Page:Proletarian and Petit-Bourgeois (1912?).pdf/24

22 would go along its accustomed course in the hands of the industrial organization without any shock or jar to the rest of us.

So the fullness of time and capitalistic development have at last brought about the Marxian proletariat.

Time, however, the great dispeller of illusions, has wrought its effect upon the mind of that proletariat. No longer will it satisfy itself with the belief that parliamentary action will bring the relief which it so earnestly deserves. On the contrary it grows more and more distrustful of mere parliamentarism. It has learned the lesson that political power is merely the reflex of economic power, and that political advantage can only be had through economic superiority; that there is no road to power save through the "will to power" and all that that implies.

The proletarian, which is just entering the ring as a contestant for the mastery of the modern world, comes equipped with the knowledge that its victories are not to be won by the babblings of public men and the intrigues of political place-hunters, but by stern conflict on the industrial field and by ceaseless and relentless war upon those whom it must expropriate.

 

A proletarian movement can have no part, however slight, in the game of politics. The moment it takes a seat at that grimy board is the moment it dies within. After that it may for a time maintain a semblance of life and motion, but in truth it is only a corpse.

This has been proved many times. It is being proved today in Great Britain. It has been proved recently and most convincingly in the experience of Australia and New Zealand.

