THE SELF-MOVEMENT OF THE MASSES !
 c) The mastery of the class forces through the workers' councils The second function to be performed by the masses themselves is the organic mastery of their class forces, -- their "own leadership". Until this time the "movement of labor" coincided with the "labor movement"; the old organizations were forthwith the leaders of the movements. This relation between "mass and leader" was, to be sure, on various occasions, broken through by the struggling workers in connection with revolutionary mass movements; still there was not yet seen in this circumstance any new principle born from the practice of the class struggle, but only a "deviation" from the usual course of events, and which simply resulted from this or that particular situation. The "deviation", however, consisted in the fact that the workers, without the consent and often against the will of the old organizations, took up the struggle, freed themselves from the old leadership and, under their own leadership, actualized a mass goal which had taken form in the masses independently of and in spite of the old leadership. And this "deviation" now becomes the usual form of the struggle when the mass comes into motion for its own class goals. The conditions with which the class struggle is bound up at the present time leave no other choice. For the very reason that each movement of labor comes into conflict with the state power and departs from the prescribed legal path, because every single struggle must be so conducted as if the question were directly the emancipation of the working class, -- for this reason any leadership over the workers is bound to break down, and what remains is only the leadership which proceeds from the struggling workers themselves. And this is not affected by the fact that parties and organizations can for the present still impose their leadership on movements which have arisen independently of them and against their will. For when they succeed in doing that, it is merely a proof of the fact that such a movement is too weak for further independent unfoldment, -- it is on the decline. This "leadership" then has the task of bringing the movement into "orderly paths"; that is, the movement is so "led" as not to come into conflict with the laws and the state power which stands behind them. For this reason it is necessary that the principle of "self-leadership of the masses" become the central point of the class movement. This principle is as yet but weakly represented. The tradition that class movements must be dominated and led by way of organizations is still so deeply rooted that new groups are continually arising which set this leadership as their task. When the old organizations can not and will not conduct the class struggle, then they want to set up new organizations which can do the job. Naturally, there is a kernel of truth in the old traditional conception; namely, that the class forces have to be mastered and led. For when a proletarian mass movement is merely in the form of a spontaneous outbreak, the class forces are, to be sure, unleashed; but when these forces are unmastered, not yet consciously directed, their action resembles that of a thunderstorm which discharges itself without further consequences. The mastery of forces, however, consists in applying them in view of the goal. And therefore these forces must be directed and organized. This is just as true today as it was 50 years ago, and is not antiquated. The new conception consists in the conviction that these forces can not be mastered and led by way of an organization. The functions which have to be performed by the workers in connection with major mass movements are so numerous and extensive, -- they extend finally to the whole sphere of social life, -- that no party is in a position to take upon itself the task of leadership. In the last instance, that can be done only by those who must finally exercise these functions, and they are the workers themselves. It is precisely here that we have the enormous difficulty of the present process of development; that the forces, so long as they discharge themselves chaotically, without inner connection, are also easily struck down. But from the experience acquired in these struggles grows the unity and coordination of the forces. Some take over these and the others those tasks; this process gives rise to a conscious division of strength and labor, that is, the forces are mastered and organized. In so far as our experience extends, we have seen that this coordination takes place in the form of committees of action, which in the revolutionary movement of Russia and Germany since 1917 have become known as workers' councils. For the carrying out of measures of a general sort, there is a general workers' council. Thus history tells us, for example, of the "Great Workers' Council" of Hamburg, the "General Workers Council" of Berlin, of St. Petersburg. The "Central Workers' Council for the Ruhr District", for example, seized (1920) the banks in order to assure payment of wages during the general strike. The Hamburg workers' council, again, had recourse to measures for regulating supply of the whole city area with means of subsistence, and also sought to organize the resistance to the central state power. Thus the mastery of our class forces, under the present-day conditions, finds its practical form in the council system. As a class, we can consciously apply our forces only in the measure in which we have been able to crystallize them in the workers' councils. In every mass movement the organizational drawing together and coordination of the forces, their conscious application, assumes more fixed forms. In this direction lies also the task of the revolutionists; the aim of their striving must be to make each mass movement more and more into a council movement. The growth of the mass movement to the council movement shows us in what measure we are learning consciously to apply