The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 30, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. MAY 30, 1924. SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. The Mainspring of International Communism By ALEXANDER BITTELMAN. 1E Russian Communist Party is ; at present in Convention as- sembled, in the city of Moscow, in the heart and stronghold of the proletarian world-revolution. Let us turn for a while our minds to the East, to the place of courage- ous struggles and glorious conquests, to the spiritual center and fountain- head of revolutionary inspiration for the class-conscious. workers the world over. Let’s have a glance at the ad- mirable workings of that powerful machine of working class energy and purposeful devotion which is known as the Russian Communist Party. This is the 13th National Congress of the Party, but the first one to be held -without ‘Lenin. He will be no longer there to inspire, to direct and to instruct. The brave and proven leaders of the Russian Revolution, the men and women who set an example for the struggling proletariat in every country in the world—this splendid body of working-class workers will for the, first time in their glorious history assemble. to transact the busi- ness of their party without the all- intrusting and magnetic presense of Nicolas Lenin. But the business of the Russian Revolution will be carried on. The delegates to the 13th National Con- gress of the Russian Communist Party will continue the work started under the great leader with even more de- termination, Their responsibilities as leaders of the working class will be felt by every one of them even more keenly than at the time when the immortal Lenin was still in their midst. Under the heavier strain of those new respon- sibilities, every member of the Rus- sian Communist Party has grown big- ger, wiser and stronger. The work- ing class of Russia, and the revolution- ary workers the world over, may rest assured, therefore, that the business of the Russian Party is in the right hands, and that in the future just as in the past our Russian comrades will continue to. be the guiding spirit and driving force of the revolutionary movement all over the world. Problems before the Russian Congress Various problems are confronting at present the Russian party. Problems, economic, political, cultural, problems of internal party-structure as well as of the economic structure of the en-| tire Soviet System, questions of in- ternal policies of the Soviet: govern- ment,—all these matters will come before the Congress of the Russian Communist Party. And-they will be taken care of. We are certain, with only one thing in mind, and that is, the further development of the pro- letarian world revolution. The Soviet Government and the Capitalist World From public declarations so far made by the Comrades Zinovievy, ‘Trotzky and other responsible leaders, it can be easily seen that no important changes will be made in the policies of the Soviet Government towards the governments of the capitalist countries, The fundamentals. of these policies can be summarized as follows: Rus- sia desires peace. It needs it in the very interests of the ultimate suc- cess of the proletarian revolution in Russia. But at the same time Russia cannot forget for a: single moment that it is still surrounded by a world of enemies. These enemies are con- ~ gtantly awake, always engaged in in- triguing and plotting against the se- curity. of the Soviet power. Poincare is gone, it is true, but French capitalism is still in the sad- die. The new French government whether it be a Radical-Socialist coal- loyalty and devotion. }- tion, will continue to fight the battles of French imperialism. Which means substantially, if not in detail and form, the old Poincare policy toward Soviet Russia. England is “ruled”. by a Labor government which had. recog- nized the Soviet government. This, too, is true. But it is also true that MacDonald's cabinet is just’: as much alive and awake to the vital interests of British Imperialism as were the cabinets of Lloyd George and Bald- win. Well, what of it? Nothing much but the following: that Soviet Rus- sia is still exposed to the danger of capitalist attacks, military, economic and otherwise; that the question of protecting and defending the security of the Soviet State is still.a problem of first importance; and that the pre- sent Congress of the Russian Com- munist Party will have to leave noth- ing undone to prepare the working masses of Russia for any possible cap- italist aggression against the Soviet Republic. There is yet another phase to this question of Russia’s relations to the capitalist world, namely, the question of old debts, credits and concessions. On this score, too, there will hardly be any changes of policy. If any- thing, this present Congress will put some more ‘steel, backbone and stiff- ness into the old policy, which was: les to subsidize the “infant” capital- ist industry. The Soviet government inherited this ‘problem from the old regime and is now attempting to solve it in accord with and in the interests of the new Soviet Economy,: its main principle being at all costs to develop the heavy industries under the con- trol and. supervision of the Soviet Power. - Another phase of this economic pro- blem is the attitude of . the Soviet government to the developing private petty-bourgeois and capitalist econ- omy. The “New Economic policy” (Nep), instituted in Russia some three years ago, resulted in the up- building of quite a strong and well de- yeloped system of private industry and commerce. To a large extent this system had benefited the Soviet power by enabling it to get hold of and utilize rich hidden resources of mater- ial wealth, and also by bringing