Page:The Advancing Proletariat (1917).pdf/25

Rh excusable only on the grounds of misguided but philanthropic zeal.

In a class society, the powers of the government are derived from the economic power of the dominant class, and, for that reason, the prime necessity of the proletariat, in its struggle, is to develop its economic power, for it is really opposed only by economic power. Organization on the economic field, at the point of production, and contending for the product of the machines is the only method of developing economic power for the proletariat; and participation in purely political propaganda and campaigns is a criminal waste of time and energy. In the field of politics, the program of the proletariat should be "PRESSURE RATHER THAN PARTICIPATION;" a program heretofore ably pursued by the Plutocrats.

The proletariat cannot conceive of an acceptable society without machine production. It cannot conceive of men producing efficiently except in groups around machines. Consequently its form of organization to carry on the class struggle and build the society of the future must preserve the unity of the groups now working about the machines. Any other method would be foreign to it and doomed to failure because inconsistent with proletarian experience.

No class ever yet successfully dominated society unless it demonstrated its ability to direct industry. Only on this basis could a following be secured and power be established. The proletariat is in no different case. It MUST demonstrate its efficiency. To merely destroy modern society without substituting something better would be the most monstrous of crimes. To achieve emancipation only to plunge the world into economic chaos would be the bitterest of travesties upon human intelligence. The proletariat must recognize and be prepared to assume the responsibilities of production and distribution, and of social and industrial