The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 27, 1924, Page 8

~~ ee | The Discussion A YEAR OF PARTY PROGRESS (Conitnued from page 3) lief for the unemployed; demand that all the forces in the Pan-Ameri- can Federation of Labor be mobilized for a struggle against American im- perialism; condemnation of imperial- ist schemes against China; demand that the R. IL. L. U. plan for inter- national unity be endorsed and the solidarity of labor be achieved; firo- test against criminal syndicalism laws, against the deportation ‘of Oates, Mahler, Moran, and Nigra; the organization of the youth; release of Mooney, Billings, Ford, Suhr, Rangel, Kline, Sacco, Vanzeiti, and other political prisoners; condemnation of the Ku Klux Klan and American Legion. This program was designed to serve as a basis of action in the trade unions to rally the masses to the left wing. Special mention should be made of the resolution “For a la- bor congress,” which contains a prac- tical program of partial demands, all of which respond to immediate burn- ing needs of the masses, and which provides for united front action by the organized labor movement in al- liance with the Workers Party. It is highly significant that all the minor- ity contributed to making up a pro- gram for the A. F. of L. convention was a motion to add the opportunist slogan “For a ‘class’ farmer-labor par- ty.” They violently objected to fight- ing in the convention for the Workers Party. In connection with this we must mention the cohvention of the Pan- American Federation of Labor held in Mexico City, Mexico. The party had its representative, Comrade Johnston- in the field with a definite program of policy and organization designed to achieve two aims. One, to pro- mote and unify the left wing move- ment in the trade unions of North, Central and South America under the leadership of the R. I. L. U. Two, to co-ordinate the activities of the Communist Parties of the United States and Mexico for common strug- gle against American imperialism in Latin-America. The only improve- ment the minority could suggest to our Pan-American program was to insert some additional comas, semi- colons and incidentally an addition- al word. It must be stated in passing that the minority exhibited a woeful lack of consistency and imagination when they failed to propose a Pan-Ameri- can farmer-labor party as an amend- ment to our program. But that may come yet. It is also noteworthy that altho the C. E. C. adopted a Pan- American program, upon the report of Comrade Lovestone sometime in May, the executive secretary could find no better use for it than to put it in his files. Now, however, the Cc. E. C. has taken the matter into its hands and is determined to see that its program is carried into ef- fect. / Educational Activities. This was a field sadly neglected by the former C. E. C., who could see nothing but the farmer-labor party campaign. We realized the burning need for systematic Bolshevist educa- tion in the party and at the first op- portunity established a special edu- cational department with a respon- sible national director, Comrade Can- non and a committee under the super- vision of the C. B. C, Already the party is realizing the beneficial results of the activities of the educational department. There have been established party schools and classes in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, also a large network of elementary study classes in the A. B. C. of Communism, thru- out the country. There are also operation circuit study classes in the districts of Ohio, Dlinois and Penn- sylvania. Provisions have been made by the educational department for the publication of a library of Commun- ism to contain theoretical books on the fundamentals of Leninism. We realize that this is only a be ginning, but a beginning in the right : fadopted by the‘C. EB. C. direction and with proper regard for the immediate’ needs of the party. The present C. E. C. intends to_re- main true to its conception of a bal- anced program of party activities in which Bolshevist. education occupies an important: place. Thesis and ‘Work on Shop Nuclei It was the ‘present C. E. C. that made the first’ earnest attempt to place the shop nuclei proposition’ as an immediate organizational task of the party. ‘Thanks to our efforts, a practical ‘way has been found to the applitation of the principle of shop nuclei to the specific conditions of our own party. This practical program is embodied in a-special thesis recently This: shop nuclei thesis on the most ecompicated and difficult organizational question confronting our party was worked out by the majority. Months ago we set out to begin to educate our party membership to the necessity of starting the reorganiza- tion on the shop nuclei basis. Soon afterwards the first organizational steps were actually taken by our Chi- cago district. At present the situa- tion is ripe enough for similar steps in a number of other districts where there is enough concentration of our members in industry to’ permit such action, Strengthening the Communist Morale and Understanding of our Membership Another major achievement of our party during the past year was the general strengthening of the morale and Communist understanding of our membership. This was no easy task to accomplish in the face of an or- ganized minority caucus functioning thruout the country in flagrant viola- tion of Comintern decisions, ever since the 1923 party convention and until this very hour. The C. EB. C. majority have been working on the theory of discipline advocated by Lenin and practiced by the C. I. This theory is, that the basis of Communist discipline is con4 fidence of the membership in the leading men and. committees of thé party and that this