The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 2, 1924, Page 8

phe SOR edt Eee Neem BY JAMES P. "P. CANNON. Assistant Executive Secretary, Workers Party. (A speech delivered at the Party Conference of Coal Miners at St. Louis, Mo., July 27th, 1924.) OMRADES: These conferences of Party mem- bers in the important trade unions fn which representatives of the Central Executive Committee take part are be- coming frequent occurrences. We must regard this as a healthy sign. It indicates that we are maturing as a Party of theoretical and practical revo- - lutionists, and getting & firm grip on our basic tasks. The close collabora- tion between the active comrades in the field and the leading organ of the Party has a beneficial result all the way round. The close and intimate contact with the practical problems of the daily struggle and with the comrades who directly face them, serves as an un- erring corrective to any tendency there. might be in the Party to deal with these “problems in an™abstract or purely doctrinaire fashion. On the other hand, the participation of -the Party representatives insures that the fundamental political aspect of the trade union struggle will be brought to the front in these trade union con- ferences. The importance of this can- not be over-estimated. { there is constant danger of the work of our trade union comrades being in- fluenced too much by expediency and so-called practicality. One-sided con- ceptions, purely trade union points of view, take the upper hand and the general class issues of the struggle are pushed into the background. Such a state of affairs must be guarded against. We know too well that it . leads to reformism and futility. We are meeting here today to con- sider the problems of the particular trade union you belorig to, from the standpoint of the Party, which is standpoint of all Communists.. An preaies the revelatiohary aims of our Party and propose that we weigh and judge every trade union question that comes before us, no matter how small or practical it may appear to be, in the light of our final aims. A Revolutionary Party. Our Party is a party of the prole- tarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat." The proletarian revolution is the only solution of the labor problem and all our work must lead to this goal. This is our starting point in the trade unions, as in every other field of activity in the class struggle. It is this fundamental con- ception that distinguishes us from all other partiés and groups in the labor movement. It is the band of steel that binds us together into one Party. Our revolutionary goal shapes our Policy in the daily struggle. The revo- lutionary aspirations of our Party: comrades generates the enthusiasm and self-sacrifice that give the Party its driving power. Woe to us if we become so “practical” as to forget this for one moment. All our work must lead toward the proletarian revolution. If we keep this always in mind and measure all our daily work by this standard we will keep on the right road. The revolutionary principles to which we are committed put upon us responsibilities and du- ties which cannot be shifted or evaded if we are to live up to our conception of the Party as the van- guard of the workers. We have to stand up and fight for the true inter- ests of the working class as a whole, at every turn of the road. With the Masses, But Leading Them. We waft to be with the masses, but we must also go ahead of the masses, and not be afraid to take an unpopular stand, when it is necessary in order to combat their prejudices. Take for example the Ku Klux Klan, Here is an organization’ that is anti- labor in its very character,—yet large numbers of coal miners are misled into supporting it. To. fight the. Ku Klux Klan, to expose its reactionary nature and win the workers. away Otherwise | founded on revolutionary principles, and concerning itself in a business- like fashion with all aspects of the conyention of the Illinois miners, for example, everybody could see that the Party is beginning to grow up, to stretch its shoulders, and take its Place on the stage. of events. Our Party appeared there as the leader of the fight for the interests of the men from it is a difficult and somewhat hazardous task in certain sections of the country, but it is our duty to the working class to make such a fight. We would not be worthy of the proud name our Party bears if we evaded such a fight on any pretext. Our work in the trade unions is developing. Evidence of this can be seen on every side. Such confer- encesas this are proof of the rapid strides we are making. We have already accumulated rich experience, and this experience is bringing to light both positive and negative sides in our work, One of our main duties is to review the whole activity from time to time, to strengthen and im- prove what is good, and discover what is bad in order to reject it. It goes without saying that we Communists esteem each other very highly, but when we meet together in conferences such as this, it is not for the purpose of extending bouquets and empty compliments, but to speak out openly and frankly; all our work to thoro-going exam- ination and criticism in order that er- | served. jonly yesterday emerged from under- | Our Aims and Tactics in the Trade Unions in the mines. It was in the forefront, dealing the heaviest blows against the agents of the bourgeoisie, who have usurped the official positions in the miners’ union, The work of our comrades in this convention added greatly toward making the Miners’ Union a better union for the class struggle, thereby increasing the pres- tige of our Party. That must be ac- knowledged at the very beginning. In a whole series of trade union conventions held in recent months the same phenomena was to be ob- Our small Party, which ground and began to collect the scat- tered forces of the revolutionary workers, was the storm center of the ht against reaction in the labor ovement. We have not yet become the leader of the masses in the trade unions, but we have become the leader in the fiXht for their interests. The rest will follow in good time. Of this we can be confident. ushing forward everywhere and put- ing itself at the head of the strug- to subject , b It is no accident that our Party is LOOPING SILK STOCKINGS BY VERA BUCH. Row upon row of workers’ houses Stretch at the foot of the factory. Company houses, dingy and gray, Each with a high pointed roof And a puny red spike of a chim Narrow and gray, like our lives, ney. From the factory window I see them. And yonder on the hill, a jewel in the sunlight, The house of our boss. Slender columns rising white from the blossoming shrubbery, Rosy roof all aglow, great glimmering