The daily worker., 1934-11-02
They No Longer Need
Upton Sinclair


1--WE weeks ago, Upton Sinclair was
L basking in the sun of the Democratic
Party endorsement for Governor.
Today there is rush of the Roose-
velt politicians, off the Sinclair band
wagon.
But this doesn't mean that the capitalist poll
ticians are afraid of Sinclair or his program
1t is the masses who follow Sinclair who frighten
the capitalist politicians in the Democratic Party
the class forces stirred up in the fight which Sim
clair cannot control
For the whole point of the present situation is
that the masses who rushed to Sinclair's program
are no longer in the same position where Sim
clair is. In the past few weeks Upton Sinclair
has been yielding steadily to the pressure of the
machine politicians in his party.
Sinclair visited Roosevelt and got the blessing
of this leading agent of Wall Street. He got Jim
Farley's blessing. He dumped most of his Epic"
plan overheard at the California Democratic State
convention. He did everything to win his coveted
prize-the Governorship OF California.
But Sinclair is now being dropped like a hot
iron by the capitalist politicians because in his
toward the right it is longer certainty
that he swing the masses back along with him.
Sinclair's demagogy was userll to the capital
lists in that its utopan schemes for promising to
solve poverty without hurting the profit system had
the advantage for the capitalists of diverting the
masses away from the road to Communism. But,
at the same time, Sinclsir's radical promises also
had the unwilling effect of placing before the
masses the questioning of the whole present polit-
ical set-up.
And in the present period or crisis, with the
masses of California just emerging from the great
est labor strike in American history this demagogy
becomes too dangerous to play with
CINCLAIR wrote last week to George Creel an
y swering the charge that he had gone too far
"left" of the Democratic Party platform:
II urged them to vote for the Democratic
ticket 1 have even gone so far as to urge them
not to vote for unless they voted the Demo
cratic ticket straight. 1t is you who have broken
faith with the Democratic Party of California and
the New Deal which we support
This shows how far Sinclair had travelled in
the past few weeks from the early "radicahsm" of
the Epic" plan He shows himself wholly sub
servent supporter of the capitalist policies of the
Democratic Party. 1t is evident that Sinclair was
placed at the head of the mass unrest in Cali
fornia not to lead it forward toward the left to-
ward militant class struggle against capitalism but
to stay with the movement in order to lead it back
to the right away from revolution from the Com
munst Party
Sinclair's letter shows how misled were those
workers who supported Sinclair on the theory
that half loaf better than none at all!
The point is that Sinclair was never even half
loaf, small crumb! Behind all his radical
phrases, Sinclair concealed the reactionary poll
cies of the whole Roosevelt capitalist New Deal"
the policies which have made life worse than ever
for the masses.
EVEN now, with the Democratic endorsement Slip
ping from him, Sinclair still does service to the
advance of capitalist reaction. BY his praise OF
the Roosevelt New Deal" by his praise of this
Wall Street program social" program, Sin
clair is assisting the execution of all of the Wall
Street policies of Roosevelt Snclars failure shows
the bankruptcy of all petty-bourgeos utopias as a
solution for the crisis.
The capitalist politicians in California now try
to appear as "progressives" This is necessary be-
cause of the aroused resentment of the masses
But these "progressives' are only the reactionary
wolves in sleeps clothing of liberalism"
AS the reactionary Merriam assumes more and
more of the New Deal" demagogy for his own
uses, as the Democratic politicians rapidly desert
Sinclair the difference between Sinclair and Mer-
riam becomes less and less. They both base them
selves on RooseyeltS policies This is another
reason the capitalists no longer need Sinclair
In California, everywhere it is class against
class. No corn cure panaceas will help the masses
The program of the Communist Party alone based
on revolutionary class struggle against the en-
ployerS and the capitalist system alone provides the
solution for the way out of the crisis
Sinclair promised the masses Immediate" bless
lngs. But his promises only concealed whole
hearted support for the Wall Street program Of the
New Deal" which brings the masses only increased
misery The Communist Party, because it fights
capitalism alone is capable of leading the masses
in struggle for immediate gains and for the smash
ing Of the whole profit system which makes life
miserable for the majority of the people Vote
Communist! Glass against class