The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 27, 1924, Page 7

The Discussion on Part A Year of Party Progress Being a Record of Difficulties Overcome, of Party Achievements, and the Part Played Therein by the C. E. C. and by the Minority. By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER, JAMES P. CANNON and A. BITTELMAN. The minority in their articles have challenged the leadership of the C. E. C. majority. The minority charged us with lack of initiative and aggres- siveness. The farmer-labor opportun- ists of the minority are attempting to make a case against the C. E. C. majority for its alleged failure to foresee events and precipitate devel- opments in the class struggle. _ This compels us to make a reply which will show the membership the real achievements of the party under the leadership of the present C. E. C. I nmaking our reply, we will be guid- ed by the following considerations. First, truthfulmess to faets and real- ity. Second, proper regard for the history of our party and for the ob- jective conditions that were confront- ing our Work during the past year. And, third, Leninist objectivity and mereilessness in the estimation of past performances, in admitting our own mistakes aud in drawing les- sons therefore for our future work. Dangerous. Inflation. This article deals with the term of Office of the present central executive committee, i. e., the period between Janvary and December of 1924. It was a year full of difficulties for our party and its leadership. To men- tion only a few of these difficulties; The collapse of the third party alli- ance, the big sweep to LaFollette, the breakdown of the arrangements perfected by the St. Paul convention the change in our election policy, the bitter war of the reactionaries against our membership and sympathizers in trade unions, and, last but not least. the remnants of the internal factional struggle with an organized caucus of the minority functioning thruout the country and with the main executive office of the party, the office of exe- cutive secretary in the hands of the minority opposition. It was a difficult year for our par- ty. The split of July 3, placed us in a state of isolation which threatened for a while to cut off most of our connections in the labor movement. In addition to all these very serious obstacles to progress in our work, | | self in all claim, our party is much more real- _ istic, much more practical and, conse- quently, much more effective in its _ work than ft has ever been before. _ The period of wild maneuvers based exclusively upon a policy of binff, the : + ty circulars, the theory of measuring the effectiveness of Communist pol- icy by the amount of publicity space and by the size of headlines appear- ing im the capitalist press, which was So typical of the former C. E. C., the days of such leadership, we hope, are gone forever. The Workers Party in the Elections. AS a tegacy of the day of “grand maneuvers,’ the present central exe- cutive Majority, immdeiately upon as- sulning o.uce, found itseif mexiricably mvoived in the pursuit of an imme- diate political objective, which was Lotaily beyond the power of our par- ty to achieve under the prevailing cir- cumstances.» We mean the objective of creating a united farmer-lavor par- ty in the presidential elections and thereby defeat the La¥oliette infiu- ence upon the so-called ciass farmer- labor movement. fhe present C. E. C. did everything that was possible to achieve tuat ob- sective, iil uoing 80 we were con- unualiy hampered by the minority wm wae C. BE. C. which was bent upou putting into eifect the August thesis, tat is, the creation of a tarmer-labo: party, ou tie basis of the united fron. irom above instead of a real uniteu iront irom the bottom with the broaa iarmer-labor movement, upon the bus- 1s of an immediate program of partia: demands. Beginning wiih the firsi meeting of-the present C. E. C. in January aud up until May, our prin- ciple political eitorts were directed towards one end, a national farmer- savor ticket and party as against the chird party LaFollette ticket. In this effort we were defeated thru no fault Ji Our OWn. Why? Our answer is because La- olietteism was stronger among the inasses than Communism, because petty bourgeois illusions (which mean -aFolietteism) were and still are dominating the minds of the farmer- iabor movement. When the old C. 6. C., im its opportunistic rush for leadership, decided that we must set up a farmer-labor party as against a thira party, it set for our party an impossible task. The present C. E. C, majority did not realize the im- possibility of this task until the June 17 convention. The situation quite clear after the July 4 conference of the C. P. P. A. Then grasping the situation with initiative, we cut loose 2 PESE5E ae HH alate basi H : ed its Popularizing our Program on Unem- ployment. it was thru the second national conference of the T. U. EB. L. and up on the initiative of our industrial de- partment that our party made known for the first time its program and tactics for the organization of the unemployed. Sometime later the old Cc. E. C. (now the minority), in line with its lack of sense for reality and understanding