"For a Labor Declaration of Political Independence"

Submitted by dalcassian on 31 July, 2013 - 1:29

Dedicate May Day 1945 to - a new world of socialism!

MANIFESTO OF THE WORKERS PARTY

Working Men and Working Women: This May Day, 1945, arrives at a time when civilization stands on the edge of disaster. The war, rapidly approaching conclusion in Europe and with a swifter than anticipated defeat of Japan in the offing, has shown the dual tendencies in capitalism: its tremendous capacity to create the means of abundance; its equally tremendous capabilities of destruction.

The world stands at the crossroads. It can either go forward to a progressive society of peace, freedom and security for all, or it can plunge into a third world war which will mean the destruction of civilized man.

So grave is the danger to civilization that the Imperialist rulers of the Big Three have called together the nations of the world at San Francisco to build a world organization in order to secure "peace, freedom and security." Unfortunately for the aspirations of the masses of the world, the San Francisco conference can bring none of these things. The only way the Big Three can achieve a temporary 'peace' is through subordination of the nations of the world to their imperialist alms. They will at best, establish an armed truce among themselves. They will establish security only for the ruling classes of the United States, Britain and Russia, so that they may be able to plunder the rest of tho world through exploitation of all the peoples.

The seeds of discord among the big powers that will one day burst forth into a third world war have already manifested themselves. The interests of the big powers are antagonistic. The United States, whose wealth and productive capacity have increased to heights hitherto unknown in the course of the war, aims at nothing short of world economic, political and military domination. Great Britain, whose strength has been largely displaced by the U. S., still retains a vast empire. But even she, bankrupted in the war, can retain what she has saved only through the express agreement of the U. S. Russia, which was once a fortress of socialism, has become a reactionary, imperialist state. She is seizing an empire in Europe and Asia and seeks further to extend her domain.

The Big Three have divided Europe and Asia, containing the bulk of the world's population, into their various spheres of influence, the portions being determined by their respective military might. This is their "peace." Such a peace is built on the shifting sands of their changing roles, power and Interests. It cannot last. It cannot give the people of the world what they want and what they thought they were fighting for - enduring peace, freedom from fear and exploitation, abundance and democratic rights for all peoples and nations.

The Big Three are not only not going to solve the world problems, but every American worker has a gnawing fear that the simple problem of a job is not going to be solved by his own ruling class. Cutbacks from war production are already wiping out entire communities, throwing into the street the men and women who have worked, sacrificed and paid for the war by the rising cost of living, high taxes and frozen wages. This desire for a guaranteed job, the only means through which security can be guaranteed, is an aspiration the American worker has in common with every European and Asiatic But already the capitalist rulers of this country who have enriched themselves from the war, are preparing a post-war reconversion program which will mean further enrichment of themselves and an increased impoverishment of the people.

Yet, according to the organizers and publicists of the war, it is fought to bring security, freedom and abundance, not merely to the U. S., but to the world. It is supposedly fought to rid the world of the monster, fascism.

The masses of people of the world, in the Axis countries as well as in the Allied, had to be dragooned into the war, because they were exceedingly apprehensive of a new world slaughter. There was no enthusiasm for the war in any country. Not even in fascist Germany, where the Nazis ruled by naked force, were there the patriotic demonstrations which occurred in the last war under the Kaiser. The peoples of Europe, disorganized at a result of the betrayals of the labor leaders and working class organizations, looked upon the war in a fatalistic way. In the United States and Great Britain too. there was not the slightest enthusiasm. The rulers of all countries had to call upon the people to support the war as a war of defense.

The German fascists told the masses that they were fighting for their existence, their very life.

They were defending the "proletarian" Germany, robbed and impoverished by Versailles, against the "plutocratic" democracies fattening upon the victors' spoils of the first World War. Allied rulers told their masses that they were defending democracy, fighting totalitarian bestiality, struggling for a world of true peace, security and freedom for their children and the future generations.

The ideals embodied in the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms duplicated in every important respect the propaganda of all the warring countries in the first world war. But as the war developed, it became clear as we revolutionary socialists said from the very beginning, that war has nothing whatever to do with these lofty principles.

By their actions in the post-war period, the capitalist rulers prepared the march of fascism into power. They deliberately divided up Europe and saddled it with a Versailles treaty, which made a new war inevitable. They disorganized post-war Europe and brought about the period of mass unemployment. The European masses threatened to destroy the profit system and establish a new social order which would forever destroy the power of capitalism to make war. Against them, the ruling classes of the Allies and the Central powers who had been at each others' throats for four years of bloody battle, now joined hands to defeat them.

