Western Socialist Vol. 33 #253 (#5-1966)

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WSP €ONFEHE^0E

The Labor Day weekend is tradi-
tionally a busy time for the World
Socialist Party (U. S.) It is Annual
Conference time and as many of the
members and friends from around
the country — and other countries,
as well — that can make it, wend their
way to our national headquar-
ters in Boston, Mass. For a period
of some three days, serious Party
business, camaraderie, and a generally
good social time is had by all.

On the week-end of September 3,
4, and 5, 1966, some forty delegates,
fraternal delegates, and sympathizers
gathered at the new headquarters at
295 Huntington Ave. to thrash out
issues of Party concern. Those in
attendance came from the Greater
Boston area, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and fraternal delegates
arrived from Great Britain and from
Canada. A prepared agenda was
debated and voted on. Items that
carried will be put to the general
membership of the World Socialist
Party (U. S.) in forthcoming ref-
erenda.. There was also a period,
totalling three hours, of theoretical
discussion. A buffet supper was
served in the headquarters on Satur-
day evening and this was followed by
a social during which Party tapes
were listened to, and general social-
izing was enjoyed.

The Sunday session were followed
by a dinner at a Cambridge restau-
rant and a swinging party at the
home of comrades. The Conference
sessions ended early on Monday
afternoon and the 1966 WSP Con-
ference passed into history.

But there were interesting pre and
post Conference activities that must
also be recorded .

OFFICIAL NOTICE

Subscriptions, donations, articles and cor-
respondence for insertion in The Western
Socialist should be addressed to the World
Socialist Party, 295 Huntington Avenue
Room 212, Boston, Mass. 02115, or Socialist
Party of Canada, P.O. Box 115, Winnipeg
Manitioba.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

6 issues $1.00

15 issues $2.00

Lifetime Sub $15.00

Bundle rates (in lots of 10 or more)

per issue 10# per copy

Our comrades from the Socialist
Party of Great Britain, Phyllis and
Arthur Howard went before the mikes
and the telephones on the Palmer
Payn e program, WNAC A.M. and
WRKO P.M. on the evening of August
26, from 6.15 to 8. Socialism once
more received an airing throughout
New England, Northeastern U.S. and
Eastern Canada. The Howards did
a fine job and have joined a select
group of British comrades who have
spread the word over American radio
— Comrades McCIatchie, Darcy, and
Grant.

* * * *

News from Toronto, Canada

On Saturday September 10, Local
Toronto (Socialist Party of Canada)
sponsored an International Rally for
Socialism in the new Nathan Phillips
Square in front of the new City Hall.
Seven speakers from the Socialist
Party of Canada, the Socialist Party
of Great Britain and the World
Socialist Party (U.S.) presented the
case for socialism over a public ad-
dress system. It was the first open
air meeting to be held in this busy
shopping area.

In preparation, press, radio and
TV were notified but there was no
response. Despite the blackout from
the news media, however, the meeting
was a success with a satisfactory sale
of literature. Many requests for in-
formation were handled at the liter-
ature table and the audience, gen-
erally, was attentive.

There were some interesting side-
lights: 1. Larry Solway, host of one
of the talk shows in Toronto (Radio
Station CHUM) wrote Local Toronto
that he does approve of free speech
but the Socialist Party of Canada
does not deserve a hearing because
of their "antiquated" ideas about class
struggle, etc. 2. A reporter for a
Toronto newspaper interviewed Com-
rades Phyllis and Arthur Howard of
London, England but his write-up
was not cleared by his editor. Dis-
appointed, he nevertheless attended
the regular Sunday meeting in Allen
Gardens (September 11) , took copious
notes of the speeches and pictures of
Hie speakers. This time there was
(Turn to page 18)

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VOL. 33

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Number 253

Editorial Committee Views the News

South Vietnam Elections

Generally speaking, the American
press had a field day in reporting the
result of the election of a constituent
assembly in South Vietnam. The
consensus of opinion would seem to
V- be that it was a major defeat for the
Viet Cong because it showed con-
clusively (as these analysts read it)
that the overwhelming percentage of
the population of that country are on
"our" side. There are, however, some
important flaws in the concensus
that are worth noting:

Writing in The National Observer
for September 19, 1966, Richard Egan
makes the following point:

"To be sure there were subtle pressures
on the South Vietnamese to go to the polls.
In the countryside, the peasant's orien-
tation is to his village and little beyond.
If the village chief urged him to vote, the
peasant may have feared alienating his
local leader. Many of the rural voters
didn't know whom they were voting for
or what the functions of the constituent
assembly would be. Yet they flocked to
the polls, ignoring Communist terrorism
and threats of reprisals."

Could it have been a fear on their
part of jumping from a frying pan
into a fire? Quite possibly and a
letter to the editor of The New York
Times of September 18, 1966, by a
Mr. Albert Bridgewater of New York
seems to underscore the old cliche.
Mr. Bridgewater, who claims to have
lived in a former French colony which
was "undergoing a guerilla war at the
time of the national election" re-
minds ns of the quaint, custom of
checking the internal "papers" which
all residents must carry. "The promise

or mere possibility that some reprisal
could be taken against those who
lacked a voter's card (with the corner
missing) would be more than suf-
ficient to account for the (80%)
turnout," declares Mr. Bridgewater.

And Joseph Kraft, in his column
of September 17, (Boston Globe)
seems to substantiate the argument,
even if unintentionally. He tells us
that the heaviest voting took place
in the areas of South Vietnam that
were coolest to the Government and
which had, consequently, the largest
concentration of government troops.
(Our emphasis.) This is democracy
in action? It seems reminiscent of
elections in Nazi Germany and Bol-
shevik Russia.

THE SHOEMAKER'S LAST

A certain Rodger Swearingen, pro-
fessor or international relations at
the University of Southern Califor-
nia, director of the university's
Research Institute on Communist
Strategy and Propaganda, etc. has
broken into the news. A few months
ago, The New York Times published
an impressive and expensive three-
page advertisement signed by and
paid for by some 6000 academicians
and professional types representing
some 100 and more educational insti-
tutions. The ad was an exhortation to
President Johnson to stop the war in
Vietnam and to do it quickly. This
paid open letter and a previous, simi-
lar one, galvanized Professor Swear-
ingen into action. "Who were these
people?" he wondered, and he set
to work to check their credentials.

"Just as I thought," he must have
muttered, "these people, for the most
part, are engaged in departments
that have little or nothing to do with
international politics. What in heck
do they know about it anyway? Why

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The Western Socialist

No. 5 — 1966

No. 5

1966

don't they stick to their last?" And
he answered the Johnson critics with
a withering blast, three columns, in
length, that was published by The
National Observer (September, 1966.)
It is not our intention to rush to
the defence of the indicted acade-
micians. It could even be true to a
considerable extent that few, if any,
of the 6000 signers are properly in-
formed on international affairs in
general and the politics, etc. of the
Vietnamese War, in particular. We
would, however, question Professor
Swearingen's own credentials in spite
of (or perhaps, because of) his par-
ticular field. But why should we
present our own viewpoint when we
have a generally recognized authority
to refer to who has done the job
quite admirably, and recently. We
call as our chief witness Mr. Arthur
Schlesinger Jr., former close adviser
to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
In a lengthy article entitled "A
Middle Way Out of Vietnam" (N.Y.
Times Magazine, September 18, 1966) ,
Mr. Schlesinger has the following to
say:

"The Administration in Washington was
systematically misinformed by senior Amer-
ican officials in Saigon in 1962-63 regarding
the progress of the war, the popularity of
Diem, the effectiveness of the 'strategic
hamlet' program and other vital matters.
It was not that these officials were
deliberately deceiving their President; it
was that they had deceived themselves
first. Ordinary citizens restricted to read-
ing the American press were better informed
in 1963 than officials who took top-secret
cables seriously."

A fig for Professor Swearingen and
his "inside" information! And Mr.
Schlesinger continues:

"The fact is that our Government just
doesn't know a lot of things it pretends
to know. It is not discreditable that it
should not know them, for the facts are
elusive and the judgments incredibly dif-
ficult. But it is surely inexcusable that
it should pretend to know things it does
not — and that it should pass its own
ignorance on to the American people as
certitude. And it is even less excusable
that it should commit the nation to a policy
involving the greatest dangers on a foun-

The Western Socialist

dation so vague and precarious."

It would seem that Professor
Swearingen and the other "experts"
might need a new last.

"BLACK POWER"

Since Stokeley Carmichael and
SNCC ("Snick") began to raise
their new battle cry, "Black Power,"
a great deal of emotions are being
stirred up. One viewpoint of the
meaning of the slogan — as argued
by syndicated columnist Ralph
McGill, a supposedly liberal Southern-:
er — is a sort of black KKKism and
Mr. McGill, bemoaning the metamor-
phosis of the old SNCC into some-
thing which seems quite different,
recalls with nostalgia the former
"Snick" as a "genuine" and "mili-
tant" civil rights group.

