Watkins 
 
 fw^^^^' 
 
 Revolutionary Communism 
 in the United States
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 SOUTHERN BK/AlNj-vi-L, 
 
 UNIVER^n ;NlA
 
 Reprinted from The American Political Science Review, Vol. XIV, No. 1, Februarj". 1920 
 
 r 
 
 REVO LIT ION ARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED 
 
 STATES 
 
 GORDON S. WATKINS 
 
 University of Illinois •"' 
 
 On October 15, 1919, a press dispatch from Buffalo, New York, 
 indicated that the primary election returns in that city gave an 
 average of about three hundred votes to the three candidates 
 whose names appeared on the ballot as representatives of the 
 Communist party the protagonist of the soviet form of govern- 
 ment in the United States. The total number of votes cast was 
 54,000, which shows that the Communist vote was insignifican^t,- 
 numerically. Newspapers ridiculed the diminutiveradicai'vofe. 
 All phenomena have a genesis, and it is the fact that a Communist 
 ballot was cast rather than the quantitative character of the vc^tc 
 that has significance for the student of political philosophy an4 
 action. To those who saw the revolutionary left wing of the old' 
 Socialist party organize the Communist party and the Commun- 
 ist Labor party in Chicago during the first week of September. 
 1919, this initial appearance of the revolutionary Communists in 
 American political life presages important developments. The 
 event was heralded by revolutionists in this country and in Eu- 
 rope as the emergence of a new era in the political and economic 
 life of the United States. The widespread dissemination of 
 ultra-radical propaganda in connection with recent strikes is 
 further evidence of the revolutionary purposes of Communists 
 [, in America. 
 
 Optimistic prophecies are prevalent to the effect that bolshev 
 ism wdll find no fertile soil in the United States, since America 
 workmen are too prosperous to become susceptible to revolutio 
 ary political and industrial philosophy. Similar predictions we 
 voiced even on the floor of the Socialist emergency convent? 
 and the Communist Labor party convention last Septeml 
 
 14 
 
 71830
 
 HX 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 15 
 
 Recent developments in American socialism throw a great deal 
 of light on speculations of this nature. , As a matter of fact the 
 soviet form of government, with the identical ad interim dictator- 
 ship that obtains in Russia at the present time, is being openly 
 advocated in the United States by the Communist party and the 
 Communist Labor party. Both of these parties have declared 
 adherence to the Third (Communist) International, which was 
 convened in Moscow by Nicholai Lenin and Leon Trotzky during 
 the early part of 1919. These groups of American communists 
 are self-expressed supporters of Russian bolshevism, and the prin- 
 ciples which they have formulated and are expounding vigorously 
 would, if adopted, introduce a communist regime with all of its 
 revolutionary implications. 
 
 An analysis of revolutionary American communism will be 
 clearer if we review briefly the present status of American social- 
 ism and the developments that have determined this status. 
 American socialism now comprises a moderate right wing, a 
 vacillating center left, and an extremely radical left wing. The 
 three divisions are officially organized into the Socialist party, 
 the Communist Labor party, and the Communist party, respec- 
 tively. It is impossible to determine accurately the numerical 
 strength of these parties, on account of the fact that the member- 
 ship of the old Socialist party has not yet settled sufficiently to 
 warrant an official enumeration. The officials of each party,] 
 however, have ventured an estimate of the comparative strength ' 
 of the three groups. Prior to the recent split in its ranks, the 
 Socialist party had a membership of approximately 100,000. Of 
 this number it still claims 55,000, and concedes a membership of 
 35,000 to the Communist party and 10,000 to the Communist 
 Labor party. ^ The Communist party claims a membership of 
 60,000 and it estimates that the Socialist party and the Com- 
 munist Labor party have about 25,000 and 10,000 respectively, 
 which leaves 5000 members unaccounted for.^ The estimate 
 made by the Communist Labor party includes 30,000 members 
 
 1 Estimate of Mr. Otto Branstetter, Executive Secretary of the Socialist party, 
 in a letter to the writer, October 1-t, 1919. 
 
 2 The Communist, September 27, 1919, p. 2.
 
 16 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 ) for itself, and 25,000 for the Communist party, which leaves 
 45,000 still in the ranks of the Socialist party.^ It is highly prob- 
 
 i able that with the lapse of several months an official census will 
 find about 46,000 persons in the ranks of the Sociahst party, 40,000 
 in the Communist party, and 14,000 in the Communist Labor 
 
 i party, unless a merger between the last two parties is effected in 
 the meantime, which w^ould throw a majority of American So- 
 cialists to the surviving left wing party. 
 
 There is not space here to review in detail the causes that have 
 produced the schism in American socialism.'* A brief summary 
 of these conditions, however, is necessary to a proper under- 
 standing of the differences that obtain between the three parties. 
 Generally speaking, the disintegration and the reconstruction in the 
 structure of American socialism are due to the refusal of the 
 right wing faction to abandon its program of opportunism for 
 the ultra-revolutionary platform leading to the establishment of 
 a proletarian dictatorship which w^as demanded bj'- the left wing 
 of the old Socialist party. This irreparable breach in American 
 sociaUsm is the logical sequence of a similar crisis, disruption, 
 and reconstruction in European sociahsm, in w^hich the moder- 
 ates still adhere to the Second International while the revolu- 
 tionists accept the leadership of Lenin and Trotzky within the 
 Third (Moscow) International. 
 
