The Red Conspiracy

bitterly complained against the tactics of the Left Wingers--in trying to wrest control of the Soci

abuse. They make it so intolerable that the meeting hall appears to be, instead of a Socialist meeting, a room frequented by rowdies of all types and descriptions. In this way they drive the most active Comrades out of the meeting hall, as these Comrades get disgusted with the t

defends his faction in a letter that appea

s ever manufactured. It must be spontaneous. It must be real. It must be an overwhelming, impulsive demonstration of the popular will. Revolutions

it. And herein lies the importance of proper Socialist education, of k

made half Europe Socialist, and threaten momentarily to engulf the other half are at work in America also. It believes that a revolutionary outbreak in America is not a matter of the far and distant future. And it desires

calling itself the Left Wing section of the Socialist Party, and to any group within the party organized for the same or similar purpose;" and it instructed "

n which he defends the principles of the Left Wing and attacks the

that a political party is nothing else but a vote-catching machinery for middle-class politicians. If the principles enunciated in the manifesto will be the principles of the party, then it will enjoy the confidence of those who, through their bitter experience realized the fallacies of the Second International, led and dominated by the

ast know some of those we would have to face in the critical hour. Might as well fight it out now; whether

sed by the Socialist Party of Essex County, New Jersey, which had ad

ics required by these conditions. Unfortunately, this element has controlled the party national executive committee and the party machinery, with the consequence that the national organizatio

so serious that the Executive Committee of Local New York, according to

bers of Loc

efforts of an internal faction which seeks to dominate the party by undemocratic and unsocialistic methods. The executive committee addresses itself to you, the membe

y self-governed party of the working class, laboring to awaken and educate the p

re admitted as can be counted on to set the authority of the 'Left Wing Section' above that of the party itself. Its meetings are held in secret, and their business is tha

tees composing an inner circle. All members and adherents of the 'Left Wing Section' are called upon in their action as party members and as members of party committees, to give explicit obedience to orders issued by the inner

committee. Do not make motions, ask for divisions, further divisions, roll c

to function so long as their group is in the minority there. Under the direction of their steering committee, the time is consumed with every species of parliamentary delay, with the aim and effect of preventing the central committee from transacting business and carrying on the normal work of

e to reorganize Local New York. This committee will begin with such branches as are affiliated with the 'Left Wing Section.' No one wi

ty committee referred it favorably to all the branches, and at the end of the month the New Jersey Convention of the party adopted it. In Chicago, J. Louis Engdahl, sentencedC to twenty years in Leavenworth prison, was reported to have been

ishes an interesting letter f

ght Wing domination as it is a question of whe

omrades, but we must move together, not, perhaps, as far as some of the hot-heads would like to have us--they fail to understand what an American Socialist Party sh

't see is any necessity of disrupting the party in the process. The master class would like to see that; in fact, they have been egging us on to fight among ourselves for

its Executive Committee, the Left Wing Locals of Boston, Cleveland and New York joined in a call for a Nationa

E. C. [National Executive Committee] aligning our party with the social-patriots at Berne, with the Congress of the Great Betrayal; the necessity of reconstructing our p

he Call" that it found it expedient to publish th

nd all arguments set forth must be confined strictly to the principles and tactics either defe

d in his paper, "The Call," May 21, 1919, a long article in large type, covering half of the editorial page, under the caption, "The Socialist Task and Outlook.

f this new movement, but the specific form and direction which it has assumed, its program and tactics, spell disaster to our movement. I am opposed to it, not because it is too radical, but because it is essentially reactionary and non-Socialistic; not because it would lead us too far, but because it would lead us nowhere. To pr

bound to locate a center in the Socialist movement of America.D What matters it to our imaginative Left Wing leaders that the Socialist Party of America as a whole has stood in the forefront of Socialist radicalism ever since the outbreak of the war, that many of its officers and leaders have exposed their lives and liberties to imminent peril in defense of the principles of international Socialism, they are Right Wingers and Centri

but one remedy. It would be futile to preach reconciliation and union where antagonism runs so high. Let the Comrades on both sides do the next best thing. Let them separate, honestly, freely and without rancor. Let each side organize and work in its own way, and make such contribution to the Socialist m

of the Socialist Party in Michigan and suspended the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukranian, Lettish, Polish, South Slavic and Hungari

ucky, West Virginia and New Mexico, in its issue of

st Party of Michigan, constituting about 6,000 members, suspended the Russian, Lithuanian, Lettish, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian and South Slavic Federations of the party, constituting more than 30,000 members, and worst of all--and let it be s

xecutive Committee usurped power which the constitution does not grant them and which the Socialist Party membership never intended any servants of the party to have. This de

ers. Think of it. That such a dastardly deed should ever be perpetrated upon the rank and file of our organization is almost beyond comprehen

usands of Comrades who are sincerely working to win the party to a more revolutionary position are known to the Left Wing. This Left Wing understands clearly that the Scheidemann bra

gan Comrades. A motion to allow Michigan a chance to interpret their

ver three thousand votes. On wi

e the elections in favor of the reactionary moderates. At a subsequen

stroyed the will of the membership in order to retain control. Most of these National Executive Committee members are out for re-election, ar

uivalent to stealing the elections. The party mu

nd the federations that have endorsed the Left Wing, and we are safe. Another caucus held. Result: Suspension of the Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Lettish and South Slavic Federations from the So

rporation, nearly all the directors of which are of the same stamp as the wilful seven, and into the hands of these directors is to be placed the entire property of the Socialist Party, including the new headquarters

