TRADE UNIONS............INTERESTS 179
there is no promotion for him. This is what happens to him when there is no slump. In days of slump he is the first to be fired as in the boom he is the last to be employed.
To the critics who have accused me and you of sinister motive I wish to ask two questions-and they are plain questions—are these or are these not real grievances? Secondly, if they are real grievances must not those who are suffering from them organize in order to see that they are removed? If the answer to these two questions is in the affirmative-I do not see how any honest man can give any other answer- then our attempt is amply justified. Labour leaders who are accusing us are undoubtedly suffering from certain delusion. They have read in Karl Marx that there can be only two classes-owners and workers and, on reading Marx they straight way assume that in India there are only owners and workers and proceed on their mission of demolishing capitalism. There are obviously two errors in this. The first error consists in thinking as real what is only possible or ideal. Marx never said as dogma that there are only two clear-cut classes in a society namely the owners and workers. Such a statement is untrue in fact and therefore it is dangerous as a foundation to build upon it any active propaganda with any chance of success. It would be as false as to hold that an economic man or a rational man or a reasonable man is a fact which exists in all classes. The economist has always uttered a wise caution whenever he puts forth the economic man as a basic fact for drawing his conclusion—that the economic man exists only if other things are equal. The labour leaders have forgotten this ceteris paribus. It would be incorrect to suppose that even in Europe, what Marx said was true. “Is there a poor and oppressed man in Germany ? Is there a robbed and ruined artisan of France ? Well, there they appertain to one race, one county, one creed, one past, one present, and one future. Let them unite.” This is an exhortation which has been addressed ever since the days of Marx. Has the poor and oppressed man in Germany united with the robbed and ruined artisan of France ? Even after 100 years they did not learn to unite and in the last war they fought as open, avowed and ruthless enemies. It would be positively erroneous with regard to India. A clear cut division