The Need for a Labor Party¶
Core Argument¶
In his 1887 preface to the American edition of The Condition of the Working Class in England, Engels argues that the primary task of the American labour movement is not doctrinal purity but the consolidation of the working class as an independent political force. He insists that theory is not a rigid dogma but the exposition of an evolutionary process; German émigré socialists in America erred by treating their imported theory as an exclusive doctrine, holding aloof from the broader, more chaotic movements that actually expressed the lived experience of American workers. The key, Engels contends, is to get the working class to move as a class; they will then discover the correct direction through struggle itself. A million workingmen’s votes for a bona fide party, even on an inadequate platform, is worth infinitely more than a hundred thousand for a doctrinally perfect one.
Engels celebrates the fact that within ten months, American workers had formed a distinct class and created a political labour party. The next step is a common, provisional platform, which will ultimately converge with the European proletariat’s programme: the conquest of political supremacy and the social appropriation of all means of production. He sharply critiques Henry George’s single-tax theory as historically incorrect and insufficient, since it leaves the wage system and capitalist production untouched. The Knights of Labor, despite their theoretical confusion, represent the most typical and powerful section of the movement—a plastic mass evolving towards its appropriate form. The Socialist Labor Party must become fully American, learn English, and fuse with this broader movement, revolutionising the Knights from within rather than dismissing them.
Engels grounds this strategy in the line of action laid down in The Communist Manifesto of 1847. Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working-class parties; they have no interests apart from the whole class and do not impose sectarian principles. They are distinguished only by pointing out the common interests of the proletariat across national struggles and by always representing the interests of the movement as a whole at every stage of development. Practically, they are the most advanced and resolute section, pushing others forward; theoretically, they understand the conditions and ultimate results of the proletarian movement. They fight for immediate ends while representing the movement’s future. Engels states that he, Marx, and socialists of all nations followed this line for over forty years, leading to victory everywhere, with European socialists now fighting as one common army under one flag. Friction among the various elements of the American movement, he concludes, is a normal sign of growth, not of decay.