The Chair of the Workers (Communist) Party summarizes the role of the Party and its differences with other left forces in the aftermath of its Third National Convention.

‘The Revolutionary Party’ by C.E. Ruthenberg from The Liberator. Vol. 7 No. 2. February, 1924.

AFTER four years of persistent struggle, during which the Communists wandered along many by-paths, there has come into being in this country a Communist party which has learned how to reach the workers, make itself part of their struggles and to become a leader in those struggles.

At the second convention of the Workers Party at the end of 1922 it was already clear that the Party had formulated correct policies. But little had been done in the actual application of those policies. The past year has been a period of putting those policies into effect, of actual work, of achievement, of establishing the influence of the Party and building a following among the workers.

From its Third National Convention, held at the beginning of 1924, the Workers Party emerges as a growing political force in the life of this country.

I.

The task which the Communists of this country have set themselves is of Herculean proportions.

We have in the United States a social system more firmly rooted than anywhere else in the world. The industrial order upon which it rests has reached a development which is gigantic, and unrivaled elsewhere. The ruling class in this country possesses wealth and power which has not been equaled in human history.

Here are thousands upon thousands of factories, mills, mines, railways, steamship lines, stores, banks, all the enormous, monstrous, intricate machinery of production and distribution upon which one hundred and ten million people are dependent for their livelihood, owned and controlled by the exploiting, ruling class. Here exist tens of thousands of newspapers, magazines, schools, colleges, churches, moving picture theatres, all of which are cleverly exploited to shape the thoughts and ideas of the people in support of the existing social order and the industrial system upon which it rests.

The fact that this social system was created in a virgin land, that we have no past history of the uprooting of an old social system and the establishment of a new, such as that which replaced the feudal system in Europe with capitalism, is an added element of strength for the capitalist system of the United States.

The state power which expresses the rule of the capitalists had its origin in events which have given it added elements of strength. Our governmental institutions had their birth after a revolution. That a counter-revolution intervened is hidden from the masses. With the supposed revolutionary origin of our government as a basis it has been easy to foster the illusion that it is “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

To this economic power, the tradition of the rights of property, the tradition of the capitalist system as the only possible method of production and distribution, the tradition of the government as a government of the people, add the organs for repression, laws and courts, police, the army and navy–and the picture of the strength of the existing social order is overpowering.

This powerful, colossal capitalist order the Workers Party of America is fighting to overthrow and to replace with a new social order. The twenty-five thousand men and women who are today the members of the Workers Party dare hope–nay, believe, are certain–that in spite of the power of the capitalists, they will win in this struggle and establish a Communist social order in the United States·

Truly this is the epic struggle of the ages–the great adventure. Twenty-five thousand workingmen and women stand in battle array against this mighty colossus of capitalism. Their means of struggle are the meagre funds spared from the scanty living capitalism grants them, their intellectual ability, and–a social science.

Let us look at the 25,000–the members of the Workers Party–on the road to the victory over capitalism.

II.

Other organizations have set as their aim the creation of a new social order in the place of capitalism. It will, by contrast, throw some light on the principles and tactics of the Workers Party, if we first examine their principles.

The Socialist Party, which once had a hundred thousand members and polled a million votes for its presidential candidate, stated as its aim the establishment of a cooperative commonwealth. Its method of achieving this was theoretical propaganda about the beauties of the co- operative commonwealth, through which it hoped to educate a majority of the workers to an understanding of the need of the new social order and thus to win their support. To this theoretical propaganda it added a long list of abstract demands, the enactment of which were slowly to transform capitalism into the cooperative commonwealth.

The Socialist Labor Party, and its latest prototype, the Proletarian Party, both believe that they can educate the voters through abstract propaganda to an understanding of the necessity of replacing capitalism with socialism. Educate a majority in the theory of surplus value, educate a majority to an understanding of the beauties of the cooperative commonwealth, and some fine day you will achieve it. To this conception the Socialist Labor Party added the idea of theoretically perfect industrial unions which were to aid in the achievement of the cooperative commonwealth.

The Workers Party, too, states its goal to the workers–the achievement of a new social order. It holds before the workers the ideal of Communism. It seeks to educate the advance guard in the basic principles of Marxian science.

But these are the only points of similarity between its methods and those of the organizations referred to above. The Workers Party does not believe that a majority will be educated to an understanding of the theory of surplus value nor that they will be inspired to overthrow capitalism by the beauties of an abstractly presented cooperative commonwealth. Its methods of struggle are based upon quite a different conception.

“The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles” wrote Marx in the Communist Manifesto of 1848. That is the key to the policies of the Workers Party, and of all communist parties.

In the capitalist United States the people are divided into economic classes with clashing economic interests. There is not only the main economic division of capitalist and proletarian, employer and employee, but there are the working farmers, the small shopkeepers, the professional groups, yes, even within the capitalist class there are economic groups with clashing economic interests.

