The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 13, 1924, Page 8

, 1924, in which he says: eer mwrmnane er The Discussion on Party Tasks FARM ER- LABOR OPPORTUNISM. (Continued from page 3) nominee would be to destroy the class farmer-labor party as a mass organization.” The Lesson to be Drawn As I stated in the opening of this article, our labor: party campaign has been waged under very serious dif- fienlties, due to the lack of a more vigorous and definite movement. for a party of industrial workers and poor farmers. Consequently, mistakes have been madé, many of them verging in- to opportunism. But there is a fun- damental difference in the way the present C, E. C. and the minority have reached to these mistakes. The C. E. C. majority went along with the third party alliance, but now frankly admits in their thesis that this was a mistake. They also recognize such opportunism as developed at St. Paul. More than that, they saw the oppor- tunistic danger in making the elec- tion campaign under the banner of the skeleton national farmer-labor party, so they promptly cut loose from it and launched the Workers Party ticket. Likewise, now the C. BE. C. perceives the opportunistic menace in contin- uing the use of the farmer-labor party slogan when there is no mass sen- timent behind it, so they would avoid this disaster by dropping the farmer- labor party slogan. But the minority are. unregenerate in théir opportunism. They have in- itiated and supported every opportun- istic development in the labor party policy. They still support the Chi- cago split and the August thesis. They did not, in their thesis, admit that the third party alliance was a mis- take. They supported fully such op- portunistic tendencies as developed at {the St. Paul convention. Nor did they justify our election policy of the W. P. running candidates in its own name. Comrade Lovestone was willing to see the Workers Party sacrifice this, its first opportunity to come before the workers nationally in an election cam- paign, in order that the beloved “class” farmer-labor party might be furthered, and they still try to minim- ize the results of the election cam- paign, of which every. Communist should be proud. The. minority now, in the face of the hostile decision of the Comintern, propose in their thesis that the W. P. follow a policy of -pen- etrating the. LaFollette:. movement. Their advocacy: of the dead. farmer- labor party slogan is calculated te plunge the Workers Party head over heels into the swamp of opportunism. The meaning of this contiued and unrelenting opportunism of the minor- ity is quite clear. The majority has made mistakes. It admits them and corrects them. The minority admits nothing, corrects nothing. These farm- er-labor Communists represent the veal right-wing of the Workers Party. They are disappointed with the pro- gress made so far by @ur party. They want quick results, and they are not particular as to what kind of results they get. Their plan is not to carry out the united front principles of the Comintern, but to establish a sub- stitute opportunistic party in place of the Workers Party. The membership must repudiate this dangerous right- wing, liquidating tendency. The way to do it is to defeat overwhelmingly the thesis of the farmer-labor party Communists. THE MINORITY. THEORY OF FAKE UNITED FRONTS By EARL R. BROWDER. 'HE minority in our party discus- sion, led by Comrades Lovestone and Ruthenberg, pose as the defend- ers of the united front. But what kind of united front are they think- ing of? What do they mean by a _ “united front on the political, field”? “We can find a part of the answer in a paragraph written, by, Comrade. Ruth- | enberg in the Liberator for — “As there was -not. in. tne. united States any mass political organiza- tion of workers and. farmers with - which the Workers. Party could join ’ the Fifth Congress: _ the united . 3 in common struggles over immedi- ate issues, thus forming a united front, it was the task of the Work- ers Party to create such an organ- ization on the political field.” There. we have the minority theory in a nutshell. If there are no non- Communist political organizations of the workers which we can approach to offer a united front, then we must create such an organization, so that we can’ thereafter form a united front with it. Not a United Front, But Political | Self-Abuse, Of course, this is not the united front at all as the Comintern explains that tactic. Comrade Zinoviev said at “But comrades, history plays pranks with this slogan (the united front) as indeed it does with many slogans. We adopted the tactics of the tac of revolution at a rege in pe A the struggle had become protracted. © , Some comrades jn our own ranks, in-_ terpreted them, as something totally different, as the tactics,of : evolu-. tion, of opportunism as against the tactics of revolution .,...