The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 9, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. thing Louis B. Boudin says about the Communists in the July issue of “The American Labor. Monthly” is correct. Assume further that his facts, premises, reasoning and conclu- sions are all faultless. Remémber also that in doing so you will have as- sumed the following: 1. That the Workers Party has been willing to accept LaFollette as the leader of the American lahor move- ment provided he breaks with the Re- publican Party. 2. The C. E. C. of the Workers Par- ty has definitely assumed the position of the old reformists that whatever is not Big Capital, or “Wall Street,” is not capitalist. And with that theo- retical position of the old reformists it has also adopted the policies of those reformists: the policy of alli- ances with small capital against Big Capital. : Then we say to Boudin® Alright! - The Workers Party and its C. E. C. are absolutely no good. They are re- formists of the old school, new school and all future schools put together. They are a hopeless bunch. Now what shall we do? What have you got to propose? The intellectual gym nastics of “The American Labor Monthly” are at times quite enjoyable When we have nothing eles to do, an’ your worthy magazine happens t fall across our field of vision, we don’. blink but look into it and see what’; doing. As a rule, we find what: Meaningless glances, skeptical smiles, derisive gestures, pompous _preten sions, and hatred—bitter, burning, un- disguised hatred towards the Com- munists and the militant workers of America generally. For the moment we might be will- ing to disregard even this. We would be ready to approach you in the spirit of genuine Christian humanity and speak to you thus: Louis B. Boudin! Our land is big and fertile, but there is no order in it; come and rule over us. We offer you, not LaFollette, the crown of leadership, but tell us, pray, tell us, what is your program? Where do you stand in the struggle between International Reformism and Interna- tional Communism? What have you got to say regarding the immediate problems of the American workers? You are a Marxist, of course. We know it from your own mouth, also from “history.” But so is, or was, Kautsky, Hilferding and Plechanov. You are an old-timer, a veteran, so to speak. We see it from your ar- ticle in “The American Labor Month- ly” where you relate battles of long ago between reformism and Marxism in the Socialist Party of America. All this is very nice, indeed, but somehow we cannot forget the fact that Kautsky too, and Plechanov, had fought reformism and “revisionism” in the pre-war Second International. Didn't they? And yet, you know what became of them when confront- ed with the real test. Give Us Something Constructive. Yes, sir, give us something con- structive, something positive, some- thing that we can build on. We are real sick of the sort of political wis- dom whose highest and ripest mani- festation is a disdainful look and a sour face. Speak out in concrete, positive terms if you really have something to say. Now, as to your criticisms, The Workers Party, you say, was willing to offer LaFollette the crown of leadership if he breaks with the Republican Party. You even go as far back as the year 862, the begin- ning of Russian history, to find a SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAWLY WORKER. SECOND SECTION This magazine supple ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. AUGUST 9, 1924. BARREN WISDOM similie to fit the occasion as you see,LaFollette the nomination for presi- SSUME for a moment that every- Jit. Let us quote a little of your high | grade wisdom. - “It seems that the New Era in the American Labor Movement, to be dent provided: He runs as the candidate of the Farmer-Labor Party and accepts its program. Provided also— He accepts the leadership of the Na- ushered in under Socialist, or at. |tional Committee of the Farmer-Labor least Socialist Party, auspices on July 4th at Cleveland, and under Communist auspices on June 17th, at St. Paul, is to be opened by a joint deputation of these hitherto warring factions to the farming regions to the north of them, there to seek out Senator Robert M. La- Follette with an invitation to come to rule over them. Presumably the message this deputation will de- liver to Senator LaFollette in ,the name of American_Labor will say: “Our land is big and fertile, but | Party and the fatter’s control of his |campaign funds. If it can be shown that these condi- tions are tantamount to offering La- Follette a crown or calling upon him to rule over us, then we would be willing to accept the leadership even of Louis B. Boudin. The friends of LaFollette at St. Paul were bitterly opposed to us put- ting the above proposal to a vote at the Convention. Why? Because they knew (just as we did) that LaFollette is oposed to a Farmer-Labor Party | 5 CHINA IS AWAKENING ———————————————_—_—————— there is no order in it; come and rule over us.” The above is a sort of a forecast of what was to happen at St, Paul on June 17th and at Cleveland on July 4th. Boudin