The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 13, 1924, Page 5

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. SEPTEMBER 13, 1924, SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. Three Principles of the Program of Action By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER. HE development of the Workers Party into a mass Communist Party is a tremendous task, one that calls for the exercise of the utmost intelligence, militancy and courage of the whole membership. The work of party building must be carried on much more planfully, continuously, and determinedly than is now the i case. There is far too much sluggish- ness, too many lackadaisical methods in existence at present: The sooner our party gets rid of these evidences of youthfulness the sooner it will lay the basis for a real organization. In the program of action, recent- ly adopted by the Central Executive Committee and then laid before the membership as a whole, there is of- fered the means to develop our party along the way it must go if it is to take on the ideology, structure, and functions of a real Communist mass party. The party units, high and low, should study this program care- fully and put its provisions diligently into effect. . Three principles of the program of action deserve especially to be called to the attention of the membership. These are, (a) the concept of a bal- anced program of work; (b) the crea- tion of the machinery necessary to get this work accomplished; (c) the means to make this machinery actual- ly work. The first deals with the ide- ology, the second with the structure, and the third with the functioning of the party. Let us consider these prin- ciples one at a time: A Balanced Program of Work. Because of the complexities of mod- ern social organization, the Commun- ist Party perforce must carry on ac- tivities simultaneously in many spheres. This necessity is seen best expressed, of course, where the party is in power. Then it has to’ super- vise and direct every living institu- tion, including the government, the in- dusties, agriculture, the army, the trade unions, the schools, the co-oper- atives, etc., etc. The party must have the breadth of vision not only to de- velop proper policies for all these in- stitutions, but also to put them into effect simultaneously and continuous- ly. Great injury, if not actual disas- ter, results if any of these urgent tasks are neglected. * Even under capitalism the need for a highly diversified activity exists, al- tho naturally upon a minor scale than in a proletarian society. Our party is confronted with a multitude of tasks, all imperatively demanding attention. It must, of course, wage a militant struggle against capitalism at all points, including the carrying on of vigorous election campaigns, creation of united fronts around burning poli- tical issues, leading of strikes, war- ring against the reactionary union bureaucracy, organizing the unorgan- ized, establishing shop committees, defending class war prisoners, etc., etc. But while the party is waging this struggle, which is its reason for being, it must not forget the vital tasks of educating its membership, of utilizing every possible opportunity to attract sympathetic working class elements into the party, of re-organ- izing itself upon the basis of shop nuclei, of building the party press, etc., etc. In short, we must not only use the party continuously in the class war, but we must also carry on continuously the process of strengthening it numerically and ide- ologically. Unfortunately our party member- ship has not yet reached the point where it realizes the necessity for such continuous work on all the fronts of party activity. A most de- cided tendency is for the members to concentrate upon certain issues, whether these in given instances be the maintenance of some struggling paper, the organizing of labor parties, or the carrying on of trade union work, and to disregard everything else. Consequently, vitally necessary work is not done. The final effect is that as a whole the party has neglect- ed many of its most urgent tasks, in- cluding the bringing in of new mem- bers and the education of the mem- bership at large. The tendency to neglect the industrial work is also quite marked, only a very small per- centage of the members taking any interest or part in it whatever. Na- turally, the party suffers from this tendency to neglect ‘necessary work; it fails to properly exploit the oppor- tunity to develop itself into a well- rounded mass organization. A leading principle of the program of action aims to correct this evil by educating the party to the necessity for carrying on work systematically and educating itself and the masses, it will begin to make real strides to- words its goal of a mass Communist Party. The Necessary Mactinery. It is not enough, however, that the membership be educated to the neces- sity for activity in all the fields above indicated and then equipped with the necessary policies. The party must also be organized to put these policies into effect. This the Program of Ac- tion proposes to accomplish thru a series of committees for its various policies. For an organization, whether it is the W. P., a trade union, or whatnot, to legislate without creating the ma- chinery necessary to carry out its de- cisions