The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 1, 1924, Page 10

NOTE.— Today the DAILY of the important speech by Chair- man Kamenev, of the Moscow confronting the Russian Commun- is Party, the ruling party in Sov- WORKER is publishing install- ments of this momentous discussion ests Of the emancipated workers and farmers of the Soviet Republic. of the greatest interest to all the workers and farmers of this coun- cow Communists as follows: * ” * . Er, ET us now consider another aspect of the question—let us those comrades among the workers, or even among the unemployed, who derstand our final aim, Communism, and our latest bloody struggle with time to finda clear mental path thru those immediate external contradic- ism and Socialism which they—the unemployed or the city proletariat, step, when they go into the street, look at the shop windows, or observe Policy, We demand a very high degree of ical understanding from these com- rades, if they. are not to be carried rents. We must admit to ourselves that in proportion to the extent of proportion to the increasing acute- ness of the situation created in the ers, the unemployed, and those NEP bourgeoisie, these anarcho-syndical- bound to reach nearly to the ranks of our Party. And when the workers’ able to gain a hearing among certain elements of our Party whose outlook exercised by Myasnikov’s counter- revolutionary speeches is explicable which we are unable to eliminate, which remain, and which are the of doubt and vacillation in this wing of our Party, a certain tendency to in the Myasnikey atmosphere. What is the essential character of position of the working class to our state. sition of the working class to our state, political schooling to understand that our state, despite its many faults, payments to the workers, is still a workers’ state. And this standard man, The Two Dangers. The two dangers threatening” us generation under the influence of the NEP; and secondly, the anarcho- fectually to combat these dangers, how are we to ensure that the in- are to be adequately met, how are we to make sure that a strike does ing us, but is made unnecessary by us beforehand; how are we to help the provoked proletariat on the other, how are we to find an anti- fluences within the Party, how are we to find a reply to the questions e which will become increasingly acute as the contradictory system of the The answer to this is to be found in the workers’ democracy, in the ideological life of our Party, in the conversion of every nucleus into a WORKER continues the publication Soviet, on the big problems now iet Russia, Every day the DAILY involving the fundamental inter- This discussion should therefore be try. Kameney spoke to the Mos- Continued from Friday. remember what we demand from are expected as Communists to un- the White Guards, and at the same tions of the principles of Commun- are bound to come across at every the doings of the New Economic self-control, experience, and theoret- away by anarcho-syndicalist cur- the existence of the NEP, and in relations between the separate work- ist currents are almost inevitably group, this Myasnikoy set, has been is extremely limited, this influence as a result of those contradictions constant cause of a certain amount give a hearing to those ideas current the Myasnikovy tendency? The op- What is Menshevism? The oppo- It requires a high standard of and despite the insufficient wage cannot be expected of every work- from various quarters are: First, de- syndicalist tendency. How are we ef- ereased demands put apon our Party not merely pass over without affect- the economists on the one hand and dote against these decomposing in- mgaging the etariat, questions NEP develops further? raising of the general tone of the laboratory of Party thought, which every member of our Party, and every non-partisan worker plac- ing his confidence in our nucleus, can have the problems which disturb him answered in free discussion, rican tititmctcareentnines ahenectnihne stenosis tinned ipan tsetse firemneeesiniecatsasnenhanencuentts nucleus dictated from above, but in their being the result of independent thought expended on these funda- mental questions, This higher standard of political life, in the nuclei and in the higher organizations alike; the discussion of all questions coming before the Party in these organizations, so long as no insuperable obstacles stand in the way of such discussion; this is the guarantee, at the present junc- ture, against the schismatic elements entering our Party from various sides, just as other measures, meas- ures of severest discipline, super- latively military in description, af- forded guarantees to our Party against other dividing influences in other times of bitter struggle. Another condition essential to the workers’ democracy, dictated by the general situation, and a necessary guarantee for free discussion, is that the posts in our Party are filled by election, Democratic Centralism. You are well aware, comrades, that this question of the discussion of all questions, and of the participation of all members in the discussion, the question of the choosing by election of the whole Party apparatus from the top to the bottom, is in no way new to us either as a problem or as a task. The idea of this system has not occurred to the Party now for the first time. We have long been aware that democratic centralism does not con- sist in the Party being elected from below, but in the undeviating execu- tion of the instructions. of the Party on the part of the persons and insti- tutions holding positions in the Party, This was a fact established for us some decades ago; but we have had to apply this demotratic centralism in different ways under different con- ditions, and if we had delayed, at the present juncture, in* our transition to a broader application of this prin- ciple, we should have committed a grave error. But can anyone maintain that on this occasion the Central did not ob- serve the necessity in good time? How did this workers’ democracy come about? As early as the Plen- ary Session of the Central in Sep- tember (convened in connection with the prevailing excitement and with the formation of the workers’ group | been above mentioned) Comrade Dser- szinsky submitted to this session a report pointing out that a dying out of our Party, the dying out of the inner life of the Party, the greater prevalence of nomination rather than election, might easily become a litical danger, and might pnd 6 our Party in regard to the political leadership of the working class. An analysis of this movemeit, present both within and without the Party in July and August, caused Comrade Dserszinsky to set up a/j lution broad commission to inquire into the | therefore, performed smoothly and internal situation in the Party. The task set this commission was to deal with the question as a whole. The Plenary Session following, in October, passed a resolution citing the resolution of the Central, and stating that: “The Plenary Sessions of the Central, and of the C. C. CG, (Central Control Commission) fully approve of the course adopted at the right moment by the Political Bu- reau, with reference to internal Party democracy; they also approve of the stronger measures dictated by the Political Bureau to combat the ‘wasteful