WHY FASCISM CAME TO POWER

Fascism came to power in Europe over the imprisoned and slain of the most heroic elements of the working class. The brutal Nazi agents of capitalism had to destroy the organized power of the working class before they could "reorganize" the capitalist systems of Germany and Italy to prepare for war. But Fascism gained strength by promising a "new order" in Europe. It promised to make Europe an economic unit, an essential requirement if the peoples of the continent were to avoid the permanent crisis of capitalism. It even called itself "socialist" in order to win the support of the masses of workers in Europe.

Fascism fulfilled none of its promises. It did not bring peace, security or freedom. It ushered in war and totalitarian rule and-helped to push Europe and the whole of civilization to the edge of utter destruction, Hitler's hordes were ordered and paid for by the handful of monopolists and cartel organizations of the Reich's industrialists and financiers. The Nazi movement was the jagged club this class of industrialists needed to beat the rebellious German workers who were then fighting for the same things that American labor is fighting for today: security, peace and freedom. The movement was helped to power through the assistance of its "democratic" agents of the owning class, Hindenburg, Von Papen, etc.

What did fascism do for the German capitalist rulers? It organized the continent for German exploitation. But it organized the continent through violence and the enslavement of its peoples, binding them to the war economy of a renascent German imperialism which was preparing for a new world slaughter in order to obtain for German capitalism what it failed to achieve in the first world war.

Throughout it all, the German capitalists aided by loans of the Allied countries, regained their strength and became enriched once more.

The war was inevitable so long as the capitalist social order continued to exist. The powerful German industrial system could not exist without expansion; its rulers could not profit. The same was true of Italy and Japan. They needed colonies to exploit, markets for their goods, sources of raw materials, cheap labor, etc. The Axis countries prepared to acquire those things which they needed in the same manner in which the Allies had acquired them - by means of war, violence, direct seizure. In a fundamental sense the causes of, the second World Imperialist War are the same as the causes of the first.

BARBARISM IN EUROPE

Today a new barbarism stalks Europe. The full weight of mechanized destruction has wrought such ruin in Europe and Asia that it will lake more than a generation to restore them to their former level.

Cities that are the product of centuries of human labor and culture have been razed almost overnight.

Tens of millions of people are homeless and starving. They are modern cave dwellers. The economy of Europe as well as Asia is in a state of complete disintegration. Relief needs are stupendous. The aid contemplated by the Allies will not meet two per cent of the needs. Whole generations have been wiped out. The new generations will be stunted, diseased and ill-equipped to endure the shocks of new depressions and new wars.

All of these conditions express the social decay of capitalism. They exhibit strong tendencies of a return to characteristics of earlier societies which humanity thought it had left far behind. These are the fruits of capitalism and its war. The Allied imperialists have already demonstrated that they are unable, to bring about a change in these conditions.

The turn in the war which has resulted from the tremendous military might of the Allies and the assurance of an Allied victory caused the rulers of the Big Three to discard all pretenses about the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms. The talk about the right of self-determination; national independence; freedom of speech, assembly press and organization, and the rights of the peoples to choose their own governments have been replaced by actions which, for the peoples of Europe, mean the continuation of the fundamental German policy of national oppression, even though the methods may be more subtle, and the oppressor has changed nationalities.

The struggle of the European masses against their German oppressor for their national freedom has now been transformed into a struggle against their Allied "liberators." Thus the fight for national freedom continues unabated. It is directed against Russia in Poland, the Baltic states, the Balkans - most of Eastern Europe up to Berlin. In Greece, Belgium and other countries it is directed against the British oppressors. It is directed against the United States insofar as the latter is deeply involved in Europe, vetoes the demands of the oppressed for freedom, and acts as guarantor of the new enslavement.

The unrelenting struggle of the European peoples will go on so long as the imperialist decisions of Moscow-Teheran-Yalta remain in force. Europe cannot exist; however, unless its economy is organized and unified on a continental basis, unless the numerous countries and the many frontiers are bridged with the consent of the peoples, and European economy produces for the whole continent with a plan to raise the living standards of all the countries.

This requires, of course, uprooting the exploiting ruling classes and eliminating artificial borders which create the national antagonisms exploited to the full by the Allied rulers. Only a voluntary union of free peoples can accomplish such a unity. Only a socialist United States of Europe can achieve such a task.

What do the Allies offer to Europe? A hard peace to the German people (not their capitalist rulers) which means a new enslavement. This enslavement of Germany will have reverberations on the whole continent, because the destruction of German economy can only mean a further destruction of the present miserable living conditions of the people.

The Allies are dividing Europe, not unifying it.

They offer "free enterprise", that system of exploitation and profit which is responsible for the decades of misery which have existed on the continent.