is futile. Nothing is accom- plished. Everyone engaged in any kind of organized activity knows this well. To get results an individual or a committee must be charged with the responsibility. The mass cannot WHEN YOU ARE CALLED UPON TO CELEBRATE “DEFENSE DAY"— — Remember the Results of the Last War! and continuously in all the fields open to it, and then to provide the neces- sary policies for such work. The sev- en policies of the program of action, including the election campaign, in- tensification of the trade union. work, the membership drive, the DAILY WORKER drive, the reorganization of the party upon the basis of the shop nuclei, the organization of the unemployed, and the extension of the educational work, constitute a bal- anced program of work correspond- ing to the most necessary tasks now confronting our party. If the member- ship can be educated into applying these policies vigorously then the power and inflitence of the Workers Party will be énormously increased. Advancing on all fronts simultaneous- ly, fighting the capitalists on the poli- tical and industrial fields, organizing lead itself spontaneously. It must be organized. A case in point: Several years ago the Chicago Federation of Labor voted to hold a mass meeting for Tom Mooney. Ed Nockels went at the job in the usual unorganized way that prevailed in the federation. He merely sent out a letter to the af- filiated local unions inviting their members to attend the meeting. These letters met the customary fate of such communications, winding up mostly in the unions’ waste baskets. Consequently the meeting was a com- plete failure, not over 200 workers at- tending. Indignant at this typical failure, the rebel delegates in the fed- eration determined to really organize a Mooney meeting. They had the fed- eration adopt another motion for a meeting, over the protest of Nockels and Fitzpatrick. Then they created 1S annEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEn ee a big committee to build up the meet- ing. This committee, headed by J. W. Johnstone, hired the Coliseum, the biggest hall in Chicago, got a speaker of national repute, and advertised the meeting widely. Result, 20,000 peo- ple in attendance and one of the greatest labor meetings in the history of Chicago. Organization got results. Many examples such as the forego- ing could be cited to show the value of committee organization. But they are needless. Recognizing the prin- ciple involved, the Program of Action provides organization for each of its policies. In the C. E. C. some one member or committee will be held re- sponsible for the enforcement of each policy. The same principle shall apply in the C. C. C.’s, D. E. G.’s, and local branches. All shall have their com- mittees on the election campaign, in- dustrial work, membership, DAILY WORKER, education, and unemploy- ment. In the smaller branches of 25 or less, every member should be attached to some committee. Only in this manner can results be achieved with the Party policies. The Workers Party must not remain an amorphous “mass; it must become an organized body which actually brings the mem- bership directly into the Party work. The Program of Action provides the way. By now every unit of the Party should have the necessary committees organized to apply the several policies of the Program of Action. Making the Machinery Work. But the setting up of the essential committees is not enough in itself. Such machinery must be made to work. This is a very important con- sideration provided for in* the Pro- gram of Action. Every one with experience in or- ganization work knows that often ommittees are created which do noth- ing. Such committees instead of be- ing a help, hinder even the slight de- gree of action that would take place without them.- They are a delusion and a snare. Hence, the units of our Party must not only establish the necessary committees, but they must see to it that they actually function and are the means of drawing the mass into the work. For thus porpose the Program of Action proposes that all committees and individuals who are instructed to direct the work of applying the poli- cies shall be required to report regu- larly to the units commissioning them. In_the C. E. C., the various .jcommittees must report from time to time relative to the progress that is being made in working out the poli- cies which they are specializing in. The District Organizers shall also sub- mit regular reports to the C. E. C. as to what is being done in their dis- tricts to enforce the Program of Ac- tion, Following out this principle, the D. E. C.’s, C. €. C.’s, and local branches must likewise insist upon periodical reports from the commit- tees they have appointed on the Party Policies. To simply appoint commit- tees and then to let them vegetate is futile. The success of the Program of Action depends upon a constant check being kept upon its series of committees. In addition to being a fighting movement, the Communist Party must be a working movement. Every mem- ber must be a militant, an eager toiler in the cause. Mere dues payers and card carriers are of little or no value to our Party. The time will come, with our growing power and prestige, when they will be weeded out as use less lumber, The Communist move- ment is a poor resting place for (Continued on page 5.)