The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1924, Page 9

. peak of By MAX BEDACHT. HE radical comrades won a great victory at the Convention of the Workers Party, was the joyful report made by the “Volkszeitung” to its readers on New Year’s day. And a few days later a leading article crowned the brow of Comrade Lore with a laurel crown for this “victory” and added that the victory is still not complete and that difficult struggles are ahead. And the discussion thus far in the “Volkszeitung” seems to represent the heavy bléws of the opponent in this h struggle against the theses of the Central Executive Committee. May I remark that something more than an assertion of a report in the “Volkszeitung” is needed to make the world believe that the Finnish lan- guage group in alliance with Com- rades Lore, Trachtenberg, Poyntz etc. are all at oncs promoted to custodians of radicalism in the Party. Particularly Comrade Poyntz who time she regards her callous laborer’s fists can suppress only with difficulty a fit of rage against the wicked inteliectuals and “non-work- ers” in the Party. The manner in which the discussion has been carried on up to now is not calculated to clarify the question, It creates confusion rather, and tends to discredit our Party in the eyes of the non-members. The very least that can be expected of those taking part in the debate is that they shall get clear on the ob- t of the debate. Comrade Berner the only one who has done that. He comes to the conclusion that the majority of the previous Executive was in the right. Nevertheless, strangely enough, he is against their proposal. i } A few of the icipants in the debate. as for instance “Marius”, formulate the sins of the Executive out of the inexhaustible realm of their imagination, and then, with a grand gesture they refuse absolution for these sins. Besides, the discus- sion is no “free for all fight”, but an earnest Party discussion, and Party comrades cannot and should not hide behind pseudonyms in such discus- sions. The Problem Before Us What is the problem? The November theses of the Party Executive are under discussion. Not only those paragraphs. which specify the attitude of the Party towards an eventual Third Party, but also the analysis of the present political sit- uation laid down in the theses. The conclusions of the author and ex nent of the theses are built upon this analysis. Either the opponents of these theses have something to ad- vance against this analysis. In that case where is their own analysis? Or they accept this analysis and in that case they must admit that we have a difficult problem to solve. The authors and exponents of the Novem- ber theses propose a solution, The opponents- condemn this solution. But the problem remains. Where is the solution which the opponents of the November theses propose? Either one has sufficient understanding of the problem so as to be able to solve it in.a better way than the one pro- posed, and if so well and good, out with it. Or perhaps one has no such understanding and thereby one for- _feits the right of criticism. “Here is the situation: During the start of the forward development of capitalism in the United States in the exploitation of the natural resources and markets of the coun’ erumbs which fell for the pigmies from the tables of the giants of > es to litical leadership of the giants. But the have now reached the perialist development and their group interests collide more and more with the p interests of the pigmies. s period of capi- ent gives rise to in- movements of the strata of bn capitalist there were always enough | burnin, seek to assert themselves is a proof of the incipient inner decay of the ruling, the capitalist class. This decay in turn is the pre- requisite for the assumption of po- litical power in society by the work- ing class, We are therefor interested in this decay not only as complacent onlookers but we must help to hasten the process of decay. We should not confine ourselves to interpreting his- bory, but our task is to make history. Wherever there is a possibility of furthering the inner process of de- cay, yes, the inner dissolution of the ruling class, it is our duty to take a hand at it. Naturally none of us has the illusion that the ruling class will of itself collapse from this de- cay. But the continuation of this de- cay brings the development of the deciding factors of the social revo- lution, “the formation of the prole- tariat into a class” which stands up independently and in the end fights the class struggle inexorably to its logical conclusion under the leader- ship of a ian, revolutionary party. Thus the growth of the political self-consciousness of the workers goes hand in hand with this inner dis- solution of the ruling class. The pro- cess of dissolution. within the capi- talist class of the United States mai nifests itself concretely, partly in the stubborn movement which aims at the founding of a Third Party, while the political awakening of the work- ing class finds its expression in the movement for a working class party in alliance with the poor farmers, These two phenomena appear in parallel lines. No, parallel is not exact. Yes, simultaneously, but not beside each other. Rather with each other and in each other. That makes our task harder. But then, politics is not so simple. It’s all very well to sit home and lay out the formula: Here the working class—there the capitalist class. But in actual reality it is absolutely impossible to find a solution of the political problems of So, ease areal oes She Sete of le ‘ormula. It shows a v praiseworthy in- stinct for antiquities when our com- trades di the Lassalean » ha Fe gpg scarded and buried fifty years ago, of “one reactionary mass”. And so we have two simultaneous tendencies before us. The tende of the lower middle ¢lass to emanci- pate itself from capital. And the tendency of the we class to emancipate itself politically from the whole capitalist class. ese ten- encies seem to rum into each other inextricably. Theme may be differ- ence of opinion among us over the question of whether it is part of our task to further the first tendency and assist at the formation of a ird Party. But, with the exception of a few incurable “lefts”, we are un- animous on this, that it is our task to further the tendency of the work- ing class to emancipate itself from the oe of the capitalist class. But when the ugly reality insists stubbornly in presenting the working class to us, not as a pure, filtered and crystallized group with which and in which we can maneuver without hav- ing to come near any impure lower middle class person; and on the con- trary, the working class and its ten- dency is permeated with the lower middle class and its tendency, what ought we to do? That is our pro- And here Comrade Wenderich lays down our duty categorically: Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta. Yes, we must do our part. But not like the cat before the hot porridge, to slink off finally because we don’t like to risk g our mouth. No, the por- ridge must be eaten. The question is not whether we