The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-08-30

Conclusion
Fellow Worker:
1t may be some time before l
get a chance to write you again.
In this last letter l want to stress
a couple of points which are nee
cessary for an understanding of
the Workers Party and constitute
additional reasons why it is the
only party for American Workers.
In the first place, as was point
ed out in my last letter, the work
ers in each nation do not live with
in four sky-high walls, isolated
from other countries. What hap
pens in any part of the earth, aft
fects us here in the U. S., may be
a matter of life and death for us.
In these days of war threats we
can all see that plainly.
The government of the U. S. is
not "our" government for which
we fight against the masses of
other countries. The government is
the bosses government which we
aim to overthrow. The same is
true for the workers in every other
country, except the Soviet Union.
INTERNATIONALISM
For these and other reasons, a
revolutionary party cannot be ma
tionalist in spirit and character.
Nor can it be confined to a single
country. 1t must be part of an in
ternational of revolutionary par
ties in which the forces of the
workers throughout the world may
be united against capitalism, Fas-
cism, war.
Just as we had to take the fore
es that were ready in the u. S. as
material with which to start the
building of the new revolutionary
party, so the forces in various
countries which recognize the
breakdown of the Second and
Third Internationals must be used
to build the new, Fourth, Interna-
tional. The w. P. has already en-
tered into fraternal relations with
parties and groups in Canada,
Panama, Cuba, other Latin Ameri-
can countries, Holland, France,
China. South Africt, Australia, etc.
which stand on the same funda-
mental program as we, in order
that as soon as conditions permit
definite steps may be taken toward
the actual establishment of the
new International.
An army composed of battalions
which exist only on paper will not
do much fighting-except on paper
or in windy discussions. Our big
gest contribution to the revived
international movement of the
workers consists of building the
W.P. into a powerful revolution
airy force right here in the U.S.A.,
in the mightiest of the capitalist
imperialist nations. Nobody else
can do that job for US. The respon-
slbility rests on our shoulders.
When a powerful revolutionary
movement actually exists here in
the U. S. it will change the whole
face of the revolutionary move
nnent throughout the world.
The w. P. seeks to be the party
of the American workers-created
by them, not imposing upon them.
1t enters into all their struggles;
it gains experience and strength
and recruits new forces out of
these struggles.
We stand firmly upon our prin-
ciples. We do not despise theory.
On the contrary, without theory
we are lost, we become the victim
of every kind of fakir in this well
ter of the twentieth century. But
as Engels pointed out in a we'll
known passage: "Our theory is a
theory of development, not of dog
ma to be learned by heart and re-
peated mechanically" It is our jot
to take the tested principles of the
international working class move
ment and make them work in the
American scene. There are revolu.
tionary traditions in American his.
tory which can and must be useC
In this connection. The class strug.
giles Of the past in American his
tory have been fought out in the
most bitter conflicts. AS a result
the right to revolution" has beer
written into the most basic docu
ment of American history. Thoma,
Jefferson asserted that a revolu
ton might be necessary ever,
nineteen years. Unless "the tree O
liberty" were "watered with tn
blood of tyrants" that often, it wa
likely to diel
AMERICAN TRADITIONS
The conception of ga nation con
ceived in liberty and dedicated t.
the proposition that all men ar
created equal" a nation in whicl
no individual or group should b
able to rule over or exploit anoth
er, is a part of the picture of Am
erica which the masses have bee
taught to cherish. Capitalism ha
made the realization Of anv O
these ideas impossible. Onl,
through the revolutionary actio-
OF the working class and its allie
against capitalism and for the es
Establishment of an internations
socialist economy-can these idea
be made real in the twentieth cen
fury. Most important Of all, Their
Is a tradition of militancy an,
struggle in the American workin,
class itself which stands forth o.
many brilliant pages Of labor his
tory and upon which we can draw
today, a. it becomes necessary +
raise these struggles to Q highe
and higher plane, to the plane pre-
sently Of outright rsvolutionar,
action for the overthrow ef sapika
IL