Communism; Industrial Workers of the World; Socialism
If Moscow's "programs and methods" are only the minor reason for
supporting Moscow, what is the major reason for this "support?" What is
the Third (Moscow) International "doing" which "is really challenging"
the "world," arraying the "forces of the world" against it and thus
making its own "fall" a serious possibility? We examine (see Chapters
III and IV and the present chapter) the Third (Moscow) International's
call to the March, 1919, Conference and the manifesto sent out from it,
and we see what it has done in challenge of the rest of the world. It
has declared war against the rest of the world and its existing
governments, the "Entente Powers," "The White Terror of the
bourgeoisie," as it calls them in the "Manifesto of the Moscow
International" published in the "New York Call" of July 24, 1919, from
which we here quote; and against these "Entente Powers," "The White
Terror," the manifesto continues, "Against this the proletariat must
defend itself--defend itself at all costs! The Communist International
calls the whole world-proletariat to this, the final struggle! Down with
the imperialist conspiracy of capital! Long live the International
Republic of Proletarian Soviet!" (Ibid.)
Thus complete identification with this proletarian declaration of war
against the "Entente Powers" was the major aim of the Socialist Party of
the United States in voting for affiliation with Moscow. This is the
principal ground on which it "declares itself in support of the Third
(Moscow) International" and proclaims it to be "the duty of Socialists
to stand by it now." Just as Hillquit differed from the Left Wingers,
now his "communist brethren," not "on vital questions of principles,"
but only "on methods and policy," opposing their "movement" "not
because" it was "too radical" or "would lead us too far," but simply
because its "specific form and direction, ... its program and tactics,"
would "spell disaster," so Hillquit's Party supported the Third (Moscow)
International "not so much because" of its "programs and methods" as
because what it was "doing," its war-declaration and marshaling of the
world's proletarian forces against the "Entente Powers," was "really
challenging world imperialism."
Is not one mind, one aim, one intent, one purpose and hatred
consistently evident in all these utterances? And thus we understand the
vehemence of the Chicago Manifesto of September 4, 1919, "largely based
upon one suggested by Morris Hillquit," as the "Call," New York, of
September 5, 1919, says. The following quotation from the Chicago
Manifesto, as printed in the "New York Call" of September 5, 1919, and
also in Trachtenberg's Labor Year Book, 1919-1920, pages 413-14, shows
that the Socialist Party of America completely repudiates the so-called
"Moderate" Socialists, and supports the Bolshevist and Communist violent
revolutionists:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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