On the other hand, we have a
representative group of avowed
liberals disagreeing with Mr. McGill's
interpretation and arguing that
"Black Power" is a sensible and logical
goal when seen in its proper context.
It simply means, according to them,
that Negroes should enjoy a feeling
of "psychological equality" and that
it is perfectly logical for them to feel
that White teachers and political
leaders would be better occupied in
organizing Whites. There is nothing
in the nature of "black chauvinism"
or KKKism about the new SNCC,
they argue.

Conservative and reactionary opin-
ion, unlike that of the liberals, seems
to be more united. "Black Power"
is a devilish movement and must be
confronted with "White Power" in all
its strength.

The World Socialist Party takes a
"third camp" view on the question.
We think that the Negro working-
class would be well advised to leave
the question of "Black Power" to the
Negro bourgeoisie and would-be bour-
geoisie. As long as capitalism per-
sists the choice between "White
Power" and "Black Power" is like the
choice sometimes offered capital
offenders — the gallows or a firing
squad. Or at very best the choice
of a life of malnutrition as against
one of insufficient nutriment. The

Page 5

difference, if any, is nebulous. Neither
"White Power" nor "Black Power,"
we insist, but political working-class
power aimed at the immediate
abolition of the wages, prices, profit,

system and the introduction of a
classless system based upon produc-
tion for use — socialism. Therein
lies not only Negro emancipation but
the emancipation of all mankind.

THAT WAR ON POVERTY

Back in the days of World Wars
One and Two, it was common prac-
tice ta lay aside crossword and jigsaw
puzzles, as well as other cultural
formalities, and indulge in the pas-
time of sticking pins in maps to
denote the progress of the contending
armies on the various fronts. The
sudden changes in the manocuvcrs

V and logistics of army units made the
ritual a stirring avocation.

In the present War on Poverty such
a ceremony would prove dull and
irksome. The progress, if any, is not
discernable and the pins would be
prone to rust in their primary
positions.

To the Marxian student of econom-
ics, it is always interesting to
watch the subtle retreats, intrigues,
and compromises relished by the
capitalist or vulgar economists. We
concede that some of these are ear-
nestly seeking a way of shoring up the
present system of society, and de-
rogating its detractors. They are
honest even if mistaken in their mis-

i sion. But the most of them act as
though their brains were eligible to
apply for unemployment insurance.
Their talents are utilized in the base
purpose of selling the system to those
wno are robbed of everything in the
process of producing wealth.

Nothing could more clearly reveal
the harlotry and rational bankruptcy
of the venal economists, who cham-
pion the cause of capitalism, than the
case of the current campaign to
abolish poverty. A palpable hoax, as
anyone with the rudiments of eco-
nomic acumen can see, it is accepted

, as a serious and promising venture
by the economists of every caliber
dedicated to maintaining the class-
divided social system as it is.

LAYERS AND TIERS

The top layer in this system is more
than adequately supplied. Beneath
this tier are the skilled technicians,
educators, professionals, and public
servants who are indispensable to the
operation of the system. Then comes
the great body of the working class,
the men and women who produce the
wealth, and provide the services in
return for the wages and salaries
that enable them to buy the neces-
sities for survival and reproduction.

Closely associated with these are
the crowds of unskilled, unqualified,
unadaptable, and unambitious out-
casts who constitute the bottom level
in modern society. The condition of
these is reduced to chronic des-
titution. They are mainly part-time
workers, whose numbers and lack of
social pressures, militate against the
acquisition of any advantages or
prospects. They are firmly estab-
lished on a course of indigence and
despair.

So long as this type of social system
obtains there can be no means
available to remove the sordid
situation of those caught in the clutch
of circumstance. Chunks of wealth,
even representing the expenditure
of billions of dollars, may be allocated
to their needs, but such serve only
to temporarily allay the most virulent
aspects of social privation.

There appears to be but one con-
sequential remedy to deal with the
disease of poverty, and this one in-
volves the elimination of the basic
wage-labor and capitalist relation-
ship and the introduction of a
system of production for use. This
of course erases the upper as well as
the lower level, and would have no
particular appeal to those on top.

Page 6

The Western Socialist

No. 5 — 1966

No. 5 — 1966

The Western Socialist

Page 7

They intend to stay there. They
prefer a more intricate and discom-
posing solution. So it is that the
sham economists are falling over each
other in the quest for jobs for the
unemployed, and relief for the unem-
ployable. That they do find jobs must
be granted. But these seem to be
fabricated for the benefit of the
promoters rather than for the im-
poverished legions they are ostensibly
aiming to assist.

MORE ALPHABET SOUP
In the New Deal era, we had the
National Recovery Administration,
Works Progress Administration, Pub-
lic Works Administration, Agricultural
Adjustment Administration, and the
Commodity Credit Corporation, with
a giant blue eagle, symbolizing the
prevalent social blues, flying high
above them all. With those for-
midable alphabetical weapons, pro-
viding jobs for party favorites,
President Roosevelt continued his
assault on poverty for many years.
But his heroic attempts had little
effect till America joined the other
battling nations in slaughtering
workers, and having billions of dol-
lars worth of wealth destroyed. This
turned the tide.

Now we are specializing in fancy
titles again. The Job Corps, Work
Experience Corps, Upward Bound
Corps, Head Start Corps, Community
Action Corps, Work Study Corps,
Neighborhood Youth Corps, Green
Thumb Corps, and Volunteers in Ser-
vice to America Corps. All those
indicate a healthy condition of jobs
where none existed before. But to
the apprehensive needy in the nether
realm, their attitude was one of
suspended commitment. Out of the
millions of dollars expended, thou-
sands might trickle through to the
basement, while the bulk of the funds
clung to the fingers of the corps en-
gaged in squeezing them through.

CORES OF THE CORPS
These sundry corps have definite
parts to play in poverty eradication.
Project "Head Start" goes to what
the administration considers to be
the seat of the problem — the edu-

cation of children. If they can cram
sufficient education into the heads
of the youngsters, the first battle is
won. They have no inclination to go
to the point of production where the
poverty originates and remove the
foundation on which the robbery is
built.

The "Upward Bound Corps" at-
tempts to motivate poor boys and
girls to climb the ladder of learning
by going to college, and getting their
young heads fixed to fit into the
potential openings in industry and
finance. That there are millions of
young people now in possession of
diplomas competing for jobs doesn't
stymie the promoters from adding to
the number. "Misery likes com-
pany," and the "more the merrier."

The "Green Thumb," and "Medicare
Alert" Corps apply to the geriatric
section of society. There's no sense
in having the old people imitating
their rulers by consuming wealth,
and doing nothing when they can be
usefully employed in planting trees
and shrubs, and otherwise beautify-
ing the gruesome aspects of the urban
scene.

This year, 5000 young, energetic
workers spread across the nation to
assist in social service projects. They
penetrate city slums, and the grim
haunts of rural communities. They
enter the filthy camps of migrant
dwellers, cover the expanses of Indian
reservations, and survey the in-
stitutions of the mentally ill. These
youthful volunteers serve for one year
and are paid $50.00 per month, plus
living essentials.

THE GENERALS' CONCLUSIONS

To get the war on poverty into
proper perspective, so that it can be
fought along lines that harmonize
with the milieu of the nuclear age,
the national experts must be assenv
bled occasionally and their con-
clusions studiously assessed.

In keeping with this requirement,
the University of California, first in
numerical attendance; first in sun-
dering the miniscule atom; first in
the delicate culture of popularizing
four letter words, via public placards,

became the first American University
to make the call for immediate and
decisive action. 450 national notables,
consisting of professors of sociology
and economics, government officials,
trained welfare workers, social per-
sonnel managers, and assorted intel-
lectuals got together to formulate
battle techniques that would obliter-
ate poverty in such fashion that it
would never again be capable of
raising its hideous head.

In real scientific manner, they
decided that the first requisite was
to find out what poverty is. They
didn't call in any of the poor to iden-
tify themselves as case histories for
the analysis. They thought it best
to make an objective study in an
abstract way. They resolved that it
was the inalienable right of every
American to have some kind of a
home, plus some sort of an auto-
mobile, and a TV. These were basi;
essentials that must be conceded.
Other fixtures or appliances could
be evaded or deleted, but the family
unable to huddle around the "Holly-
wood Hillbillies," or "Gun Smoke"
was poor indeed.

They found the statutory figures
on poverty to be a bit confusing. In
California and some other states the
poverty level is established at $4,000
per family, per year. President
Johnson's Council of Economic Ad-
visers places it at $3,000. A recent
report has it that the President was
in favor of reducing the line to
$2,000. Should they continue the
reduction in this manner, it could
soon be found that, figuratively
speaking, there is no poverty at all.

Sargent Shriver, Commander-in-
Chief of the Prosperity forces, bent
on emptying all the poverty pockets,
had an interview with U.S. News and
World Report, Feb. 28. 1966. When
asked the question — "When is a per-
son or family poverty stricken, by
your standard?" replied, "We figure
anybody is poor who has less than
23 cents a meal a day, plus $1.40 for
everything else — housing, clothing,
recreation, transportation, education,
and so on." We can agree with the
Commander that anyone unable to

realize this amount of cash could
well be placed in the poverty column.
Even were the stipulated quota
measurably escalated, he would still
have little else than poverty in his
pockets.

