The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 8, 1924, Page 10

~ Note.—_THE DAILY WORKER today publishes the concluding part of the speech delivered by Com- rade Stalin to a large meeting of party workers on the problems cons fronting the Russian Communists at the present time. Our readers cannot help but admire the frank- ness with which the Russian lead. ers discuss their weaknesses. Smaller men would try and gloss over or excuse them. Not so the Russian Communist chiefs, They know that organizations are com- posed of men and women who are liable to errand the best way to remedy mistakes is to acknowledge their presence and find a cure for them. We urge you not to miss a single part of this important dis- cussion. In our next issue we will publish the first portion of Com- rade Zinoviev’s speech, He is Chairman of the Communist Inter- national and President of the Petrograd Soviet. * BS * > Comrade Stalin Continues: In the seventh place, it ig neces- sary to do more work among the non-partisan workers. This one means by which*the inner Party sit- uation and the activity of the Party masses can be bettered. I must say that our organizations still pay too little attention to this. Too little attention especially to the presence of non-partisan workers in our Sov- ie organs. Comrades, I believe that if we do not put a certain minimum In the Domain of the Children’s Struggle ==: of faith in the non-partisans, we shall evoke a very great mistrust of our organizations on the part of the non- partisans, Faith of Non-Partisans. This faith on the part of the non- partisans is imperatively necessary. Comrades, it is imperatively neces- sary to force the Communists to drop their candidatures. No_ speeches should be held maintaining that Com- munists only should be elected. The non-partisans must be encouraged, induced to take up state work. We shall gain only advantage from this, and will receive as a reply the trust of the non-partisans in our organi- zations. In the eighth place, work among the peasantry must be intensified. I do not know why our village nuclei, for instance, cannot be set to prac- tical tasks: First, of being the inter- preters and distributors of the Soviet laws bearing on the life of the peas- antry, and secondly, of being agi- tators and spreaders of elementary agronomical knowledge, if no more than to teach that the fields must be sown at the right time, the seed cleansed, ete. I should like to mention two ex- tremes, two exaggerations which have appeared in some discussion ar. ticles in the “Pravda” with respect to the questions of the. workers’ democracy, Danger of NEP. The first extreme is in regard to nomination by election. This con- sists of the efforts made by some done for the child. The child can do It is lucky for us that the Commun-| nothing for itself. It would astound ist children’s movement in America suffered its birth pangs at the time when its legitimate parents, the youth and adult Communist movement had already evolved from out of their iso- lated conditions and became live fighting bodies engaged in mass ac- The favorable conditions surround- ing the birth has naturally reflected itself in the stradling infant—the Janior Section of the Young Workers a great many parents were they to listen to an ordinary discussion in one of the Junior Groups. “Oh! Our teacher doesn’t let us ask questions!” speaks up one child. “We can only answer the questions which our teach- er asks us,” verifies another. And so it goes, a complete subordination of the personal initiative of the child to the so-called superior knowledge of the modern bourgeoisie pedagogs. The child with a strong will, a re- League—in so far as it has retained |bellious spirit—in other words, a child its identity from the very start as an organization engaged in the class struggle. Many of the parents of the 3,000 young communists in the Junior Sec- tion do not recognize this important feature of the organization and when it is brought to their notice “via the gossip route” many untrue and dis- terted conceptions of the Matter are formed, It is at this point that the parents take advantage of their eco- nomic superiority over the child to force it to sabotage this phase of the Junior Groups’ activity. Even Com- munist parents—members of the /alism. Workers Party have been known at times to sabotage the class struggle feature of the children’s movement. This sad factor is not new and can only be rectified thru the establish- ment of a better understanding and relationship between the adults and the children. This is already being partially accomplished in the Junior Groups. On the Field of Battle. The battle field of the children’s struggle centers in the public school. Even as the shop, factories, mines ete., form the center of the class struggle for the adult proletarians, so the public school class room forms the battle field—the center of the class struggle for the proletarian child. It is here that the child is con- fronted with the iron heel of the teacher’s dictatorship. Everything is UNCLE WIGGILY’S TRICKS— \ who would make a good class fighter, both now and for the future—has to have that will and spirit broken by the teacher’s dictatorship in the school and by the parential dictator- ship at home. It is only natural that the child should rebel against this state of affairs. Not only is the method of education in vogue in the public school based on the erroneous application of the prin- ciple of the “Right of the stronger,” but the education itself—the material utilized as lessons—is nothing but the vile propaganda of American imperi- ism. History is the glorification of capitalist wars. Reading is the glori- fication of bourgeoisie ethics; the in- oculator of superstitious ideas; the weaver of mysticism around the mem- ories of dead bourgeiosie heroes, etc., etc, Arithmetic is the glorification of the profit system. The combination of the method and the education proper of the public schools can only serve one purpose and that is: To make servile wage slaves of the work- ers’ children. The struggle against this state of affairs for the child also has its fore- runner: The struggle against the im- mediate rotten conditions in the schools, such as, insufficient number of seats, veritable fire trap school buildings, unsanitary conditions, etc., ete. Special care must be taken to link up both features of the struggle in every campaign undertaken within the public schools, or else we will be | comrades to carry out nomination by “election” to the utmost possible point. Election having