The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 13, 1924, Page 10

etc: momsronoamy How To By EARL R. BROWDER,. S I write I have before me a tele- gram supposed to be reporting an important labor convention for the DAILY WORKER. It was sent by a very good,comrade, a fighter and a real militant, and he spent almost five dollars of our funds (ouch! it hurts, for money in a working class paper is almost as scarce as hen’s teeth), because this was such an im- portant convention. But we couldn't print a story about that convention, in spite of it all, because this good com- rade knew so little about reporting that in more than 300 words he didn’t tell uS anything from which we could write a story. * We haven’t got enough reporters. The DAILY WORKER cannot hire ex- perienced writers to go around ev- erywhere, where things of importance are happening. Our readers must be our reporters. The DAILY WORKER, to a great extent, must be made in ot seernere reese igen Be a Trade Union Reporter reality a workers’ paper, in that you, the readers, must write for it as well as read it. And so, with that tele- gram in front of me to add ferver to my sermon, let me put down a few side, with conservatives on the other? “golden rules of writing” about trade union matters, that may help some of our comrades to get onto the DAILY WORK staff. . +2 What is important ehough to re- port? All conventions, whether they be international, national, state, or district, that are composed entirely of trade unions or in which trade unions take an important part, should be re- ported for the DAILY WORKER. In addition, all regular meetings of lo- cal unions, city ceritral bodies, and executive councils, in which action is taken upon issues of general political importance, on issues of wages and hours, on strikes or demonstrations against grievances, should be written up. What should a report contain? Whenever one is reporting such a meeting, the following points should be included by aH means, whether anything else is or not, remembering that what the DAILY WORKER needs, above all, ig FACTS: Aa) Name of organization being re- ported upon. : (b) Date and placé of meeting, and whether it is regular or special meet- ing, whether it is a convention, and otherwise the nature of the’ gather- ing. (c) What the important— issues were that came up for action. (d) What action was taken? This means to state, as briefly as pos- sthie, what resolutions were present- ed, whether they were passed or de- feated, what action they called: for, and on which side of the question did the union align itself. (e) What sort of struggle took place over the question? Were the radicals and revolutionists on one nacageans pcscectanpercc perce nis automata eAten sa een What were the principal arguments on each side? Give the names of the outstanding figures on each side of the question. eee The question of how to write these things up has already been dealt with very ably, in the articles by Kart Reeve, published in previous issues of the DAILY WORKER. This does not pretend to tell you how to write; it points out the most important things to write about, the things that it is necessary for us to know, if we are going to publish anything about the event in question. And if you send in such information as this, we will write the stery for you in shape for publication, if you cannot send it to us in a finished form. The big thing to remember is, THAT THE DAILY WORKER WANTS TO KNOW. EVERY IMPORTANT OCCUR- RENCE IN THE LABOR MOVE- MENT. Givg us this infermation and the job is more than half done. NATIONS AND COLONIES (Continued from Page 3.) Rosa Luxembure’s views is to be found in the position of some of our German comrades. 4. Finally it is necessary to call at- tention to the fourth type of mistakes. To this category of mistakes belongs the position of our Turkish comrades from “Aidynluk” who actually advo- cate the class collaboration of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This position represents nothing new. Anyone who remembers the position of the Ukrainian Social-Democrats of the former Austrian Empire and that of the Polish Secialists of Austria will waderstand that the mistake of oar Turkish comrades has its reot in the entire social patriotic ideology of the Second International. THE UNION OF SOCIALIST SOVIET REPUBLICS. - A Great Experiment in Solving the] National Question Under the Dic- tatorship of the Proletariat. PASS on to the last part of my spééch—the question of the Union of Soeialist Soviet Republics that was formed during the interval between the Fourth and Fifth Congresses. You know, comrades, that Russia, from the point of view of its national composition was much more compli- cated than the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. There were only eleven na- tionalities in Austria before the war while we have more than a hundred different large nations and small na- tionalities on the enormous territory of the previous Tsarist empire. It was very difficult to solve the national question in a country with such a variegated national composition, and the methods applied for its solution must serve-as a lesson for comrades from other countries, Another difficulty was that the pro- letariat was Russian in nationality while the peasantry, for the most part was of other nationalities. There are sixty-nine million Russian and .sixty- five millions of other nationalities in the U. S. S. R. Our first problem was to establish solidarity between the three millions Great Russian and the millions of peasantry of other nation- alities. There was still a third difficulty that confronted us. This many mil- lioned mass was, in reality, at differ- ent stages of economic development. Side by side with highly developed in- dustrial centers we have about ten millions that have not yet developed from being nomadic tribes. The formal declaration of equality was in- sufficient, and