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| Title | The road to power, or, the constructive elements of socialism |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | Literature Bureau of the Workers' International Industrial Union |
| Place of Creation (TGN) |
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| Date | 1919 |
| Subject.Topical (LCSH) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Extent | 33 pages: chart; 17 cm. |
| Original Item Location | HX86.D25 1919 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b8304529~S11 |
| Original Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection | Socialist and Communist Pamphlets |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/scpamp |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://libraries.uh.edu/branches/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | This item is in the public domain and may be used freely. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Image 18 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | uhlib_12374394_017.jpg |
| Transcript | 16 THE ROAD TO POWER not be too emphatically underscored that the power of the proletariat does not in the last analysis rest in the form or structure, but the spirit of an organization. Consequently, when certain Socialists attribute revolutionary vitality and creative power to Industrial Unionism as Industrial Unionism, without qualifying it with the word Socialist, then they commit precisely the same error which certain pure and simple politicians fall into, when they seek to "organize the masses into a large political party," however, in their anxiety for success forgetting and ignoring entirely the Socialist character of the organization. Primarily, it is not the question whether the workers are organized on the economic field along craft or industrial lines, because we have both forms of organization in existence now (see Germany and America for classical examples) ; neither, whether the workers engage in independent politics, such politics having been carried on for years by so-called liberal reform movements and alleged "Socialist" parties; but whether the economic and political activity is a Socialist activity; whether the industrial union is a class-conscious union; and whether the Socialist political party is a truly working-class organization. The yardstick with which to establish the status of a workers' organization has been provided in our previous article, and is to be found in the organization's conception of Capitalism and the consequent interpretation of the class struggle resulting therefrom. To a revolutionary Socialist only such an organization is considered class-conscious which affirms unequivocally the inability of the workers to permanently improve their economic and social conditions under Capitalism, calling upon the workers to marshal their forces on the economic as well as political field under the banner of not palliation or reform, but revolution. Organ- |