes, without any hope for social
help. Yet in such cases they need
help. The workers try to meet this
need with mutual Eelp. That is why
a large section Of the American
workers belong to mutual aid soci-
cites, to fraternaI orders The In
ternational Workers Order is the
only workers mutual benefit So
ciety in America which is organized
by class conscious workers and adj
ministered with a view of serving
not only its members, but of serving
the interests of the whole working
class.
Teaching and exercising the prin-
clple of mutual help correctly slim
ulateS the development of class
consciousness among the workers;
it does this first, because it shows
the workers that they have their
economic insecurity in common,
and, second, because it shows that
mutual efforts can solve problems
that individual efforts could never
solve. The first is a suggestion of
common problems, of class prob
lens; the second is a suggestion
that common problems may be
solved by common action, class
BOSSES KNOW THIS
The American capitalists recog-
nize this very well. That is why
they have organized so many mu-
tual benefit societies and fraternal
orders. These capitalist fraternal
organizations seemingly serve the
purpose of mutual help; but in
reality they primarily serve the
purpose of keeping the workers I'M
der the influence of capitalist ide-
ology and leadership. That is why
the numerous fraternal orders I'M
der capitalist leadership are based
on other principles than the princi-
pie of mutual help. Mutual help is
a uniting principle. But the frater-
nal movement of the capitalists is
built on dividing principles; it is
based on religions, on patriotism to
different nationalities, on sets of
meaningless mystic and secret prin-
ciples, etc. Thus, instead of uniting
them for purposes of mutual aid the
workers are being divided into
knights of one religion or Knaves
of another; into loyal sons of one
country or patriotic children of an
other; into subjects of high i'm
perial potentate here or followers
OF a high exalted ruler there. There
are rituals, secrets, uniforms, all
things that have nothing whatever
to do with effective mutual aid;
yet, all this seemingly meaningless
nonsense subtly serves the purpose
of maintaining capitalist illusions
in the membership, of preventing
the principle of mutual help from
creating an understanding of the
need Of proletarian unity; all serve
the purpose of preventing the work.
ers from understanding that COM
mon needs of the workers require
common action of the workers. re-
quire class action. Parallel with
this political purpose and hardly
less important for the capitalists,
is the chance to exploit the need
of the masses as a chance to fill
their own pockets, as shown re-
Gently in the Charitable lottery
Swindle unearthed in several prom
inent bourgeois fraternal orders
The capitalists spend a good deal
OF time and energy on the fraternal
movement. Is it not also worth time
and energy on the part of the reyo-
lutionary movement to work in this
field, to counterfeit this capitalist
activity and influence? Is it not
also worth while for the revolu-
tionary workers to take the absence
of social insurance, and the need
for mutual insurance as the start
ing point of a broad workers mass
movement?
MUST BUILD PROLETARIAN
FRATERNAL MOVEMENT
A broad mass movement built on
the issue of mutual benefits ln-
Surance) must perform three tasks:
lit must help the workers to
solve an immediate and serious
problem by providing a measure of
fraternal insurance at the lowest
possible cost.
2-It must organize the workers
to fight for social insurance as the
only effective solution of the prob