"EXPERT" DIAGNOSIS

The causes of poverty were next
considered by the experts. One profes-
sor contended that it was purely an
urban problem. In the rural com-
munities the standard of living was
fairly well established and there was
no articulate movement aiming at
its disruption. But in the urban cen-
ters trouble was brewing. This dis-
putes Shriver's response that the 32
million poor Americans are com-
posed of 45 per cent rural, and 55
per cent urban, but the latter have
developed a more sensitive reaction.

Another delegate advanced the
theory that poverty was caused by
the poor having more children than
they can afford. This was regarded as
a profound statement in depth that
required attention. Shriver says that
they encourage local groups to bring
in birth-control-information pro-
grams but they don't make a grand-
stand play out of it for obvious
reasons. It's an emotional issue with
lots of Americans. It's a religious
issue with some. But it also has
economic connotations that cannot
be overlooked. The Catholics are in
favor of birth control for the Protes-
tants, and the reverse is also true.
The politicians, who represent both
religious groups, are caught in the
middle and are cautious about tak-
ing a stand.

It's the first time that a Govern-
ment agency had to face this issue.
It's a virgin project pregnant with
hope. Under capitalist auspices it
is indeed a touchy subject.

THE "DOCTORS" DIFFER

Now, that there was unanimity of
mind in regard to the existence of
the problem, the next thing was the
means to be taken to wipe it out.

One pundit was convinced that
the invention of more jobs would do

Page 8

The Western Socialist

No. 5 — 1966

No. 5 — 1966

The Western Socialist

Page 9

the trick. One thought that massive
spending for public works was the
real solution. One had it that com-
pensatory education was all that was
needed. One opined that slum
clearance was the way out.

A note of labor solubility was
Injected by Daniel P. Moynihan, ad-
vertised as a doctor of philosophy and
a widely known author, who was once
an assistant secretary in the U. S.
Department of Labor. The great
American hope, Moynihan said, is the
trade union — "the original and still
effective anti-poverty movement."
Given the proper mass support, the
trade unions could solve the whole
problem, and restore the balance in
the U. S. economy. This evoked ap-
plause.

But another delegate erased the
glamour from this theory, by his as-
sertion that he was a member of
organized labor for thirty years, and
he could still see a profusion of
poverty and unemployment in his
own union. If they couldn't eradicate
those social blemishes within the
unions, how could they effectively
dispose of the obstacles on the out-
side?

HOW MUCH

HOW LONG?

Commander Shriver, in his inter-
view, was asked how much would it
cost per year to eliminate poverty?
He frankly admitted that he didn't
know. But he believed that it would
cost many billions of dollars to do the
job completely. He could have raised
the ante to trillions, and still the
task wouldn't be done. So long as
the production of wealth is carried on
for the purpose of sale and profit, no
possible amount of money substitutes
thrown to the producers can liquidate
the poor.

When the questioner enquired as
to how the prospects of the war ap-
peared at present, the answer was
that there are 32 million, or about
17 per cent of the population, remain-
ing in poverty. He was hopeful that
with more spending for defense, and
education, and the war on poverty —

all combined — they could perhaps
bring it down to maybe 31 million.
There were a lot of concessions
required to get it reduced even to
that extent.

When asked when this prodigious
reduction would take place, he said
he wasn't sure. It depended on the
immediacy of the impact of the
Defense Department's spending. So
these are the bright and hopeful
prospects — appropriate more funds
for defense, ship more of the poor to
Vietnam, spend more on the weapons
of destruction, and these factors,
taken together, can provide hope for
this modest deduction in the area of
poverty.

"LOAVES AND FISHES"

Testifying at a Senate hearing, Mr.
Shriver mentioned his newest project
— "Operation Loaves and Fishes." It
has a biblical flavor. Legend tells
us that an inspired, but unemployed,
carpenter fed 5000 picnickers, who
forgot to bring their lunches, on 5
hefty barley loaves, and 2 fishes, so
small that they should have been
thrown back in the lake. The legend
has some kind of a symbolic re-
lationship to the miracle of the Ad-
ministration in removing poverty.

This project is to provide the old
people with more of those delectable
and nutritious 23-cent meals (basic
ingredient: nsh head flour). The
geriatric hosts are a pressing problem,
There's nearly 20 million of them
They are of no earthly use any long-
er. The values they once possessed
have been drained out of them. They
are not even qualified for the Vietnam
scene. What can be done with them?
Euthanasia, through the medium of
23-cent dinners, can do it authori-
tatively, and legally.

Neither Mr. Shriver, nor the experts
assembled by the University of
California, have failed to neglect the
one and only corrective for the
poverty disorder — the abolition of
capitalism. With common consent
they shunned this one.

J. A. MacDONALD

GEMS FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

-

CHICAGO'S HAYMARKET DRAMA (1886)

On November 11, 1887, four men
were led to the gallows in Chicago's
Cook County jaliyard. For men wliu
were about to die their last words
were certainly brave ones. Joseph
R. Buchanan, a sympathetic witness
at the execution, recounted the scene
and reported the statement in The
Outlook of January 1904 (an illus-
trated journal of the period). The
statements, as Mr. Buchanan and
others recorded them, were as follows:

August Spies, thirty-two-year-old
editor-in-chief of the anarchist
ArbeUer-Zeitimg, a cultured and in-
tellectual-type of "philosophical"
anarchist and former member of the
old Socialist-Labor Party: "There
will be a time when our silence will
be more powerful than the voices you
strangle today."

Adolph Fisher, 25-year-old en-
thusiastic anarchist organizer: "This
is the happiest moment of my life."

George Engel, another long-time
devotee of- anarchism: "Hurrah for
Anarchy!"

Albert R. Parsons, a former Con-
federate soldier, champion of Negro
rights, organizer in the Knights of
Labor, and editor of the anarchist-
oriented Alarm: "Will I be allowed
to speak, O men of America? Let
me speak, Sheriff Matson! Let the
voice of the people be heard! Oh!"

Looking back with the hindsight of
79 years, the scientific socialist is
inclined to but one opinion. The
Chicago anarcnists no doubt believed
that their deeds, their advocacy of
armed resistance by workers, and
their own martyrdom would help
usher in a better world. But they
died in vain. Millions of working
people have been killed or maimed
in capitalist-inspired outbreaks of
all types since bloody "justice" was
meted out to the anarchist agitators.
The capitalist-controlled propaganda
media is far better equipped to
stimulate working people to acts of
violence — against each other —

than the puny press and oratory
of anarchist or similar radical
organizations. Furthermore, tfie mere
fact that the farcical nature of
Judge Gary's trial of the eight Chicago
anarchists in 1886 was universally
decried by liberal, conservative, and
radical, did not prevent such traves-
ties from being committed on future
occasions. One has but to recall the
Tom Mooney Case, the Sacco-Vanzet-
ti Case, and in more recent times
the trial and execution of Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg. Whatever might be
argued about tiie ideas, and even tne
characters of any of these victims of
capitalist "justice," there is sufficient
cause to brand their trials — - and
scores of other less-publicized affairs
— as frame-ups.

But, for now, an examination of the
Haymarket Riot, the events im-
mediately preceding it and those that
were to follow as a result of it are
in order.

McCORMICK REAPER WORKS

A modern reader of Tne New York
Times, could he be suddenly trans-
ported backwards in time to May 4,
1886, would surely rub his eyes and
scratch his head in amazement at
the language on the front-page and
center-story of that date. Charged
and slanted phrases? Judge for
yourselves from this excerpt:

"BLOODSHED IN CHICAGO: Initiating
The Eight-Hour Fight With Broken Heads.
Fiery Speeches Incite Lumberman and
Others To Acts Of Violence — a mob of
7000 or 8000 Anarchist workmen and tramps,
maddened with free beer and free speech,

and a crowd of policemen More than 500

shots were fired and hundred of windows in
the works were stoned. There are broken
heads and bruised bodies all through the
lumber district tonight, but the down-trod-
den masses have risen and had their fun.
The talk of storming McCormiek's works
started early in the morning among the
thousands of ignorant Anarchistic lumber-
men who had been on strike since Friday
night..."

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Page 11

What was the trouble all about?
What Were these "murderous" and
"ignorant" workers demanding of
their long-suffering and kind-hearted
employers that caused these gentle-
men and their journalistic hacks to
froth so? Could it have been the
struggle for an eight-hour day?
Strange as it may seem in our times
this was the frightening battlecry
raised by the Federation of Trades
and Labor Unions of the United
States of America* and the first day
of May, 1886 was fixed by these
generally conservative unions as the
day on which this new "nightmare"
system would begin.

