The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-24

lea. And in order to carry out this counter
revolutionary policy the English oourgeoisie has
not chosen a lord; it has found its own "Pu-yi'
among the leaders Of the Second International
Every epoch gives birth to It's own hero &C.,.
And thus the eve OF a war among the inn
perialists is already apparent on the interns-
tionsl arena; insistent and precipitste prepara-
tons for counter-revolutionary war against
the Land Of soviets are to be observed. But the
growing antagonisms have not yet burst out in
warlike collision, because the bourgeoise for
the time being is still restrained by the threat
Of a world proletarian revolution and paralysed
by fear Of the growing strength Of the q. s. S R.
But what does this signify comrades-the war
against the U. 8. s. R. for which the English
bourgeosie are preparing in conjunction with
Japan and Germany? This is a continuation on
an international arena Of that civil war which
the bourgeoisie Of all capitalist countries is wag-
ing against the workers, albeit with different
degrees of ferceness in the various countries.
Before the world economic crisis the bour-
geoisie in number Of capitalist countries was
already fighting the Communist movement with
terrorist methods. Today the number Of these
countries has increased and the methods Of
struggle have become still more barbarous. And
this fact alone is evidence Of the deepening and
sharpening Of the general crisis of capitalism
and of the maturing of those conditions out Of
which revolutionary crisis is growing In al
most all capitalist countries a national crisis of
the upper classes" is to be noted in one form
or another, a crisis which, with the exception
of China and Spain, has not yet arrived at rev.
olution, but which has brought in its train
),
including social democracy. In some countries,
such as Germany it has led to the setting up
of the fascist dictatorship.
Why has this happenedP This has happened
because the forces Of proletarian revolution have
not yet matured, while the world bourgeoisie
learning its lesson from the defeat of the Rus
sian bourgeoisie in October, 1917, is striking with
all its force against the proletariat at the mo-
ment when the latter cannot yet engage in a
decisive battle.
The forces of the proletarian revolution have
temporarily proved weaker than the forces of
bourgeois reaction in certain capitalist countries
They have proved weaker because social dem
ocracy has split the proletariat; because it has
put the huge mass organizations of the working
class which underwent especially powerful
wars, at the service of capital; because one part
Of the proletariat which has followed social de-
nlocracy has been Systematically demoralized by
It with its appeals to defend bourgeois democ-
racy, ier bourgeois dictatorship; because social
democracy has helped the bourgeoise to disarm
the working class, as may be seen from the
examples of Germany and Austria And this
split working class has been confronted by mon
opoly capital and large-scale and-oVnership,
which have temporarily overcome their inner
contradictions by setting up the fascist dictator
ship and by rallying together the forces of
bourgeois reaction into one shock troop in the
face of the proletarian revolution which is
Threatening them The split Of the working class
has had one other disastrous consequence,
namely that it has weakened to an enormous
degree the strength of the proletarats in
fuence over the reserves of the proletarian rev.
olution, the main masses of the peasantry, the
lower strata Of the urban petty bourgeoisie and
the employees, AS result of this considerable
part of the peaSantry, of the urban petty bour-
geoisie and the employees in Germany have
wavered towards the side of bourgeois reaction
During a number of years social democracy,
by its corrupting propaganda against the pro-
A-uf~AANAh AS'NAAbApiA
struction in the u s. S. r, has caused these
strata, albeit only temporarily to sway towards
the right. On the other hand the crisis has
actiyised those strata which before the crisis
were nothing but voting machine of bourgeois
dictatorship Before the World War of 1e14-ls
the small shopkeeper served behind the counter
and did not busy himself actively with high
politics; his son, university student in Berlin
fought duels and cherished the dream Of one
day becoming a petty official in the Prussian
State apparatus; the master of a small work
shop was in a hurry to Chamber higher up the
ladder Of the capitalist hierarchy without losing
time on fruitless political reasoning the Ger
man rich peasants, the bulwark of the capitalist
order, allowed the small peasants to sink into
ruin. The crisis of capitalism has undermined
the economic position of these strata In 1898
they were confronted with the question of whom
to follow
Socialism is no longer an abstract ideal as it
was before the war of 1914 Socialism and
capitalism are two warning world systems be-
tween which it is necessary to choose. And every
where in the capitalist countries the classes are
making their choice. The proletariat and the
millions of toilers throughout the whole capital
ist world are doing this and the other classes
are doing 1t too, The Shopkeeper does not want
to be an employee under proletsrisn dictator
ship, because Goebbels has promised him TO in
sure his position forever by closing the big de-
partment stores the rich peasant does not
want to be liquidated as a class because he hopes
to become a coupon clipper under capitalism;
the master of the workshop does not want to
enter the factory as worker because he wants