 Like its European contemporaries American socialism even be- 
 fore the w^orld war was experiencing unprecedented disaffection 
 among its adherents, and this discontent has gained momentum 
 during the subsequent years. Naturally enough, the foreign- 
 language federations of the old Socialist party were most largely 
 responsible for the development of dissatisfaction with the party's 
 program of opportunism. Pronounced revolutionary tendencies 
 at the St. Louis Convention of the Sociahst party in April, 1917, 
 forced the adoption of a militant declaration against the w^ar, 
 and led to the arrest of the party's leaders. Increasing impa- 
 tience on the part of the revolutionary membership and 
 
 ^ The Communist Labor Party News. September. 1919, p. 1. 
 * See an article by the writer on "The Present Status of Socialism in the United 
 States," Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 124, No. 6 (December, 1919), pp. 821-830.
 
 REVOLUTIONAEY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 17 
 
 its enthusiasm for the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia led to 
 the organization of a Communist Propaganda League in Chicago, 
 on November 7, 1918. There soon followed general agitation for 
 the adoption of a revolutionary Communist program of action, 
 emphasizing the necessity of a radical reconstruction in the thought 
 and practices of American socialism. The left wing section of 
 the SociaUst party was organized in New York City early in 1919; 
 and immediately the Lettish, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrain- 
 ian, South Slavic, Hungarian, and Esthonian federations of the 
 Socialist party, representing about 25,000 members, declared 
 their adherence to the program of the left wing faction. Thus 
 far no general movement for secession from the Sociahst party 
 had appeared; but the opposition had developed remarkable 
 strength, electing 12 out of 15 members of the national executive 
 committee at the party election. The election, however, was 
 declared fraudulent by the old national executive committee, and 
 the latter decided to remain in office until the emergency conven- 
 tion, caUed for August 30, 1919, although its term of office 
 should have expired on June 30.^ This action of the committee, 
 together with its suspension of the foreign language federations, 
 stimulated the opposition of the left wing. 
 
 Local Boston, Local Cleveland, and the left wing section of 
 the Socialist party of New York City issued a call for a national 
 left wing conference, which convened in New York City on June 
 21, 1919. Ninety-four delegates representing twenty states, and 
 chosen especially from large industrial centers, ''the heart of the 
 militant proletarian movement," attended this assembly. At 
 the outset of this conference there developed a difference of 
 opinion on the alternatives of organizing immediately a new 
 party devoted to the revolutionary class struggle or of continuing 
 the fight for control of the old Socialist party, at least until the 
 emergency convention. The proposal to organize at once a 
 new party was defeatfed by a vote of 55 to 38, whereupon 31 dele- 
 gates, representing for the most part the Russian federations, 
 
 * Report of Louis C. Train a, international secretary of the Communist party 
 : of America, to the executive Committee of the Communist International. The 
 \Communist, October 11, 1919.
 
 18 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 decided to withdraw. Later this minority of thirty-one issued a 
 call for a convention to open in Chicago on September 1, for the 
 purpose of organizing the new party, thus repudiating all par- 
 ticipation in the Socialist emergency convention. The majority 
 delegates at the left wing conference adopted a program to 
 gain control of the old party, and to assure the success of this 
 program a national left wing council was elected to combat the 
 reactionary right wing faction. 
 
 By August 1, the national left wing council was convinced that 
 the majority of the membership represented at the left wing con- 
 ference had repudiated the action of the majority delegates and 
 had indorsed the proposal for the organization of a new party. 
 Consequently, the left wing council joined the organizing com- 
 mittee, elected by the minority delegates, in issuing a call for a 
 convention to organize a Communist party. Out of this conven- 
 tion, held in Chicago during the first week of September, 1919, 
 emerged the Communist party of America, with the dual purpose 
 of waging war against reactionary socialism and against capital- 
 j.sm. Meanwhile, the left wing executive committee of the 
 Socialist party, elected by the revolutionary faction, was denied 
 recognition and office by the old national executive committee. 
 The left wing forces, however, continued their struggle for party 
 control, and carried hostilities to the floor of the emergency con- 
 vention. There the superior parliamentary tactics of the right 
 wing leaders spelled defeat for the revolutionists, whereupon the 
 latter, led by John Reed, John Carney, and William Bross Lloyd, 
 convoked a separate convention in the I. W. W. hall and organ- 
 ized, on August 31, the Communist Labor party of America. 
 
