The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 5, 1924, Page 8

NOTE:—-Today the DAILY WORKER begins the publication of the speech of Stalin, one of the most prominent of the Russian Communists, on the big problems now confronting the Russian Com- munist Party. This address was made before a selected audience of Russian party workers: There will be another installment tomorrow. 2 * * * WHAT STALIN SAID: C OMBADES, I most above all em- phasize that I speak here on my own behalf, and notin the name of the Central of the Party. If the meet- ing decides to hear my address, I am at its service, (Please go on!) _ This does not mean that I differ im opinion in any way to the Central in this question—not ai all. I speak here in mv own name solely for the reason that within the next Rew days the commission appointed by the Central to work out measures for the improvement of the inner politi- eal situation will be submitting its results to the Central. These results have not yet been laid before us, and thus I have not yet a femal .:ght te appear i she name of tre Central, altho I am #:", convinced that. that which I am about to say, will be at the same time essentially the expression of ‘the attitude adopted by the Central in this question. Discussion—A Good Sign. The first question which I should like to raise here is the question of the meaning of the discussion being carried on at present in the press and in the nuclei. What is this discussion about, and what does it signify? Is it’ not a tempest which has broken into the peaceful life of the Party; is this discussion not a sign, as some say, of the disintegration and decay of the Party, or, as others say, a sign of degeneration of the Party? I believe, comrades, that neither the one nor the other is true, there is neither a degeneration nor a dis- integration. The fact is that the Party has grown of late, that it has unburdened itself of a considerable amount of ballast, that it has be- come more proletarian. You are aware that two years ago we had no fewer than 700,000 Party members. You are aware that sev- eral hundreds ‘of thousands of one- time Party members have left the Party or have been expelled, The Party has further improved in -its component parts, and has _at- tained a higher qualitative level dur- ing this period as a result of the improvement in the material situa- tion of the workers, of the uplift of industry, of the return of the old qualified workers from the country, and of the fresh wave of cultural uplift among the industrial workers. In one word: all these conditions have tended to the growth of the Party, to its qualitative progress, Its requirements have become great- er, its demands are higher, it wants to know more than it used to, and it wants to decide more than it has hitherto decided. The discussion which has arisen is no sign of weakness in the Party, and much less of degeneration; it is rather a sign of strength, a sign of power, a sign of the improvement of the elements composing the Party, a sign of its increased activity. Causes of the The second question with which we have to deal is the question of why precisely this moment, the autumn of this year, has happened to be the period in which the ques- tion of inner Party policy has as- sumed so acute a character? How is this to be explained? What are the causes? I assume, comrades, that there are two causes at the bottom of it. The first cause is the wave of ferment and_ strikes, in connection with working wages, which passed over some districts of our republic in August of this year. This strike wave showed that our organizations are faulty, that some of our organi- zations—Party and state organiza- ‘tions—possess inadequate contact with the events going on in the works and factories, and it also showed that some illegal organiza- tions have been existing within the Party, anti-communistic in their es- sential character, and striving to divide the Party. All these deficiencies thus brought to light by the strike wave have Hee | \ thrown such a bright light into the bership of the Party ‘is necessary, eyes of the Party, have flooded it with such a blaze of sobering illu- mination, that it recognized the ne- cessity of inner changes in the Party. The second cause rendering the question of the inner Party . policy so acute at precisely this moment, has been the extensive leave of ab- sence permitted by our Party com- rades. We can well comprehend their doing this, but the mass character of the leave taken, had the ef- fect that the pulse of Party life was considerably weakened just at the moment when fermentation began to be apparent in the workshops and factories, so that the manifestation of the defects which had arisen was greatly facilitated at this period, the autumn of this year. feo em 0 me me: OE aD CU aD eee a it is not needful for an election ac- tually to take place. The Party has laid down the rule that the masses in the country must be kept informed of the work done by the economic organs, by the un- dertakings and trusts, for our Party nuclei are naturally morally respon- sible to the non-partisan masses for deficiencies in the works and fac. tories. Nevertheless, the Party ad- ministrators have been of the opin- ion that since we have a Central, and this gives instructions to the economic @ vans, and thes: + «:.