The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 29, 1924, Page 4

i Page Four PARTY MEMBERS | IN CONNECTICUT CHEER CAMPAIGN Workers Enthusiastic Over Party Program (Special to The DAILY WORKER) NEW HAVEN, Conn., July 28.—The Workers Party locals of District 15] went over the top in support of the/ New Political Policy, which was new and yet not new. At the member- ship meeting held in Labor Lyceum Hall, 38 Howe St., New Haven, Tues-| day, July 22, they applauded wildly| when Foster, sitting back modestly} after finishing his act, was referred to by Comrade Ruthenberg as the Communist candidate for president. Comrades came from all points in the district to hear Foster and Ruth- enberg explain the Party Program of Action. From Stamford, Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Hartford, and even from Springfield, Mass. Putting up our own Communist ticket aroused unbounded enthusiasm. The Workers Party had become a factor to be reckoned with politically, while other proud parties claiming to represent the interests of the working class had given up their birthright for a mess of pottage, were suporting for the presidency a representative of the petty bourgeoisie. The Connecticut comrades present contributed $94.11, in proportion a better average than similar meetings held previously in other cities. Balanced Party. But the keynote of the meeting was | Lenin’s Precepts. Hula said: a balanced party, carrying on simul- taneously all the campaigns, giving Editor’s Note.—Here is another installment from the report of Gregory Zinoviey, chairman of the Communist International, to the Fifth World Congress just ad- journed in Moscow. In this install- ment Zinoviev takes up the subject of Communist tactics in different countries, as follows: ss 8 CHAPTER VII. Questions of Tactics. Opportunistic Deductions of Comrade Hula. AM now coming to the questions of tactics. To begin with I wish to make a few general remarks on this question. Hitherto I thought that the question of winning over the major- ity to our side had been solved at the Third Congress. But it has now be- come evident that this question still requires elucidation. This was shown by the statement made in the speeches of several of the Czech party. Perhaps I have not followed events in Czecho-Slovakia with sufficient attention and much is still not clear to me. But I think that the material at my disposal will suffice for certain deductions to be made. I have read an article by Hula who seized upon a sentence in an article of mine in which I said that our task consisted in winning over to our side the majority of the most im- portant and decisive sections of the working class as a pre-requisite of victorious revolution. He at once sounded the alarm and quoted Lenin against me. My contention ‘was pre- sumed to be the direct opposite to “No evidence is necessary to prove that the “gaining over of the majority of more weight to the more important | ‘he more important elements of the phases of the work, but neglecting none. point. It was particularly appealing to have Foster urge that the indus-| trial phase must not be pushed to the; point where the others were neglect- ed, since he is the most experienced party member in industrial work. However at present, there is great need for more activity in industrial work, of getting closer to the de- mands and needs of shop and factory workers. The shop nucleus system of organization was proved to be the best structural form to accomplish this end. The party was going to or- ganize several nuclei in each district, and develop them on the basis of their experience. The unemployment ques- tion was dwelt on, and our slogans for the unemployment campaign. DAILY WORKER Campaign. Comrade Ruthenberg explained the @ombined membership and DAILY WORKER campaign, and went at length into the political policy out- Mined by the Central Executive Com- mittee. His splendid presentation roused the enthusiasm of the com- rades to a high pitch. This, coupled with Foster’s ability to picture the most difficult problems in a simple and graphic manner, accounts for a meeting that will long be remembered by the membership of this district. Many there were on the outside who regretted their inability to attend, be- cause they were not members of the Communist Workers Party. Comrade Simons, District Organizer, spoke briefly on the local work. The meeting was a memorable one, and put the members in great shape to carry out the plans of the Central Executive Committee. Died for Boss’ Son! DAVENPORT, Iowa, July 28.