of concrete situations, proposed to immediatély begin the ac- tual organization of councils of un- employed, thereby thru premature or- ganizational steps, endangering the success of what is bound to become a great movement. Luckily for our party and for its unemployment program these prema- ture organizational steps were not taken. The present C. E. C., after adopting a compicte policy on unem- ployment at its March meeting, pro- ceeded to popularize the issue, our unemployment program and proposed methods of organization. By instruc- tion of the C. E. C. majority the ques- tion of unemployment was made one of the major issues in every campaign carried on by our party on the eco- nomic and political field. In spite of all provocations of the minority, the Cc. E. C. refused to begin prematurely the actual organization of councils of unemployed which because the sit- uation was not ripe, would have re- sulted in complete failure, thereby asting the efforts of the W. P. and serediting a powerfal organization- i slogan for future use. Our struggle against unemployment ‘s still in its propaganda stage. Dur- ‘ng the election campaign alone the party distributed a quarter of a mil- lion of leaflets on unemployment and sold 20,000 copies of a pamphlet writ- ten by Comrade Browder. We are ef- fectively propagating our demands for the unemployed and slogan of organ- ization thereby preparing the ground for organization work which we pro- pose to start the moment conditions become ripe for it. Teaching our Party Methods of Or ganization. The present C. E. C. has devoted a great deal of its attention to prob- lems of organization, which were ne- glected by the former C. E. C. We realize that policies, programs and resolutions alone, even when correct, do not themselves build a party. When we assumed office we found that the party was totally out of balance as regards the various phases of its ac- tivities, and that systematic recruit- ing of new members was a matter not appreciated by the minority. The conception that the old C. E. C. had of organization was mainly that of writ- ing articles once in a while in the press. We set to work to infiltrate into our party a few of the basic prin- ciples of Communist organization. At the March meeting of the C. E. C. we adopted a statement on party activ- EE SSE SER ee en a a RR RR a y la sks DAILY WORKER. It covered in a most thoro manner ‘our - immediate ‘asks on the industrial field, and also the question of shop nuclei. It laid particular stress on the unemploy- ment situation and our program for it. It contained a special section on educational work. It was a program not only of what to do but also of how to do it. It called for the most thoro department- alization, from the bottom up, of every unit of the party in accord with the various specialized activities contain- ed in the program. It also provided for an effective system of check-up and control to secure the systematic carrying out of the program of action. This program is progressively being put into operation. Insofar as our par- ty is functioning and moving forward, it is doing so under the direction of and in line with the program of action of the C. E. C. Establishing a Real Industrial De- partment. Another major accomplishment of the party during the past year was the establishment and perfection by the present C. E. C. of a real industrial department. This department is a vital organ of our party. Thru its policies, connections and machinery, our party is reaching out into the depths of the American labor move- ment and is establishing contact with the most elementary struggles of the organized workers. It is a real depart- ment, with subdivisions being estab- lished in every unit of the party, functioning under the direct super- vision of a national committee and a national director, which in their turn are supervised and directed by the central executive committee. For the first time the D. E. C.’s and other party units are taking serious hold of the industrial work as regular work of our party. . The department is carrying on its work in accord with a definite pro- gram, the program of the Trade Union Edueational League, which is the in- dustrial program of our party. This new program of the T. U. E. L. was submitted some six months ago by Comrade Foster to the R. [. L. U. and was accepted unanimously with a few additions by Comrades Lozovsky, Johnson and Dunne. On the basis of this industrial program of the party which in many respects is a model program for the development of mili- tant left wings im reactionary trade unions, the militants in the American unions are carrying on their work. During the past year our comrades and sympathizers in the unions had to withstand and resist the most ter- rific onslaughts of tne bureaucracy. In nearly every industry the left wing was compelled to carry on a bitter struggle for life, and in these strug- gles the industrial department of the party played a leading part. In the recent elections in the miners’ union and in the carpenters’ union the left wing was exceptionally well organized and carried on an intensive propaganda for the policies of the T. U. E. L. The Communist strength verte rs