 The emergency convention of the Sociahst party did not in- 
 dorse the Communist International, but submitted the question 
 of indorsement to the membership through referendum, while 
 both of the Communist conventions accepted without qualifica- 
 tion the pronouncements of the Communist International and 
 formulated their programs and platforms with Russian bolshev- 
 ism as the major inspiration. It should be noted here that al- 
 though the Communists in the United States are divided into two 
 distinct parties and present center left and extreme left factions,
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 19 
 
 there is a probability that a process of amalgamation will take 
 place sooner or later, which will leave American socialism with 
 but two major parties- — the Socialist party on the right and the 
 Communist party on the left. If this consolidation does take 
 place the Communist Labor party, being the weaker of the com- 
 munist groups, will doubtless become extinct. Thus far extensive . 
 negotiations seeking a merger of these two Communist parties 
 have failed on account of the unwillingness of both to effect a 
 compromise on the question of party control and the absence of 
 an acceptable basis of fusion. The rank and file — the unknown 
 quantity in the present reconstruction of American sociaUsm — may 
 soon accomplish what the officials of the two parties have failed 
 to do. 
 
 ' This survey of the conditions that have necessitated a recon- 
 struction in American socialism suggests that there is a funda- 
 mental basis of disagreement between the Socialists and the Com- 
 munists. This fundamental difference is that the Socialists, ^j 
 represented in the Socialist party, accept parliamentary action as , 
 an effective and desirable means of overthrowing capitalism and , 
 introducing the socialist state; while the Communists, repre- j 
 sented in the two Communist parties, oppose parliamentary par- ' 
 ticipation except for purposes of propaganda, and advocate the 
 revolutionary extermination of capitalism as the initial step in 
 establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, preceding the or- j 
 ganization of the communist society. The program of the Social- ' 
 ist party, therefore, is moderate and opportunistic, while the pro- 
 gram of the revolutionary Communist parties is ultra-radical, 
 deprecating all compromise with existing political and economic \ 
 institutions and rejecting parliamentary reform as a means of | 
 revolutionizing the social order. Between moderate sociaUsm_J 
 and revolutionary communism there is no basis for compromise 
 and cooperation.^ Revisionist and reformist socialism organized 
 within the Second International is condemned as counter-revo- 
 lutionary in philosophy and action, a betrayer of proletarian in- 
 terests and the prophet of reactionary state capitalism. State 
 
 * The Communist, September 27. 1919, pp. 1, 6; The Communist Labor Party 
 News, September, 1919, p. 1.
 
 20 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 capitalism, precisely that type of state capitalism advocated by 
 moderate socialism, is viewed by the Communists as the highest 
 expression of imperialism and as designed to buttress capitahsm 
 in further exploitation of the proletariat. Germany is the Com- 
 munists' example par excellence of what might be expected under 
 • state capitalism. Moderate socialism proffers a capitaUst par- 
 Tliamentary republic and not a proletarian dictatorship.' Revo- 
 lutionary communism and reformist socialism, therefore, hold 
 different conceptions of the state; the former adheres to the 
 theory that there must be a revolutionary demolition of the cap- 
 italist state and organization of a new state under proletarian 
 domination; the latter accepts the bourgeois parliamentary state 
 as the basis for the evolutionary transition from capitalism to 
 socialism. 
 
 American communism, like Russian bolshevism, its major in- 
 spiration, is an attempt to return to pure Marxism and to oblit- 
 erate every vestige of pseudo-Marxism represented in opportunis- 
 tic socialism. In speaking with the leaders and the rank and file 
 of American Communists one is impressed with their strong de- 
 sire to return to the first principles of communism as enunciated 
 in the manifesto of 1848; and communist literature is replete 
 with orthodox interpretations of the revolutionary class struggle, 
 the materialistic conception of history, the theory of surplus 
 value, and the law of the concentration of capital. Moderate 
 socialism both in Europe and in America have wandered far 
 afield from these fundamental articles of communist faith; and 
 American communists, accepting the challenge of what ihey be- 
 lieve to be the new era of proletarian dictatorship, are organizing 
 their forces after the manner of their Russian comrades with a 
 view to reconstructing the whole sociahst movement on the basis 
 of unadulterated Marxism. One need but examine the manifes- 
 toes and programs of the Communist parties to grasp the signifi- 
 cance and determination of this purpose. 
 
 ^ The program of revolutionary communism in the United States 
 ;may be summarized briefly as follows: (1) complete disruption 
 
 ' Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Communist, September, 1919, pp. 6-8.
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 21 
 