windows. e . I look down the long room, like a vast whitewashed jungle, Two hundred and fifty girls I ... But the daughter of our boss did her FAO Wika T peek hunted rakeirec With its row upon row of machines, all clicking and turning, Heads of workers bent: low, great vistas/of columns and drop-lights, see, young and old, looping a I do not see. Where is she this spring day, the rich man’s daughter? Is she playing her piano there in the palace-like mansion? Is she driving her car in the sweet air, breathing the scent of the blossoms? Or is she dawdling in Europe, seeing the wonders We never shall see? . . - She is not here, the rich man’s daughter. All day I have sat here, looping silk stockings, Heel and toe, heel and toe, each aled upon its sharp needle. _ mesh precisely Numb is my brain with the tiny monotonous meshes, Drowsy my thoughts with the tireless thumping ,machinery. Yonder the hazzy sun gilds the palace-home With a distant, dream-like splendor. Was it in a dream I heard that some day aa I shall play with the boss’ daughter there, and she Work with me here,\some lay, looping silk stockings? ? You have the right to expect I feel quite con- comrades made, are “Our Valuable Experiences. The power of a disciplined Party, rade union struggle, has already be un to manifest itself. At the last » ett hn 9 agente blips sir giyth net bound up with the revolution. if we make mistakes here and there, if we fail to take, the fullest advan- and lead them NN a ann aan manpeliienssitiaaniblliiiishenicnaienytterantistninnspaiiatnilin rors may be discovered and over- come, plain speaking from the Central Exe- cutive Committees, fident that if some errors in your work are mentioned here in this dis- cussion, if some of the mistakes that individual pointed out in a friendly and broth- erly, but nevertheless frank manner, as is the custom among Communists, that none of you will feel offended. The discussion is only for the pur- pose of improving our effectiveness and strengthening the party for the fight. le. The reason for this ig that ours 8 the only party willing to fight for he immediate interests of the work- rs, and the only Party standing for he solution of the labor problem by eans of the revolutionary over- hrow of capitalism. All of the in- erests of the working class immedi- tely and ultimately, are indissolubly And age of opportunities which arise in he course of the struggle, it is be- use our comrades in the unions, ue mainly to inexperience, have not ully mastered the art of taking a ractical stand on.every question t arises, and relating it skilfally the final aims of the movement. Correcting Our Mistakes. To do practical work, and at the e time to deepen and extend the lass-consciousness of the workers, task in the trade unions, From this point of view an examination of events that transpired at the last con- vention of the Illinois miners will bring forth fruitful results. power wlil be multiplied at the oe convention, if we frankly recognize the negative as well as the positive sides of our activity at the last one, One of the main errors made by our comrades there, was the failure to realize fully that the brazen scheme of cl ollaboration pre- sented to the arent in the re- port of Frank Farrington, revealed the political and ideological basis of all the corruption and betrayal of the whole bureaucracy of the United Mine Workers of America, from Lewis “to Farrington. Our comrades should have attacked this report in the most militant fashion. They should have shot it to shreds on the ground that it represented the theory of the mutual ‘interests of the coal diggers and the parasites who ex- ploit them and fatten on their toil and misery. Against it they should have set up the principle of the class struggle, the theory of the salvation of the workers thru uncompromising struggle against their exploiters, Such a fight would haye been a dagger aimed at the very heart of the corrupt and treacherous trade un- jon bureaucracy, because it would haye been aimed at the false system of ideas with which they poison the labor movement. Such a fight should have been seized upon as the best means of opening the eyes of the miners, and pking them see their eal problem. “All the other fights in the convention, the fight over the ap- pointive power, the fight for better legislation in union affairs, for thé reinstatement of Howat, etc., should have been regarded by our comrades, Wand explained to the delegates, as re- mated to the basic fight for the prin- iple of the class struggle, and sub- ordinate to it. This would have been the best means of awakening the honest rank and file delegates, and of binding them more closely to us. Another error at the convention oc pact a heed ema 3 * tine nts tise pe was invelved. Farington machine played a clever game with the delegates off this reso- lution, by calling for the recognition of Soviet Russia in one paragraph,’ and then nullifying the whole effect of the resolution by adding the quali- fication that Soviet Russia should reéc- ognize certain obligations—the very obligations which the capitalist gov- ernments of the world have been vainly trying for six years to impose upon her. Our comrades made the mistake of thinking that the question of formal recognition of Soviet Rus- sia was the real issue, and of consid- ering such a resolution a victory for us, This was entirely too “statesman- like.” We are for the recognition of Soviet Russia, because it is a work- ing class state, and because we recog- nize that the interests of the work- _ ing class all over the world are bound up with it. The recognition of So- viet Russia is for us an issue of the class struggle, and we should have made the fight purely on that basis, and hammered home again to thé delegates the idea that the solidarity of labor, the world-wide union of the working class in the fight for the overthrow of capitalism, must be ac- cepted as the guiding principle of the labor movement. We might have failed to get a majority of the con- vention if we had put the fight on this basis, just as we might have failed to get a majority in a clear-cut. class struggle fight against Farring- tion’s scheme of class collaboration, but that is a secondary matter, We would have brought the Principlé to the front. We would have clarified the minds of many of the delegates, and tied them more closely to us. It is not the F iar Boman but the fight that ig important ~~“Inadequate Organization, From the same point of view the in- adequate development of the left. wing caucus at the convention should be pointed out. Some comrades ob- — jected to these caucuses on the (Continued on page 6) BLN ate ea pamela aes Seem Ser EAE ae DN Ate eon aD RR Se A a. —"