expenditure,’ and against the dividing influence of the NEP Evening Song _ ®s SHERWOOD ANDERSON upon the various elements of the Party.” Application of October Resolution. This resolution is the . sole one passed Ad the October Plenary ‘Ses- sion with reference to Democracy. The October Plenary Session dealt with various other questions as well, but these had no reference to Democ- racy. It dealt with some very deli- eate problems, but not with those pertaining to Democracy. With regard to Democracy, the Plenary Session of the Central and of the ©. C. C. debated on the fol- lowing lines. The resolution passed on this subject was as follows: “The Plenary Session instructs the Politi- cal Bureau to take every action re- quired to accelerate the work of the commissions appointed by the Politi- cal Bureau at the September ses- sions: 1. The commission for exam- ining into the disparity between the agricultural and industrial prices; 2. over the workers’ wages, and 3. over the situation within the Party. The Political Bureau, after work- ing out the measures necessary to be taken in these matters, is to be- gin with the immediate execution of these measures, and to report on its activity at the next plenary session of the Central.” Thus the October plenary session commissioned the Political Bureau to work out the resolution. And we have worked it out, indeed, we have done more: we have sut- ceeded in having this resolution (which contains every present ele- ment of workers’ democracy within the Party, and which points out the actual character of this workers’ democracy and how it is to be prac- tically applied) unanimously adopted by the Political Bureau and the Pre- sidium of the C. C. C. ' By this action the Party has thus afforded the guarantee that the change of policy which we are ac- complishing is really being carried out with mutual agreement, and can and must be executed with the slight- est possible injury to the Party. Difficulty of Task. The carrying out of such a change of policy, comrades, is invariably dif- ficult. We have gone with you thru a large number of such alterations in tactics—sometimes the evolution has been difficult, and has cost the Party much, is ae it has comparatively easy. We know then when we changed our course in the trade union ques- tion, we were obliged to do it in the midst of a reciprocal struggle, in the midst of a severe combat which drew the whole Party into discussions out- side the actual issue. And when we undertook the funda- mental change of tactics implied by the NEP, we undertook this with out internal discussion, without in-. ternal struggle, without the forma- tion of factions. Here, with regard to the NEP, we performed the evo- unanimously, and it. was, with the least possible detriment. ‘ And what is the question before us now? We are, and always have been, in favor of the workers’ democ- racy. I have not heard a single criti- cism of the formulation of the reso- lution passed by the Central. Nobody will assert that the workers’ democ- racy is distorted in this resolution, or that this or that point should be added. 3 We do not see any practical pro- posals for the carrying out of the real workers’ .democracy. But the danger exists that we shall find this. evolution difficult of performance, and that some unsound conditions may be caused by it, Back of Chicago the open fields—were you ever there? Trains Aching to sing. I’ve got a grey and That’s a fact. Back of Chicago the open fields—were Trains going from you into the West— toward you out of the West— Streaks of light on the long grey plains? Many a song— ragged brother in my breast— you ever there? Clouds of dust on the long grey plains. Long trains go West, too—in the silence. Always the song— BIG PROBLEMS FACE RUSSIAN COMMUNISTS Unity of Party at Stake. Tn the Central we have done every- thing possible for facilitating the performance of the evolution: we have attained the unanimous accept- ance of the resolution in the Cen- tral, But what danger is incurred y actual performance? The danger exists that when we turn into new path, our Party vehicle may take the course so abruptly that its wheels may leave the earth alto- gether . «+ You know the high ap- preciation of which our Central is worthy. You know that the unity of the Party is at stake. We are confronted which threatens us at danger that when we by the danger “ curve, the io not possess firmly established groupings, we shall no longer know what we are to un- derstand regarding the freedom of discussion which we proclaim. At every district meeting the same question arises: “How does the mat- ter stand, does this workers- democ- racy include or exclude free discus- sion and the freedom to form groups?” The workers’ democracy, like every other democracy, includes the freedom of ideological groups. If we think of democracy in its com- plete and unlimited form, the rights of groups cannot be excluded. But we maintain definitely that the workers’ democracy, as formulut- ed by the present resolution of the E Central, permits no freedom to groupings, let alone freedom for factions. Here, too, we must come to an agreement with one another. There are comrades who believe that these limitations are — ssible; Comrade Preobrashensky (I am glad to see that he is present) maintains that: We cannot comprehend the workers democracy without this freedom for groups. Why are we against groups? For the reason that we are obliged to leave the Party fundamentally where it is. We are against groupings: because we do not merely represent a Com- munist Party, and because we find - ourselves with you, in a special sit- uation, as a Communist Party. The Danger of Groups. And if even the Communist Parties of France and Germaily possess group freedom, this is merely a cir- cumstance which originates inheritance of the methods of Social Democracy. Our Party is not in this position; our a differs from all other Com- munist Parties in that it governs the country, whilst the others are still struggling for power. We need be a prey to no illusions here. Here we have 400,000 Communists be- longing to different spheres, different generations, and coming from differ- ent parties—and these 400,000 Com- munists are governing ‘the country. Is it possible to allow these 400,000 Communists the liberty to form groups? We say—no. Such free- dom to form groups leads to a split- ting up of state power, and it is only irresponsible persons, only such who have no comprehension for the reciprocal relations between our Party and the state power, who can play with this idea and talk so much about it. The 10th Congress of our Party dealt with this question at an ex- ceedingly critical moment, and those comrades who maintain that the . resolution passed by the Central is inadequate, or must be differently interpreted, must be asked the ques- tion: What do you propose to do with the resolution of the 10th Con- gress? The resolution was Com- rade Lenin’s, written with his own hand, and passed without any amend- | ment. Comrade Lenin understood — very well the circumstances which induce the formation of groupings and factions. — ara There is a certain transition stage. When we stated at a meeting that this is the resolution passed by the 10th Congress two years ago, some- one replied that the resolution was 2 Fy rai