—J. W. Sheldon is dead today. He gave his life to protect Glenn Lehmann, 17- possible injury when a heavy con- Comrade Foster stressed this) | working class,” is a vague and in- definite expression and that the inter- | pretation of it under certain circum- stances, in the last resort is a contra- diction, because to win over the “ma- | Jority of the more important elements of the working class may also be taken to mean the winning of the ma- jority of the proletariat; particularly as no definition is given of what may constitute the more important ele- ments of the working class, and which |are not important, and therefore as }should logically follow, from Zino- |viev’s phrase, are not worth bother- jing about.” Hula is a sincere sup- porter and adherent of the Third In- |ternational. I know him personally as a good Communist. This makes the matter worse and shows only that there is “something rotten in the State of Denmark”; that desperate attempts are being made in the Czech party to draw opportunist conclusions out of this matter. The Question of Winning the Majority. I will not take up your time with quotations, although I have a whole collection of them here. All I want to say is—that the Third Congress, under Lenin’s leadership, passed a resolution which says that we must strive to win over the working class by organizing its socially decisive sec- tions. I do not wish to assert that in my fleeting remarks I have formulated the postulate of “the winning of the vanguard of the most important ele- ments” perfectly; but on the whole the idea was correctly expressed, as it was at the Third Congress. I un- reservedly accept the formula of the Third Congress. What does Hula’s article imply? Nothing but the well known oppor- tunist theory that a. statistical ma- jority of 99 per cent must be won over and organized before there can be any thought of revolution. This is an op- portunistic idea which is bound to lead us astray, if we accept it. I tasks before the Congress is the care- year-old son of his employer, ‘or aa that one of the most important crete mixer slipped off a motor truck. ful study of this question of winning AUGUST ISSUE ON SALE! AD out ‘by Leon Trotzky (Russia) RE “rom the Old Family to the New”... “The Great Struggle of the Ruhr Miners,” by Peter Maslovsky (Germany) “Bituation of Workers in Fascist Ital: weneDY Andréas Nin (Spain) Features by Internationally Known Contributors . FACTS AND PHOTOS ON RUSSIA Get it from your news-dealer or SUBSCRIBE! $200 a year SOVIET RUSSIA PICTORIAL, ‘19 So. Lincoln 8t, Chicago, Ill. Name: $1.00 six months wennonsonnensvnsonsasersennsenssessonnee over the majority, There is nothing new to be said on the subjedt, All we shall have to do will be to oppose any attempt to revise the formula of the Third Congress. There are com- rades who are little concerned about winning over the majority and are of this cardinal question. We combat these “ultra-lefts,” but they represent an insignificant minority. They are) sentimental revolutionaries. They are not dangerous. The real danger lies in several serjous comrades demand- ing a statistical majority of 99 per cent or thereabout before even con- templating.a proper fight. It is worse still when Hula writes such an arti- cle; for it reveals more moods than are usually developed by Hula. As to the winning over of the majority, I think we must endorse the formula of the Third Congress. We must realize | that the time will come when we shall THE DAILY WORKER further; we must unite the majority of the workers in the struggle; and this we shall do. Thus you see that in Germany, and perhaps also in other parties matters have moved forward considerably. Hit for 90 per cent of the Communist In- generally careless in their handling | ternational the state of things is such that parties should concern them- selves less with “high politics,” and more with carrying out the following simple measures: In the first place, they must be able to build up Com- munist parties on a factory nuclei in the factories, Secondly, we must use correct tac- tics in our trade-union work. We pust learn to found Communist frac- tions in the trade unions and capture them from within. Thirdly, we must adopt a correct policy on the national question. And fourthly, to conduct a correct policy in regard to the peasant question. be gonfronted with the question of winning. over the majority not only in| the abstract but in practice, for in a} it Is Necessary To Win Over The Peasantry. He who cannot work among the number of countries we are reaching peasants, is not a Leninist. I have the point of getting the majority on |ajready referred to the agrarian pov- our side. Tables have been elabor- | orty in all countries. This alone ated on this question, which you see | should be enough to induce.us to con- displayed in this hall, I am not going |auct internecine definite work among to take up your time with a string |the peasants, for large sections of the of figures, but will merely tell you| peasantry are on the point of