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From Labor Action, Vol. 12 No. 38, 20 September 1948, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
“A few months ago,” says my friend Jack to me the other day, “you were telling me about how the workers and farmers and other people that do something useful will run things once they wake up and take over from the monopolists and politicians and the rest of the riff-raff that has the world by the tail these days.”
“I seem to recall such a conversation,” says I.
“I’ve been thinking about it,” says Jack, “but the more I think about it, the more it seems to me there’s a hole in it you could drive a two-ton truck through.”
“Well,” I says, “let’s take another look at it and see if we can’t plug that hole up. But first let’s get one thing straight. The Workers Party doesn’t claim to have a crystal ball in which the socialist world of the future can be seen like a city map with every detail right in place. All we claim is that from our study of times in the past when workers rose up and took power some things they did worked line and can be used as a guide to the future, and other things led to defeat and helped to foul things up.
“We take the lessons of these experiences, and add a little common sense, and try to teach as many as we can that some things can be made to work, and others can’t. That’s science and not crystal-gazing or blueprinting castles in the air and telling the workers: ‘You do it our way or the hell with you!’ ”
“Okay,” says Jack, “have it your way, and I won’t ask for a blueprint. But I’ve got a little common sense too, or what we used to call horse- sense back on the farm. You said that when the working people take over from this riff-raff, committees of workers and farmers and professional people and housewives will run everything from the mines and farms and factories and railroads up through the federal government.”
“That’s right,” I says.
“Well,” says Jack, “that’s just where the big hole is. These folks may have a lot of sense when it comes to their own job, whatever it may be. But where are they going to get the brains and the training to run the whole works? After all, when you get up in the higher brackets of management and government things get pretty complicated. It’s one thing to run a lathe, and something very different to run a whole department, or a whole plant or the federal government.”
“You can say that again,” says I.
“I am saying it again,” says Jack. “About half the guys I know won’t even read Labor Action because they say it’s too deep for them. The sports pages and the funny books are about their speed. How do you figure guys like that are going to sit on a committee to run a factory or the national railroad system?”
“Well,” I says, “maybe they won’t.”
“That sounds,” says Jack, “like you’re giving up too easy. If these guys can’t run things, what happens to your whole picture of workers’ control under socialism?”
“Use your bean, Jack,” I says. “Are these funny-book addicts the guys your local elects on the bargaining committee or as committeemen or shop stewards?”
“Well,” says Jack, “not usually. Once in a while one of them gets popular and slips in and then there’s hell to pay.”
“Sure,” I says. “That’s a little of the overhead of democracy. But by and large you got to admit that even the comic brigade is smart enough to elect men to represent them who know the time of day. What makes you think they’ll get dumber when they know the men they elect will have to be responsible for running the whole plant, and not just for bargaining with the boss or adjusting grievances or running union business as at present?”
“Then you admit yourself,” says Jack, “that the average guy won’t know enough to run things himself, but will have to elect smarter men to run them. What’s going to prevent these smart boys from gradually taking over and running things to suit themselves and putting the rank and file right back where they are now, behind the eight-ball?”
“There are just two things you overlook,” says I. “First, not everyone who feeds his mind on the funny books today is a dope. From the time most of these guys were kids they found out that the whole system was rigged against them. They were told in school that in this man’s country everyone has an equal chance. When they started looking for a job they found that was a lie. When they went into the army or into a factory they were told a thousand times: ‘you aren’t supposed to think; your job is to carry out orders.’ They found that the newspapers lied to them, and the most respected government officials lied to them. They found that the whole system is based on a million lies for the suckers, I don’t blame them much for going to the funny books, which at least don’t pretend to tell them the truth.”
“That’s true,” says Jack. “So what?”
“So these same guys are likely to take a much greater interest in things when they find that they can believe what they read in the papers and are told by public officials. Today they are lied to because this rotten system needs to fool people to keep them from revolting. Tomorrow, under socialism, the truth will be the chief weapon in the hands of the working class as only when they know the facts will they be able to make correct decisions.”
“Yeah?” says Jack. “That could be. So how will that change things?”
“The more people take an interest in running their affairs, the less chance the ‘smart boys’ you mention will have to take over in any capacity except as servants of the people assigned to do a specific job. The old adage will still hold true that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Only then it will be the vigilance of the great mass of people who will have the real power to decide how things will be run. Their vote today is a mockery of power as the real decisions are made in the secret meetings of boards of directors of banks and corporations and carried out by the so-called representatives of the peepul in government.”
“Maybe so,” says Jack. “What was the second point you say I overlooked?”
“It’s just as simple as the first one,” I says. “No one claims that as soon as the workers’ and farmers’ government is established every mother’s son is going to be on a factory management committee or a city planning committee or some other committee which is in charge of a part of the nation’s life which today is dictated by the corporations and their government. What I do say is that all public matters (including industry) will be run by committees elected by those most concerned, and not by a clique which rules by the divine right of owning enough stocks and bonds. There will be smarter guys, and guys who work harder and men who have won the confidence and respect of their fellow workers and fellow citizens. In our present set-up the man who gets to the top is usually the man blessed by rich parents, good connections, or a willingness to grind his fellow humans under his heel.
“With real workers’ control and a truly democratic set-up in all aspects of life, that kind of tough bird will be most likely to end up at the bottom of the pile. Leadership is one thing the common people can always use. Under socialism the leaders will be selected on the basis of performance in a contest in which everyone really has an equal chance to use his natural abilities, and will be recalled the moment he shows that he is learning to abuse them.”
“Well,” says Jack, “that was quite a speech. Maybe what you say is true. Anyway, I’ll think about it.”
“I guess I got sort of wound up,” I says. “By the way,” I says, “are you through with that paper? I’ve been wondering how Trick Dacy got out of that last jam he was in.”
“He didn’t,” says Jack. “It seems that Chief of Police Bannon was taking a cut from the dope ring and when Dacy called him in on the pinch his cops plugged Dacy full of holes.
“It just goes to show you,” says Jack, “they can’t even keep government clean in the funnies any more.”
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