Mark and Lincoln: And Unfinished Revolution

arms, supported by bold skirmishers in front and by unshakable 
reserves in the rear.
To bring about this result, the unifi cation of the various inde-
pendent bodies into one national Labor Army, with no matter how 
inadequate a provisional platform, provided it be a truly working-
class platform—that is the next great step to be accomplished in 
America. To eff ect this, and to make that platform worthy of the 
cause, the Socialist Labor Party can contribute a great deal, if they 
will only act in the same way as the European Socialists acted at 
the time when they were but a small minority of the working class. 
Th
  at line of action was fi rst laid down in the Communist Manifesto 
of 1847 in the following words:
Th
  e Communists [that was the name we took at the time and 
which even now we are far from repudiating] do not form a sepa-
rate party opposed to other working-class parties.
Th
  ey have no interests separate and apart from the interests of 
the whole working class.
Th
  ey do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by 
which to shape and model the proletarian movement.
Th
  e Communists are distinguished from the other working-class 
parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians 
of the diff erent countries, they point out, and bring to the front, the 
common interests of the whole proletariat, interests independent 
of all nationality; 2. In the various stages of development which the 
struggle of the working class against the capitalist class has to pass 
through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the 
movement as a whole.
Th
  e Communists, therefore, are on the one hand practically the 
most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties 
of all countries, that section which ever pushes forward all others; 
on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of 
the proletarians the advantage of clearly understanding the line of 
march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the pro-
letarian movement.
Th
  us they fi ght for the attainment of the immediate ends, for the 
enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class, but 
in the movement of the present, they represent and take care of the 
future of the movement.
248 frederick 
engels

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Th
 at is the line of action which the great founder of Modern 
Socialism, Karl Marx, and with him I and the Socialists of all 
nations, who worked along with us, have followed for more than 
forty years, with the result that it has led to victory everywhere, and 
that at this moment the mass of European Socialists in Germany 
and in France; in Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland; in Denmark 
and Sweden as well as in Spain and Portugal are fi ghting as one 
common army under one and the same fl ag.
Frederick Engels
London, January 26, 1887
the working class in england  249

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Speeches at the Founding of the 
Industrial Workers of the World
Lucy Parsons
I can assure you that after the intellectual feast that I have enjoyed 
immensely this afternoon, I feel fortunate to appear before you now 
in response to your call. I do not wish you to think that I am here 
to play upon words when I tell you that I stand before you and feel 
much like a pygmy before intellectual giants, but that is only the 
fact.
I wish to state to you that I have taken the fl oor because no other 
woman has responded and I feel that it would not be out of place 
for me to say in my poor way a few words about this movement. 
We, the women of this country, have no ballot even if we wished to 
use it, and the only way that we can be represented is to take a man 
to represent us. You men have made such a mess of it in represent-
ing us that we have not much confi dence in asking you, and I for 
one feel very backward in asking the men to represent me. We have 
no ballot, but we have our labor. I think it is August Bebel, in his 
Woman in the Past, Present and Future—a book that should be read 
by every woman that works for wages—Bebel says that men have 
been slaves throughout all the ages, but that woman’s condition has 
been worse, for she has been the slave of a slave.
Th
  ere was never a greater truth uttered. We are the slaves of the 
slaves. We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Wherever wages 
are to be reduced, the capitalist class use women to reduce them, 
and if there is anything that you men should do in the future it is to 

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organize the women. And I say that if the women had inaugurated 
a boycott of the State Street stores since the teamsters’ strike, the 
stores would have surrendered long ago. I do not stand before you 
to brag. I had no man connected with that strike to make it of inter-
est to me to boycott the stores, but I have not bought one penny’s 
worth there since that strike was inaugurated. I intended to boycott 
all of them as one individual at least, so it is important to educate 
the women.
Now, I wish to show my sisters here that we fasten the chains of 
slavery upon our sisters, sometimes unwittingly, when we go down 
to the department store and look around so cheap. When we come 
to refl ect, it simply means the robbery of our sisters, for we know 
that the things cannot be made for such prices and give women 
who made them fair wages. I wish to say that I have attended 
many conventions in the twenty-seven years since I came here to 
Chicago a young girl, so full of life and animation and hope. It is 
to youth that hope comes; it is to age that refl ection comes. I have 
Lucy Parsons, c. 1886
252 lucy 
parsons

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