 of the capitalist state and the elimination of every vestige of 
 bourgeois parliaments; (2) organization of a dictatorship of the 
 proletariat as the initial step in the communist reconstruction of 
 the social order, subsequent to the anticipated successful social 
 revolution; (3) participation in political campaigns under capi- 
 talism to be of secondary importance, devoted only to the task 
 of disseminating communist propaganda against the bourgeois 
 state; (4) nominations for public office and participation in elec- 
 tions to be limited to legislative bodies, as municipal councils, 
 state legislatures, and Congress; (5) representatives of American 
 communism in these assemblies not to introduce or support po- 
 litical and social reform measures, but to use their parhamentary 
 powers and privileges in exposing capitalistic oppression of the 
 proletariat; (6) absolute maintenance of the revolutionary class 
 struggle and no compromise or cooperation with political groups 
 not committed definitely and openly to that struggle, as the 
 Socialist party. Labor parties, the Non-Partisan League, and 
 municipal ownership leagues; (7) major activities of the Com- 
 munist parties to be carried on in the industrial struggles in order 
 to develop a general understanding of the strike in relation to 
 the final overthrow of capitalism, ithat is, to emphasize the revo- 
 lutionary implications of the mass strike rather than the immedi- 
 ate purposes of the local walkout; (8) trade-unions to be revolu- 
 tionized and industrial unionism to be advocated as against the 
 reactionary craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor; 
 (9) cooperation with the revolutionary proletariat of the world to 
 be encouraged, in order to guarantee the success of the Commun- 
 ist International and pave the way for the introduction of world 
 communism comprised of free, coordinated, cooperating commun- 
 ist societies.^ — 
 The program of revolutionary communism in the United States^ 
 is similar to the program of Russian bolshevism, namely, com- 
 plete disruption of the capitalist state, oppression and expropria- 
 jtion of the bourgeoisie, the organization of a proletarian dicta- 
 
 ! 8 The Program of the Communist Party, The Communist, September 27, 1919, 
 !p. 9; The Program and Platform of the Communist Labor Party, The Comm^mist 
 [Labor Party News, September, 1919, p. 2.
 
 22 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 torship and, eventually, the reconstruction of the social order 
 upon a communistic basis. The immediate objective of the 
 
 ■ Communist attack is t^e political and economic foundations of 
 the present society. In the Communist program there is no pro- 
 vision for a temporizing compromise with the institutions that 
 constitute the major defenses of capitalism, such as private prop- 
 erty, the wage system, the courts, and the parliamentary struc- 
 ture. There is to be no gradual growing into socialism. Evo- 
 lutionary development has no place in communist parlance; 
 revolutionary extirpation of all those institutions the continued 
 existence of which might facilitate counter-revolutionarj^ move- 
 
 , ments is the strategy par excellence of communism. ''The im- 
 
 ' mediate objective of the proletarian revolution is the conquest 
 of the power of the state; and this means the annihilation of the 
 bourgeois state, its parliamentary system and bourgeois democ- 
 racy, and the introduction of a new 'state' comprised in the dicta- 
 torship of the proletariat," states the international secretary of 
 
 \^the Communist party of America.^ 
 
 The proletarian struggle, then, is essentially a political strug- 
 gle. It is political in the sense that its objective is political — the 
 annihilation of all parliamentary defenses of capitalist power, 
 and the substitution therefor of a proletarian commonwealth. 
 It cannot be emphasized too strongly that communism does not 
 propose to "capture" the bourgeois parliamentary machinery, as 
 does moderate socialism, but rather to conquer and destroy it 
 completely, for "As long as the bourgeois state prevails, the capi- 
 talist class can baffle the will of the proletariat."^" This immedi- 
 ate aim of American communism is identical with that executed 
 by Lenin and Trotzky in the Bolshevik Revolution, and is be- 
 lieved to be a tactical necessity in disposing of the old social 
 structure and defending the communist order in its germinal 
 period. 
 
 For the realization of their immediate purposes the Commun- 
 ists have outlined a specific program of action. There is to be, 
 
 8 Fraina, Louis C. Revolutionary Socialism— A Study in Socialist Reconsirue- \ 
 tion, p. 213. 
 
 1" Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Communist, September 27, 1919, p 7.
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 23 
 
 first, the development of a general political strike in which elec- 
 tions will be boycotted, as they were in Russia by the Bolsheviki 
 in the elections for the Second Duma in 1906, and, second, _the^ 
 germination of mass action through the general strike. The! 
 method of the Communist attack, therefore, is to be both eco- 
 nomic and political. The nature of the political boycott is not_ 
 at all clear from statements issued by the Communist parties. 
 From the expressions on the convention floor it seems that the 
 political strike is to consist in nonparticipation in elections, 
 which is to serve the purpose of a silent proletarian taboo of the 
 parliamentary regime of capitalism and to emphasize the irre- 
 concilability and incompatibility of bourgeois and proletarian 
 interests. The pronouncements of the Communist groups — the 
 manifestoes, platforms, and constitutions — do not contain pro- 
 vision for such a boycott of elections and do not, moreover, pre- 
 clude election to public office. ^"^— 
 
 Although the Communists emphasize the fact that not one of 
 the great teachers of scientific socialism has taught the possibility 
 of social revolution through the use of the ballot, they do not 
 ignore entirely the value of voting, or the election of revolution- 
 ists to public office, provided these achieve beneficial results for 
 the workers in their great economic struggle. Cognizance is taken 
 of the fact that political campaigns and the election of party 
 representatives to seats in parliamentary bodies provide oppor- 
 tunities for exposing capitalist democracy, educating the workers 
 to a realization of their class interests, and demonstrating the 
 necessity of overthrowing the existing regime. The Communist 
 parties entertain no hope of achieving their purposes at the 
 polls, and warn their adherents against placing confidence in leg- 
 islative reforms under capitalism. 
 
