The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 10, 1924, Page 9

By A. BIMBA, VERY member of the Workers Party should realize that the Communist movement of the United States is on the eve of great and im- portant developments. We are in the midst of a campaign for a class Farm- er-Labor Party. We hope that our en- ergies in this great work will not be wasted and that the great Farmer- Labor convention of June 17th, will be the second great step forward in the formation of a class Farmer-Labor Party, the first step having been made at the convention of last July, at which the Federated Farmer-Labor Party was organized. met ‘quite a few comrades who seem to be discouraged with the whole Farmer-Labor movement. They say: “Look here; haven’t we been told last year that the July conven- tion would create a real mass Labor Party? And now we have to work for another convention and hear the same phrases repeated again. Where will be the end of it? When will your prophesy come true?” MHESE comrades are disillusioned. g 3 And the reason is that they had started from an entirely wrong view- point; they failed to understand, at the very beginning, the real process of the social revolution in America. They thought that it will come about in a very simple way. This year we have a convention and organize a La- bor Party and next year we will be busy setting up the soviets. But in- stead of that, we have to speak and prepare for another convention with the same view in our minds, that is, with the view of organizing a mass Farmer-Labor Party. Isn’t that enough to be disillusioned? T is an absolutely mistaken idea to think that the Farmer-Labor Party will be organized in such an easy and simple way. It will be quite a long and painful process. It may take years of gradual development. The last July convention made the first step in this direction. The con- vention of June 17th, will be another great step toward the same goal. And we may be sure in advance that it will take a third and fourth conven- tion till we will be able to say: “At last the workers and exploited farm- ers are organized politically as a class and are effectively resisting the on- -slaught of their masters on the poli- tical field.” HE process of the development of a mass Farmer-Labor Party in this country will be protracted also because of the fact that the enemies of this movement are very strong and humerous. The employing class is di- rectly and openly fighting it. It is natural and we cannot expect any- thing else from them. But this move- ment is also opposed by the trade union bureaucracy. Mr. Gompers and his gang manage to keep away the industrial workers from independent political action much more effectively than the master class itself. They hold the organized workers in their clutches and are keeping them there very tightly. None of the great. in- ternational unions of the American Federation of Labor are as yet ready to get-rid of Mr. Gompers’ political policy and put.their faith with the Farmer-Labor management for inde- pendent political action on the part of the working massés. The Railroad Brotherhoods are being kept in the tail of the capitalist parties thru the so-called “Conference for Progressive Political Action,” just as effectively as the internationals in the A. F. of L. OQ far, the Farmer-Labor Party movement is entirely a rank and file movement. The official leaders of the workers are fighting it tooth and nail. And if for no other reason, this fact alone is sufficient to prove the importance of the Communists in the movement. We are directly connected with the rank and file, nay, we are part and parcel of the rank and file. We are organized on a national scale. We are the most active element in the labor movement. We have cer- tain. influence among the masses. Therefore, we are in a good position to render the Farmer-Labor move- ment great service. Hence we have great responsibilities. VERY member of the Workers Party must realize that. He (or International Acclamation Given Anatole France On 80th Birthday . Anatole France (left) with a friend at the public celebration of his birthday. Public acclaim ofpproportions rarely accorded a living writer was given Anatole France, criti¢; novelist and satirist, who is recognized as one of the greatest literati of the age, on his eightieth birthday. Congratulatory mes- sages poured in from all over the world, while in Paris befitting ceremonies in his honor were arranged.with representatives of all nations participating. The dean of French writers was bern, Jacques Anatole Thibault and took the name of Anatole France after he began writing. EVERY PARTY MEMBER MUST DO HIS DUTY she) must understand that the suc- cess or failure of the movement will, to a very great extent, depend upon our activities. Therefore, we must spare no energy or time in the cam- paign for the June 17th Convention, to make it a success. O comrade can remain indifferent to this campaign of our party and continue to call himself a Com- munist. The success of ine Farmer- Labor Party movement means so much to the Communist movement and to the labor movement of the United States in general that no class- conscious worker can say that-he is sincerely working for the emancipa- tion of the working class if he, in one form or another, does not actively participate in the present campaign of the Workers’ Party. Those com- rades who are members of the trade unions or other workers’ organiza- tions, should energetically work there in order to get them behind the June convention. Even if we do not suc- ceed in obtaining their formal approy- al of the Farmer-Labor movement, still we will have done our duty be- case we have raised the question at their meetings and defended the idea of a Farmer-Labor Party. Today we failed, tomorrow we will succeed. The conditions are working for our final success. They are pushing forward the working class. Only a few weeks are left till June 17th. It will be a historical day for the labor movement of this country. The enemies of the working elass are working