The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 27, 1924, Page 10

| The Discussion on Party Tasks WHY I SUPPORT THE MINORITY POLITICAL STRATEGY (Continued from page 5) to initiate this farmer-labor move- ment. It is very likely that we will not pass thru the stage of social-demo- cratic parties in the United States and that the development will be in the direction of a big capitalist party, a progresive-petty bourgeois party and a labor party controlled by the Com- munists. Now that the grip of the trade union bureaucracy and of the petty bour- geoisie on the workers is at a low ebb, owing to the dissolution of the LaFollette movement, our strategy must again be to get a hold politically of their imagination and crystallize it into a definite organization and thus eliminate the possibility of the left wing being absorbed politically by our enemies. Here again the minority strategy offers the possibility of maneuvering and of eliminating the labor party as @ factor on the side of our enemies, while the majority delivers it to them. However, our propaganda must be conducted in such a manner and the preparations even of our own party arranged in such a manner, that the work of organizing the farmer-labor party will take place during the com- ing economic crisis. Liquidating the Workers Party. Of all the silly accusations launched against the minority, this one takes the prize. How a farmer-labor party composed of affiliated organizations and under our leadership, which means without individual leadership, can lead to the liquidation of the Workers Party, must yet be an un- divulged secret in the chest of the majority, for so far they have not yet revealed it. In such a party the only way to affiliate is to join the Workers Party or by being a member of a union, society, etc. In a party of the type of the labor party of Great Britain, owned and controlled by the bureaucracy, there is far greater dan- ger of that sort and is the main reason for the numerical weakness of the Communist Party, the left wing out- side of the Communists being obsorbed by the labor party. Not only would the Workers Party not be liquidated, but would become the dyanmic force within it. It would make it possible for us to conduct recruiting campaigns to get individual members within these organizations on a scale never attempted by us before. This strategy will put the Workers Party to the front in the true sense. It is flexible, while the majority’s tac- tics would put us into a political straight jacket that would revert into opportunism on the industrial field and into sectarianism on the political field. The Workers Party will get to the fore politically in as much as it got industrially thru the united front tactics thru the left bloc united front]. tactics formed under the auspices of]. the T, U. E. L., and it will consolidate our industrial strength, and give us the medium to effectively combat the petty-bourgeois political movement wherever and whenever it may arise. Farmer-Labor Party and Opportunism. How can we be at the head of a party with a reformist program with- out sinking our whole movement into the swamp of opportunism? Indus- trially, it seems to me, we are keeping out of that swamp by the mere skin of our teeth. We will surely sink into it unless we make our followers there politically class conscious. The com- ing struggles even for immediate de- mands will so react upon capitalism, which is in a precarious condition, that they are bound to become more and more intense. This gives the struggles a revolutionary implication and pre vents them from sinking into the reformism of pre-war days. It seems, however, that Comrade Foster conceives of the labor party only as a respectable affair, organized! societies, co-operatives and every back to its se by the bureaucrats. And since, in his opinion, the bureaucrats are definitely lined up for a petty-bourgeois move- ment in one form or other, of course, there is no room for a labor party of his conception. But labor party ad- vocated ‘by the minority is not a party nicely camouflaged, ‘with us in the background trying not to capture it. On the contrary, the labor party pro- posed by the minority is a roughneck affair, to be organized in the stress of the struggle and whose leadership is not to be camouflaged. The farmer-labor party slogan can- not swing any masses into action at this time, says the majority. How far would they swing even for amal- gamation? Not very far. Perhaps amalgamation, as we envisage it, will never be realized, and the unions as at present constituted will go down with the present leadership, and new ones may have to built on an indus- trial basis. Certainly the “labor con- gress” is not a slogan that appears to have a great drawing power on the masses, but conditions and our activity may make it powerful. While for the labor party many unions, internation- al, state and city and local bodies, went on record and a great agitation has been developed for the last three years. With the success of the Brit- ish labor party dangling in front of the workers, they certainly think along the lines of a labor party to the extent that they think politically at all, And considering that they are not ready for Communism, the next economic crisis, together with our activity, will make it possible to swing them en masses into political action. It need not be a political party for parlimentary action, as the British