The language of reform or revolution as it was understood in 1911. Caroline Nelson looks at ‘public’ services likes schools and the post-office and ‘the vote’ to explain the difference between the two conceptions.

‘Political Socialism vs. Industrial Socialism’ by Caroline Nelson from Revolt (San Francisco). Vol. 2 No. 21. November 18, 1911.

Today we have political Socialism in the public school system and the postal system. In many countries this kind of Socialism extends to the street-car system, gas and water and electric light, including even the railway systems. The workers simply become wage slaves of the municipality, State or nation. They are exploited by the government instead of by private parties, and to rebel against the government is a far more serious and difficult matter then to fight a private employer. Taft recently declared that the postal employees had no right to form a labor union to fight against the government. And the postal clerks are exploited by the government worse, or as bad, as any other workers. The mail clerk who gets sixty or seventy-five dollars a month has to go through a civil service examination to get that job, while the postmaster that is put over him is appointed without any examination. The postmaster general is usually a man who has never had the slightest experience in the postal system. Those jobs of authority and high pay are not given as a reward of efficiency in the service of the system, but are handed out as political pies. If a man can’t go in a post-office to assort and carry letters without a rigid examination regarding his knowledge, how is it that a man who has never had any experience on that line can go in and be boss of the whole system without any examination? The answer is that he has to learn from his subordinates. It is then the unskilled and untrained that is put over the skilled and trained. These jobs are served out as juicy plums for the political faithful that help to lift politicians into office.

The school is run by boards and trustees that may not have the slightest knowledge of teaching and children, nevertheless the experienced teacher must toe the mark of those inexperienced people. And we actually imagine that by extending this political operation we shall be nearer justice, efficiency, freedom and happiness. The ruling class is just beginning to see that that kind of Socialism is a good thing for them, and will actually help to readjust themselves in the saddle, besides pacifying the social unrest. No wonder Congressman Kent from California sent Berger’s speech in Congress out with his own, and that Berger was invited this summer to deliver lectures outside the Socialist party, and warmly received.

Now, isn’t it time that we Socialists got a “hunch” and put ourselves squarely down for industrial Socialism right now. Ten or twenty years ago it was quite revolutionary to agitate for political Socialism. That is all we could do, but today it is not at all revolutionary, unless Republican insurgency is a working-class movement for the social revolution. Instead of moving ahead of the procession it seems to me we are falling behind. Our platforms constructed the last few years have actually become less and less radical, until here in California we have, a plank excluding our Oriental fellow workers, for, the purpose of catching a few more votes. This platform we presume is written on paper headed “Workers of the world, unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains and a world to gain.’ Our slogan now should be, turn the industries over to the workers. The postal workers should run the postal system and elect their own heads. The teachers should run the schools and elect their own superintendents. The miners should run the mines. The railroad workers should run the railroad, all get the full value of their social service. That is industrial socialism. And the only kind of Socialism that will free the worker. We are or should be the scouting party, blazing the trail ahead that the social procession may follow and go on. We should be willing to take our reward in jeers and kicks, or relinquish our claim to revolutionary leadership.

Industrial socialism sends a thrill of aspiration through our hearts and minds. It is a new keynote struck in a new world of thought. Thousands of minds will examine it. Thousands of speakers will expound it. The ruling-class will see in it a new horned devil. The workers will eagerly grasp it. It can be made so simple that a child can see it.

Revolt ‘The Voice Of The Militant Worker’ was a short-lived revolutionary weekly newspaper published by Left Wingers in the Socialist Party in 1911 and 1912 and closely associated with Tom Mooney. The legendary activists and political prisoner Thomas J. Mooney had recently left the I.W.W. and settled in the Bay. He would join with the SP Left in the Bay Area, like Austin Lewis, William McDevitt, Nathan Greist, and Cloudseley Johns to produce The Revolt. The paper ran around 1500 copies weekly, but financial problems ended its run after one year. Mooney was also embroiled in constant legal battles for his role in the Pacific Gas and Electric Strike of the time. The paper epitomizes the revolutionary Left of the SP before World War One with its mix of Marxist orthodoxy, industrial unionism, and counter-cultural attitude. To that it adds some of the best writers in the movement; it deserved a much longer run.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/revolt/v2n21-w30-nov-18-1911-Revolt.pdf