“. Some comrades endeavored. to, interpret them as an alliance with the social. democracy, a8 a coalition of all ‘labor parties’.” History does indeed play pranks with slogans, but history was never guilty of such a prank as that spon- sored by Comrades Lovestone and ‘| to destroy’ their fantastic conception Ruthenberg, who would not only make thé united front synonymous with a coalition of all “labor parties,” but propose that we ourselves shall as- sume the task of creating those “la- bor parties” with which we should form the coalition. The minority pro- posal is not for a political united front: —it is for a form af political self-: abuge. — eens | United | Front ‘Not. a Parliamentary Combination. “The Communist Parties alone de: fend the interestsiof the proletariat as-a.whole. ‘The tactics of the united front do not at all imply the so-called } ‘election combinations’ at the top; ‘cal- ‘culated to promote parliamentary aims of one kind or another. The tactics of the united front are nothing else but an offer made. by’ the™Com- munists to wage a common struggle with all the workers belonging to oth- er parties or other groups, or not~be- longing ‘to any parties at all, in de- fense of the elementary vital needs of the working class against the’ bour~ geoisie. Any action taken even fr the most insignificant demand. . Ne to refute their identification ‘ofthe united front with the farmer-labor electéral céthbination, ‘and, éspecially, that we must create political parties in order to make a united front with them. HELP! HELP! | » Give a Hand— ‘We are oimenged again. There ig just a load of work piling up in our office and our small force is struggling hard to ‘get it done. If any comrades. have a day, an hour or a minute to spare, COME ON OVER— GIVE US A HAND! THE MAGIC SLOGAN By ISRAEL BLANKENSTEIN. HE united front tactic cannot be ‘based on theoretically eonceived issues and slogans. If its aim—to mobilize the working elass masse: against the capitalist class and to ex- tend. the influence of the Communist Party—is to be realized, it must be based on live issues and on slogans that find a widespread and active re- sponse among the masses of workers. ‘ Is the “class farmer-labor party” such a slogan ‘at the present’ time? ‘The minority contehds, what was good in 1923 is good in 1925. To be'‘sure, in July, 1924, even the ; majority of the minority, was ‘forced to admit that the “class” farmer-labor parties were drowned in the “third party.” This was not unexpected even to the minority. The Pepper-Ruthen- berg thesis on the labor party policy adopted by the last party convention, and which the minority seems to have forgotten, declared: “The workers and exploited farm- ers of the United States have for so many years supported the repub- lican and democratic parties that any organization which breaks away from these old parties will have a tremendous appeal for tnem and they will not differentiate between such a general third party move- ment and the class farmer-labor movement . . . There is great danger that . . . (the existing class farmer-labor groups) will be swept into the third party move- ment and thus the whole movement for a class labor party will be halt- ed FOR SOME YEARS TO COME.” This assertion is repeated over and over. “Uniess there is a national crys- tallization of the labor party move- ment . . . there’ will be NO HOPE for organizing a class labor party or a national scale FOR SOME YEARS TO COME.”, And again, more emphatically: “Unless such a class farmer-labor party is organ- ized on a national scale for the 1924 election the whole movement will be dissipated and DESTROYED FOR YEARS TO COME.” (Second Year of the W. P., pages 51 and 52.) This prediction has come true de- spite the formation of the St. Paul “national: farmer-labor party,” ‘not ‘to mention the minority’s miscarriage, the Fi F. L.oP.< But® to the” niinority “labs farmer-labor party” has become | th | fasmagie phrase: that can at all times’ draw the ‘workers close to’ our party. The “minority ‘thesis instructs us very profoundly:"°°! 20° “The experiences: of the workers and: poorer farmers in the struggle against capitalism will” even a stronger movement for inde- pendent political action ‘than has — ‘existed in the past.’ Sure, sure. We know it. We even know that experience will teach the workers. and poorer farmers ‘that only thru revolutionary action and under the leadership » of the’ Commimnist Party, etc... . .«.