The trouble at McCormick's result-
ed from the lock-out of the big
Reaper Company's employees and the
fact that 300 armed Pinkerton detec-
tives had been hired to protect the
strike-breakers who operated the
plant. In his "History of Socialism In
the United States" (1903), Morris
Hillquit stated:

"On the third day of May the Lumber
Shovers' Union, of which the majority of
the locked-out McCormick employees were
members, held a mass-meeting in the
vicinity of the works to discuss the terms
of a peace proposal to be submitted to the
employers. August Spies was addressing
the meeting with 'unusual calmness and
moderation,' as he relates in his auto-
biography, when the bell of the McCormick
factory rang and the 'scabs' were seen
leaving. An excited crowd of about 150,
separating itself from the meeting, made
a move toward them. A street battle

*The forerunner of the American Feder-
ation of Labor — a far from anarchist-
oriented union.

ensued, stones being liberally thrown on
each side. The police were telephoned for, i
and a patrol-wagon filled with policemen
immediately rattled up the street. A few
minutes later about seventy-five policemen
followed the patrolwagon on foot, and
these were again followed by three or four
more patrolwagons. The police were
received with stones, and in turn opened
fire on the crowd, shooting indiscriminately
on men, women, and children, killing six
and wounding many more. Frantic and
infuriated beyond measure over this act
of brutality, Spies hurried back to the of-
fice of the "Arbeiter-Zeitung," and there
composed the proclamation to the working
men of Chicago which has since become
famous as the 'Revenge Circular.'" (p. 245).
This circular was headed "Re-
venge!" and called upon Lhe wurking
men to arm themselves and to avenge ^
the "brutal murder" of their breth-
ren.

HAYMARKET SQUARE (MAY 4)

The printing and distribution of
five thousand of these circulars in
English and German resulted in
about two thousand working men
turning up at a scheduled protest
meeting in Haymarket Square. The
fact that anarchist orators such as }
Spies, Parsons and Samuel Fielden
were to speak brought out the Mayor,
Carter H. Harrison, who fully expected
trouble and was ready, in such event
to call for police. But the Mayor was
somewhat surprised by the general
tone of "tameness" of the words
August Spies and Albert Parsons. So
much so that he returned to the
police station where reserves were
held in readiness and informed Cap-
tain Bonfield that the speeches were

as
al
of
So t

LOCAL BOSTON ACTIVITIES

OCT. 2— FILM: "Sweden"

OCT. 9— DISCUSSION: What Wrong with

the World?
OCT. 16— TALK: A Sense of Proportion —

K. Ellenbooen
OCT. 23— FILM: "Eternal Children"
OCT. 30— INFORMAL SOCIAL
NOV. 6— FILM: "Clean Waters"
NOV. 13— DISCUSSION: Future of Socialism

NOV. 20— FILM: "City in a Shadow"

NOV. 27— INFORMAL SOCIAL

All Welcome — Attendance Free
295 Huntington Avenue, Room 212,
Boston, Mass. — 8. p.m.

about over and that nothing had
happened or seemed about to happen
to cause trouble. This, coupled with
the fact that much of the crowd had
dispersed because of a threatening
rainstorm made the sudden ap-
pearance of a detachment of 176
policemen led by Captain Ward some-
what puzzling. Fielden was address-
ing the few hundred workers who
remained when the police captain
ordered the meeting to disperse.
Fielden replied that the meeting was
peaceable and then it happened —
somebody, a somebody who was never
apprehended, threw a bomb among
the police. The New York Times in its
inimitable style of journalese of those
times put it this way:

"Anarchy's Red Hand. Rioting and
Bloodshed In the Streets of Chicago. Police
Mowed Down With Dynamite. Strikers
Killed With Volleys From Revolvers —

And the Times writer referred to
August Spies as "an anarchist with
a Negro wife"!

Whoever threw the bomb remained
a mystery although there were various
theories, and Joseph R. Buchanan
wrote in "The Outlook" story referred
to above that a telegram had been
delivered to Governor Oglesby from
an August P. Wagener, Counselor-at-
law of New York, which informed the
Governor that the bomb-thrower was
in the custody of New York anar-
chists and which sought to influence
the Governor in an 11th hour stay
of execution. Another and even more
interesting theory was that the deed
was committed by an "agent-provoc-
ateur" at the behest of the police
or the employers in order to destroy
the agitations for the eight-hour day
that had by then reached alarming
proportions.

BOSTON RADIO TALKS

Listen to WCRB - A.M.-F.M. 6.55-7.00P.M.
October 8, 22, Nov. 5, 19 &

The Slaughter of injured police and
civilians following an Anarchist meeting
— twelve policeman dead or dying — the
number of killed or injured civilians
unknown but very large — the bravery of
the police force — The villainous teaching
of the anarchists bore bloody fruit in Chi-
cago today..." (May 5, 1886).

THE (ANARCHIST) ROUND-UP

According to Morris Hillquit, the
strength of the American anarchist
movement was centered in Chicago.
He claimed that there was an actual
membership of about 3000 in the city
and its immediate vicinity. There
were at least twenty groups and a
number of journals. The cities of
America were crowded in those times
with unemployed people and a move-
ment such as that of the anarchists
could command a lot of attention.
Hillquit states:

"The Internationalists of Chicago held
numerous mass-meetings, a great street
demonstration was arranged by them on
Thanksgiving Day of 1884, and the
"Freiheit," the "Alarm," and other anar-
chist papers counselled their adherents to
arm themselves, and even published minute
instructions for the preparation and use
of dynamite. Similar instructions were
contained in a pamphlet written by Most
at that time, under the title 'Revolutionary
Science of War," which was reprinted by
several anarchist papers and had a pretty
extensive circulation. The climax of the
agitation, however, was reached in 1886."
(p. 244.)

The Haymarket massacre was
blamed on the anarchists. The capi-
talists' media of propaganda were
easily able to turn the wrath of most
workers against the "advocates of
violent revolution," and also create
an image of unions, generally, as
being composed of long-haired and
wild-eyed radicals. Union organiza-
tion, of course, survived but the drama
in Chicago marked the beginning of
the end of the American anarchist
movement. Eight of the most pro-
minent leaders of the area including
Spies, Parsons, and Fielden who were
there to address the crowd, and
Michael Schwab, Louis Lingg, Oscar
Neebe and George Engel who were
not even involved in the meeting,
were arrested and subsequently in-
dicted.

The trial began with an unusual
manner of selecting potential jurors.
Rather than using the customary
method the judge appointed a bailiff
to go out and summon such jurors

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1966

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Page 13

as he might choose. A panel of 1000
were picked of which only five were
working men. These were promptly
excused by the State. The remainder
according to Morris Hillquit's history,
were either employers of labor or
those dependent on such. Upon being
asked regarding their feeling towards
anarchists most admitted they were
prejudiced but all affirmed that they
were strong-willed enough to over-
come such prejudices. Press and
pulpit throughout America thundered
at the accused all through the trial.
The judge made frequent derogatory
remarks clearly intended for the ears
of the jury. The State couldn't prove
that whoever it was who threw the
bomb was, in fact, influenced by the
writing and oratory of tne accused.
Yet all eight were found guilty. Guilty
because of their ideas!

Seven were sentenced to death and
one to prison. Two of the seven
were later given commutations. One
committed suicide in his cell. Four
were hanged. "Justice" was done.

Charles and Mary Beard in their
"Rise of American Civilization" sum
up the Case against Judge Gary in a
paragraph:

"In a laconic summary, the presiding
judge, Joseph E. Gary, disclosed the spirit
of the trial when he said: 'The conviction
has not gone on the ground that they did
actually have any personal participation
in the particular act which caused the
death of Degan; but the conviction proceeds
upon the ground that they had generally
by speech and print advised large classes to
commit murder and had left the commis-
sion, the time, place, and when to the in-
dividual will, whim or caprice or whatever
it may be of each individual man who
listened to their advice'.. . Admitting that
the evidence did not convict the accused
of taking any part in the crime, the judge
declared that in consequence of their 'ad-
vice, in pursuance of that advice, and in-
fluenced by that advice somebody, not
known, did throw the bomb that caused
Degan's death.'" (p. 233).

The atmosphere of the trial, as the
Beards put it, was more that of a
battlefield than a court-room.

GOVERNOR ALTGELD

Six years after the execution
of the four, a new governor, John P.
Altgeid, reviewed the case and par-
doned the three who still remained in
prison. Had he been content to issue
a quiet pardon he would have been,
unquestionably, pardoned himself for
so doing by the majority of the powers
of the time. Passions had subsided
considerably by that time and there
was a wide-spread recognition of the
bad odor left by the case. But Gov.
Altgeid was shocked by the evidence
he had turned up and because he was
an unusual type of capitalist politician
— one who has probably never been
duplicated in the history of American
politics — he went far and beyond
the call of his duty. He flung the
mess in the faces of those who had
been largely responsible, he sowed
the wind and he reaped the whirl-
wind.