once been admitted to be the right method, then go on clecting at “any price! This view, comrades, is a mistaken one. The Party will not accept it. To be sure we are no longer living in times of war, we are passing thru- a period of peaceful development— but we have the New Economie Pol- iey. Do not forget this, comrades. It was not during the war that the Party undertook the task of purging itself, but after the war. Why? Because during the war the fear of defeat held the Party closely to: gether, and various elements corrod- ing the Party internally were obliged to fall into the line of the Party which was struggling to the death. These bonds are no longer there to held us together, for there is no war. But we have the NEP, we have per- mitted capitalism to re-enter, and the bourgeoisie is striking fresh roots. It is true that all this furthers the work of purging the Party, of placing it upon a firmer foothold. But on the other hand, it envelops us in the atmosphere of the rising and growing bourgeoisie. Sifting of Party Membership, It was precisely after the NEP that the Party undertook a sifting Process, reducing its number by one- half. It was precisely after the NEP that the Party decided that the se- curity of our organizations against the NEP required, for instance, that it be made difficult for non-proletar- faced with seeming contradictions. Thus a fight for more schools to cur- tail a seat shortage must be coupled at all times with the demand of “Down with the Nationalist and Re- igi propaganda of the public schools.” Hew the Battle Is Conducted. It is marvelous to watch how very naturally the children take to the class struggle activities, and how they can utilize League and Party experi- ence for their own ends. An interest- ing example of this is portrayed by our Daisytown, Pa., Junior Group. One week the group reported that they had been playing some Com- munist games, among them one which is called: “Catching the shop nuclei organizer.” Thru the medium of this game the children grasped the entire idea of the nucle? form of organiza- tion and the week:following the game had already divided their’ Junior Group into four school nuclei; which today functions right on the field of battle. ; As a generalization you can lay out the form that the battle takes as fol- lows: The children having gained a Communist perception in the Junior Groups; having made a study of the true nature of history, etc., will na- turally rebel when the teacher pre- sents these subjects in the usual man- ner. At times a solitary little rebel will get up and: “Oh! teacher, in our Junior Groups we found out that George W: m was a wicked man who bought and sold black and white slaves.” This little rebel will no doubt be defeated and forced to sub- mit to the will of the teacher. At other times the other children will be won over by the solitary little rebel and join him in his fight—or else the existence of a Junior Group School or even class nucleus will serve as the basis for the winn over of ever greater masses of the school children to the fight'on hand, At no time is the child permitted to feel as tho the struggle is the machination of some older comrade. Everything that ! A LAUGH FOR THE CHILDREN ian elements to gain admittance to the Party, that lengthy membership of the Party be made condfion to appointment as a functionary of the Party, ete. Did the Party act right- ly in’ taking these precautionary measures, which limited the “broad democracy?” In my opinion it acted rightly. It is just for this reason that I assume that the democracy is necessary, that nomination by elec. tion is necessary, but that the limit- ing measures prescribed by the XI and XII Congresses must still remain in force, at least, the most funda- mental of them. The second extreme deals with the question of the limits of discussion, Some comrades demand that discus- sion be unlimited; they consider the Alpha and Omega of Party work to consist in consultation on all ques- tions and forget all other sides of Party work, that of real activity demanded by the execution of the Party decisions in real life, The Party is not merely a union of per. sons acting in like manner; it is a fighting union of participators in like action, fighting on the basis of common ideology of their program and tactics. I conclude my address, comrades, by warning you against these two extremes, and proceed determinedly and straightforwardly on the course towards inner Party democracy which was laid down by the Central in September of this year, then we shall assuredly experience a great uplift in our Party work, the children do is done on their own initiative as a group. They formulate their own demands and lay the basis for their own fight. The older com- rades, the leaders and teachers of the Junior Groups, thru hints and sug- gestions endeavor to guide the de- ” | eisions of the children into the proper channels, and they can only do this after they have won the confidence of the children by becoming part of them in their struggle, play and edu- cational work, United Front of Parents and Offspring. The bourgeoisie educational system has long recognized the necessity of winning over the parents for their system. Thus there has come into existence powerful parent-teacher as- sociations whose purpose is to co- ordinate the home life of the child with the life of the child in the schools. The Junior Section recog- nized this problem especialy at the time when the class struggle features of the Junior Section became jntensi- fied and the parents loomed up as an opposition in certain cases, The solution of. the problem is in the words of the Hammond, Ind., Juniors, as follows: “We are for the united front with the grown-up in the battle for all who toil.” In carrying out this principle the Juniors thruout the country are today organizing par- ent’s conferences, where the Juniors report of their activities and where the life and work of the child in the Group are discussed and acted upon in an advisory capacity. These con- ferences are made very interestin by the children when they arrange little programs; plays, recitations, child speeches, ete, for their parents. Hence, we see that the Junior Section is getting the parents more and more interested -in the activities of the children and is laying the basis for the better relationship between the adults and the children: A principle which can only reach perfection after the conquest of power by the pro- etariat. lt | Lal s “ne oy ores ee Stalin on Tasks of Russian Communist Party oes — ce EO. Sica RGN res %