THE THREAT TO THE LABOR MOVEMENT
a very obscene but completely descriptive phrase for characterizing this kind of treachery.
So far, a fascist or semi-fascist dictatorship has followed this kind of "evolutionary" policy.
No Program for Present.
BUT what of the present period when the basis must be laid for the inevitable struggle? What of the millions of workers who do not share in the prosperity and who need organization, instruction in oboe elementary theory and tasks of the class struggle? What of the paralysis and death that come to a labor movement which abandons all idea of struggle because of sops thrown to various sections of it by the ruling class with a deadly purpose in mind—like a thief throws a chunk of poisoned meat to the dog who endangers the success of his looting expedition?
Berenberg replies and in replying he gives away the secret:
"Item 4:"
FOR THE PRESENT THERE IS NOTHING TO BE DONE. NO AMOUNT OF 'HUSTLING,' 'DRIVING,' 'URGING,' 'GETTING TOGETHER,' or whatever else it may be called, WILL BRING NEARER BY A SINGLE SECOND THE TRAIN OF CIRCUMSTANCES THAT ALONE CAN MAKE THE WORKER RECEPTIVE TO OUR PROGRAM. Social forces will bring him our way at last. (Emphasis mine).
It is any wonder that a leadership which exudes this poisonous fatalism finds itself in the camp of the worst enemies of the working class—the agents of imperialism in the labor movement?
This doctrine, a product of a pseudo-intellectualism which partakes of the atmosphere of the dim recesses of Greenwich Village and the smugness of the well-paid labor leaders in claw-hammer coats at a Civic Federation dinner, is a denial of Marxism which sees social forces as something the revolutionist must use and not wait for. Revolutionists, as Marx, pointed out, make history just as well as history makes revolutionists.
This is the philosophy with which the intellectuals of the socialist party have been saturating the leadership of the trade unions under their influence. It finds its reflection in the policy of worker-employer cooperation and "efficiency unionism" in such formerly militant organizations as the International Ladies' Garment Workers and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.
Accept Policy of Trade Union Officialdom.
THIS policy, hitherto pursued with some caution by the leadership of these unions, has been given a tremendous impetus by the outright pressure of the American Federation officialdom and now converges with the "Baltimore and Ohio" plans, Watson-Parker government mediation
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