For Governor Altgeid became the
most reviled politician in American
history. He was damned by Dr.
Lyman Abbott, a top religious figure,
as "The crowned hero and worshiped
deity of the anarchists of the North-
west." He was condemned by Theo-
dore Roosevelt as a man who "con-
dones and encourages the most
infamous of murders." And he was,
in fact, so thoroughly excoriated that
he never recovered either politically
or physically. He became a ruined
man, his career sacrificed on the altar
of capitalist respectability;

•I* v •*"

Anarchist advocates of "the deed"
are not very plentiful in America
today. Nor, for that matter, are
anarchists of any variety— and there
are certainly a variety of anarchists.
But there are organizations professing
to be socialist or communist that ad-
vocate the arming of workers. The
World Socialist Party would urge our
fellow- workers to pay them no heed
for they are relics of a dead past. With
Frederick Engels, we understand that
the day has been long gone when
workers can sensibly resort to street
fighting and "armed resistance"

against the awesome weaponry of the
capitalist class. Not in highly-devel-
oped nations, at any rate. The
solution must lie through a legal,
political party making use of the

franchise in the only way it can ever
count for the working class — to
abolish the wages system and in-
troduce socialism.

HARMO

1

t

The Requirements of a Socialist Society

It is often a major surprise to a
liberal or a "socialist" who encoun-
ters the World Socialist Party for the
first time to discover that what we
mean by socialism has nothing what-
ever to do with government control of
industry. And when we then explain
our goal is a classless, wageless,
moneyless, world-wide system of
society in which the means of pro-
duction will be controlled democratic-
ally and every individual will be
guaranteed the free right of access
to the social product, we are often
dismissed promptly as "Utopian

The fact is, however, that the basic
requirements of a socialist society
are far simpler then those of capital-
ism, and far more easily met once the
initial task of abolishing private
property in the means of production
has been accomplished. Socialism
will need: I. Labor (under which in-
clude manpower, training, co-oper-
ation, and incentive); II. Materials
(under which include means of
production & distribution, resources,
transport, raw materials) ; and III.
Organization (under which include
administration, communication, sta-
tistics). There is really nothing in
these requirements which could not
have been met in the major indus-
trial countries for the last half-cen-
tury. Indeed, capitalism does meet
them in its own disease-ridden,
poverty-gutted, war-generating way.
But capitalism must not only meet
the physical tasks of producing and
distributing goods and services.
Besides labor, materials, and organ-
ization, capitalism must also maintain
the commodity society with wages,
capital, money, banking, credit, etc.
It must maintain a massive police and

militia force to defend property
against those who have produced it
at home, and an even more massive
war machine to protect it against
those who covet it from abroad.
Capitalism must find ways to adjust
to unemployment; class conflict;
poverty; waste; flimsy, cheap, des-
tructive, and deadly commodities'; air
and water pollution; riots; strikes;
race prejudice; crime; and mass
battlefield slaughter. It must main-
tain huge bureaucracies to dispense
such services as unemployment com-
pensation; medical insurance; social
security; charity; and welfare. It
must employ the best brains of its
universities in the task of figuring
out how to make sheets that dent
at a touch; engines that need a
major overhaul every two years; tires
that wear to the fabric after 40,000
miles, and appliances that last, gener-
ally, as long as the period of their
installment payments. It must train
armies of psychologists to keep Work-
ers producing in a system that robs
them of every other work incentive
except subsistence. And finally,
capitalism must grind out an omni-
present barrage of propaganda to
convince its victims that no industrial
society could possibly be run any
better.

LABOR

We have said that socialism will
require labor, and that labor includes
mannower, training, co-operation, and
incentive. All of these requirements
can be far more effectively met once
the obstacle of capital and wage-labor
relationships is removed. In 1960,
for example, there were about 70 mil-
lion persons in the United States
labor force, carrying on all the social

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No. 5 — 196G

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Page 15

tasks required by the U. S. economy.
About 28.5 million of this force were
engaged in the following generally
non-productive occupations:
Wholesale & retail trade. .11,385,000

Government 8,127,000

Finance, Insurance, & Real

Estate 2,425,000

Armed Forces 2,520,000

Unemployed 4,206,000

(Figures derived from Statistical
Abstract of U. S. for 1960). This
figure of 28.5 million represents the
approximate number of persons who
would have been released from un-
productive occupations in the U. S.
and made available for socially pro-
ductive tasks had socialism been
established in 1960. The above list
does not include some 6V2 million
"service & miscellaneous" workers,
many of whom would also have been
released, and it does not include the
entire capitalist class of some 5-10
million persons. So despite the fact
that a percentage of these lumped as
"unproductive" might be engaged in
socially - useful occupations, the
figure is close enough. Now 28.5
million people was, and still is, over
one-third of the total labor force in
this country. If such a reservoir of
labor, which is at present socially
wasted on tasks made necessary by
profit and property, were fully utilized
on productive tasks by a system of
labor rotation, the average U. S. work
week could have been cut to absolutely
no more than 26 hours in 1960 with-
out even making use of automation.
What automation would cut a social-
ist work week down to is at present
only a matter for speculation, but 5
hours is certainly a reasonable esti-
mate.

A mere glance at the existing power
potential of the American economy
is enough to convince one that social-
ism will have no trouble meeting its
manpower needs. Nor should train-
ing and co-operation pose any dif-
ficulty. The labor process has
already established a general school
and co-operative through the develop-
ment of the industrial revolution,
and every industrial country has
already established a general school

system. It only remains to put these &
things to more effective use than
capitalism can permit.

WHAT ABOUT INCENTTVE?
The problem of incentive, similarly,
should cease to be a problem with
the arrival of socialism. One can list
at least twelve effective incentives for
the stimulating wealth production,
only two of which socialism will
abolish: 1. profit; 2. wages; 3. ob-
taining wealth for consumption; 4.
obtaining more durable and useful
goods than capitalism will produce;
5. service to the community (an in-
centive which has never been wholly
killed, even after its misuses in
capitalist wars) ; 6. the need to ex-
pend mental and physical energy (a
need which will come increasingly to ,
the fore as socialism steadily cuts
down the necessary work week) ; 7.
the sense of accomplishment in hav-
ing produced a well-made, useful, and
aesthetically pleasing article; 8. the
expression of artistry and creativity
in the production process itself;

9. interest and pleasure in the com-
plexity, variety, or nature of a task;

10. approval from others; 11. oppor-
tunity to associate with others in a.
common effort; and 12. freedom to
control the contingencies of one's
own work (such as breaks, hours,
standing & seating arrangements,
location, lighting, tools, pace of
production, methods, etc.). Capital-
ism relies almost entirely on incen-
tives 1 & 2, plus the fear of punish- t
ment. In doing so, it partially or
wholly destroys for the working class
incentives 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 12.
Socialism will abolish (happily) only
incentives 1 & 2. It will be free to
make full use of incentives 3-12,
simply because its wealth will not be
produced to sell, its work will not be
done under slave conditions of wage
labor, and its enormous manpower
and machine power reserves could be
freely employed to lighten any job
before it becomes punishing to any-
one.

MATERIALS & ORGANIZATION
Materials and organization, again,
are both problems- which capitalism

has already basically solved. There
are more than enough means of
production in the U. S. alone to sup-
ply every man, woman, and child in
the Western Hemisphere with any
item that can be mass-produced.
Cybernation, the destruction of
crops, and the enormous waste of
military consumption should be ample
proofs of this fact. If more be needed,
consider that the productivity per
man-hour of the U. S. worker climbed
by about 69% between 1947 and 1964,
a figure which gives us an idea of
the latent power in the muscles of
modern industry. Capitalism of course
burns, buries, pollutes, restricts,
wastes, and blows to bits a vast
amount of materials simply because
it is not profitable to use them for
needs. Socialism will waste no
materials on the requirement of
profit.

Socialist administrations will have
to keep statistics and information
which will enable them to answer
these questions at all times: what are
the wants and needs of the popula-
tion? What kinds of wealth, work, etc.
will best meet them in a way that is
satisfactory to all? How much and
what kinds of labor and materials
are needed to produce that wealth or
provide the necessary services? And
what is the most efficient way to or-
ganize all those able and willing to
work for its production? When one
considers the vast amount of organ-
ization, communication, statistics, and
pure policing which capitalist society
must maintain to deal with its prop-
erty, profits, exchange, finance, etc.
it is inconceivable that human beings
would not be able to obtain such
basically simple information. None
of it is really more complex than the
kind of data contained in the one-
volume Statistical Abstract published
each year by the Department of
Commerce.