party is, but one that will follow our lead. Slogans are of value to the extent of the masses we can swing behind them. Yes, the politically frozen: ter- ritory of the United States has yielded us sufficient not to abandon it to the mercies of the petty buorgeoisie, but on the contrary, profiting by our mis- takes and misconceptions in the past we should buckle down to build a mili- tant farmer-labor party, thru which we will reach our goal, the mass Com- munist Party. It will not be a respect- able farmer-labor party, neither will it be created in a year or so, ina hectic, get-rich-quick manner. Nevertheless, it is the best way to reach out among the masses politically, to combat the petty bourgeois and to establish the Communist Party as a powerful body politically. : a caeueriet ead onal. see: SE mae OE ‘MAJORITY ADVOCATES POLITICAL DUALISM By ELMER P, BOICH. N the December issue of DAILY WORKER we read Comrade Can- non’s articie in which he states that’ “The outstanding charactertistic of the right wing always and everywhere ‘is its political cowardice.” Now I have nothing against Com- rade Cannon personally, in fact. I look upon him and Comrade Foster as two of our ablest leaders in the party. Their ability and courage have been displayed upon more than one occa- sion. Their leadership in some of this country’s most important strikes must be well remembered. But their prominence cannot and will not belittle their opponents of the minority, for, in fact, it is the first time that I ever heard anybody accus- ing Comrade Ruthenberg with _politi- cal cowardice. Comrade Ruthenberg’s history is an open book with which we are very familiar. In so far as courage is concerned few are his equal. So much for the personalities. Now I shall deal with the fundamental issue involved. We are told by our majority that the farmer-labor party is no longer in demand, therefore, we must forget all about it. What brot our majority to this conclusion is be- yond my power to understand. It may be longing for good times, peaceful enjoyment of life, so that we then we will ask: are we not? : For a period of three long years Communists have been working for a labor party in the unions, fraternal ‘ther workers’ organization. After ‘ears of hard labor we met with great uccess everywhere, Four big labor inions endorsed the labor party idea. Powerful international unions were ‘orced by their own membership to ict and their delegates introduced resolutions for a labor Party in A. F, of L. conventions, Communists took the leadership in the fight for a labor party and amalgamation.. They were feared and hated by reactionary labor leaders. We bitterly condemned the socialist party and its leaders. They were traitors in our eyes because they woudn’t stand by the fight for a labor party. Then reaction set in, Communists and sympathizers were expelled by dozens from labor unions. Gompers reigned supreme. But did we change our trade union policy just because we suffered defeat in the first skir- mish? Oh! no! That would be a crime against the working class. We were expelled but workers still re- mained under the influence of Wall Street lieutenants who were and still are even more conservative and a great deal more reactionary than the petty bourgeois leader, LaFollette. Our duty as Communists was and still is to work our way back to the unions, back to the organized section of the working class! This was and is a correct policy for Communists to pursue—100 per cent correct. Now, comrades. imagine a Commun- ist delegate to the A. F, of L. conven- tion. A resolution for a labor party is introduced by the Molders and A. I. T. W. U. delegates. This is the fruit of our toil and the product of our labor. What position is a Communist going to assume under these circum- stances? He cannot vote for the reso- ‘ution, for he would violate party disci- pline and be subject to expulsion from the Workers Party, since the central executive committee is on record against the labor party and he, as a Communist, cannot ignore its deci- sion, On the other hand to vote against the resolution would mean only one thing and that is, surrender to Gom- perism. Could he as a Communist support the arch enemies of Com- munism? The answer is: Never! By abstain- ing from voting he would again place himself in a centrist and cowardly position, unbecoming a Communist. Do you see such a delegate would find himself between the devil and the deep sea. All this thanks to blunders of our majority! A Communist Catechism ‘se More By MAX BEDACHT & JAY LOVE. STONE. 19, Question—Where does the Can. mon group get the brazen ef. frontery to call the Marxian group in the party liquidators? Answer—That’s more of the cam- paign mud-slinging in which Comrade Cannon is unsurpassed and unsurpass- able. That’s his most effective way There are only two ways of liqui- dating a Communist party. (1) The dissolution of the organization. (2) Robbing the organizations of its func. tions and thus condemning it to slow and certain death. or rather mislead Questions and Answers ing to make out of a party of action @ Bolshevik party, a party of mere propaganda, a menshevik party. That is liquidation with a vengeance, On the one hand, the Foster-Cannon |group maintains that it is opposed tc @ farmer-labor party slogan because there is no mass demand for it, They i : e / ; s g i i ; iT F it il | G : if : H HE é J g ZF bge s H aL E ri p i | = 3 2 F | - \ t