ranged under collective organisation of industry, with all the
economies of effort which co-operation would effect, cannot be secured
under capitalism. That surely should be obvious to all who call
themselves Socialists and who have even a passing acquaintance with
economics; otherwise, why the necessity of the Co-operative
Commonwealth? Socialist policy towards the trade unions should be, in
short, not their capture for political purposes, nor their upset for
Bolshevist phantasies, but one of educating the trade unionists. It is
only along that line that the Social-Democratic movement can make real
and steady progress.

The policy of the strike for anything and everything is not only
anti-social; it is anti-Socialist. Writing on the strike outbreak of
1911,[2] I said: "The mass strike is rarely effective, save in a
negative fashion. It is successful mostly when used against some
particular object or for some definite purpose of the moment. It can
be used to break an objectionable agreement; it may prevent the
putting into force of an unpopular law, or the passing of some
tyrannical measure; it may check an attempt to suppress popular
liberties, such as they are; and it may prove the best possible means
of preventing war between two countries, if action in that direction
be taken equally in both countries. But as _the_ means for the
overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of the
Socialist Republic it is useless. Those who rely upon the general
strike as _the_ means for the realisation of Social-Democracy are like
the ancient Gauls, of whom it is said that they shook all States and
founded none."

Sporadic and Lightning Strikes Anti-Social and Anti-Socialist.

What applied to the strike movement of 1911 applies with even greater
force to the present strike ebullitions, in which the presence of
Russian Bolsheviks is to be noted. This is all in accordance with the
Bolshevist plan of "world revolution" for which roubles are being
plentifully furnished, mainly through agents in Sweden. The prevailing
idea is to pull down bourgeois society, no matter what the
consequences. If conditions generally in the countries of Europe under
capitalism to-day were like what they were here a century ago, coupled
with an absolute monarchical tyranny such as that which existed until
recently in Russia, then there might be something to be said for the
destruction of bourgeois society by any means that would bring it
dow