EXAMPLES OF SOCIALIST
BEHAVIOR

If we reflect further, there is no
basic feature of socialism named in
this article that has not already oc-
curred in isolated form. Indeed,

there is usually a certain irony to the
standard "Utopian" and "human
nature" arguments which we must
answer time and again. One critic
will claim that human beings cannot
possibly co-operate with each other
because of their rotten natures, and
yet he will co-operate daily with his
fellow workers in the production
process on a scale which has never
before been known in any society
previous to capitalism. Another
critic will dismiss the idea of free
access to wealth as a Utopian fantasy
in the very act of taking free access
to air, water, and the matches and
toothpicks distributed freely by Amer-
ican restaurants. A third can see
nothing but the prospects of sudden
universal laziness if wages were
removed, while he cheerfully goes
about planting his gardens, working
in his civic projects, sawing wood in
the cellar for some new house repair
or piece of furniture, teaching his
children, shovelling his driveway in
the winter, and doing his laundry:
none of which is compensated by
wages. Still another shakes his head
at the idealism of those who can
imagine one world undivided by
national boundaries, while sometimes
planning to traverse no less than
3,000 miles of undivided geographical
territory for a summer vacation,
touring an area in which 190,000,000
people live and work in a single func-
tioning social structure. Finally
there are the "realists" who scoff at
the conception of a classless society,
without realizing that mankind has
spent 99% of his known existence on
this planet without social classes or
property in the means of production.
But though capitalism has laid
every necessary foundation for social-
ism, there is one thing we have not
discussed, and we must save it for
another time. And that is the job
we have yet to do.

STAN BLAKE

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Page 16

The Western Socialist

No. 5 — 1966

No. 5 — 1966

The Western Socialist

Page 17

THE MIND OF A
SOCIAL DEMOCRAT

Book Review: The Accidental Cen-
tury by Michael Harrington (New
York: Macmillan Co., 1965)
Next to the world-wide Moscovite
movement, the largest phony "social-
ist" tendency is that which is
frequently referred to as "social
democratic," or, unfortunately, as
"socialist." The Scandinavian social
democratic parties, the Labour Party
of Great Britain, and the Socialist
Party of America are all of this ten-
dency. At one time, social democracy
could boast some able theorists. Now,
however, it has a very low theoretical
level. A recent illustration of this
theoretical weakness is Michael Har-
rington's book, The Accidental Cen-
tury.

The author is known for his book,
The Other America, the fame of
which is attributable to its stimu-
lation of the discovery of poverty by
the liberal press and mass media.
The Accidental Century presents the
author's general evaluation of the
social developments of the last sixty
years. - i

In the preface, the author acknowl-
edges the inspiration of Norman
Thomas, Max Shachtman, and Bayard
Rustin. It seems incredible that this
trinity of social democracy can be
openly acknowledged as theoretical
mentors. This in itself speaks vol-
umes on the primitive level of social
democratic theory.

The book seems addressed to an
audience of "liberal liberals," that
is, those who are so very, very liberal.
In trying to appeal to this type, the
author tones down the more radical
implications— conclusions are gently
suggested rather than boldly pursued.
One somewhat amusing aspect of
the book is that the author has taken
on the posture of a literary essayist
in an apparent imitation of ex-radical
writers like Irving Howe, who have
landed jobs as professors. As a man
of letters and serious literary
critic, Harrington is a flop. His
pretensions to scholarship are quite

"mid -cult." For example, there L ,
is not even a bibliography provided;
nor are any citations given for the
plethora of quotations. Literary
allusions plus a hodgepodge of
synopses of men and ideas do not
add up to anything profound. Of
course, no doubt, Harrington makes
some correct summaries of literary,
themes, but his whole process is
reminiscent of the term paper of the
college sophomore mercilessly carried
to great length. Clever phrases, com-
ments and thumbnail sketches are
not enough justification for writing
a book, let alone one that purports to
present a serious political perspec-
tive.

The theme of the book is the deca-
dence of traditional capitalism along
with the institutions and ideas as- v.
sociated with it. Harrington sees some
of these ideas as valuable and he
laments the dangers to these ideas
from the forces unleashed by capital-
ist development. The cause of this
decadence is the undirected and unin-
tended byproducts of technological
changes. This "revolution," as he
calls it (his terminology is imprecise),
has "unsettled every faith and creed
in the West."

This, one would think, would be
generally welcomed by Harrington.
Yet there is a definite note of ethno-
centrism and cultural imperialism
in his designation of useful ideas as
"Western." He is really expressing
sorrow for the decay of social democ-
racy. Had social democracy present- *
ed a real alternative to capitalism,
its decay would not have been so
complete.

Harrington tells us ". . .trie one set
and undeviating aspect of socialism
is its commitment to making the...
free choice of the citizen the principle
of social life." A hundred and fifty
years ago this expression of the ideals
of bourgeois democracy would have
been progressive. But today it ig-
nores the recognition that democratic
theories must be related to a social
context. The social democrat never
understood that the science of polit- >
ical economy is the heart of the
matter. Democracy cannot exist on

thin air; it refers to a social context.
Specifically, where the social relations
of wage labor and capital exist, dem-
ocracy cannot exist. It is not that
more planning is needed but that
outmoded social relations must be
abandoned. Socialism is not just
that people get what they want; it
refers to what can be done when
people want and get a different
society with different social relations.

W. J.

WHAT PEOPLE NEED

Socialism is to be a new form of
society, a form in which all the people
in the world will own in common
the means to produce wealth, and
will distribute it iaccording to the
needs of each. In other words, each
person will decide for himself what
he needs to live — and he'll be able
to take it.

Perhaps some of you feel that this
situation would result in chaos, when
everyone took television sets and
four Cadillacs, for example. But try
to remember that before we can in-
stitute a socialist society, we will
already have a population that isn't
likely to react that way. Today, all
those who are able to, ostentatiously
display their wealth — live in huge
mansions, own numerous automobiles,
and so forth — because these expen-
sive things determine their social
status. When possessions of jewels,
automobiles and artistic items is open
to anyone who wishes to weigh him-
self down with these things, the desire
to accumulate them will to a large
extent vanish. Water is one of the
most precious things in the word to
the human race, yet no one attempts
to hoard and dispay huge tanks of
fresh water. Water and air, ex-
cept under extreme circumstances,
have not been denied to all but those
who can afford them. Yet this is
the case with almost all the other
objects you can think of. Our present
system of society, because it is based
on buying and selling, tends to make
everything into a commodity that
can be sold at a profit or else with-
held from use... most unlikely

objects such as paintings. Under
socialism, on the other hand, all the
products of human ingenuity will be
as freely available as water and air
now. And the psychological need for
expensive status symbols will vanish.
You might also stop and think
about bow many of our needs today
are instilled in us by the advertising
industry, which spends millions of
dollars annually for just that pur-
pose. When we no longer live in a
commercial world, perhaps, some of us
will no longer "need" a car with tires
called tiger paws in order to feel
like a real man; and, perhaps, the
rest of us can be sure of our woman-
hood even without deodorants and
perfume and an improbable hair
color. For many of us, these things
are real needs today; but they have
all been clearly created to sell prod-
ucts.

All this may indicate that men's
needs are not a constant. They vary
according to the circumstances in
which people find themselves. In a
truly democratic, socialist society, it
will not be too hard to determine
what is wanted at any given moment,
by means of polls, public opinion
surveys and the like, such as are in
wide use even today; and it will also
not be too hard to satisfy people's
needs. We have the technology to do
that right now.

But although people's material
needs and wants may vary a good
deal, there are certain needs which
are part of being human. A fun-
damental need of humanity, for in-
stance — and a need which will be
felt in any social system — is oc-
cupation.

Almost the hardest situation, for a
person to find himself in is one where
he is forced to be completely idle —
for instance, in a hospital bed, or in
certain prisons. Generally speaking,
we are miserable if we have no outlet
for our energies. Now at present, the
way our society is set up, we have
two separate outlets, and we make a
major distinction between using up
our energies on work, or on things
we do for pleasure. We only work
when we have to, and the rest of the

Page 18

The Western Socialist

No. 5

1966

No. 5

1966

The Western Socialist

Page 18

time we either rest or do something
we enjoy.

But, since it is clear that in a
socialist society no one will have to
do anything he doesn't want to do —
since each individual will have free
access to what society produces
regardless of his own contribution —
this distinction cannot apply.

Not many people would really want
to spend their lives sightseeing, or
dancing, or playing cards or golf, be-
cause an endless sequence of aimless
pleasures soon gets tiresome. Oc-
cupation, to be satisfying for any
length of time, must have some ob-
ject to it: like gardening, or building,
or designing. Actually, most neces-
sary work can be pleasant, once it
has as its goal people's needs, rather
than profit. People tend to enjoy
their work today if they know it's
useful, and if it's reasonably pleasant
in itself. And, in the society we want,
it's only the useful work that will
have to be done — we need no longer
bother with useless occupations like
advertising, for example; nor need
we waste time making shoddy imi-
tations of expensive items. Every-
thing made will be the best of its
type that can be made. It's always
more satisfying to make a really ex-
cellent product than to cut corners
and costs. I think we can be pretty
certain that useful work under social-
ism will be pleasant, too, and attrac-
tive to people when they are not
under any financial pressure to work.
As the whole of the people in free
association will control the conditions
of existence, the general aim in a
socialist society will be to make that
existence as satisfying as human in-
genuity can contrive.

Today, we work in order to live.
Tomorrow, perhaps, we will live to
wor ^ — to be engaged in pleasant,
useful activity. This will fill the
human need for occupation, and for
fellowship in a sane society.