despair. that these figures show that the time) Hitherto, even in agrarian countries, is near when we shall be as strong as| Communist parties have displayed re- the Second International at the zenith| markable inability in the matter of of its power. Our numbers will grow capturing the peasantry. Even our as we approach this point. In some|palkan parties and the Polish party| countries this has already been! pave not made genuine efforts to work achieved. This being so, we run the| among the peasantry to the very last same risks as the Second Interna-| moment. The same may be said of tional, just because we have become|the German and other Communist | mass parties. Of course, we do not | parties. You know the result of the run exactly the same risk, beceuse| ejection in Carpathian-Russia, Many side by side with us, we have ‘the | Czech comrades, Tausig, Gati, and social democratic parties which ab- others, particularly local comrades sorb the worst elements. The greater worked heroically and exposed them- the treachery of the social democrats |selves to great danger in the cam- the stronger we will be. At this Con-| paign. I have the impression, how-| gress we may raise the question ot/eyer, that the Czech party on the Penh ce Sie omy a We must | whole does not appreciate the impor- s' e capture Of) tance of the peasants’ question in the most important sections of the | Czecho-Slovakia, and this proves the working class. This is one of Lenin's | importance of being able to. work most important slogans. not mean, of ¢ourse, that we shall al- low ourselves to be driven back to the position of the social democrats. We have nothing to do with the Kaut- sky methods of first organizing the working class into parties and trade unions, then taking the vote and only then—tevolution! Such methods will fight, and will never convert us into a revolutionary party. All of you must be familiar with Comrade Lenin’s brilliant work on the results of the election to the Con- stituent Assembly in Russia. We went through this election campaign when we had already assumed power. Nevertheless, our party polled 9% million votes out of 36 million, while the socialist revolutionaries and the mensheviks polled 25 million votes. Comrade Lenin frankly commented on this as follows: “At that time we did not have a numerical majority, but we had a majority in the most important cen- ters and at the decisive moment, and it is this that mattered.” If comrade Hula regards himself as a disciple of comrade Lenin, he should teach the precept of his great master to the Czech workers, viz. the decisive majority, at the decisive place, and at the decisive moment. Is the great- est danger in the Czech party the probability of it coming into the fray too soon? This danger, comrades, doxs not exist in Czecho-Slovakia. Why, then, this article? And what is its objective meaning after the recent conflict in the German party and in the Comintern generally? In this sit- uation, this article is nothing but sup- port of the “right.” This must be |frankly stated. I hope that comrade Hula will not persist in his errors, All of us make mistakes, but having made mistakes, we should rectify them,?/If comrade Hula is of a different mind, if he wants to convert his mistakes into a theory, and will be supported in this way by the Czech comrades, the Communist International will have to fight the Czech party: for these theo- ries are bound to lead to a repetition ,|of what the “right” did in the German party. Moreover, the situation in the Czech party in many ways is still more complicated. Tasks of the German Communist Party A doubt has arisen about the strength of the German party. With smug satisfaction the “Vorwarts” quotes Radek who said that the elec- tion victory of the German Commun- ists must not be over-estimated, But if on the parliamentary field in Ger- many we have a proportion of 62 Communists to 100 social democrats everyone can see that the time is not |far distant when we shall have the |majority of the working class behind us. For on the parliamentary field the German social democrats are far ahead of us, as their vote consisted not only of working class votes. All |this goes to prove that we are on the point of capturing one-half of the Ger- man working class. I have carefully jexamined the nature of the vote in the elections to the factory councils |in Germany. It is much more favor- ‘able than the vote in the parliamen- |tary elections. These statistics have been compiled by comrade Varga and ‘his collaborators. But this does not |mean that we can rest on our laurels. | We may lose the masses we have won it wo make mistakes. We must so This does) not carry us into the revolutionary! among the peasants. Such a thing as, for instance, the inability of our Rou- manian comrades