As far as the workers’ party is concerned, of which all the labor unions are part, its program can be found in the November 30 issue. In this program it says right at the beginning:
“Since political freedom without economic independence is only an empty phrase, the party fights in the economic sphere for the time being, and demands that all means of work become the property of society, in order to replace wage labor with cooperative production, with a just distribution of the labor yield.”
When the Communists say that production should become the property of society, they do not mean by the latter only their own circle. For if a number of people wanted to realize this idea among themselves, [1947-19] as far as they were able, then one could quite calmly watch. Everyone has that freedom to exercise certain rights and to contract with others. There have already been enough such Communist societies. No, they say this of society in general, that is, of all humanity, because they want to embrace it, and they want to bring these ideas to bear in it.They want to overthrow the present social relations, and they want to order them [page 9] order according to their principles. And among these principles are the following:
“No one should own land personally any more, but it should become common property and only be worked by certain people”, although in this respect the proposals are quite different, as we will soon hear. It then goes on to say: “Machines, traffic routes, etc.” They now leave it to the reader to put whatever he likes into the words “etc.”. Of course, it contains a great deal. The dear brethren who join with these labor unions certainly do not suspect what lies in “etc.”. Indeed, they also do not suspect what lies in it, if property is no longer to be private property, but the property of the community of men who live somewhere. They do not suspect what tremendous upheavals this requires before it can be realized. This is also part of their demands: “The introduction of a normal working day of 8 hours for the time being and punishment of all violators.” Whether a Christian can join such a labor union is something I'd like to leave up to any Christian reader. I don't think he can, in good conscience. He cannot become a member of a community whose purpose is to overthrow the whole world, either in peace or, if that is not possible, by bloody violence. Nor can he possibly join an association that says: “Man shall work only eight hours”, which is undoubtedly a principle of the lazy. On the whole, there will be few people who could survive if they only wanted to work eight hours. If we go to the Scriptures, we see that the average time of work is represented as a time of twelve hours. But how many people have to work more than twelve hours! And often just those who are despised by the workers as lazy bums often have to work much, much more than eight hours.
What is important, however, is what Mr. Walster himself reveals in his newspaper of November 30, 1877, about his actual relationship with the labor unions in America. He was attacked by the editor of a Milwaukee newspaper, the Milwaukee Socialist. The editor said that he would limit himself to the political field, because there alone the worker can finally fight for his freedom. He just had to get the legislation under his control, then he could easily rearrange all present conditions. But the fact that labor unions were founded would only hinder the good cause. Before a change could be made in this way, with labor unions, the workers would have starved to death. To this Mr Walster and others now answer the following:
“We are certainly not among those who [1947-20] want to solve the social question through trade associations (even through labor unions); except the value of the unions, which is agitational and spreads Socialist [page 10] propaganda, must be recognized unreservedly.”
He wants to say that he hopes very little from the organization of such labor unions, he knows how little power they could develop. But one should consider that the unions were only the means to work for Socialism and Communism, they were only a pre-school for Socialism. One should only try to gather together the ignorant people and organize them into labor unions, then one could best sow the seeds of Socialism and Communism in such associations, and when these have been sown, then one has enough fists to be able to reach the goal by force, if it cannot be achieved peacefully. For it is true that there are more poor people who have to earn a living from their work than those who live from the use of their capital, whether from interest or from the speculations they make with it, with the undertakings they organize with it; and if the people were really won over to Socialist ideology, the Communists certainly would have to win the day, that is beyond question. Certainly they could then turn the world upside down and drown all their opponents in their own blood. So the idea is not stupid at all. But whether it will be carried out, that is another question. — Walster continues:
“Here in St. Louis, for example, there is a section of the Cabinet-Maker’s Union. It is made up of Socialists and non-Socialists. By extending their propaganda to this section, the Socialists have succeeded in gaining a large majority for Socialism there; as a result, this section debates the social question in every assembly, maintains well-organized labor statistics, and thus contributes to the expansion of our agitation in a manner not to be underestimated.”