into operation some medium of exchange for the products of the city and farm. Now the situation has somewhat changed. While these new capitalists, merchants and speculators had been fulfilling their economic functions (at very great profits to themselves, this goes without saying), the Soviet Gov- ernment was busily engaged in de- veloping and strengthening the co- Lenin With a Group of Old Boisheviks We are not going to pay the debts of the Russian Czar and the Milukov- Kerensky outfit that followed him. Or, if we consider at all payment of these debts, we shall also demand restitution and compensation for all damage done to us by the counter- revolutionary bands of the Entente governments. And, further, we need credits, and are willing to pay for them. We are wil- ling, if need be, to pay a heavy price, but there is one thing we wouldn’t do, namely, we will not surrender our con- trol of the basic industries, banking and the foreign trade. This was the old policy, and it will most assuredly be continued. Problems of Economic Reconstruction There are three phases to these problems. One is the basic indus- tries. For the last year mining, steel, textiles and railroads have shown continuous improvement. The num- ber of workers employed in these in- dustries has considérably increased, and so has the standard of produc- tion. ; However, these industries have not yet reached the Stage Of self-susten- ance, They have still got to be sub- sidized, which, of course, is not a new thing as far as Russia is con- cerned. Never as yet, not even under the old regime, could the heavy in- dustries of Russia pay their way, The old Czarist government had been squeezing out of the peasants and ition or a Briand-Poincare combina-workers millions upon millions of rub- operative movement among the peas- ants and cit orkers. atives, whicn operatives in which they can success- fully compete with the efforts of the private merchants and speculators. And yet a third phase of the same economic problem. which covers the special field of the peasant economy. This is also a political problem, more ;s0 than the other two phases, because it directly involves. the class-relations between the rich and poor peasants, On. its economic side this question will be partly covered by a proper solution of the problem of the co- Operatives. In a special thesis pre- pared by comrade Kalinin for the Con- ;gress and approved by the Central Executive Committee of the Russian Party, the following views are ex- pressed. First, that the “New Econ- omic Policy” resulted in the villages in a very effective class-differentiation between the rich, middle and poor peasant. Second, that the rich and middle peasant, by accumulating cap- ital (in the shape of cattle, agricul- tural implements, etc), are reaching out after new and wider fields of ex- ploitation. Third, that the poor peas- ants are turning in masses towards the cooperatives as a means of com- bating the village-exploiters. The economic problems of the village. as seen by comrade Kalinin, is to utilize the Soviet power (its control of bank- ing and foreign trade) to assist the co- operatives as against the “Kulak”— rich peasant. Maintaining Unity Between Workers and Peasants This is the political side of the peasant problem. As far as the theory 4of it is coneerned, there will be noth- ing new in it at this Congress. The old bolshevist slogan of unity between workers and poor peasants (“Smitchka,” as Lenin used to call it) still-holds good. Only the present situation in the villages offers a better opportunity than before for the up- building of a strong Communist move- ment among the peasant youth and poor peasants, and consequently, the present Congress will have to see that this opportunity is properly utilized by the party. Internal Party Structure This is a very important problem, of course, but most of the work pre- paratory to the solution of it has been done by the last party Conference and by the Central Executive Commit- tee of the Party. The thesis on the These cooper-|“Internal Party Structure” to be sub- + intended to become |mitted to the Congress was prepared an organic. pa.: of the Soviet State | by Comrade Molotow and approved by Economy as as distinguished from |the Central Committee. This thesis the private capitalist economy, have |incorporates the position of Comrade reached a stage, where they are in|Zinoviey and the old Central Commit- a position to successfully some of the functions of the “Nep- men”, In competition between the cooperatives and the private mer- chants and speculators the former have been getting the best of it in quite a number of instances, This fact raises before the Russian Communist Party the following pro- blem: Inasmuch as the cooperatives are already competing successfully in many fields of industry and commerce with private business, is it not, there- fore the duty of the Party at this time to throw the entire weight of its power behind the cooperatives and against private business? It is a problem that has been oc- cupying the minds of the Russian Party for quite some time, and will no doubt find its solution at this Con- gress. Judging by the opinions so far expressed, the Congress ~will most probably adopt the following policy. Private business will be permitted and even encouraged to continue only inasmuch as the cooperative system is not yet able to assume all the functions of this private business. On the other hand, the entire weight of the Soviet Power will be thrown be- ‘hind all those endeavors of the co- assume | tee. . A Party of Factory Workers Our comrades in Russia want their party to be primarily and substantial- ly a party of factory workers. Com- rade Molotov’s thesis proposes a (Continued on page 8) G. ZINOVIEV.