where thought moves and works, there is life, progress; advancement forward toward the future. There is nothing more frightful and harmful than sterility of thought and standards of routine. We have been retiring into routine, and might inadvertently have gone off the direct class road leading to communism, if it were not for the Workers' Opposition injecting itself into the situation at a time when our enemies were about to burst into joyful laughter. At present this is already impossible. The Congress and, therefore, the party will be compelled to contend with the point of view expressed by the Workers' Opposition, and either to compromise or make essential concessions under its influence and pressure. The second service of the Workers' Opposition is that it has brought up for discussion the question as to who, after all, shall be called upon to create new forms of economy, whether it shall be the technicians, men of affairs who by their psychology are bound-up with the past, and soviet officials with communists scattered among them, or the working class collectives which are represented by the unions? The Workers' Opposition has said what has long ago been printed in "the Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels, viz.: "Creation of communism can and will be the work of the toiling masses themselves. Creation of communism belongs to workers." Finally, the Workers' Opposition has raised its voice against bureaucracy, and has dared to say that bureaucracy binds the wings of self-activity and the creativeness of the working class; that it deadens thought, hinders initiative and experimenting, in the sphere of finding new approaches to production, in a word-it hinders development of new forms for production and life. Instead of a system of bureaucracy it proposes a system of self-activity for the masses. In this respect the party leaders even now are making concessions and "recognizing" the deviations as being harmful to communism and detrimental to the working class interests (the rejection of centralism). The Tenth Congress, we understand, will make another series of concessions to the Workers' Opposition. Thus, in spite of the fact that the Workers' Opposition appeared just as a mere group inside the party only a few months ago, it has already fulfilled its mission, and has compelled the directing party centres to listen to the workers' sound advice. At present, whatever might be the wrath toward the Workers' Opposition, it has the historical future to support it. Just because we believe in the vital forces of our party we know that after some hesitation, resistance and circuitious political moves our party ultimately will again follow that path which has been blazed by the elemental forces of the class organized proletarian. There will be no split. If some of the groups shall leave the party they will not be the ones that make up the Workers' Opposition. Only those will fall out who attempt to evolve into principles our temporary deviations from the spirit of the Communist program, which were forced upon the party by the prolonged civil war, and will hold to them as if they were the essence of our political line of action. All that part of the party which has been accustomed to reflect the class point of view of the ever growing giant-proletariat will absorb and digest everything that is wholesome, practical and sound in the workers' Opposition. Not in vain will the rank and file worker speak with assurance and reconciliation: "Ilyich (Lenin) will ponder, think over, listen to us, and then will decide to turn the party rudder toward the Opposition. ) Ilyich will be with us yet." The sooner the party leaders will take into account the Oppositions' work, and follow the road marked by the rank and file members, the quicker we shall pass through the crisis in the party at such a difficult time, and the sooner we shall step over the destined line beyond which humanity, having freed itself from the objective economic laws and, profiting by the rich scientific treasure of the workers' collective, will consciously begin to create the human history of the Communist epoch. THE END. THE PREAMBLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system. We find that the centering of management of the industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the every-day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old. Do You Want The Latest and Livest There's Only One Paper INDUSTRIAL SOLIDARITY Official Weekly Organ of the I. W. W. FIVE CENTS A COPY TWO DOLLARS A YEAR Published at 1001 W. MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. I. W. W. PUBLICATIONS Authorized by the General Executive Board SPANISH SOLIDARIDAD Semi-Monthly, 1001 West Madison St., Chicago, Ill. 26 issues $2.00; 5 cents per copy. BULGARIAN RABOTNICHESKA MYSL (Workers' Thought) 1001 West Madison St., Chicago, Ill. $2.00 per year; six months, $1.00. Weekly. ROUMANIAN MUNCITORUL (The Worker) Twice a month, $2.00 per year (26 issues). 1001 West Madison St., Chicago, Ill. CZECHO-SLOVAK JEDNA VELKA UNIE (One Big Union) Monthly. $1.00 per year. Single copies 10 cents. Bundle orders 7 cents per copy. FINNISH TIE VAPAUTEEN Finish Monthly. 1001 West Madison Industrial Union Papers FINNISH INDUSTRIALISTI (The Industrialist) Box 464, Duluth, Minn., Daily. Working Class Education Demands |