to tell us the per- centage of peasantry in the popula- tion of Roumania, and what agrarian relations prevail, etc., must not occur again. What was the principle mis- take of the Bulgarian party in June, 1923? The lack of revolutionary con- tact with the peasantry and the ab- sence of a clear view of the role of the, peasantry, The Bulgarian party has remedied this, and more progress is being ‘made. Instead of concerning themselves with “high politics,” most of our Com- munist parties must bedntenton carry- ing on Communist work among the their goalless struggles. members, but it seemed as if they had reached their limit. They had increased their mem- bership, it is true, but further progress seemed impossible. A meeting of the most active mem- bers was called. What could be done?) Why were they up against this stone wall blocking their fur- ther activities? They examined their form of organization and found that ae branch had come to depend upon wo or three comrades to do ALL the work. If this could be remedied, the work would progress success- fully, because then the branch would be an integral, growing Communist body. With each member active, forming himself into a nuclei to at- tract new members, there could be no limit to their usefulness. Lay Plan of Action. They decided to reorganize the branch on a departmental, or com- mittee basis. Thus they could not only draw all the comrades” actively into the work, but the committees could serve as a training camp for the inexperienced comrades. Their committees were as follows: The Organization Committee, which besides being the organizational head of the branch would take care of the industrial work, publicity, and secre- tarial work, The Educational Committee, which needs no explanation. N The Social Committee, which was made to consider itself a sort'of membership Committee, since it would always be on the alert for new members, it would make the comrades real comrades, not only in the Communist activities, but in their personal social relations. The Literature Committee, which would consider itself a battalion, to bombard .the capitalist order with en- Nghtenment for the youth. The Sports Committee-—not only to, draw in outside elements who could be reached thru this medium alone, but even to develop themselves. , Educate Newcomers. Thus they could work efficiently. Then, following ow entire RYKOV BRANCH OF YOUNG WORKERS LEAGUE SHOWS WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH ENTHUSIASTIC MEMBERSHIP By HYMAN SIEGEL. It was in the month of March, the revolutionary month, that the group in the Y. P. S. L. grew tired of their aimless endeavors, They decided that in order to do real work among the working youth they would have to become part of a real, fighting youth organization. So they decided to affiliate with the Young Workers League. Six of them formed the Rykoy branch. That was in March. Three months later they had sixteen pe masses, forming Communist factory nuclei and adopting a correct attitude towards national and peasant ques- tions. This done, 99 per cent of our problems have been solved. Partial Demands I should like to add a few more words on the question of partial de- mands, We Bolsheviks differed from the Mensheviks not because we were against partial demands, but because we managed to combine these partial demands with the fundamental ques- tions of the revolution. For the menshe- viks these meant substituting reform- ist evolution for revolution; while for us they were links the chain of pre- Zinoviev Discusses Question of Communist Tactics tion with the Russian revolution. It devéloped gradually and has now reached the point when quantity is transformed into quality. It sounds plausible, comrades. He says further that evidences are observable of di- vergences between the best elements of the trade-unions and the Labor party, and it must be remembered that the Labor party rests upon the trade-unions. Comrades, I believe this to be true on the whole. Just look at what is going on in that country. Suddenly a comrade so near to us as Cook wins the leadership of a great trade union. Of course, these are merely paration for revolution. The campaign conducted by our German comrades | for the eight-hour day and for political | amnesty is a campaign for partial de-| mands, which we must put forward | if we desire to be a party of the masses. But are these demands an, ultimate aim? Certainly not, they are | merely partial demands. In princi- ple, the demand for the 51 per cent confiscation of capital put forward by the German party, has not differed | from other partial demands. One must! be able to select the “partial demand” that will appeal to the masses at the given moment and to connect this de- mand with the preparation for the revolution. I think that the