That signifies, thirdly, that European experience does not suffice to decide a priori upon rigid forms of the American labor movement. These forms can only be developed in the course of American practice itself. There is no recipe for them. They will be "unexpected."
In Engels' letter to Sorge dated April 8, 1891, he writes:
"It proves how useless is a—theoretically for the most part correct—platform if it is unable to get into contact with THE ACTUAL NEEDS of the people."
Engels here wants to demonstrate to the sectarians of the Hyndman group in England as well as to the German emigrants of the "Socialist Labor Party" in America, the necessity of gaining primarily the support of the workers organized in the trade unions. Of importance methodologically in this connection is, fourthly, the fact that Engels sets the actual requirements of the labor movement higher than the theoretical platform. In his letter dated June 10, 1891, he states expressly that the transition from a sect to a mass party is even more important than an "orthodox" Marxist platform:
"The comical phenomenon is very significant that here, as in America, those persons who parade as orthodox Marxians, those who have reduced our IDEAS OF MOVEMENT to a rigid dogma which must be memorized, that those people figure here as well as over there as a pure sect."
The method, by means of which Engels determined the tactics of the American Communists,
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