KARLA ELLENBOGEN
Delivered over WCK.B AM-FM, 7-6-66

READ SOCIALIST STANDARD

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ELECTION MESSAGE

Among the endless irritations that
accompany modern commercial so-
ciety, there is one that particularly
intrigues members of the companion
parties of Socialism — that is, the
perpetual willingness of the exploited
majority to swallow so much of the
ruling class political propaganda that
is fed to them every perceiving day
of their lives.

We could paraphrase a possible
conversation of the early dark ages—
"Hey Sam, have you heard the lat-
est? Some nut is trying to tell us
that the world is round! How crazy
can some people get? Any man in
his right mind Knows it is flat." ^.

As potent as the truth is, a sad
fact has been that the supply of this
vital element has always exceeded the
demand, with every competitive class
claiming that it was the sole pos-
sessor.

But the same people who thought
the world was flat, also believed that
man was born greedy; they embraced
religiously the religious doctrine of
original sin, exactly as so many
proletarians do today. Except that
today we are supposed to have
achieved the age of science and en-
lightment. Our forebears could not
even read and write, they had more
reason to be superstitious.

At a time when the social labor of
the working class can accomplish the »

(Continued from page 2)

some, albeit limited, recognition of
his efforts with a display of a few
pictures headed: "Sunday in the ParK
— a Swinging Spot" and a brief, 100-
word caption. The meeting, however,
was even more successful than the
International Rally with a friendly
audience discouraging a couple of
hecklers. Literature sales were very
good and there were several inquiries
for information about socialism.

Local Toronto, an active and en-
thusiastic group of young men and
women, appears to be going places -,
and in a genuine socialist direction.

RAB

feat of putting a satellite into orbit
around the moon, when the inner
workings of the atom have been in-
spected, it is difficult to get adjusted
to the fact that the same intelligent
working class humans believe, for
instance, that the state functions in
the interests of the "people." Or that
wages are paid so that workers can
buy the things they need.

The "great man" theory, was going
strong in the days of the ancient
Greeks. The slaves were told that
their inferior social status was a
biological thing, that their masters
were a superior race. Leadership,
the antithesis of democracy, is still
in vogue today. The intelligent mass
leaves its political thinking to the
representatives of the capitalist

In harmony with the great man
theory, is the idea that when things
obviously go wrong, it is because we
have had leaders, (bad, great men) ;
it is alleged to be the fault of the
politicians who are in office at the
time. This one is wearing thin in
parts however. Even the two local
press spokesmen for the status quo
have admitted that the current
economic boom would have come, no
matter what party had been in of-
fice.

Evolving naturally out of this fan-
tasy, is the variant that goes back
at least to our great, great grand-
mothers' time, of the good guys ver-
sus the bad guys thesis, that all
politicians are bad.

SHEARING THE SHEEP

One of the strangest phenomenon
is the spectacle of the wage-worker
who can give us the latest base -ball
score, but who hasn't a clue as to
how he is separated from the fruits
of his labor down at the factory.
Theories pounded into his head about
rich men or commissars being smart-
er, or contributing more to society
don't give him much incentive to
delve, we admit.

Even when we bare the simple
truth, we don't expect him to go
rushing around telling his fellows the
formula of our collective exploitation.

We agree, it would be of no use for
capitalists to have capital around
if it didn't proliferate. But inert
materials and static machinery won't
grow into surplus wealth by them-
selves. The boss has to buy human
ability, labor-power, from the work-
ing class; just like he would buy
sugar or soap.

The value of labor-power amounts
to approximately just enough goods
and services to maintain the worker
as a seller of this commodity —
nothing more.

And the difference between this
value of the workers' ability and
what they actually produce, is the
source of the mountain of loot that
the rulers of the earth are sitting on
top of today.

HELPING THE POOR TO HELP
THE RICH

Some of these gains are used to
pay obedient politicians like Premier
Bennett to tell us that state owner-
ship is Socialism; some are used to
finance doles, handed out to the
worst victims of legal robbery, to get
them on their feet and producing
again, and otherwise keep the dis-
content and miseries of the workers
at a level somewhere near bearable.
The objective being to minimize in-
terference with the dominant func-
tion of world society — the making
of profits.

THE MAJORITY ARE POOR BE-
CAUSE THEY WORK FOR WAGES

We don't expect the workers of the
Canadian section to become pol-
itically sophisticated tomorrow morn-
ing, merely because the harder they
work, and the more money-wages
they make, the deeper they sink into
personal debt; to discover shortly
that their position in the social
scheme of things equals not much
more than a cipher in the economic
equation of the supreme cash regis-
ter, or to reflect lengthily on the com-
pulsion to put their substance up for
the highest bidder for a wage or
salary, because they do not own
the capital to live without carrying
those who do.

Page 20

The Western. Socialist

No. 5 — 19i

No. 5 — 1966

The Western Socialist

Page 21

AND DESTITUTE WHEN THEY
CAN'T WORK FOR WAGES

Another social anachronism that
makes it difficult for us to believe
that this is really the twentieth cen-
tury, is the attitude of that growing
body of workers who have miracu-
lously survived a "life" time of being
fleeced. When the walking package
of labor-power has been drained, be-
comes an empty hull, and can no
longer be used by capital, he usually
discovers that he is completely free
of any substantial possessions.

Although the pittance handed out
by the wealthy parasites who have
lived off him so well and for so long
will barely equate enough energy
for a struggle down to the polling
booth, he can be relied upon to faith-
fully put down his "X" for the system
that has relieved him of so much.

ARMED FORCE TO PROTECT
LEGAL ROBBERY

Part of the proceeds of exploitation
are used to finance vehicles of vio-
lence to protect capital, both from
workers nearby and from capitalist
groups elsewhere. And to protect or
extend sources of raw materials and
places to sell commodities. The big-
gest market depression in the history
of capitalism was ended by its big-
gest war.

Oblique references in the daily
press — " . . .new hopes that the poten-
tially richest nation in South-East
Asia (Indonesia) will not slip into
'Communist' hands"; "We cannot al-
low Southeast Asia with its rubber
and rice ... to fall to the Soviets,"
and former President Eisenhower's
statement, "... our power and ability
to get certain things we need from
the richest of the Indo-China ter-
ritory, etc., . . . manganese and cobalt,
tin and tungsten," and "our need for
markets for our agricultural and in-
dustrial products," show that the
slaughter of worker against worker
in Viet Nam is just part of the nor-
mal functioning of capitalism in
which two giants, the U.S. and China,
are contending for the same prize.
It would be impossible to ask workers
to professionally and scientifically

mass murder each other if they knew
that such carnage was in the interest
of their respective masters. This is
the reason why a worker who, cannot
pay cash for a deep-freeze has to be
told that he has a country to fight for,
or that the killing is done for peace,
or in defence of freedom.

We can sympathize with the idea
of some workers that war research
and H Bomb production should stop,
and that this social energy should
be devoted to finding a cure for can-
cer perhaps. But we cannot sympath-
ize with the social ignorance that
causes them to think that capitalism
can operate contrary to its nature.
It would be easier to make a tiger
eat hay, than it would be to abolish
competition for profits, and still
have capitalism.

ANY COLOR YOU WANT, SO LONG
AS ITS BLACK:

In terms of solving the social
problems of the useful section of
society, this is really not an election.
Reminiscent of some forced labor
camps in Russia, which were self-
administered by the inmates, (peoples'
democracy?) where the idea of
getting out was seldom considered.
Modern elections are conducted partly
to determine whether tweedledum
or tweedle-dee will have the honor
of officiating for international capital
for another term. Japanese, U. S.,
British, German and Swedish as well
as Canadian entrepeneurs dip their
fingers into the golden hoard pro-
duced by the patriotic B. C. section
of the working class.

The five conservative parties con-
testing are basically identical. Dur-
ing the Hungry Thirties, one man ran
on a combined Socred-CCF ticket,
and why not? Was capitalism any
different in Social Credit Alberta
than it was in CCF Saskatchewan?
And there is no way we can distin-
guish the program of the unofficial
representatives of Russian capitalism
in B.C., from the other parties here.
The only clue is their name.

Soviet and Chinese millionaires are
doing well off the labors of their
share of the world's exploited. They

t must chuckle to themselves when
they see what admirable co-operation
they get from editors, university
professors, social "scientists," preach-
ers and other political dinosaurs of
the West, in fostering the biggest
hoax of the century, that the Rus-
sian rulers are building Communism.

Yes, the workers have no substan-
tial choice. Their political ignorance
guarantees this.

WE CAN BE IGNORANT OR FREE,
BUT NOT BOTH:

Have we disturbed your train of
thought? Well, your political naivete
gives us no alternative. There is not
a day that this system does not
plague all of us, we who oppose it,
y and you who support it. So long as
you retain such antiquated ideas
that exclusive ownership of the pro-
ductive apparatus by a few, and
wages for the many is an unchan-
geable and natural order of things,
then we have no other way of defend-
ing ourselves.

