Communism; Industrial Workers of the World; Socialism
The immediate demands are so numerous as to require a booklet of 24
pages, published by the National Office, Socialist Party, Chicago, Ill.
It is very hard to find a single reference to Socialism itself in the
entire 24 pages of the Congressional Platform.
In a letter of Moses Oppenheimer, published in "The Call," New York,
April 14, 1919, we are told that under the opportunist leadership of men
like Hillquit, Berger, Ghent, and Robert Hunter the struggle for reforms
has gradually overshadowed and supplanted the demand for the abolition
of wage slavery. The writer continues:
"More and more it has resulted in petty tactics for vote catching.
Berger's Old Age Pension bill was a glaring exhibit of opportunist
incapacity.
"Immediate demands are a tactical problem! Comrade Lee knows that
the tactics change with changed conditions. There was a time when
the opportunists expected to win the votes of the bulk of A. F. of
L. workers. Hence the sugar coating of the Socialist pill and three
years of Chester M. Wright in control of 'The Call.'
"That is now ancient history. Lee could not repeat that chapter if
he would. Nay, I believe he wouldn't if he could.
"The powerful impulse from the movement in Europe makes itself felt
over here. There is great need for reforming our front, for
recasting our tactics. The old roar of opportunism led us nowhere,
except to barren failure. If nothing else the experience with our
Ten in Albany and our Seven in the City Hall should open our eyes.
The time for picayune politics is irrevocably gone."
In an article published in "The Proletarian," Detroit, April, 1919, page
4, Oakley Johnson thus criticises the Socialist policy of reformism as
manifested in the immediate demands of the party platform:
"Socialists have been dazed time and again by the glitter of
reformism. In every country the question has been an ever-present
one, and, as a result, the rainbows of reform have found many
chasers in the ranks of the workers. The matter seemed, up to near
the end of the war, to involve more an academic dispute on tactics
than a principle of vital importance. There seemed too many good
reasons why immediate demands for slight concessions should not be
worked for, as a step in the direction of proletarian emancipation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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