The guiding principle of Communist policy, of the policies of the Workers Party, is to use the class struggles growing out of these conflicting economic interests to mobilize the forces which will wrest from the capitalists the state power through which they maintain their system of exploitation, and to use the power thus gained as the instrument to transform capitalism into communism.

This does not mean only a campaign on the basic economic issue which sharply divides the interests of the capitalists and the workers-privately owned industry operated for profit-making purposes, versus socialized industry operated for service. The conflict between economic groups in capitalist society manifests itself in continuous struggles over immediate questions. The workers fight for better wages and working conditions. They engage in struggles against restrictive laws, against injunctions, the use of the “armed power of the government against them. The farmers fight against high railway rates, against the trustified marketing interests, against the banks which hold the mortgages on their land; they seek legislative action to improve their economic position.

These daily struggles are the starting point of the Communist struggle for the overthrow of capitalism. By entering into all of these struggles which grow out of the every day life of the exploited groups, by championing the cause of the exploited, by becoming their spokesmen, winning their confidence, the Communists establish their leadership of all those who suffer under the whip of capitalism. Thus the Communist Party combines under its direction all the forces in opposition to the capitalists in preparation for the day when the sharpening economic conflict will enable it to mobilize these forces for the blow which will make an end to the capitalist power.

III.

The reports and resolutions of the Third National Convention of the Workers Party graphically illustrate the practical application of this policy and the growing strength of the Workers Party as a revolutionary force.

The sharp conflicts between the industrial workers and capitalists over wages, working conditions and during the recent years the right to organize, conflicts in which the government has appeared regularly as the agency of the capitalists fighting the workers, the farm crisis which has bankrupted millions of farmers, have developed a widespread movement for independent political action through a farmer-labor party. The Workers Party has been in the forefront of this movement. Through its aggressive campaign, through the struggle it waged at the farmer-labor convention, the Workers Party has greatly extended its influence among both industrial workers and farmers, and today it holds a position of leadership in the movement for a mass farmer-labor party which will fight the political battles of the industrial workers and exploited farmers.

In the trade unions the reverses of recent years have created a demand for more effective organization. The Workers Party stands before the organized workers as the exponent of amalgamation of the trade unions into industrial unions and a more militant leadership in their struggles. Representatives of hundreds of thousands of workers have voted in conventions in support of these proposals of the party, and these workers see in the Workers Party the leader in the struggle to create more effective fighting organizations upon the industrial field.

The capitalist government aims a blow at the whole working class in its proposal to register foreign-born workers and for selective immigration. These measures would create a class of coolie labor so tied down with restrictive legislation that it would be unable to offer resistance to the exploiters. The Workers Party through the action of its second convention, re-affirmed by the third convention, takes up the cudgel in defense of the foreign-born workers and of the standard of living of the whole working class in its campaign for protection of foreign-born workers.

The working farmers of this country are facing a crisis which is deeper than ever before in the history of this country. The convention resolution analyses the situation

of the poorer farmers and raises the demand of a five-year moratorium for farmers and the ownership of the land by its users.

The Negro workers of this country are an especially exploited class. The Workers Party initiates a campaign against all forms of discrimination against the Negroes and will assist them in organizing their strength to make an end to these discriminations.

American “Irelands,” “Egypts” and “Indias” are appearing as a result of the advance of American imperialism.

The Workers Party sees in the national groups exploited by American imperialism in the West Indies, Central America, Hawaii and the Philippines its natural allies in the struggle against the centralized, imperialist capitalist government at Washington and it raises the slogans of independence for the victims of American imperialism and endeavors to rally the masses of this country in support of these slogans.

Soviet Russia is a sword thrust straight at the heart of capitalism throughout the world. Its flag is the inspiration and rallying point of the exploited everywhere in the world. The Workers Party takes up the fight in support of Soviet Russia in its struggles against imperialist attacks.

IV.

Thus there is being created a growing revolutionary force in American life. The capitalists hold in their hands a mighty power. But within the capitalist order are generated those forces which weaken and disintegrate that power through the process of the continuous class conflict which capitalism engenders. What is needed is the organization which can combine for the struggle against the capitalists all the forces of opposition which it creates.

That organization is here-a Communist party, the Workers Party of America.

The Liberator was published monthly from 1918, first established by Max Eastman and his sister Crystal Eastman continuing The Masses, was shut down by the US Government during World War One. Like The Masses, The Liberator contained some of the best radical journalism of its, or any, day. It combined political coverage with the arts, culture, and a commitment to revolutionary politics. Increasingly, The Liberator oriented to the Communist movement and by late 1922 was a de facto publication of the Party. In 1924, The Liberator merged with Labor Herald and Soviet Russia Pictorial into Workers Monthly. An essential magazine of the US left.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1924/02/v7n02-w70-feb-1924-liberator.pdf