day and night to make it a failure, we Communists and all class- conscious workers and exploited farm- ers must work with still greater en- thusiasm for its success. Wants Good Articles To Combat Religion BROOKLYN, N. Y. To the Daily Worker: Enclosed please find money order fer 1 years subscription. I am glad that the editor of the paper, would like to get views of the readers of this great revolutionary labor paper. I would like to give my view. It seems to me that this paper does not, or fails possibly to expose religion which is the opium of the masses. I would like to read an article once in awhile, showing how religion was shattered by men like Ingersoll, ete. Long live the First Workers’ gov- ernment. : ISRAEL JOSEPHSON. SCOTT NEARING ON PARTY POLICY (Continued from Page 4.) the steel unions, but, what was infin- itely more important, it destroyed a much greater plan.” That is exactly the point! An organization cannot stand too many defeats. Napoleon marched only once into Russia, but that once was enough to wreck his fortunes. The radical movement in the United States, following your poli- cies, is marching toward its Moscow. When your front is sufficiently ex- tended, and you are well cut off from your reserves, the enemy will annihi- after careful scrutiny; making each move with the idea that the struggle is being waged against immense odds, in a hostile territory, and against skilled generalship. Take in Worker—Assail 4. Expand the organization and its work slowly; taking no step that will unnecessarily expose it to destruction; making no move that will enable the enemy to deal a crushng blow. 5. It is not “radical” to build rapid- ly. It is radical to build fundamental- ly, and it is fundamental building that late, you, as they annihilated your|the movement needs in the United Steel Strike Organization five years ago. OW let us suppose that my as- sumptions concerning the Ameri- can situation are correct. revolutionary movement must: 1. Realize that its available clien- tele together is small, no thought of leadership of masses and highly local- ized, and rendered in part ineffective by its foreign admixtures. 2. Aim to hold this clientele to-|careful gether at all hazards; to preserve its morale and efficiency; to train it in effective and co-operative activities; to teach it to trust itself; to try it and States. HE most serious blunder of the radical movement in the United /States during recent years is that it Then the, has assumed a following that does not exist. Consequently, you have tried to do, in a few months, what it will take years, and perhaps decades to accomplish. The radical movement has taken on the nature of a mass meeting, when the times call for a course of elementary, high school, and university training. Rome was not built in a night. ; pen Pepper writes in his labor J party pamphlet, as though he had discipline it until it becomes a really |behind him a trained, disciplined body effective working force; and during all|of militants, of this time to avoid decisive struggle |strong. if the Workers Party had 250,000 mil- itant and disciplined English-speaking American citizens upon whom it might depend to carry through the program. But the “Worker” for Jan. 12, 1924 re- ports the total membership of the Par- ty as 15,233, of,whom “at least 50 per- cent is an English speaking member- ship.” If all of these members could be counted upon—and of course they cannot—the total working strength be- hind the program would be somewhere between seven and eight thousand. On this basis, if the Workers Party en- ters the May 30th convention (now set for June 17th—Ed. Note), nominates a man like LaFollette, and campaigns for him, its position will be misunder- | stood by its own membership; its mili- tance will bé dissipated; its members will be discredited with the labor movement; its candidates will be crushingly defeated, and the Party will lose itself in the maze of Ameri- ean politics, Our difficulty to balance our pro- gram so stated, viz., still compliment each other. VEN supposing. that LaFollette should get a heavy vote, as Roose- velt did in 1912, with the aid of many good Socialists, who were out to split a hundred thousand|the old parties and to spread the At a pinch, he might rally|“faith,” the same thing would happen which will almost surely wreck the|ten thousand, but I doubt whether he|in 1928 that happened in 1916, The organization has five thousand that he can _rely|workers who broke away in 1912 were 3. Husband the resources of the |jupon. zation. organization carefully; : bers only after long probation and admit mem-’ back voting for the old parties in 1916, Theses published in the “Work-| because they were not intelligent vot- er” of Dec, 1, 1923 would be sound /ers but protest voters, who ceased to 5 protest as soon as their immediate cause of complaint was removed. The same result followed the heavy Hill- quit vote of 1917 in New York City. HIGHLY intelligent and disci- plined body of workers should be able to support a stalwart upholder of the established. order like LaFol- lette and then come back to the Work- ers Party without having their faith and their enthusiasm shattered. Since you have no such body of workers at your disposal, by such tactics you would be simply squandering and “dis- sipating the small group that you do now control, HERE a revolutionary movement faces a vast wall of ignorance and opposition like that which now exists in the United States, it must preserve stern integrity, strict discipline and live revolutionary ideals. Otherwise it will not last for a decade. Isolation. ET me sum the matter up in this way: 1. AS a matter of economics, I agree with you and with Pepper. 2. I am just as anxious as you are to see a real left-wing movement de- velop in America, 3. As a matter of tactics, you and he are following a policy based on Russian experience, which is quite un- fitted to cope with the situation you confront in the United States, and which will drive your party to ruin if you pursue it. * (Signed) SCOTT NEARING.