But just as throughout the war there have been signs of a reawakening of the masses of Europe through the struggles of the thirds camp of labor, the future, will see a continuously rising struggle of these masses against all ruling classes for their freedom against the new usurpers of power. This struggle will continue to be a struggle for national freedom, against oppression and exploitation and inevitably for a new, free society.

AMERICAN LABOR'S ROLE

While the American continents were the only ones that did not see actual fighting, and while consequently the people of the Us S. went relatively unscathed, the rulers have failed in their promises here, too. The promises - equality of sacrifice, no new war millionaires, profit-curbs, price ceilings, control of the cost of living - were all shattered by profiteering organized and guaranteed by a capitalist government in Washington. The "New Deal" died at the War's inception. Representatives of big business were called to Washington to run the war economy.

Labor paid the bill for the war through a one-way sacrifice program that saddled the workers with price rises, frozen wages, the no-strike pledge, longer hours under worsened conditions, etc. Its leaders became servants of the Administration rather than representatives of labor's interests.

But despite this weight upon its back, American labor in this war has accomplished something that points to the possibility of genuine plenty and freedom. Workers of factory and farm have produced enough not only to keep up the home front, supply and equip American armies on a half dozen fighting fronts, but to help supply and equip the home fronts and armies of several other Allied Nations, including lend-lease materials to the two biggest, Britain and Russia.

With over ten million of its ablest workers overseas, American labor has raised production to such heights it is possible to say without fear of contradiction from any source: we have the skills, the tools and the manpower to produce plenty for everyone. To organize society so that the giant factories, mines, mills and farmlands will give everyone a good living through a guaranteed job in a peaceful society: this is the central problem of our generation. Capitalism has demonstrated up to the hilt, its inability to do this.

Under capitalism, you work only when it is profitable for big business. When the profit-making mechanism broke down in 1929. the capitalist government had to step in and bail out business and provide relief for the unemployed. It took a war, under capitalism, to remove unemployment. Again, the government had to furnish the war orders, super vise and compel conversion to war production and organize the chaotic capitalist economy. It has,even had to guarantee profits during the reconversion period because of the "sacrifices" made by industry in converting to war production. Once the market is exhausted in the post war period, and the capitalist has made every penny of profit he can extract at home and abroad, there will be a crisis again, unless Labor plays the role it is entitled to! Labor, the producer of all wealth, the most exploited class, the largest class, must have its own labor Party which aims for the complete control of the government.

To form its own party labor must get rid of the class-collaborationist policy of' the. labor bureaucracy, whose own predicament is best exemplified by its recent attempt to unite with the reactionary employers Chamber of Commerce, while members of. that same organization already had their postwar blue prints in hand for a union-smashing program.

It has to rid itself of the influence of Stalinism (the Communist Party). This American wing of Russian imperialism is out to tie labor to the ruling class in the interests of the-joint exploitation by Russia, the U. S. and Britain of the "liberated" (newly-captured) nations. Labor should assess its powers demonstrated in the recent elections. It reelected Roosevelt and the reactionary Democratic party through the PAC. But it thereby demonstrated that its numbers are so vast and its influence so powerful that labor can rule the country in the interests of progress against capitalist reaction.

We address all labor, but especially its militants.

We are powerful. We can help to raise mankind to a new level. We can stem the tide of barbarism and turn history to new peaks of civilization. But first labor must make its political declaration of independence. Adopt a program of security for the people and against the starvation plans of the Capitalist owners of the-means of-life. Organize a great party of labor. Challenge the rule of the monopolists and fight for power. Then it will be possible to organize society for the common good.

American labor's task is to act as a class in its own interests the same way the capitalists act as a class in theirs. Labor must also have an international perspective.

It must not do less in its own interests than the international cartelists who paved the way for this war against "fascism" and now stretch out a hand to save their Nazi brothers (and also their private profits) did in theirs! The American workers must aid their European brothers in their struggle for freedom, security and peace. If American labor succumbs to the pleas oi the rulers and supports the subjugation of European labor, its hopes are doomed, too. Europe in bondage will produce new wars, new Hitlers, new revolts. If American labor acknowledges its class kinship with world labor, the aims of all labor can more easily and surely be realized.

Once international labor solidarity is achieved, neither earth nor heaven can withstand the power of labor to organize the new society which will finally have left barbarism behind for all time.

ON TO A LABOR PARTY - TO THE DECLARATION OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE OF THE AMERICAN WORKING CLASS!

ON TO A WORKERS' GOVERNMENT - TO FREEDOM, PEACE, SECURITY AND ABUNDANCE FOR ALL THE PEOPLE!

ON TO A WORKERS' WORLD,!

ON TO SOCIALISM!

National Committee of the Workers' Party
Labor Action, APRIL 18 1945

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