Eventually the temporary escape
mechanisms will become a less
adequate substitute for living. The
TV urging you to buy junk, the beer
tranqullzers, comic books, the new
auto, designed to need repairs at
about the fifteenth payment, the
Church with a promise of life here-
after, — and the leaders, gladly doing
your political thinking for you; and
do you know, they just can't get the
welfare of the capitalist class off their
minds?

The vital statistics about increased
crime, mental illness, suicide and
alcoholism are only a visible part of
the iceberg of submerged misery
that affects all of us in varying degree,
merely a tabulation of some of those
victims who have cracked under the
strain.

This earth is practically one big
automated factory. Why shouldn't
it be used for humanity? All the
ingredients are here to make this
i planet a fit place for us all, except
one — working class political aware-
ness. The onus is on you.

A Christian Science Critic

We are in receipt of a letter (too
lengthy for publication and for a
point-by-point reply) from a corres-
pondent in Pocatello, Idaho, who
"accepts" our challenge to prove So-
cialism wrong." (WS No. 5-1965.)
Unfortunately, this challenge was
predicated on the assumption that a
potential critic would at least give
a modicum of attention to the con-
tents of "The Western Socialist."
Had the lady done so she could nev-
er have presented us a rebuttal of
socialism based upon a fallacy — that
"planned controls" such as are "ad-
vocated by socialists" (according to
her) ignores the need for "talent";
that "Know How" is "an ingredient
socialists seem blind to"; and that
everything that (socialists) touch
turns to ashes."

The fallacy is not that the lady is
wrong about the effects of "social-
ism" in Syria, Russia, China, England,
etc. Nor are we concerned with her
equally fallacious praise of the capi-
talist economies of Japan, Formosa,
and "the wonderful UNITED
STATES." The confusion that con-
founds our critic is that what she
describes as "socialism" is actually
capitalism (the state - capitalist
form) and had she taken the trouble
to read the issue of "The Western So-
cialist" to which she refers she could
have either refrained from writing
us at all or answered our challenge
from an entirely different viewpoint.

The letter, interestingly enough,
was enclosed in a package of Chris-
tian Science literature, for our critic
is (as she puts it) no longer a be-
liever in atheism and socialism, as
she was in her youth. She now sees
the truth and the light in the writ-
ings of Mary Baker Eddy and her
followers. An editorial in the "Chris-
tian Science Sentinel" (March 14,
1964) by Ralph E. Wagers, entitled
"Moral and Spiritual Values in In-
dustry," to which she refers us, in-
forms us among other things:

"In industry individuals are united, not
separated, by the terms 'management,'
'labor,' and 'stockholder.' Each group has

Page 22

The Western Socialist

No. 5 — 1966

certain responsibilities not only to every
other one but to the business itself. Each
is essential to the success of the enterprise.
That is why the members of each group
. . . should constantly reach out in honest
desire for that which will determine their
equitable relationship."

And the editorialist continues:

"Whether so recognized or not, this de-
sire, this reaching out, Is a form of pray-
er to God, divine Principle, whose will, or
law, brings management and labor togeth-
er to their mutual advantage . . ."

Having probed behind the facade
of "The Christian Science Publishing
Society" in Boston, Mass. we know
what the writer means. This impos-
ing structure nestles within a sort of
Christian Science enclave of beauti-
ful Church property and streets of
not - so - beautiful tenements and
apartments (also owned by the
"Mother Church" but scheduled for
demolition by the billionaire Corp-
oration in the interest of better-pay-
ing investment property within the
developing "New Boston.") One rinds
within the Publishing Society all of
the varied expressions worn by the
creators of surplus value — the work-
ing class — from the smiling greeters
and hostesses who conduct guided
tours of the plant, to the ever-so-
many office workers, printers, and
the myriad of other wage-slaves of
many types found in capitalist en-
terprise, generally. "Management
and labor" really appear to "reach
out" in an "honest" effort to produce
"Christian Science Monitors" and
the various religious journals of the
Eddy edifice and thereby help in-
crease the profits of the "Mother
Church." And God (in his infinite
wisdom) appears to continue to ap-
portion the rewards according to
capitalist precepts: the "talented"
and those with the "KNOW HOW"
necessary to extract a maximum of
surplus from the producers are re-
warded with the executive powers
with commensurate income, while
those who produce and distribute
the wealth receive also their just de-
serts — a chance (when they can be
"used") to work at the going wages
or salaries. It all, somehow, seems to

resemble the system in Russia, Chi-
na, etc. on a miniscule scale. (We can
picture our critic, hands raised in
horror ! )

The "Mother Church" cooperates
by making as pleasant an atmos-
phere as possible (for hens, cows, and
workers all produce more abundant- a
ly in pleasant surroundings) and one
can listen to a "daily prayer" via re-
cording or discover the current read-
ing of one's favorite stock through
the facilities of the "Monitor." The
distinct relationship between religion
s,nd capitalism is, in fact, no better
exemplified than in the worker-em-
ployer relationships within the
Christian Science Publishing Society.

Which function — the dissemina-
tion of religion or the production of
surplus - value — is the "Mother
Church" more concerned with? The
answer to this conundrum was best
summed up by Karl Marx in his pref-
ace to the 1st Volume of "Capital":
"The English Established Church,"
he pointed out, "will more readily
pardon an attack on 38 of its 39 arti-
cles than on l/39th of its income." We
do not know how many "articled"
the Christian Science Church pos-
sesses. But when we consider the fact
that the followers of Mary Baker Ed-
dy in the United States constitute
but a tiny fraction of those who es-
pouse religion and capitalism we can
make an educated guess as to which
our critic considers more im-
portant. Capitalism without religion
(especially the "Mother Church" va-
riety) is to be regretted. It is even
conceivable that she could bring her-
sedf to give grudging approval to
those countries she now attacks were
she to realize that they have abol-
ished neither God nor capitalism and
that distinctions of income and
wealth ownership through govern-
ment bonds do exist. But a society in
which goods and services would be
freely available to all, where class
distinctions would vanish and where
all mankind would live in brother-
hood? That, our critic believes, would
be disaster.

HARMO

A

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THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADA

AND

THE WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY OF THE
UNITED STATES

OBJECT:

The establishment of a system of society based upon the common
ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for
producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of society
as a whole.

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

The Companion Parties of Socialism hold:

a That society as at present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means

of living (i.e., land, factories, railways, etc.) by the capitalist or master class,
and the consequent enslavement of the working class, by whose labor alone wealth
is produced.
2 That, in society, therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself

as a class struggle between those wno possess but do not produce, ana those who
produce but do not possess.
2 __That this antagonism can be abolished only by the emancipation of the working

class from the domination of the master class, by the conversion into the com-
mon property of society of the means of production and distribution, and their demo-
cratic control by the whole people.
A That as in the order of social evolution the working class is the last class to

achieve its freedom, the emancipation of the working class will involve the
emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex.
e That this emancipation must be the work of the working class itself.,
£i That as the machinery of government, including the armed forces of the nation,

exists only to conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken
from the workers, the working class must organize consciously and politically for the
conquest of the powers of government, in order that this machinery, Including these •
forces, may be converted from an instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipa-
tion and overthrow of plutocratic privilege.
7 That as political parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the

interest of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interest of all
sections of the master class, the party seeking working class emancipation must be
hostile to every other party,
o THE COMPANION PARTIES OP SOCIALISM, therefore, enter the field of political

action determined to wage war against all other political parties, whether alleged
labor or avowedly capitalist, and call upon all members of the working class of these
countries to support these principles to the end that a termination may be brought
to the system which deprives them of the fruits of their labor, and that poverty may
give place to comfort, privilege to equality, and slavery to freedom.
Those agreeing with the above principles and desiring enrollment in the Party sh^ M
apply for Application for Membership from the sec'y of nearest local or the Nat'l Hdqtrs.

These six parties adhere to the same Socialist Principles:
SOCIALIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA — P. O. Box 1440, Melbourne, Australia;-

Sydney, Australia, Box 2291, GPO.
SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADA — P. O. Box 115, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN — 52 Clapham High St., London SW. 4.
SOCIALIST PARTY OF NEW ZEALAND — P. O. Box 62, Petone, New Zealand;

P. O. Box 1929, Auckland, New Zealand.
WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY OF IRELAND— 53 High St., Rm. 5, Belfast 1, N .and
WORLD SOCIALIST PARTY OF U. S— 295 Huntington Ave., Boston, Mass. ..J115.

PRICE

15<

4S

No. 6-1966
Vol. 33— No. 254
BOSTON, MASS.

1 |jii

no

15 1966

Tobacco, Economics & Health

'5

THE "OFF-YEAR" ELEGTIONS
"DOWN WITH HIGH PRICES!"
DISASTERS— MAN MADE & NATURAL
THE LAW ON TRIAL
NEWS FROM AUSTRIA
SOGIALISM & SELF INTEREST
DYNAMITE IN LOS ANGELES (19(0)
CHARITY & CHRISTMAS

CALLOUS CAPITALISM
Health has nothing so seductive to offer as do
the poisons and disease which are an essential con-
dition for those who own and rule.

w-iBr.,