our class forces. But after all, we may ask, is it so certain that mass movements will develop into the council movement ? Has National Socialism in Germany and Fascism in Italy not brought the masses into a movement which bears no trace of workers' councils, but rather set over the masses an opposite principle, namely, the dominance of the "leader" ? And a second question arises : Will the increasing economic distress, the ever intensified exploitation by the ruling class, lead to a struggle for the means of production, to a struggle for mastery over the productive forces by the workers ? Has not the experience in Germany and Italy shown that the persistent worsening of the workers' situation has driven the masses not to the left, but to the right ? Has there not come over the masses a wave of nationalism and militarism, of destruction of everything reminiscent of the old labor movement ? In short, is not the thought of the laboring masses more than ever capitalistically oriented ? And are we not bound to realize that in the fascist countries the laboring masses do everything in their power to rescue capitalist economy ? In actual fact ! We are indulging no illusions that the working class is moving straight ahead toward the mastery of its own forces. But we know, too, that this can not be a permanent state of affairs, that it does not prevent the final ascent of our class to power. We derive this knowledge from the science of the laws of motion of capitalist society, which tells us that capitalism can only maintain its existence by ever greater impoverishment of the broad masses. Whatever ideas may be present in the masses regarding an "ordering" of capitalist economy, the fact remains that this ordering is dictated by the interests of monopoly Capital. The big capitals which in modern capitalism constitute the determining force in economy must yield profit if the whole economic life is not to brought to a standstill. They can only live any more from the dying of the masses. The central problem in our present-day society is simply that the productive forces are not only means of production and labor power, but at the same time capital, and that they can produce only when, as capital, they create enough profit for the owning class. That is attempted through constantly sharpened exploitation, leads to the absolute impoverishment of the broad masses and finally after all comes up against its natural limits. The problem is therefore not an "ordering" of capitalism, but its abolition. The fact that the productive forces are at the same time capital and as such must yield profits becomes in ever increased measure a hindrance to their application. Therefore, in the interest of the broad masses, the economic life must function even without yielding profit for capital ownership. This, however, is equivalent to saying that the means of production can no longer appear as capital and that the capitalists can no longer appropriate the workers labor through the purchase of their labor power. When the means of production are divested of their capitalist character, they are thereafter only tools with which the free workers produce goods in order to satisfy the need of the hungering mass. The complete overturn of all economic relations is therefore the problem of our time. The relation of human beings to the means of production, which today is characterized by wage labor; the relation of human beings to the store of goods present in society, on which the workers can draw only provided that and in proportion to the price at which they sell their labor power; the relation of one human being to another, in so far as they belong to different classes, and which appears in the form of master and wage slave, of appropriator and expropriated, of buyer and bought: -- all these relations receive a complete and fundamental transformation. For with the elimination of the quest for profit and hence also of the capital character of the productive forces, the whole circulation of social goods is brought into other channels, while all relations of human beings among each other assume new forms. Fascism is neither able nor wants to solve this problem, and will accordingly, after it has shown its true face in this decisive question also, be overcome by the masses themselves. The solution of this very problem becomes ever more pressing, and hence also mass movements directed to setting up production for and through the workers are unavoidable. The decisive point in this connection is that it must come about, -- the will to that end arises from the necessity, -- while the working class is able to do it only when it forms itself to that end in the workers' councils. The conquest of power in a certain district will then not be the greatest difficulty. Much more important still will be the question whether the workers succeed in mastering production; that is, in doing away with the relation of master and slave and, by binding together the various enterprises, in introducing the social regulation of production. That is possible only through the workers' councils. And they must also assure supply of the means of subsistence to the broad masses, in that through social regulation of distribution they make impossible the private appropriation of the products of labor. This regulation, too, is possible only when the working masses are organized in councils. So that the growth of the mass movement as a council movement is the yardstick with which the conscious application of the class forces can be measured. The idea that the workers' councils arise only in the revolution itself must therefore be rejected as false. In connection with each movement proceeding from the working class, the main concern must be with the forming of workers' councils. The significance of a mass movement consists not so much in the material successes which it attains, but whether and in what measure it succeeds in applying the class forces through their councils. |