-That’s yéry: nice But how will these Communist. plati tudes help us to. find the correct pol Jicy to, hasten this,process? Comradc Kuthenberg expatiates on the themc of experience jn a whole article, with equal results... The .sharpening, of ‘the class struggle.in the, post-war. period. forced. the. workers and poor farmers to leaye the. old Parties, ...There are new and intenser clags. conflicts com- ing in the near future. Therefore, concludes Comrade Ruthenberg, large sections of the workers and farmers will break with the LaFollette move- ment, and our agitation for a class farmer-labor party will hasten this process and will help build our party. Is the situation quite so simple as the minority tries to paint it? The experiences of the workers in the struggles of 1919-1922 were the climax to similar experiences of many years which revealed the republican and democratic parties as the political instruments of the ruling class. In the struggles that are ahead of us the governmental powers that will be used to suppress the working class will again be wielded by the repub- lican party, and this is more likely to strengthen the LaFollette illusion than otherwise. Yes, the disillusion- ment with: the reformist middle class- labor . bureaucratic combination will come, but it will be a much slower process than the, minority is willing to believe and dictates to us an en- tirely. different angle of attack than - the. “class farmer-labor” phrase. . The minority thesis finds evidence . of a fundamental conflict between the . and the | “farmer-labor” , movement “third party”. moyement in the fact that a number of,farmer-labor parties in the western states, including the | Minnesota farmer-labor party which they themselves have repeatedly char- acterized.as.a third party, ran sep- arate tickets in the last election and in the organizational friction between the LaFollette machine and the state “farmer-labor”’ machines. All of which shows only that in some of the western states the third party move- ment has been more definitely crystal- lized than elsewhere, and that the middle class liberal politicians on one hand, and the labor bureaucrats and socialist politicians on the other hand, are fighting for, infiuence and con- trol over the third party movement. Comrade Lovestone tries to prove this “fundamental conflict” by quoting ex- tensively from Mr. Mahoney’s editorials. But unfortunately for Com- rade Lovestone’s argument, the very issue in which his~article appeared carried the news that the farmer-la- bor federation, the labor wing which we helped to organize in the Minne- sota farmer-labor party, unseated the representative of our party by a two- to-one vote, and Comrade Hathaway correctly characterized this act as a complete surrender to the C. P. P. A. As to the farmer-labor parties which maintained their independence of the LaFollette movement,” the North Dakota farmer-labor ‘party was al- ready disposed of by its father, Com- rade Manley. The mass class farmer- labor party of Denver, Colorado, I will leave to somebody who may know what it really represents from personal contact. But of the federat- ed farmer-labor party of Washington county, Pa. I am in a position to in- form the comrades of the ~ minority that, whatever it may have been in 1923, or the early part’ of “1924, at. Teast since May, 1924, it was no more, an a name and a committee of five thembers ‘of Our party. ** > No, there is no indication of a sites: sentiment for a party that would’ fill the imaginary’ void between the C. es P. A. and the Communist Party. A “class farmerlabor party” would at best mean no more than a united front with new Mahoneys and Cramers, and we are under no obligation to create a haven for “left” socialists. “Our field for the application of the united front tactics lies elsewhere, in the fight of the working class masses for Yefinite daily aims and daily demands, Ve all agree that the near future vill bring’ intense class conflicts, It § on these coming struggles that we “aust base our united front tactics, it 's there,’ by exposing the unfitness qnd inability of the labor’ bure ucrats : ‘0 lead the working Class, that we ‘will find “an entering wedge betwe n. the working masses and their treach- ey erous leaders,” including the ©. P. P. leaders. ‘The*Comintern has re- peatedly warned us that in determin- ing the concrete tasks of the united front tactics we must take into consi- deration the condition of the section, how strong and homoge.eous the. Communist Party is. The tasks ahead of us, to bolshevize the party, to re- organize it on a shop nuclei basis, to put the party in condition for active participation and leadership in the movements of the unemployed and in the “outlaw” and spontaneous strikes. that are sire to come, are big enough for any Communist Party. With our slender strength we have no reason to waste any energy on a phantom “class farmer-labor party.” Let its ghost rest in peace. Let us* put to the fore the Workers (Communist) Party. —s AE ARREST RE ABE TN it BE 8 acermanaiuRn a ore mn