Page:The Advancing Proletariat (1917).pdf/24

22 it realizes that the proletariat, operating the machinery of production and really in possession of the wealth of the world, is in a position to dictate the terms of life to all society, if it merely secures the consent and co-operation of the members of its own class. It proposes that the ballot box shall repose first in the Union hall, and then in the shop; and one needs only to function in industry to be a voter there. The recently landed immigrant, who has a "job," is equal to the descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers, who also works for bread.

The future society comes only at the desire and with the consent of the proletariat, for it is evidently the only class able to safeguard humanity by means of a new society; and the revolution can properly occur, only after the proletariat has had sufficient training in voluntary co-operation and self-government to be able to demonstrate its ability to successfully continue production and handle distribution so that all may be fed. Voting EN MASSE at the polls is no evidence whatsoever of such ability, and to teach this class that its way to freedom lies primarily through the ballot box is a most miserable miseducation and paves the way to the most desperate catastrophy that humanity could ever suffer.

The Socialist Philosophy bases itself upon the proletariat. The needs and aspirations of the proletariat are the justification of the Social revolution. So, why attempt to lead this class in a way it cannot go? Why forget the fundamental fact of proletarian life—the law of Economic Determinism? The method of getting the proletariat's living determines its thoughts and actions. Machine production—group effort—scientific team work—class experience—these are the determining factors, and all the fine-spun theories go glimmering when confronted with these. Middle class meddling and interference with the proletariat—giving it a program tainted with middle class traditions—is an impertinence that is