77
"Any support given to Parliamentarism is simply helping to put power into the hands of our British Sheidemanns and Noskes. Henderson, Clynes and Co. are hopelessly reactionary. The official I. L. P. is more and more coming under the control of middle-class Liberals, who, since the rout of the Liberal Party, have found their 'spiritual home' in the camp of Messrs. MacDonald, Snowden and Co. The official I. L. P. is bitterly hostile to the Third International, the rank and file is for it. Any support to the Parliamentary opportunists is simply playing into the hands of the former.
"The B. S. P. here simply cuts no ice. . . .
"What is wanted here is a sound, revolutionary, industrial organization and a Communist Party working along clear, well-defined, scientific lines. If our comrades can assist us in building these, we will take their help gladly; if they cannot, for God's sake let them keep out altogether, lest they betray the Revolution by lending their support to the reactionaries, who are so eagerly clamoring for Parliamentary 'honors' (?—the query belongs to the author of the letter), and who are so anxious to prove that they can rule as effectively as the 'Boss' class politicians themselves."
This letter to the editor splendidly expresses, in my opinion, the frame of mind and the viewpoint of young Communists, or of the rank and file of the workers who have just begun to arrive at Communism. This frame of mind is highly welcome and valuable; it is necessary to appreciate and support it, as, without it, the victory of the proletarian revolution in Britain, or in any other country, would be hopeless People who are able to express such a disposition of the masses, who are able to awaken in them such a mood (which often lies dormant, unconscious, and unawakened) should be cared for attentively and every assistance rendered them. At the same time, they must be told, frankly and openly, that that mood alone is not sufficient to guide the masses in the great revolutionary struggle, and that people devoted to the cause of the revolution may make mistakes which do actual harm to that cause itself. Comrade Gallacher's letter to the editor reveals, without doubt, in embryo all the errors which are