So what Mr. Walster means to say is: Look, I'll do it even smarter than you. You just want to work in Milwaukee through political agitation and gain support for our Communism and Socialism. You do that; but if you do that alone, you're a fool. Our method is much more successful. We gather the people who don't want to be Socialists and make them Socialists. Our labor unions, he wants to say, [1947-21] are just a pre-school for Socialism and Communism. — Now I ask: What Christian wants to join such a labor union, wants to become a willing tool for such a revolution? No Christian can do it with a clear conscience; only he who believes there is no God belongs in it.
Another proof that the labor unions are nothing but institutions of the Communists who use them for their purposes is the following: English Communists have made a lottery for the good of the [French] political prisoners in New Caledonia; but not for the good of all political prisoners, but only for those who [page 11] were transported from France because they carried out those well-known horrible Communist atrocities in 1871 [Paris Commune]. When the Prussians made peace outside Paris, they allowed the French to keep their firearms [2020-10-23 added link] with the entire [French] National Guard. This was done by Germany out of humanitarian considerations, for they feared, because all sorts of people had gathered in Paris, that it would be a revolution. But they had reckoned wrongly. For these weapons mostly fell into the hands of the Communists, and they used the violence they had been given and caused a terrible bloodbath. They set up a so-called Commune and took possession of the city, and immediately shot several generals loyal to the government, the archbishop and other prelates and priests, erected barricades and from there fired into the crowd facing them, declaring also that if they should win, they would raze Paris to the ground. “War on the palaces!” — that was their slogan. And they carried that out honestly. In March the terrible catastrophe began, and at the end of May it was over: rivers of blood had flowed, the most magnificent buildings of the city lay in ashes. Woe to the city if the Communists had won! And for those who had committed the most terrible atrocities at that time, a lottery is now being held, and the local labor unions and branches of the same are also being approached, giving the following reasons for this:
“Workers! The revolution of March 18 has been shamefully slandered by the exploiters of both worlds. This revolution belongs to you too: for you have excluded the principles for which it fought from all your platforms. You are all responsible for them; to [1947-22] deny them would be treason. You are intimately linked to those who suffer the crime of having been defeated in a struggle conducted for the assertion of rights that we ourselves demand.”
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| Karl Marx |
This explains, however, that even the local labor unions are basically only branches of the labor union which has its center in England. The latter was founded in 1869 [International Workingmen's Association], and then the conducting committee of this association, which had been founded by the Jew [Karl] Marx, issued the following declaration: “The association declares itself to be an atheistic one,” that is, one that declares that there is no God, for an atheist is a denier of God. “It demands the abolition of all religion, the replacement of faith by science, human justice for divine justice, the abolition and suppression of marriage.… We demand direct legislation for the people by the people themselves, the abolition of inheritance and the constitution of the land as collective property.”
There the principles are laid down on which the international labor union is based. It is therefore called international, [page 12] because the members are not to come only from one nation, but are to be gathered from all nations of the earth.
Now I ask again whether a Christian can join an association of which he knows that he is striving for the goals just described. The worker who joins the association may or may not want to follow these tendencies, — he nevertheless belongs to the association which pursues them. And it was seen in Paris that many people had previously been considered to be Internationalists, who only pursued purely social interests, and did not think of joining the Revolution. But when the terrible moment finally came, and everyone was intoxicated, it did not help: either those who belonged to this society had to be prepared to be shot through the head, or they had to join in. And whoever has been in such a society for a long time no longer has the courage of faith to say: “No, if you have such plans in mind, I can no longer take part.” Most of them are dragged into it, and have denied God and their Saviour and are on the way to a terrible temporal and eternal ruin. —
This now to the proof for how it stands with that newspaper and the [1947-23] Socialist labor unions. A quite different question is now how to judge Communism, i.e. the system according to which all goods are to be equally distributed, or Socialism, i.e. the system according to which personal property ceases to be personal property and, in joint work, all property is to become the property of society. Some proceed radically, others less radically; but when it comes to collapse, the most radical are always the winners. This has also been seen in France: Those who started first, they didn't decide the matter, but much more radical ones came over them and put the previous ones on the guillotine, until finally the most radical ones took over, and ruled until God put an end to things. I have now set out a few points that we would like to discuss now, if the congregations would like to take the time to do so and are willing to do so, namely the following question:
Why should and can no reasonable man, let alone a Christian, take part in the efforts of the Communists and Socialists?
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