-mi¢ organs are further bound by these instructions, that the instructions thus passed on shall be also carried out without the control of the Party masses from below. The Party has laid down the rule — ren om iste WORLD'S YOUTH AND THE INTERNATIONAL By MARTIN ABERN Stalin Discusses Tasks of Russian Communists the economists for the Party work- ers, so that alienation and lack of contact is inevitable among the dif- ferent categories, This is, in general, the character of the contradictions existing be- tween lines laid down by the Party and their actual execution. It is far from my intention to ac- euse the local organizations of being to blame for this deviation from Party lines, for, when the matter is regarded in its true light, # is not a case of anyone being to blame, it is rather a natural evil arising from our organizations in the provinces. The root of this evil, and the remedy for it, I shall refer to later. I wish first to establish this fact, in order that the contradictions may be explained, and shall then attempt to propose measures for removing the evil. And it is equally far from my in- tention to regard our Central as en- tirely blameless, for it has its small sins, like any other organization or institution, sins composed partly of faults and partly of natural evil. HE Communist International has captured the minds and bodies of the exploited young workers of the world. The Comintern is the “friendly word” that unites the toilers of the earth against capitalism. The ranks of the youth, the Young Communist Inter- national, are unbroken in defense of the World Communist Party. The young workers, the revolutionary youth, were the first to raise a cry and demonstrate against the imperialist war. The revo- lutionary youth, meeting at Berne, Switzerland, in 1915, revived the drooping class spirit of the workers, benumbed by the betrayal of Social-Demoeracy, by raising the battle-cry of “War Against Capi- talist War!” It was the red youth who were in the forefront in aiding “y build the revolutionary international, the Communist. Inter- national. The American Red Youth, the Young Workers League of Amer- ica, greets the Fifth Anniversary of the Communist International. By organizing and educating the exploited American youth for and in the struggle against American capitalism, we will best carry on our work in the spirit of the Comintern. reason or another, did not observe the growing inadequacies and take timely measures for their removal. But this is not the question at the moment; what is of importance at present is to get at the causes of the inadequacies of which I have just , spoken. (To Be Continued Thursday SSSSSSSSSSASSAASSSSESSSSS SLIP COVERS Including Labor and Material Davenport - - $9.50 Chair - - - - $5.50 Satisfaction Absolutely 3 %, *e Defects of Inner Party Life. What are the faults and failings of our inner Party life? Is it that the line taken by the Party has been wrong, as some comrades think, or igs it that the line was right in it- self, but has been departed from in actual practice, and has been adjust~ ed in accordance with certain subjec- tive conditions? I believe that the essential defect of our inner Party life consists pre- cisely of the fact that tho the line of the Party has been right as ex- pressed in the resolutions passed by its congresses, the actual practice in the provinces (not everywhere, ot coursé, but in some districts) has been wrong. ; Altho the proletarian democratic line held to by our Party has been correct, its execution in the prov- inces has. created facts and expe- riences which are a_ bureaucratic distortion of this line. This is the essential defect. The existence of contradictions between the fundamental lines laid down by the Party, as established at the X, XI and XII Congresses, and the ac- tual practice of our organizations when endeavoring to act on these lines in the provinces. This is the substance of all the inadequacies evinced by our inner Party life. The Party had laid down the rule that the most important questions of our Party work, naturally with the exception of urgent matters, or of affairs involving military or diplo- matic secrets, hive to be brought Me for debate at the Party eye is ig —age ge Siype es ti Party. But in provinces < has been the practice, tho, of course, not everywhere, to consider that there was no particular reason why a num- ber of questions of inner Party prac- tice should be dealt with at the Party meetings, as the Central and {8 other leading organizations decided these questions themselves. The Party has laid down the rule that the official persons of our Party have to be elected, and that this rule has to be unconditionally followed unless the nature of the Party mem- bership, etc., offers some insuperable obstacle. You know that according to the statutes of the Party, a secretary of that the responsible functionaries of the various groups of work, whether Party workers, economists, trade unionists, military, are despite all specialization arising from their inseparable components of a whole, for they are one and all working for the cause of the proletariat, and this cause igs an inseparable whole. The actual practice of the Party has been such that where there has been a specialization in work, a divi- sion of work inté&that of the actual party workers, economists, military, etc., then the Party workers are not responsible fom-the economists nor'g This Photograph in Sepia Brown or Black, on Spe- cial Enamel Pa- per, 814x714. $2.00aYear SOVIET RUSSIA PICTORIAL Name. . * OME hd eas Secretary, Young Workers League Some blame is deserved, if only for the fact that the Central, for some 32 South Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill. 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