was quite sure, as can be seen from the quotation, that the St. Paul Convention, under the lead- ership of the Communists, will offer LaFollette the leadership of the American labor movement. Presumably, Mr. Boudin says,. pre- sumably the Communists will come to LaFollette and will say: Come and rule over us. , : ‘Well, it did not happen exactly that way. You know it by now. Instead of offering him a crown the Commun- ists in St. Paul fought LaFollette with every means at their disposal. They exposed and unmasked him at the Convention as was never done before. And in order to make this exposure of LaFollette as an enemy of the workers and exploited farmers still more effeétive and convinicng to the masses who believe in him, the Com. munists were even willing .to offer and will never consent to be its candi- date. They also knew (just as we did) that by refusing to accept these conditions LaFollette will definitely expose himself as the real enemy of the working masses thereby alienat- ing from himself the support of cer- tain sections of the workers and ex- ploited farmers. Because of the above reasons William Mahoney and Taylor (of Nebraska) and Starkey of St. Paul were threatening us with a split if we put to a vote our proposal to offer LaFollette the conditional nomi- nation, You can see now, Mr. Boudin, that on the outcome of the St. Paul Con- vention you were all wrong. Your presumptions were made a little bit too soon. You really should not have ventured a forecast. And, by the way, you were a good deal wrong also on the Cleveland Convention, too, not so much regard- ing its outcome as regarding its na- ture. To say, as you do, that the Cleveland Conference was to be held under the auspices of the Socialist A REPLY TO LOUIS B. BOUDIN By Alexander Bittelman Party fs sheer nonsemse. The 8. P. is only a part of that ontfit, and a subordinate one at that. Blame the Communists Again. Now that Boudin has found himself in-a hole due to his venture in fore- casting the results of the St. Panl Convention, we have no doubt that this, too, he will blame on the Com munists. He will say: “Well, ft aint my fault that the Communists failed to af- fer La¥Follette the cream. According to all available information they (the Communists) were bound to do in St. Panl as I said they will, Then they went “ahead and betrayed all their commitments and promises. They simply turned traitors to LaYollette. Am I to blame for it?” Which takes us to the real heart of the dispute. What was ft that the Workers Party actually stood for in this matter of LaFollette? First: The Workers Party has always considered LaFollette and La- Folletteism a menace to the American labor mavement. ‘ Read our party literature, our docn- ments, statements and “declarations. Go as far hack as the early summer of 1923 amd you will find this gen- eral idea—the menace of LaYollette- ism underlying all of the strategy and tactics of the Workers Party. We. said: This petty-bourgeois struggle of the liberals and progres— sives within the old capitalist parties is gradually crystalizing into a move- ment toward a third party. We saiil further: This third party LaFollette movement will attempt to utilize fin the interests of small capital the dis- content and political awakening of the working masses of the country, thereby disrupting the movement toward an independent political party of workers and exploited farmers. On the basis of this analysis, which events proved to be 100 percent cnr- rect, we proposed the. following pol- icy: Intensify the campaign for a Farmer-Labor Party. Unify all the ad- herents, of independent political ac- tion and make them serve as a cen- ter of resistance against the deadly dissolution influences of La¥Follette— ism in the Labor movement. Our slo- gan was: A United Farmer-Labor ticket in the presidential elections of 1924. It was on this theory that we were working and preparing for the June 17th Convention. Second: The Workers Party atti- tude toward LaFollette has always been one of opposition and fight. Which is merely the logical con- clusion of our whole conception of the LaFollette movement. The Workers Party has fought LaFolletteism in all its manifestations, politically and or- ganizationally. A notable instance is our fight in the arrangements com- mittee about the date of the St. Paul Convention that took place in the early spring of this year. The LaFollettites under pressure of their chief wanted us to postpone the holding of the St. Paul Convention (originally set for May 30th) until after the Convention of the two capi- talist parties. The purpose of this move was to prevent the crystalliza- tion of a national Farmer-Labor cen- ter thus leaving LaFollette a. free hand.to manipulate the labor forces in the interests of the petty bourgeois, To this we said: No. We fought the attempt tooth and nail and finally carried our point. The original date had been changed only to June 17th, that fs, to a date sufficiently ahead of the conventions of the two old par ties to enable us to crystalize a na tional Farmer-Labor center. This is merely one of the many in- (Continued on page 8)