Page:The Advancing Proletariat (1917).pdf/34

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
32
THE ADVANCING PROLETARIAT

among the students of the class struggle, the opinion is coming more and more to be held that the culmination of the struggle will be the Social General Strike, or at least, a threat of the same, and the industrial method seems to be the only one that can properly marshal, drill and discipline the workers for that event.

The mutual economic interests, the daily association, the common experiences of the social conflict must surely develop that SOLIDARITY, without which the proletariat may struggle in vain, but with which it must inevitably assert its supremacy. Organized at first upon the outside, it must eventually move the union meeting place into the shop, and function there producing and distributing the living of the world.

Like the bird in the egg, the physical portion of the Industrial Democracy already exists within the framework of modern society. The lands, the tools and the machinery of production and distribution are well nigh perfect, and a working population, trained in the processes of industry, functions at the machines. The quickening of this mass into life is the next necessary step. An awakened Social Conscience, a realization of power, and a desire for true economic freedom must bring about the great change.

Earthwide in the scope of its activities, Industrial Unionism points to a new civilization where the forces of production and distribution will be nicely adjusted and co-ordinated—where those who labor will enjoy—where childhood will be free—where manhood will be secure—where age will rest in peace—where man, the flower of the Earth, shall be in harmony with the world about him.