 There is nothing in the program of the Communist Labor 
 party that would prohibit its parliamentary representatives from 
 introducing and supporting legislative measures in the interest of 
 the workers, and on the whole the party appears not adverse to 
 reformative statutes of any character, provided these advance 
 the proletarian conquest of the state.^^ The Communist party is 
 
 11 Program of the Communist Labor Party, The Communist Labor Party News, 
 October, 1919, p. 2.
 
 24 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 less vacillating and opportunistic, for its program provides that 
 (1) participation in parliamentary campaigns is of secondary im- 
 portance, to be used only for the purpose of revolutionary propa- 
 ganda; (2) parliamentary representatives of the party shall not 
 introduce or support reform measures ; (3) Communist represen- 
 tatives shall use the parliamentary forum to interpret and empha- 
 size the revolutionary implications of the class struggle, to expose 
 the oppressive class character of the capitalist state, and to show 
 that parUamentarism and bourgeois democracy deceive the 
 workers with reform palliatives. ^^ in order to concentrate its 
 political activity and to prevent degeneration of parliamentary 
 action into reformism, the Communist party limits nominations 
 for public office to legislative bodies, including municipal councils, 
 state legislatures, and the national Congress. For the same reasons 
 the party prohibits cooperation with organizations not committed 
 to the revolutionary class struggle. ^^ A similar position in regard 
 to such cooperation is taken by the Communist Labor party. ^^ 
 
 In relegating legislative reforms to a position of minor im- 
 portance or completely ignoring such measures, American com- 
 munism differs from other reform movements, including moder- 
 ate socialism. For this reason its^rogramJsJiQt likely tciprove 
 attractive to practically minded American workmen. From 
 parliamentarism the Communist turns to mass action as the most 
 effective means of expediting the social revolution, which he de- 
 clares to be inevitable. If the immediate aim of communism is 
 political in character, its method of achievement is both political 
 and economic. Politico-economic mass action is the sine qua 
 non of the social revolution. According to the Communist analy- 
 sis of historical developments, isolated economic action in the 
 form of craft unions and sporadic strikes, and parliamentary action 
 in the bourgeois assemblies, have proved futile when viewed from 
 the standpoint of the revolutionary class struggle. The new 
 phase into which the class struggle is just entering necessitates 
 
 12 The Program of the Communist Party, The Communist, September 27, 1919, 
 p. 9. 
 " Ibid. 
 1* The Communist Labor Party News, October, 1919, p. 2.
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 25 
 
 the unification of industr^l and political action as a determinant 
 of successful proletariaii conquest of political power. ^^ As a 
 matter of fact, however, the mass action of American communism 
 is more industrial than political in character. 
 
 For the propagation of mass action through the general strike 
 revolutionary communism has a definite policy. Since the ulti- 
 mate aim of communism is the organization of a workers' indus- 
 trial republic, the logical channel of approach is through the 
 united action of the industrial and agricultural proletariat. Con-' 
 sequently, communism is conveying to these workers the mes- 
 sage effectively enunciated by Marx and Lenin, namely, that 
 capitalism expropriates the proletariat, the difference between 
 wages and product constituting the unearned profits of the capi- 
 talists. This surplus value attributed to the efforts of labor 
 must, therefore, become the property of the workers. The dif- 
 ferential of production can be regained through mass action in 
 seizing the machinerj^ of industry and appropriating it for the 
 workers. To attain this end the industrial strike must cease to 
 be isolated and passive and become positive, general, and ag- 
 gressive, preparing the workers for the assumption of industrial 
 administration. 
 
 The mass strike is possible only under a synthetic organization 
 of the workers in the basic industries. Recognition of this fact 
 has led revolutionary communism to denounce conservative 
 craft unionism represented in the American Federation of Labor, 
 which it characterizes as a shackle upon the militant movement 
 of the American proletariat, because of its tendency to divide the 
 workers into disintegrated fragments under a reactionary bureau- 
 cracy. To the Communist the most vital and promising fact in 
 American trade-unionism is the attempt of the membership to 
 break the rule of conservative officials, and to develop a type of 
 industrial unionism that will respond sympathetically and spon- 
 taneously to the revolutionary impulse of the workers. If the 
 Communists' analysis is correct, disintegrated craft unionism is^ 
 destined to be superseded by industrial unionism, just as moder- 
 ns Fraina, op. cit., pp. 178, 179.
 
