STRIKE STRATEGY
Chapter V.
IN THE STRIKE STRUGGLE.
UNDER present conditions in the United States strikes are the very heart of the class struggle. They are brutal and open fights between exploiters and exploited. It is in strikes that the conflicting interests of the two classes are most manifest. The employer in his limitless greed and desire to exploit the workers even more intensely than the present unexampled rate, seeks to break their spirit and to force them to work upon his terms. To this end he employs a formidable array of weapons: hunger, terrorism, duplicity, illusory concessions.
On their side, the workers have as their great weapon the cutting off of the employer's supply of labor-power. They seek to keep his plants shut down until his greed for profits, or the pressure from other capitalists who need his products, compels him to come to terms. But in order to do this they must be able to maintain an unbroken solidarity in the face of all the employer's many attacks, open and insidious. This is the chief objective of strike strategy during the heat of the open struggle.
1—The Question of Morale.
In all situations where the fighting qualities of human beings are called into play the question of morale assumes great importance. Military leaders understand this thoroly. They know that the strength of an army is not to be measured simply by its numbers, or even by its favorable strategic situation. The question of the degree of fighting spirit among the troops, their morale, is a factor of decisive weight. Hence, during wars, strategists devote the closest attention to this matter of morale.
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