would have had as lit- tle value and achieved as few prac- tical results as the declaration of equality in the great French Revolu- tion. The proletariat of our country had to set itself the problem of estab- lishing a real economic equality, which is the only security for the normal development of nations form- ing part of our workers and peasants’ republic. We had to solve this prob- lem in a country with limited economic resources. Comrade Lenin once said that Soviet Russia, because of its -geo- graphical position, is a natural bridge between Europe and Asia. This is undoubtedly true. Our revolution had a double result. It reacted on the European proletariat in the sense that it made him believe in his own power and in his ability to seize power. Simultaneously, it reacted on the Oriental nations. Kautsky prophesied, after the 1905-1906 revolu- tion, that the Russian revolution would awaken the nations of the Middle East and Asia to historical life. This prophesy has proved to be correct. After the October Revolu- tion, 1917, Soviet Russia became the center of gravitation and attracted the helped us to smash Dutov, Semonov, Koltchak, and Denikin, the leaders of the counter-revolution in the border countries. The notorious renegade Paul Levi, can ridicule the Bashkir and Kalmik Communism as much as he pleases, but we know that the jokes of such gentlemen as Paul Levi, serve to show their colonisatory character. ‘ Such clauses are characteristic of our constitution, and professors of hourgeois state law cdnnot understand this. For example, Monsieur Milyu- kev recently in a white-guard news- paper occupied himself with an in- vestigation of the legal nature of the constitution of our workers’ and peas- ants’ Union and he expressed the opinion that it was without any legal foundation since it lacked the element A French Colonial Negro in the Service of French Imperialism Oriental nations to itself. This situa- tion obliges the Russian Communist Party and the Russian proletariat to justify the hopes placed upon them by the Eastern nations. We know very well that we would never have succeeded in preserving the independ- ence of the Soviet Republics in our present situation of capitalist en- circlement had we.not formed an united front between the oppressed nation- alities and the proletariat from the Baltic Sea to the farthest Asiatic plains. The Russian” Vendee delib- erately chose the borderlands of the old Russian Empire for their offens- ive against the victorious proletariat of Moscow and Leningrad. And it was only the fact that we had behind us the sympathy of millions of the population in these borderlands that of force, and therefore such a govern- ment with a variable composition cannot take upon itself any interna’ tional obligations. Monsieur Milyukov considered that his legal analysis must create a fearful impression on the Western European bourgeois gov- ernments and withhold them from recognizing the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. However, com- rades, the very fact that this element of force is lacking in the organization of our union forms the tremendous power of our moral influence over na- tionalities taking part in our Union. The other means whereby we suc- ceeded in uniting the different nation: alities into one brotherly amalgama- tion was the socialization of the riches and natural resources of the country and converting them into the publis property of the population of the U. S. 5S. R. According to the theery of bourgeois state law all the riches and natural resources are the property of that nation that exists on this bourgeois theory of law. Natur- ally the question of sea routes, ports, borders, and customs acquires enor: mous importance and is the source of armed conflicts between bourgeois states. The formation of the Soviet Union advanced a new theory of state law, where the question of bordegs has a secondary importance. In our Unien a man from Murmansk has the same right to the Black Sea Ports and the Donets Basis as a peasant from Poltava or a miner in the Donets coal basta. At the same time the populace of Odessa and the Don basin haye the same rights to the Siberian gold minas ag the Siberian peasant or a no- mad from Turkestan. You understand comrades that the question of borders between states forming the Soviet Union, can have only an administrat- ive importance in such a state of af- fairs, end cannot cause any conflicts. The formation of our Union must be © powerful weapon of propaganda m the bands of our European parties, since it gives them the ability to campere the methods of solving the national question adopted by the So- viets and those applied by the bour- geois states. This ig why our ex- perisnee must become the property of afl the European proletariat, I wish to gonclude my speech with this gen- omuiention and I know that in the comtnistson on the national question tast will be formed at the Fifth Con- s*ees wo shal] be able to find those Practical solutions that will stimulate the national movements in different countries and impart to them a revo- lutionary character. The time for declarations of a general charaeter has passed; we have now a period of creative revolutionary work in the celonies and among national minori- ttes. If we fulfil these tasks we will have created half the chances for the success of the international revolution to which we are devoted and which !s guarded for the workers of the world by the Communist International, (Ap- plause.) Telephone Monroe 2284 Genova Restaurant ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1238 Madison Street ' NN. E. Cor. Elizabeth St. Spaghetti and Ravioli Our - Special Arrangements for Parties on Short Notice Res. .1622 8. Trumbull Ave. Phone Rockwell 50560 ‘ MORDECAI SHULMAN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW 701 Association Build 19S. La Salle Street CHICAGO Dearborn 8657 Central 4945-4947