 26 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 ate socialism is giving place to revolutionary communism. Thus 
 unionism will become an agency for militant action in the 
 aggressive struggle of the proletariat against capitalism, and 
 industrial union organization, divorced from the methods and 
 policies of autonomous craft unions and 'inspired with the 
 revolutionary purpose, becomes a vital factor in the proletarian 
 revolution. "1^ 
 
 Industrial unionism develops its real power among the 
 unskilled workers who, untrammeled by obstructions of craft dif- 
 ferentiation and stratification and welded into a common mold 
 by machine industry, possess a clear conception of group inter- 
 ests and cultivate the esprit de corps of the industrial proletariat. 
 It is this industrial "consciousness of kind," this vigorous sense of 
 common interests, that makes industrial unionism, structurally 
 and functionally, the peculiar unionism of the unskilled workers. 
 American communism has ingeniously sensed this peculiar psy- 
 chology of the untrained mass.^^ The Communists, however, 
 find limitations even in industrial unionism, on account of the 
 impossibility of organizing the whole working class into industrial 
 unions under the capitalistic regime, and they contend that to 
 achieve the social revolution it will be necessary to enlist the 
 workers, organized and unorganized, by means of revolutionary 
 mass action. 18 Nevertheless, industrial union organization is to 
 be effected whenever and wherever possible, and the general 
 strike is to be generated; for as strikes become general they 
 ''acquire political significance, action becomes the action of the 
 mass, the integrated action of an integrated proletariat. "^^ 
 
 CTo marshal the forces of the militant masses, American com- 
 unism has determined to function through local and district 
 units of the two parties assigned to the task of establishing inti- 
 mate contact with the workers in the miUs, workshops, and mines. 
 It is the business of these party units to initiate and support 
 
 " The Communist, September 27, 1919, p. 2. 
 
 1^ Cf. The Programs, Platforms, and Manifestoes of the Communist Parties, 
 and Revolutionary Socialism — A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, by Louis C. 
 Fraina. 
 
 18 Manifesto, Program, Constitution, etc., of the Communist Party, 1919, p. 12. 
 
 15 Fraina, op. cit., p. 187.
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 27 
 
 plans for the organization of labor along the lines of the shop 
 steward and shop committee movement in England. More- 
 over, Communist propagandists are to encourage the organiza- 
 tion of these shop committees into industrial councils, district 
 councils, and a central council of all industries, as proposed under 
 the WTiitley Plan.^o These committees and councils afford an 
 effective medium for the dissemination of Communist doctrines, 
 and suggest the practicability of the administration of industry 
 by the workers. Paradoxical as it may seem, many employers, 
 both in Europe and in the United States, have inaugurated simi- 
 lar schemes of shop committees and industrial councils with the 
 hope of satisfying the workers' demand for industrial democracy 
 and preventing the spread of Communist philosophy. There is 
 little doubt, also, that industrial councils have been introduced to 
 "break the back of trade-unionism," precisely what the revo- 
 lutionary Communist hopes will be achieved. 
 
 The organization of a general type of industrial unionism em- 
 bracing the Industrial Workers of the World, the Workers' Inter- 
 national Industrial Union, independent and secession unions, 
 militant unions of the American Federation of Labor, and the 
 unorganized workers, becomes the major task of American com- 
 munism for two reasons. First, because this type of proletarian 
 organization makes possible the mass strike, with its revolu- 
 tionary implications, constantly suggesting the feasibility of the 
 conquest of capitalistic political power ;2i and, second, because^ 
 industrial unionism, organizing the workers by industries, be- 
 comes potentially, if not actually, the fundamental basis of the 
 new communist society, together with other administrative agen- 
 cies necessary to correlate the nonindustrial functions of the new 
 regime.22 ''After the conquest of power the industrial unions 
 may become the starting point of the communist reconstruction 
 of society."" 
 
 '"' Special Report on Labor Organization, The Communist Labor Party News, 
 October, 1919, p. 2; The Program of the Communist Party, The Communist: Sep- 
 tember 27, 1919, p. 9. 
 
 21 Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Communist, September 27, 1919, p. 8. 
 
 " Cf. Fraina,. op. cit., p. 220. 
 
 2' Manifesto of the Communist Party, The Communist, September 27, 1919, p. 8.
 
 28 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 The social revolution, which communism predicts will come 
 through mass action generated in the industries, and which is to 
 assume political character and significance, will introduce the 
 ) dictatorship of the proletariat as it did in Russia. American 
 / Communists entertain no hope of immediate revolution; it may 
 [ be a decade away, but it is inevitable. Their present task, there- 
 fore, is to prepare the workers for the administration of the state 
 and industry during the approaching cataclysm, which will come 
 at a moment of utter collapse of the old structure of society. 
 Communism teaches no obedience to the bhnd fatahsm of what 
 it terms pseudo-Marasm, but purposive and conscious action in 
 the interest of proletarian triumph. The creation of mass action 
 is all important in the immediate policies of communism. ''Un- 
 der the impulse of the crisis, the proletariat acts for the conquest 
 of power, by means of mass action. Mass action concentrates and 
 mobilizes the forces of the proletariat, organized and unorganized; 
 it acts equally against the bourgeois state and the conservative 
 organizations of the working class."-* To the communist philos- 
 opher the vital facts of industrial evolution are the concentra- 
 tion of the machinery of production in the hands of a few, the 
 increasing tendency toward combinations and trusts, and the 
 leveling down of all workers to the ranks of the unskilled. To 
 these facts the unskilled proletariat — the hope of communism — 
 is expected to respond through mass action for the appropria- 
 tion of political power and the organization of the proletarian 
 dictatorship. 
 
