The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-16
BY BETTY GANNETT

struggle to the recognition of the
dictatorship of the prOletariat."
--Lenin-"State and Revolution"
The role of the Socialist Party
in mobilizing the masses for sup
port OF decaying capitalism is most
clearly to be seen in the recent issue
Of its organ, the Leader osten-
sibly devoted to the commemors-
ton Of the 5Oth anniversary Of the
death Of Karl Marx.
only yesterday, this same party
IN conventions, and in the published
works OF its spokesman, forgot to
mention or openly denied the class
struggle and declared Marx as out
moded. Today, although in prac-
tice and theory more anti-Marnau
than ever, the Socialist Party sud
denly becomes Marx conscious ]
In the entire issue of the New
Leader, the degenerate pTo-cap-
italist role of the Socialist Party is
clearly exposed. The developing
revolutionary upSurge Of the AM
erican workers now Compels the
S. P. to give official lip-loyslty TO
Marxism. They have now taken to
speaking of the class struggle. But
how? To show that the class s6rug-
gle, the bitter ireconcilable conflict
between the working class and the
boITgeoiSie. can be slowed within
the confines of capitalism.
PANKEN IGNORES OR
DISTORTS MARKS WRITINGS
In an article by Jacob Panken,
we find this reformist theory of
the Socialist Party presented as the
teachings of Marx. Panken, typical
Of the Socialist Party leadership,
not only reveals his complete ignor-
ance Of MarxiSm, but in the rare
instances where he gives evidence
Of having looked into q MARKHAM
pamphlet, deliberately falsifies and
distorts the little he may have read
therein.
The task of the Socialist Party,
in the words Of Norman Thomas, to
avert revolution" is in this article
hravely carried on by Panken. MIR.
Panken attempts to deny that Marx
emphasized in all his activity and
writings that the historic mission
of the working class is to over
throw capitalism and in its place
establish the rule Of the proletariat.
But, from the revolutionary call to
action in the Manifesto Of the Com
munist Party to the last utterances
of Marx and Engels, this was con-
stantly reiterated.
BAKUNIN DENIED
PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP
Marx waged a sharp and relent-
less struggle against the Bakunin-
lists who held that the destruction
of the state can be accomplished
with one blow, and that destroying
force is to be not the working class
but a group Of disciplined conspi-
Tatorial revolutionaries.
In essence, Bakunin's position was
d denial of the seizure of power by
the proletariat and a complete
rejection of the necessity of estab-
fishing the transition State of the
proletariat to crush the resistance
of the defeated bourgeoisie This
anarchist utopian platform arose
from a basic lack of faith in the
revolutionary power of the prole-
tariat, 1t was grounded in the
petty bourgeois roots of Bakunin-
Ism. But Mr.. Panken gives the
following Interpretation of the en-
tire struggle between Marx and
the Bakuninists:
Marx espOused democracy and
believed that by political action
he ra.pInXfnYr as.EA .Fs T.,
Socialism might be effected;
Bakunin, on the other hand,
rejected political action; his view
was that all states must be des-
txoyed, and that that could not be
done otherwise than by insurrec-
tiOn. Two schools of thought
were fought for in the First In
ternatiOnal. In measure the
position of the present-day Boil
shevik comedies with that of
Bakunin. The BolSheviks have
given new Technology to the
ideas expressed by Bakunin. They
call a dictatorship of a party
executive in great land a die
tatOrship of the prOletariat.'
Bakunin was more frank; having
no faith in the prOletariat, he
desired TO set up a group. call
them, If you will, benevolent
tyrants,' but in fact it would
amount TO a dictatorship by a
few over the many
'F0RCE is MIDWIFE TO
BRING IN NEW SOCIETY
What is a more fitting reply 10
these attempts to convert Marx into
a pacifist reformer than the words
Of Marx himself In his third vol
unle Of Capital, Marx states: Force
is the midwife of every old society,
pregnant with a new one
In his Answer to the Anarchists
written in 1873 he states with
sarcasm
'If the political struggle of the
working class assumes a revOiu-
tionary form; If the workers, in
place of the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, set up their own re-
volutionary dictatorship, then
they commit terrible crime and
Torf0Ifcf NTo~Eo,o Z