The Threat to the Labor Movement/Section 26
Basing a Policy on Betrayal of Masses.
HE does neither. He simply lays down a program by which the masses can be betrayed wholesale—by the socialist party.
In "Point 4" Berenberg says:
When wages all along the line go down, the worker will begin to come out of his trance… He will be reduced to penury—in some cases to starvation. Then what? If this were Great Britain the worker would turn to the Labor Party. HERE, THE COMMUNISTS WILL GET HIM… LET US NOT FOOL OURSELVES… WHEN THE AMERICAN WORKER GROWS RADICAL HE WANTS TO BREAK SOMETHING. He has not been trained to constructive political thinking… The Communist claptrap is going to get him.
I am not predicting the Communist revolution. WASHINGTON AND WALL STREET WILL BE PREPARED TO MEET THE EMERGENCY… The jails will be filled with politicals; new "red" laws will appear… a feeling of futility and soreness will be left behind. (Emphasis mine.)
One will notice that nowhere does Berenberg speak of the role of the socialist party in the gigantic struggles he predicts—and in which prediction he is correct. The reason he does not mention the socialist party or issue a clarion call for it to prepare for this period of battle is apparent in "Point 3.":
Then WILL FOLLOW THE SOBER MOOD during which the American worker will learn to approach his problems like a mature person… THEN WE WILL HAVE OUR INNINGS, if we have sense to offer him. (Emphasis mine.)
It is almost needles to say that this is precisely the line of reasoning followed by socialist officialdom the world over. The conditions of life become unendurable (as in Germany), the workers organize to overthrow their oppressors and the oppressors' state, the socialist bureaucracy sabotages the struggle, becomes the ally of the capitalist class and when the workers are beaten back to a lowered standard of living (as they have been in Germany) cries out to them:
"See, didn't we always tell you, you must wait for evolution and not try revolution?" Among workers there is a very obscene but completely descriptive phrase for characterizing this kind of treachery.
So far, a fascist or semi-fascist dictatorship has followed this kind of "evolutionary" policy.