Table Of ContentREVOLUTIONARY CONTINUITY
Marxist Leadership in the U.S.
Revolutionary
Continuity
The Early Years 1848 - 1917
FARRELL DOBBS
PATHFINDER
NEW YORK LONDON MONTREAL SYDNEY
Copyright © 1980 by Pathfinder Press
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-0-87348-841-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 80-84850
Manufactured in the United States of America
First edition, 1980
Fifth printing, 2019
Pathfinder
www.pathfinderpress.com
E-mail: [email protected]
CONTENTS
Introduction 7
1. European ancestry 21
2. Indigenous origins 59
3. Gains and setbacks 95
4. A disoriented movement 131
5. Supreme test of war 165
6. Bolshevik revolution 197
7. First workers' state 229
Appendix
Marx to Friedrich Bolte in New York 251
Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge in Hoboken 255
Engels to Sorge in Hoboken 258
Engels to Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky in New York 262
Appendix to the American edition
of The Condition of the Working Class in England (Engels) 266
The labour movement in America (Engels) 269
Engels to Kelley-Wischnewetzky 280
Engels to Hermann Schluter in Hoboken 282
Engels to Schluter in New York 284
Engels to Sorge in Hoboken 286
The results and significance of the
U.S. presidential elections (Lenin) 288
After the elections in America (Lenin) 292
Index 295
INTRODUCTION
Each worker who joins the revolutionary movement
reaches that decision through a unique sequence of per
sonal experiences. Yet there are certain broad phases of
intellectual development that most who take this step
share in common. In this country the newborn arrive
upon a social scene permeated with capitalist ideology. By
adulthood they have been conditioned to think in terms
of shaping a future for themselves within the framework
of the existing social order. Then, after a while, frustra
tions develop because of inequities built into the capitalist
system. Recognition dawns that adjustments are needed
in social relations and efforts follow to reform the present
order of things. Attempts of that kind run head-on into
capitalist resistance, however, as repeated clashes occur
over economic, social, and political issues.
In the course of those conflicts some of the more re
bellious become revolutionists and join a revolutionary
socialist party. This brings unparalleled opportunities to
achieve great leaps in social thought and political con
sciousness as they begin to understand why capitalism
is irremediably bankrupt and precisely how the workers'
struggle must be waged to replace it with a new, higher
social order. This opens the way for a meaningful reexam
ination of history, not with past events falsely presented or
deliberately ignored, as is frequently the case in textbooks
of the official educational system, but through honest,
7
8 INTRODUCTION
forthright accounts of what actually happened. In this way
they can learn valuable lessons from the setbacks as well
as the advances, from the mistakes as well as the achieve
ments, of their revolutionary predecessors.
Such, for instance, were the phases through which my
own social thinking evolved. Graduation from a Minne
apolis high school in 1925 marked the end of my formal
education. I had no chance to go on to college, but that
didn't bother me at the time. It seemed good to have done
with books, to be in a position to earn some money of my
own which could be used as I saw fit.
At that point a new kind of education began for me in
the school of hard knocks. No matter what job I tried the
situation remained basically the same. Every employer
demanded maximum labor for long hours and paid stingy
wages. The result was a chronic gap between my growing
needs and lagging income. Then, in 1927, I married Mar
vel Scholl, assumed family responsibilities, and found it
harder than ever to make ends meet.
Those experiences reawakened my intellectual curiosity.
I wondered how this social system operated, what efforts
others had made to improve things for workers like myself,
and how I might help bring about some of the needed
changes. The way history was taught in high school had
turned me off. So I started reading biographies, especially
the lives of people whose careers were generally looked
upon as successes. Before long those studies led to a re
vived interest in history and I began probing wider sub
jects. All this was done without any definite plan, however.
I simply went to public libraries and read whatever books
I chanced upon that looked like they might be useful.
By that time I was working for the Western Electric
Company as an installer of telephone central office equip
ment. My wages had originally been very low. Gradually,
Introduction 9
though, my hourly pay was hiked and considerable over
time at premium rates significantly boosted my earnings.
The outlook began to appear quite bright. Then I was pro
moted to job foreman, which brought me a higher salary
in terms of regular hours. But there was a catch involved.
I now had to put in overtime without extra pay and my
overall weekly earnings dropped. I had wound up assum
ing greater job responsibilities for less money.
Somewhat later-in 1931-I was assigned to the com
pany's division office in Omaha, Nebraska, given the title
"planning engineer," and set to work estimating the labor
cost of equipment installations. This, too, was presented
as a promotion, but no raise in pay went with it. When
I brought up the subject of money, my superiors advised
me to be patient. The company was training me for the
higher echelons of supervision, they said, which meant a
start up the ladder toward a really big salary.
At first the prospects held out to me seemed promising;
that is, until I discovered what was expected of top su
pervisors. The division superintendent had me sit in as a
learner at high-level conferences held in his office. What
I heard soon made it clear that in deciding important
matters the sole factor was protection of company profits.
The workers' needs were always treated as secondary and
decisions affecting them were made with callous indiffer
ence to the impact upon their lives. This inhuman attitude
was most shockingly revealed to me at a conference that
selected a list of employees to be laid off because of the
severe economic crisis.
Among those who got the ax was a worker I knew well
from past association on the job. He had served the com
pany loyally for a long time, but that had no bearing what
ever in the top supervisors' view. They looked upon him
only as a man who was getting old. He should be laid off,