 The dictatorship of the proletariat is a recognition of the fact 
 that in the communist reconstruction of society the proletariat 
 alone counts as a class." This dictatorship, however, is designed 
 not only to perform the negative task of crushing the old order 
 of capitalism, but also the work of constructing a new society 
 which is to function not in the government of persons but in the 
 management of production and distribution. The proletarian 
 dictatorship is viewed by the Communist as a necessary but 
 temporary expedient in effecting the transition from capitahsm to 
 
 " Ihid. 
 26 Ibid.
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 29 
 
 communism. Out of the disorder and chaos of the disrupted 
 capitalist regime the revolutionists believe there will arise the 
 complete structure of a new social order of communist socialism 
 — industrial self-government of the communistically organized 
 producers. When this structure is perfected, which implies ab^ 
 solute economic and political expropriation of the bourgeoisie, 
 the dictatorship is to end. To undersj;and the Communists' jus-, 
 tification of this ruthless ad interim dictatorship one must recall 
 that to them the state is a symbol of intimidation and coercion, 
 functioning always in the interest of the ruling class. Thus, 
 with the conquest of political power by the workers who become 
 the dominant authority, political rights and recognition are de- 
 nied the bourgeois class.^^ During the transition from capitalism 
 to communism, therefore, democratic government as it is gener- 
 ally interpreted cannot obtain; rather must there be a proletarian 
 autocracy. 
 
 All this prompts the query: who constitutes the proletarian 
 class? The term proletariat as used by the Communists refers 
 to that class of persons which is dependent for its livelihood upon 
 selling its labor power to the owners of industry.^^ The profes- 
 sional and skilled classes receive little consideration, and are very 
 likely classified with the petite bourgeoisie. It is the unskilled who 
 are the real proletariat in Communist terminology, for the skilled 
 and professional groups think in terms of their craft, of individuals 
 and their property, while the unskilled — the standardized product 
 of modern industry — think in terms of the mass. ''The Social 
 Revolution can be carried through only by the industrial prole- 
 tariat of unskilled labor, in spite of and acting against all the ideas 
 and activity of all other social groups."^^ And again, ''The ma- 
 chine proletariat of average unskilled labor constitutes the typi- 
 cal proletariat in the Marxian sense," and "constitutes the mate- 
 rial basis of SociaUsm."29 Marx and Engels, it will be recalled, 
 
 " Fraina, op. cit., pp. 214, 217. 
 
 " Mr. C. E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary of the Communist Party, in a 
 letter to the writer, November 20, 1919. 
 
 2** Fraina, op. cit., p. 137. The italics are ours. 
 " Fraina, op. cit., p. 143.
 
 30 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 thought of the proletariat as the class of modern wage-laborers 
 who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to 
 selling their labor-power in order to live.^" As the American 
 Communists interpret the term '' wage-laborers," it applies evi- 
 dently only to the unskilled in industries and agriculture. 
 
 Beyond the period of the proletarian dictatorship the program 
 of American communism does not provide a definite form of 
 social structure. Not an outline of the future society, but a 
 program of action is the present purpose of communism. To 
 attempt to describe the structural and functional aspects of the 
 new social order, other than those indicated in the form of organi- 
 zation created to wage the class struggle, would be Utopian, say 
 the Communists. It is expected that the framework of the new 
 society will be made during the transition,* under the surveillance 
 of the ruling proletarians. The norms of the communist order 
 will evolve in this period. At first industrial administration will 
 function through general organizations known as councils of work- 
 ers. These administrative units are to be integrated and adapted 
 to industrial divisions. It is at this juncture that industrial 
 unionismis to function, becoming the basis of the new communist 
 society, together with such other administrative agencies as may 
 prove necessary to coordinate the nonip^dustrial activities of the 
 people. ''Each industry will constitute a department of the in- 
 dustrial state ; the workers in each industry will organize in local 
 councils and these unite into general industrial councils coordi- 
 nated with other general industrial councils into a central ad- 
 ministration of the whole productive process. "^^ The function of 
 the central administration is to be directive, not repressive; posi- 
 tive, not negative, coordinating and guiding the machinery of 
 production and distribution. The distribution of the product is 
 to be determined ultimately on a purel}- communistic basis: 
 from each individual according to his ability, to each according to 
 his needs.^"^ 
 
 ^ The Communist Manifesto, translation by Mr. Samuel Moore, p. 12. 
 »i Fraina, op. cit., p. 220. 
 "Cf. Ihid.
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 31 
 
 This is identical with the program of Russian bolshevism. The 
 Bolshevists, it will be remembered, have two general forms of 
 organization: the All-Russian Council of Soviets with its execu- 
 tive committee and people's commissars, and the Supreme 
 Council or commissariat of public economy. The functions of 
 the former are political in their character, constituting the politi- 
 cal government of Bolshevist Russia during the period of recon- 
 struction. Police powers to preserve order within, control of 
 the army and navy to protect the soviet republic from external 
 and internal enemies, administration of the foreign affairs of the 
 commune, and the adjudication of appeals in industrial matters, 
 are some of the functions performed by the soviet administrative 
 
 units, coordinated in the AU-Russian Council. With the defeat 
 
 • ■* • 1 
 
 of the enemies of the commune and the completion of the social- 
 izing process this political machinery will cease to function. 
 The Supreme Council of Public Economy administers the indus- 
 trial affairs, such as determination of wages, apportionment of 
 output, distribution of rations, insurance and relief of workers, 
 technical education, and recreation. 
 