Every Left Winger will work night and day for the reinstatement of the nearly 40,000 members whom the reactionaries are trying to sever from the party in violation of the party's constitution. Every radical will w

tional Executive Committee "The Revolutio

y disfranchise the revolutionary Socialists? Why steal votes away from the Left Wing candidates? These desperate tactics are understandable only on the theory that the

that the Massachusetts Comrades were also expelle

or refusing to recognize the National Executive Committee's act of suspending the Federations. For this latter

here be anything left for the rump

ew National Executive Committee of fifteen, and to the meeting of this ne

, Millis, Nagle, Katterfeld, Wicks and Herman appears now to be certain, while there is still a quest

ing to the action of the National Executive Committee this tally will not be made known till August 30. Meanwhile the

e new N. E. C. is entitled to

m taking office. By such 'constitutionality' the old body could perpetuate itself indefinitely, let the m

vage instructions of the Right Wing majority of the National Executive Committee, where Victor L. Berger, Morris Hillquit and Seymour Stedman were the dominating leaders. On the side of the Lefts little mor

ca of the manifesto issued in Moscow in March, 1919, by the Third or Communistic International in session there. Max Eastman, a Left Wing lea

es or groups in Germany, Russia, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Rumania, Finland, Ukrainia, Esthonia, Armenia, delegates from the 'Union o

ey, Turkestan, Persia, Corea, China, and the United States (S. J. Rutgers, of the Socialist Propaganda League, now merged with the Left Wing section of the Socialis

, Kukharin and Stalin. This party contains many millions of organized class-consci

" the world over, and since the campaign of the Left Wing grew into an attempt to force the Socialist Party of America to adop

etariat of a

roclaimed its program in the form of the Manifesto written by the great

illers of the program proclaimed seventy-two years ago. It is our task now to sum up the practical revolutionary experience of the working class, to cleanse the movement of its admixtures of oppo

peace' and defense of the Fatherland, now again demand of the workers self-abnegation to overcome the terrible consequences of the war. If this preaching were listened to by the workers, Capitalis

can shorten the period of the present crisis; and for this purpose it mobilizes all materials and forces, introduces the universal duty to labor, establish the r

not true. Having come into power the proletariat only asserts the absolute impossibility of applying the me

ica plundered and betrayed by bankers and legislators--all these social ranks which have been shoved aside from the main road of development by Capitalism, are called on paper by the regime of political de

esperate effort to stifle the revolution in blood, and to make impossible further opposition. The dictatorship of the proletariat, which gives it the favored position in the community, is only a provisional institution. As th

old unions, have proved incapable, in person of their leaders, to understand, much less to carry out the task which the new epoch presents to them. The proletariat has created a new institution which embraces the entire working class without distinction of vocation or political maturity, an elastic form of organization capable of continually renewing itself, expanding, and of drawing into itself ever new elements, ready to open its doors t

nd to the very brink of ruin had not prevented every forward step of the laboring masses, if they had not instigated plots and murders and called to their aid armed help from outside to maintain or restore their predatory privileg

re victory for the proletariat. This makes necessary the disarming of the bourgeoisie at the proper time, the arming of the laborer, and the formation of a communist army as the protector of the rule of the proletariat and the invio

rely a change in the personnel of ministries, but annihilation of the enemy's apparatus of government; disarmament of the bourgeoisie of the counter-revolutionary officers, of the White Guard; arming of the proletariat, the revolutionary soldiers, the Red Guard of workingmen; displacement of all bourgeois judges and organization of proletarian courts; elimination of cont

st steps--socialization of the great banks which now control production; the taking over by the power of the proletariat of all government-controlled economic utilities; the transferring of all communal enterprises; the socializing of the syndicated and trustified

egree of their importance. It must be particularly emphasized that small properties will in no way be expro

proletariat is enabled to create centralized organs of management and to institute workers' control. To this

re still capable of adapting themselves, not to the service of capital, but to the new system of production.... Besides expropriating the factories, mines, estates, etc., the proletariat must

Fatherland. But soon German Imperialism revealed its real brigand character by bloody deeds in Russia, in the Ukr

class. Their best--Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg--they have lost. Against this the proletariat must defend itse

perialistic consp

tional Republic of the

e conspiracy of a single class, a minority of society, to carry out the cynical purpo

Moscow made the mistake of attempting a sort of dictatorship of the Russian proletariat in the Socialist Intern

article from which we have taken s

as to leave every Socialist free to consider himself their ally who seriously and courageously desired to. This was what they did in America. The S. L. P. (Socialist Labor Party), the Socialist Propaganda League, the I. W. W. and in the Socialist Party 'the followers of De