‘Building Labor Internationalism’ by A.J. Muste from Labor Action (C.P.L.A.). Vol. 2 No. 13. July 15, 1934.

HOW can masses which are nationally minded be gotten to build an international or world economic order? That is the problem which confronts the revolutionary labor movement everywhere.

The aim of the movement is fundamentally and necessarily international. There is a contradiction between modern methods of production which involve exchange of raw materials and finished goods among all countries, a scientific economy operated in the interest of human beings under which goods should be raised and produced where that can be most effectively done, the need of the human race for peace and for world-wide cultural exchange-between all this, on the one hand, and the artificial national boundaries which now divide the world into many countries governed by absolute national states ruled by warring capitalist groups. Only the working class can solve this contradiction, and it can do so only by building an international, that is a socialist, economic system.

The modern revolutionary labor movement has accordingly always had an international program and has sought to develop an international organization, trade union internationals and also First, Second and Third political internationals.

Have Fallen Short

The Internationals have always, however, fallen far short of achieving what enthusiasts hoped for. When the war came, the Socialist International fell to pieces. The Third (Communist) International did not bring about the Russian Revolution. It was itself a product thereof, and it has shown great weaknesses and proved ineffective against the advance of Fascism in Europe.

If we are to build an effective revolutionary international which will give the workers a dependable tool of cooperation, we must not be sentimental and try to make ourselves believe that we have an organization when we do not have any.

Full weight must be given to the nationalistic prejudices and emotions which prevail among the masses. It is unscientific, un-Marxian, to think that the masses as a whole can be made thoroughly internationalist in their outlook so long as they live in national states. That assumes that ideas and feelings change radically while conditions remain the same.

Must Change Conditions

If that were the case, there would never be any need of revolution. The fact is we have to change conditions and even then it may take a long time to change the outlook and emotions of the masses.

This suggests another vital point. In a sense, we cannot draw a distinction between revolutionary and international. They are two sides of the same coin. Psychologically, however, it gets us nowhere to begin by saying to American workers, for example, that French, English, Mexican, Japanese workers are their brothers; therefore they must unite with them to overthrow capitalism everywhere. For the most part, this will be like pouring water on a duck’s back: it does not sink in. We begin by showing the American workers that the only solution for their own problems is the revolutionary one; that they will have to overthrow their Own capitalist class and their own capitalist state. When they are convinced of that, they will look around for allies and friends. They will find them not among capitalists of any nationality but among the workers of countries which suffer under American imperialism, the workers of other lands who are also fighting to destroy their capitalist states. Thus they will welcome real, not sentimental, internationalists. The German Social Democratic party on the eve of the Great War acted in a nationalistic way because it had no real desire to overthrow its own bourgeoisie and state. If it had had any such desire, it would have welcomed the war-crisis as an opportunity to realize it. The same holds of other Socialist parties in that crisis.

Movement Must Be Native

It follows from the consideration which we have stated that in each country the revolutionary movement must be a native growth. It cannot be imported in a suit-case from some other country. It must be adapted to the special conditions in that country. It must concentrate on taking power in that country. The job of achieving the revolution in the U.S. is in a special sense the job of American workers. Others may advise and help. No one else can do the job for us. It is worth emphasizing that precisely as we build a powerful revolutionary party shall we contribute most effectively toward building a revolutionary international and toward the emancipation of the workers of the world.

A revolutionary party can and should point out to the masses that only the revolutionary working class and its program can achieve the so-called American ideals. The dream of a nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” a nation that knows no oligarchy of birth or wealth, no class distinctions, involves substantial economic equality for all. That can be realized under modern conditions only under social ownership of the means of production. The revolutionary workers who strive for that are the only ones who can realize any worthy American ideals. They will become the nation. The capitalists today under the very cloak of their so-called patriotism, ravish the resources of the country, make a mockery of its ideals, and despoil its people.

Traditions Are Important

A revolutionary party can and should point to the nation’s traditions of struggle. The class struggle had to be fought out in 1776 on the plane of that day, in the 1860’s on the plane of that period. It must be fought out today. The nation must be freed of the czars and kaisers of industry and finance and of the whole system for which they stand.

So also the American workers today, may draw inspiration from the fighting tradition of the American working class. Not that we play upon any childish chauvinistic notion that American workers are better fighters than those of other nations. But that it is our task today to see to it that the sacrifices made at Mesaba Range, in the coal fields, in Lawrence, Everett, Gastonia, Marion, by Mooney, by Sacco and Vanzetti and other class-war prisoners, shall not have been made in vain–yes a thousand times!

Thus, as the workers fight their own battles today and under the leadership of the revolutionary vanguard come to understand the meaning of those battles and the reason for them, they will feel their kinship with the workers in their own industries, with all the workers throughout the land, with their fellow workers of the past, with the workers of all lands. The workingmen of all countries will unite to break their chains-chains of insecurity, of ignorance, of Fascism, of war.

There are a number of periodicals with the name Labor Action in our history. This Labor Action was a bi-weekly newspaper published in 1933-34 by AJ Muste’s American Workers Party. The AWP grew from the Conference for Progressive Labor Action, founded in 1929, and Labor Action replaced the long-running CPLA magazine, Labor Age. Along with Muste, the AWP had activists and writers James Burnham and Art Preis. When the AWP fused with the Trotskyist Communist League of America in late 1934, their joint paper became The New Militant.

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