The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1935-08-16

Fellow-Worker:
My last letter pointed out that
We workers cannot obtain plenty
and security. deliverance from mis-
cry and war, by trying to reform
the capitalist economic system. We
have to abolish it. And we cannot
abolish it except by the revolution
airy method. The capitalists are not
going to retire gracefully and
without struggle from the scene!
In your answer YOU said that the
workers in your shop kicked about
a lot of things like wages and the
way they are being speeded up and
the high cost of food, but that
they did not read any serious pa
pers or books and were against
any radical theories" You added
that although they growle6 a lot
they did not show much fight and
that you did not think they would
ever be ready to make revolu-
ton"
If by this YOU mean that you do
not have any hope that the masses
of the workers will become stu
dents of economics and govern
ment. will understand and accept
the theories set forth in Marks
Capital. and as a result of intellec-
ual reflection will determine to
overthrow capitalism. you are per-
fectly right. This is not the way
things happen in history.
You know how it is when a
strike occurs in your mill. 1t does
not happen primarily because the
workers have been reading Stats
tics of what is happening in the
industry or because in general
they have become radical in their
thinking. 1t comes because of gri-
evances about things in which
they are directly concerned, the
way in which a foreman treats
them, a wage cut. an attempt of
the boss to squeeze more work out
of them. Such grievances pile up.
Presently workers who have had
meek attitude and still regard
themselves as thoroughly conser-
vative, strike and fight. In the
strike they learn a great deal
about the economic system, the
banks, the role of the government.
Many worker has become class
conscious and been started on his
way to a life of activity in the la
Dor and revolutionary movement in
this way.
What the Masses Fight For
The masses may be said always
to fight for direct and simple
things. for the right to exist, for
a better life. When the great Boil
shevik revolution broke out in
Russia in 1917, they were not NOV
ed by a conscious determination to
build "a new social order" and a
clear picture of what kind of an
order it would be. The slogans in
the fight were Peace, Bread, Land.
The whole economic and political
machinery of the Czarist regime
was broken up, was ceasing to
function altogether. The soldiers
wanted to quit the army where
they were being slaughtered like
cattle. The masses in the cities
wanted to eat. The peasants want
ed the land which was in the pos
session of the big landowners.
The time had come when in order
to exist. IN order to prevent COM
plete ruin, the masses had to car
ry on their fight, ever more broad
" and intensely, and at last again
st the economic system as a whole
and against the government which
served to maintain that economy.
Thus. under the leadership of the
revolutionary party. the masses
carried through the revolution to
overthrow capitalism and establish
the workers state.
All the details as to how the job
was done in Russia, or how it may
be carried through here where, of
course, the conditions are not ex-
actly the same, we need not 20
into here. But we can see before
our own eyes how things NAV
shape I'D. We recall how last year
in Toledo, Minneapolis, San Fran
cisco, and plenty of other places,
tens of thousands came out on the
streets and picketed In support of
strikes which in many cases invol-
we'd directly only small number,
When a general strike" occurs,
even on restricted scale, who de-
cides whether milk shall be de-
llvered to children or the light and
power be kept on in hospitals?
The mayor. city council, etc. have
become powerless. The instruments
of capitalist government cannot
function. The workers Strike Com.
mittee, or In some cases where
food is involved a farmers strike
Committee, decides such things
You have them taking over some
OF the functions of the govern.
ment. Thus we can see the possibil.
ity of Workers Councils emerging
the instruments with which work
ers carry on the fight and also
tn instruments through which the
government of the workers func
tons after they have taken power
The Russian name for councils i:
Soviets. That is why we Otter
speak of the workers state a
Soviet power. 2
Thus the picture unfolds. Tn,
capitalist system, through the de
vslopment of productive force
makes plenty possible. cannot fun
ction effectively any more. It pres
o the standard Of lying of th
masses ever lower. The capitals
stabs also begine to break dow
The workers.. b ordmr 10 exisl
have 70 Hkht "a . broader fronl
Presently. they have - ovnrtkro,
tie stats and abslimk Ahs -