 As in Russia, the proletarian dictatorship devised by American 
 communism is to be a terr^orary makeshift created to dispose of 
 counter-revolutionary movements. As the political machinery 
 of the ad interim period completes its work, that is, when the 
 opposition of the bourgeoisie is broken, the dictatorship of the 
 proletariat will disappear and with it the political state and all 
 its class distinctions. The basis of the communist society will 
 be industrial, not territorial, and its constituents, therefore, will 
 be the organized producers. The other elements of the popula- 
 tion — the petite bourgeoisie — will participate and function in this 
 new proletarian order onlj^ as they are absorbed into the indus- 
 trial structure and become useful producers. ^^ The communist 
 society, it is contended, will be undemocratic only to those who 
 are not proletarians. Within the communist structure itseK all 
 are to become proletarians and productive labor wiU be the basis 
 of franchise. 
 
 " Fraina, op. cit., p. 217.
 
 32 THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 
 
 The philosophy and program of American communism invites 
 adverse criticism at several points. First, its disregard of par- 
 liamentarj'' action and its opposition to legislative reforms are 
 unfounded denials of the efficacy of the ballot in improving the 
 status of the workers and other classes in society. It is conceded 
 that social reform has faUed to usher in a proletarian millennium, 
 but this does not constitute proof of the futility of legislative 
 reforms. The history of social legislation is replete with splendid 
 achievements of parliamentary action in behalf of the workers. 
 Communism's rejection of pragmatic opportunism seems unwise 
 in a country like the United States, where with effective political 
 organization much can be done to defend the interests of the so- 
 called proletariat. 
 
 In the second place, the egalitarian philosophy, out of which 
 springs the dictum "from each person according to his ability, 
 and to each according to his needs," has never been generally 
 accepted as practicable, and its adoption in this country is very 
 unlikely. A system of "distributive justice" that is based upon 
 needs rather than upon contributive effort is to many persons 
 not justice at all, but expropriation of the industrious and ef- 
 ficient for the benefit of the inefficient and indolent. Such a 
 system of distribution would very likely destroy the initiative and 
 enterprise that have constituted the potent forces in social 
 progress. 
 
 Third, it is difficult to justify, even as a temporary expedient, 
 the autocratic proletarian dictatorship by a revolutionary minor- 
 ity who, during the transition from capitalism to communism, are 
 to deny all rights and privileges to the other classes of society 
 and permanently expropriate them. The refusal to permit the 
 organization of a constituent assembly to determine the structural 
 and functional aspects of the new society is the antithesis of the 
 Anglo-Saxon concept of democracy. 
 
 Finally, the abolition of the political state seems a presumption 
 in favor of anarchism. To abolish parliamentary government 
 of persons and establish in its stead a management of industrial 
 processes presumes that the production and distribution of wealth 
 are entirely divorcible from persons as producers and distribu-
 
 REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNISM IN THE UNITED STATES 33 
 
 tors. Unless the human factor in these processes can be stand- 
 ardized to react altruisticall}^, authority must be delegated to 
 some person or body of persons to compel obedience, or else order 
 will be replaced by chaos and anarchy. Anarchism is the nega- 
 tion of all authority, whether political, economic, or religious; 
 communism accepts unlimited state power and authority during 
 the transition from capitalism to communism, beyond which all 
 government of persons is to cease.^* If in their future society the 
 Communists propose to continue the industrial councils of the 
 transition period, it is difficult to see how there can be govern- 
 ment of things apart from government of persons. Moreover, 
 should the Communists, during their reconstruction of society, 
 find that the continuation of political councils like the Soviets is 
 a prerequisite to order and progress, it is highly probable that 
 these councils would be no more democratic and truly represen- 
 tative of the entire population than political caucuses and legis- 
 lative committees have been under the present system. Dele- 
 gated authority, under communism, w^hich would seem impera- 
 tive for the maintenance of order, would doubtless be open to 
 the same danger of abuses of power as now obtains under their 
 arch enemy — ''Capitalistic Parliamentarism." 
 
 Despite the destructive character of its program, the uncerH 
 tainty and vagueness of its plans for the future social order, and/ 
 the unsoundness of many of its doctrines, American communismj 
 is gaining a large following among the industrial w^orkers andj 
 promises to become an important influence in our political andj 
 economic life. For these reasons it commands the thought- 
 ful consideration of every student of political and economic! 
 philosophy. ' 
 
 34 Q£ "The Russian Revolution," by N. Lenin, The New International, June 
 30, 1917, and Revohdionary Socialism — A Study in Socialist Reconstruction, Isjl 
 Louis C. Fraina. \^^ 
 
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