Mary Marcy on what it means for Socialist Party policy that courts have disbarred elected Socialist officials from holding office in West Virginia.

‘Rules of the Game in West Virginia’ by Mary E. Marcy from International Socialist Review. Vol. 15 No. 10. April, 1915.

THERE are some people simpleminded enough to imagine that in their fight to keep the workers in subjection the capitalist class is going to adhere to LEGAL conduct. They fondly hope the class that robs us on Saturday night is going to play square at the ballot box and permit us to elect our comrades and seat them in office according to the rules of the game.

But the capitalist class is not going to permit us to take anything anywhere, to gain any offices, to conquer any counties or states unless THEY ARE FIRMLY CONVINCED THAT WE HAVE THE POWER BACK OF OUR VOTE TO MAKE IT STICK.

We want you to read the following quotations from a letter we have received from Local Star City, West Virginia, Socialist Party. And then we want you to think over what the National Socialist Party is going to do if we are nationally disfranchised (illegally) as our comrades have been in Star City.

Are we going to calmly sit down and fold our hands and say, ‘Well, goodness gracious! It is all off with the revolution now!” when the capitalists refuse to seat our elected officials? If we are, we may be certain sure that the master class is going to do that very thing. They will merely throw out the socialist votes and seat their own tools. And unless we have some way of fighting back we are going to be absolutely helpless. What shall we do about it?

From Local Star Resolution:

“The overwhelming power of concentrated capital has been massed against Local Star City S.P., and is trying to stamp out of existence the little band of revolutionary socialists banded together under the glorious crimson banner of Socialism.

“Whereas, the Court of Monongalia County, W. Va., has disfranchised the socialist voters by deciding that the duly elected socialist mayor, John F. Higgins, is ineligible to serve, we feel that the attack is not only on the Star City Local and the socialist voters, but that it threatens the very existence of our National Party, and is also a direct blow at the fiat of the ballot and the principle of political democracy. If this case stands the expressed will of the people as recorded at the polls will be null and void; and

“Whereas, the Russianized State of West Virginia was the first to try strikers at a military drum-head and has always been quick to set aside the law of Habeas Corpus, we believe that this latest move is but the beginning of a capitalist scheme to set aside the will of the people in elections all over the U.S.,

“Be it resolved, that the S.P. of Star City, W. Va., do hereby call upon the S.P. of the U.S. for moral support in our fight for justice. Attacked as we are on every side by corrupt capitalist powers, we call upon our comrades in the U.S. and the world to uphold us in this fight against those who would rob us of our last political right—the ballot.” Recording Secretary Stansberry was instructed to send copies of these resolutions to the S.P. officials and papers.

The resolution closes with these words:

“We earnestly solicit the advice and moral support of our national officers and the National Executive Committee and the fearless party press.”

The Class Struggle is war and the capitalist class believes that all is fair in war as well as in peace. They are not going to tamely sit down and permit the workers to take the control of industry. We believe they will pay their soldiers to fight till the last ditch if need be. What we need is, not street barricades, nor guns, but a compact, wide-spread, ever growing working class UNION on the economic field that will enable us to paralyze industry and establish our victories.

The only way we can make an election stick is to have the industrial strength back of us to ENFORCE them.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v15n10-apr-1915-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf