REVOLUTIONARY CONTINUITY Marxist Leadership in the U.S. Revolutionary Continuity The Early Years 1848 - 1917 FARRELL DOBBS PATHFINDER NEW YORK LONDON MONTREAL SYDNEY Copyright © 1980 by Pathfinder Press All rights reserved ISBN 978-0-87348-841-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 80-84850 Manufactured in the United States of America First edition, 1980 Fifth printing, 2019 Pathfinder www.pathfinderpress.com E-mail: [email protected] CONTENTS Introduction 7 1. European ancestry 21 2. Indigenous origins 59 3. Gains and setbacks 95 4. A disoriented movement 131 5. Supreme test of war 165 6. Bolshevik revolution 197 7. First workers' state 229 Appendix Marx to Friedrich Bolte in New York 251 Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge in Hoboken 255 Engels to Sorge in Hoboken 258 Engels to Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky in New York 262 Appendix to the American edition of The Condition of the Working Class in England (Engels) 266 The labour movement in America (Engels) 269 Engels to Kelley-Wischnewetzky 280 Engels to Hermann Schluter in Hoboken 282 Engels to Schluter in New York 284 Engels to Sorge in Hoboken 286 The results and significance of the U.S. presidential elections (Lenin) 288 After the elections in America (Lenin) 292 Index 295 INTRODUCTION Each worker who joins the revolutionary movement reaches that decision through a unique sequence of per sonal experiences. Yet there are certain broad phases of intellectual development that most who take this step share in common. In this country the newborn arrive upon a social scene permeated with capitalist ideology. By adulthood they have been conditioned to think in terms of shaping a future for themselves within the framework of the existing social order. Then, after a while, frustra tions develop because of inequities built into the capitalist system. Recognition dawns that adjustments are needed in social relations and efforts follow to reform the present order of things. Attempts of that kind run head-on into capitalist resistance, however, as repeated clashes occur over economic, social, and political issues. In the course of those conflicts some of the more re bellious become revolutionists and join a revolutionary socialist party. This brings unparalleled opportunities to achieve great leaps in social thought and political con sciousness as they begin to understand why capitalism is irremediably bankrupt and precisely how the workers' struggle must be waged to replace it with a new, higher social order. This opens the way for a meaningful reexam ination of history, not with past events falsely presented or deliberately ignored, as is frequently the case in textbooks of the official educational system, but through honest, 7 8 INTRODUCTION forthright accounts of what actually happened. In this way they can learn valuable lessons from the setbacks as well as the advances, from the mistakes as well as the achieve ments, of their revolutionary predecessors. Such, for instance, were the phases through which my own social thinking evolved. Graduation from a Minne apolis high school in 1925 marked the end of my formal education. I had no chance to go on to college, but that didn't bother me at the time. It seemed good to have done with books, to be in a position to earn some money of my own which could be used as I saw fit. At that point a new kind of education began for me in the school of hard knocks. No matter what job I tried the situation remained basically the same. Every employer demanded maximum labor for long hours and paid stingy wages. The result was a chronic gap between my growing needs and lagging income. Then, in 1927, I married Mar vel Scholl, assumed family responsibilities, and found it harder than ever to make ends meet. Those experiences reawakened my intellectual curiosity. I wondered how this social system operated, what efforts others had made to improve things for workers like myself, and how I might help bring about some of the needed changes. The way history was taught in high school had turned me off. So I started reading biographies, especially the lives of people whose careers were generally looked upon as successes. Before long those studies led to a re vived interest in history and I began probing wider sub jects. All this was done without any definite plan, however. I simply went to public libraries and read whatever books I chanced upon that looked like they might be useful. By that time I was working for the Western Electric Company as an installer of telephone central office equip ment. My wages had originally been very low. Gradually, Introduction 9 though, my hourly pay was hiked and considerable over time at premium rates significantly boosted my earnings. The outlook began to appear quite bright. Then I was pro moted to job foreman, which brought me a higher salary in terms of regular hours. But there was a catch involved. I now had to put in overtime without extra pay and my overall weekly earnings dropped. I had wound up assum ing greater job responsibilities for less money. Somewhat later-in 1931-I was assigned to the com pany's division office in Omaha, Nebraska, given the title "planning engineer," and set to work estimating the labor cost of equipment installations. This, too, was presented as a promotion, but no raise in pay went with it. When I brought up the subject of money, my superiors advised me to be patient. The company was training me for the higher echelons of supervision, they said, which meant a start up the ladder toward a really big salary. At first the prospects held out to me seemed promising; that is, until I discovered what was expected of top su pervisors. The division superintendent had me sit in as a learner at high-level conferences held in his office. What I heard soon made it clear that in deciding important matters the sole factor was protection of company profits. The workers' needs were always treated as secondary and decisions affecting them were made with callous indiffer ence to the impact upon their lives. This inhuman attitude was most shockingly revealed to me at a conference that selected a list of employees to be laid off because of the severe economic crisis. Among those who got the ax was a worker I knew well from past association on the job. He had served the com pany loyally for a long time, but that had no bearing what ever in the top supervisors' view. They looked upon him only as a man who was getting old. He should be laid off,