real “left” of the Communist International, which is truly Leninist, can on no account object to the tactics of partial de- mands on principle, ‘but it must be able to constryct these tactics as a policy of revolution and not of evo- lution. English Labor Government Drifting Towards the Left. To wind up this section—just a few words on the trades-union question. I believe that this question will be one! of the most important questions be-| fore our congress. There have been new and very important develop- ments, especially in the British trade | union movement. The British Labor | movement is a peculiar movement. | Recently, I read a report by Max Beer. He is not a Communist and was for- merly a social democrat, but he left) the social democratic ranks. He is an excellent authority on the British Labor movement and a very conscien- tious man. His opinion is very valu- able. What has he to say on the Labor movement in Great Britain? He says that he knows three revolu- tionary facts in England's history. Firstly, the Chartist movement; sec- ondly, the formation of the Labor party and the beginning of the strug- gle against old fashioned trade-union- ism, and thirdly, the epoch making fact of the beginning of the emanci- pation of the British Labor Movement from reformism. This process, he says, commenced in 1917 in connec- this committee plan would educate the new and inexperienced comrades, they arranged for each member to spend two weeks working with each committee. So, a member would sit in with the Organization Committee and co-operate in its work. After two weeks, he would proceed to the Liter- ature Committee, and learn how to distribute. And so on. « Their next step was to face the problem of a meeting place where they could feel free. They must have what they could consider “their own home.” They started a drive and col- lected quite a bit of money. They organized a baseball team, and, for “brain sports” a checker team. Then, most significant, they have organ- ized a junior group—a group of work- ers’children, from workers’ neighbor hoods, The importance of this work need not be stressed: it speaks for itself. ‘They ruled that in order to do, they t their theory that be to Must first know. They took in all seriousness the slogan: CLARITY AND ACTION. They ordered that each of their members must join a study class, in order to be in good standing. Study Class Popular. When comrades are seriously de- sirous of learning, there is always an older, trained and tried comrade to help. They secured Comrade Max Bedacht to eonduct for them a class im the groundwork of Communism. One session has already taken place at which the attendance was so large that they had to put out the “Stand- ing Room Only” sign! Hereafter the class will be conducted in a larger room: Room 5, 3322 Douglas Blvd. These lectures will all be taken down in shorthand for distribution to those not attending the class, and for reference, They are now an active, live branch of 25 members. They have set themselves the task of increas- ing their membership to fifty in three months. And their slogan is; EVERY MEMBER BRING A MEMBER, They have youth, sincerity, energy and system. What limits can there signs and symptoms, and they must not be over-estimated, nor must they be under-estimated. The attitude of the English delegates at the Vienna Congress of the Amsterdam Unions was also symptomatic. To be sure, these people are inconsistent, but they are driven by the masses. What did these people mean by demanding from Sassenbach: “Where is Rosa Luxemburg; where is Karl Lieb- knecht?” The English trade unions |have so far been the main support of Amsterdam. They were to Amster- dam what the Russian and German parties are to the Communist Inter- national. What would happen if the Russian and the German Communist parties were to deliver social-demo- cratic speeches against the Commu- nists? At the {ongress everyone would say that this is a real crisis and not the crisis which Radek carries daily in his waistcoat pocket, and in spite of which we see our party grow- ing stronger from month to month. This very real crisis, however, has overtaken the Amsterdam people. | What does it mean when the English delegates ask: “Where are Luxem- burg and Liebknecht?” It means nothing else than the endorsement of our assertion that the social demo- crats are the accomplices of the mur- derers of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Of course, these people are inconsistent, they have no pro- gramme, they were partly prompted | by the desire to demonstrate that they are for a rapprochement with the Rus- sian Trade Unions at the moment when the Russian and British governments are negotiating in London. The main task of the Communist International in all spheres lies now in England. A