should eat it, but how can we eat it without spoiling our stomach. I don’t want to dispute with Com- rade Wenderich over his character- ization of the it Peasants’ Revolt when he off- edly turns that heroic peasant movement against formula blem. te. leaders of a Third Party. OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE THIRD PARTY Serrati and other “lefts” in that Congress made an opposition of principle against the intended “be- trayal” by the Third International of the pure Marxian principles. What is a Reactionary Movement? What then is all this outcry over the inherent reactionary character of all farmer movements? Have we really learned nothing from the Second International ? _No class is reactionary in “prin- ciple” on the ground of its ideological stand, but only as a result of its class interests. Either the farmers are reactionary to the marrow be- cause their class interests demand it —in this case what becomes of the advice that their salvation lies in solidarity with the working class? Or perhaps there is a community of interest between sections of the farm- ing class and the. working class. In that case what becomes of the talk of farmers being reactionary under alh circumstances? How can you say, Comrade Lore, that sections of farmers are sympathetic towards our movement if there is no community of interest of some kind between sec- tions of farmers and of the working class? But if there is such com- munity of intersts why could we not win over such strata to our move- ment? The essence of our attitude towards the farmers is not that they are reactionary under all circum- stances, but that historically they are a class of the past and not like the working class, the class of the future. For this reasan evan with a revolutionary stand against the exist- ing system, they_could never assume the leadership and initiative of the revolutionary movement. The leader- ship belongs to the working class. But the revolutionary farmer groups — be won over to this leader- ship. : In_this connection every comrade should read the excellent article of Comrade Pepper “The Farmers and the American Revolution” published in the supplement of the DAILY WORKER of January 19, as well as the article of Comrade Zinoviey for the “Daily! Worker” published in the “Worker” of January 21. _. And so the working class presents itself to us as an object for opera- tion which is not clearly separated | el from all non-proletarian elements, but is led with lower middle class 7 iticians, gnd controlled by a capitalist ideology. The class separa- tion, altho a social fact, is not a pre- r its poe This separation must ted politically. What Shall We Do? je ean we a, this ber task? Quite simply opponen of the theses say: We must agitate; we must educate the working class. We must make the farmers symp- tic. Correct. But how? Our party is no workers’ educational society which “educates” the working clasa thru courses on national econ- omy, but a political party which en- gages in political action. It is our task to teach the working class the art of swimming the waves of the sea of political class struggle. That does not mean, to introduce the workers to this sport theoretically, but we must throw ourselves into the waves before their eyes, and we must get them to jump in with us, we must put at the disposal of the working class our capabilities, our experi- ences, our energy, our fearlessness, And who will propose that we should leave the swimmer in the lurch in that very moment when he is in danger of sinking in the whirlpool of his petty bourgeois ideology? The working class its mass does not learn thru theoretical propaganda, but in the school of experience. Either we are present where the school is and thru our activity as teaching fellow-combatants make it easier for the working class to assim- ilate its own as it or we re- sign as proleta’ and Marxians. The political situation presents us therefore with a concrete problem. be- us an election year which stimu- tendencies immensely, At of this group we iddle class political At the munists, leaders of the working And between the two, the un- political leaders | aganda of ideology which controls the laboring masses favors them in this venture. The Communists must therefore fight against the lower middle class poli- ticians for the souls of the workers and poor farmers in this mass which is not exactly definable. They there- fore throw themselves into this mass and recruit their forces. They at- tempt to crystallize the workers’ class party tendency, before it is drowned even if only temporarily, in a Third Party, The founding of the Federated Farmer-Labor party ig the immediate result of this effort, This Party is only the beginning of this process of crystallization. The Fed- erate? Farmer-Labor Party does not solve the problem. It only creates a more advantageous basis of opera- tion for the solution. It has put the whole left wing of the class party Movement among the workers and poor farmers under the influence and leadership of the Communists and it has thus multiplied its force in the campaign for a class party. This also determines the role of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, We cannot remain standing with it. In the Federated Farmer-Labor Party and thru it we increased our basis of operation by a great deal, New at- tempts must be made to crystallize into organization the class party ten- dencies among the workers and poor farmers. Not abstractly on the ground of ories and em reso- ow gra rach the of real an 6 political group organization for the coming elections, The St. Paul Conference _ Thus we come to the Conference in St. Paul on May 30. For our pur poses it is unnecessary to s te as to whether the Conference really takes place. There may be another Conference, or even a series of sim- ilar conferences, two tendencies described are not exactly marked off and sepa- rated, both tendencies will find ex- pression et every such conference. And the strugele at any such confer- ) betw, the conscious fighters for the work- ing class party on one side, and the oo class politicians ag the me political leadership of middle class, The lower middle class politicians in turn want a separation of workers from the Communists. The Communists are the only capitalist class and with make it im hee ible for the capitalist @ political power of poses. If we should he victo: in this fight at the oT staags wall we succeed in consolidating the workers ing masses and poor farmers represented are still so much inated by capitalist ideology their indefinite longing for a party is satisfied in the Third they therefore accept the leadership of the lower middle even if temporarily, what should we do in that case? Here problem. In a leading article of the “Volks- zeitung” of January 17 we find that lly fg op. i out a doubt, not ae | to having the lower i 4 party organization, there to hee our identity. Comrade Lore, we do not discuss in order to force thru der | our views under all circumstances, tive has made a proposal outside this body, which biased interpretation to seem that it called for