Communist mass party in England would mean half the vic- tory in Europe. The circumstances are ripe for it. Therefore we should not under-estimate what is going on in England. We know England so lit- tle; almost as little as America. I believe, comrades, we shall/ have to study the question thoroughly, and to see what really can be done to achieve real unity of the trade-union movement on an international scale. The more astute social democrats of Germany, Belgium, and France will have none of this unity. Already at the Fourth Congress we declared that the social democrats will do anything to bring about a split in the trade unions, and that we must therefore do our utmost to bring about the unity of the trade unions on an international scale. Tomorrow—Tactics of United Front. NEW YORK CITY Party Activities Meeting Great Success. The report on the program of action by Comrades William Z. Foster and C. E. Ruthenberg was the occasion for the best attended general membership meeting in the history of the party. The large hall in Stuyvesant Casino was packed to the doors, with over 800 members, who came despite the torrid heat. Great enthusiasm was displayed not only in acceptance of the program of action, but for the coming presidential campaign, where William Z. Foster and Ben Gitlow will run on a Com- munist ticket as against the Repup- lican and Democratic parties, as well as the reformist, LaFollette, assisted by the remains of the Socialist party. Comrade Charles Krumbein, district organizer, presided. His appeal for collection to start the campaign showed the tempo of the audience, Over $1,000 was realized in pledges as well as $173 in cash. HE Tuesday, July 29, 1924 FARMERS URGED TO FORM REAL CO-OPERATIVE Bankers’ Elevator Mer- ger a Trust Further light was thrown on the capitalistic nature of the $26,000,000 grain“ corporation formed in Chicago recently, by a well-informed Chicago farm co-operative advocate. “The combine will have to evdde several laws, according to lawyers I have consulted,” this man told the DAILY WORKER. “There are laws governing the formation of farm co- operatives which may have been vio- |lated by the merger. There are also laws restricting the issuance of stock to individuals and the issue of stock |that the grain combine proposes to the farmers probably violates the ‘blue sky’ laws. Dodging Anti-Trust Laws. “The Rosenbaum Grain Corporation, the Bartlett-Frazier Company, Rosen- baum Brothers and Schaffer & Com- pany, who combined as directors of the ‘co-operative’ grain enterprise, have long been practically combined into a loose monopoly. To dodge the anti-trust laws and to get the North- western Grain Elevator people into a monopoly, the above concerns joined together under the cloak of selling out to the farmers. “There have been elements in the Farm Bureau Federation which not only have no interest in the farmers, but which are closely allied to the Wall Street bankers. Although the Farm Bureau is the largest farm or- ganization of its kind in the United States, it is not a co-operative farm- ers’ enterprise that aids in their mar- keting and producing problems. “The combine was formed partly for the purpose of grabbing up every grain elevator and every terminal grain warehouse needed by the farm- ers in order to force the farmers to do business with the combine. Advise Real Farmers’ Co.op. “My advice to the farmers is to enter into a real co-operative move- ment at the point where it will do some good; that is, the point of pro- duction. There is no. real farmers’ co-operative movement that amounts to anything nationally. The Farm Bureau is contaminated by the wheat pool interests and inclines not toward the country’s struggling wheat farm- ers, but toward the capitalistic wheat speculators, “The Farm Bureau might take the attitude that it is necessary for the farmers to have capital in order to run a co-operative. Their claim is that the new merger, which allows the capitalists to retain direction of all the grain distributing facilities of the country, places at the disposal of the farmers four million dollars. But cap- ital is not invested by such shrewd bankers as Barney Baruch unless a big interest is returned on the invest- ment. “The Farm Bureau demonstrates its capitalistic tendencies and proves that the farmer can never win salvation as long as he enters business side by side with the opposing capitalist class.” Send in that Subscription Today. AR. Earl R. Browder, Editor “The Labor Herald” Max Shachtman, Editor ‘The Young Worker” Manuel Gomez, Chairman THURSDAY, JULY “THE NEXT WAR A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS” WICKER PARK HAL ADMISSION FRER. Auspices:; Workers Party and Young Workers League, Local Chicago 31, 1924, at 8 P. M. ak on WAR AND THE LL, 2040 W. North Ave.