confidence can be won only in one way, namely, by the ability of the party to develop and apply correct political strategy and tactics. To win the confidence of the membership in our ability ‘to give the party correct Communist leadership—this was the great am- bition of the present C. B. C. It was for this reason that representatives of the C. E. C. frequently addressed joint membership meetings to fami- liarize the party with the plans and objectives of the C. E. C. And in every such instance the C. B. C. re- ceived the almost unanimous approv- al of the rank and file of the party. We attempted on numerous occa- sions to liquidate the organized ille- gal opposition of the minority. It was Comrade Foster who immediately upon his return from Russia made a motion in the C. E. C. providing for a special committee, consisting of an equal number of representatives of the C. E. C. and of the minority, to remove the factional basis of our dis- agreements and to liquidate the or- ganized opposition of the minority. We met the minority more than half way. We conceded them a number of important organization appoint- ments as an indication of our will- ingness to work with them on the bas- is of mutual confidence, we submit- ted our program of action, a major achievement of our party, not direct- ly to the C. E. C., but first to the minority group in order that they might identify themselves with it and thus share in the credit of initiating the program, We regret to say that the minority, altho always willing to accept our concessions, never for a moment relinquished its caucus-or- ganization and systematic opposition. This fact, together with the addition- al fact that the executive secretary of party belonged to the minority 0} tion, made it very difficult for B. C. to put into effect more all ites policies and decisions. ig = rs) ee latest attempt to pacify the op- 4 position was initiated by Comrade Cannon on the eve of the party dis- cussion, with the idea of removing if possible the purely factional sting from differences of opinion on policy. We proposed informal discussions with the minority of the immediate political tasks of the party in order to ascertain whether or not a com- mon’ basis of policy could be found, but the minority was more intent up- on discussing the make-up of the ‘next ©: B. C. and similar questions of party control than ‘problems’ of pol- iey. This made it impossible for us to proceed, because we held--to the Botshevist principle that the basis of unity in a Communist Party is agree- ment on policy and not the arbitrary division of organizational control. The minority, however, thought other- wise, consequently our latest attempt to liquidate the organized’ minority opposition came’ to: naught. A fur- the reason is now clear: the minor- ity is one of the right wing tendencies in the party. a But the party as a whole, if not the minority, responded splendidly to every effort of the C. E. C. to im- prove the morale and understanding of the organization. The membership particularly appreciated the readiness of the C. E. C. to admit mistakes and to correct them quickly. Something that the minority never dares to do, even in the case of their pet third party alliance which was rejected by the Communist Internptional. Till this very day the minority cannot muster the courage to say whether the Comintern was right or wrong. In our ideological struggle against the remnants of the Two-and-a-Half International we have been making steady progress, despite the numer- ous tactless provocations of the mi- nority which went as far as supplying misinformation to the C. E. C. We adhered strictly to the tactics of the Cc. L, applied to Serrati, Smeral, and many others, which was to defeat these ‘Two-and-a-Half International tendencies ideologically, to prove them* wrong and politically bankrupt in the eyes of the membership, tc win all the proletarian elements of the party to the point of view of the C. 1, and to compel the carrying out of the policies of the C. I. when neces- sary even by means of disciplinary measures. Together with the C. L. we realized that the Bolshevization of our party is not a one-act affair, to be ac- complished overnight by means of senseless persecutions, but a process of education and merciless ideological struggle against menshevism, oppor- tunism, and centrism. This was the policy of the C. B. C. majority car- ried out daily in every phase of its activities. We fought to the best of our abilities every deviation from the %. L policies, such as, the remnants of he ideology of the MTwo-and-a-Hal’ international, the right wing farmer laborist tendency, as well as_ those temporary deviations of which we our- selves have been guilty. We strain- ed all our efforts to draw into party leadership, to bring to the fore all the proletarian elements of the party, the active workers from the shops. And in contradistinction from the pseudo-intellectuals of the minority we believe that our movement is es- sentially a proletarian movement and that its ideology and phsychology must be permeated with that of the class conscious revolutionary prole- tariat. As a result of these efforts our par- ty is now ideologically more homo- geneous than ever before in its his- tory. The attendance at branch meet- ings is now better, the internal life of our branches is richer and more intensive. The dues payments have never been so high as they are at present. Our party is continually growing in numbers. We are getting better organized and more closely knit together. All this makes us feel confident that our party is now on the right road to become an important factor in the everyday struggles of the American workers, ‘ The DAILY WORKER. A major achievement of the C, B. C. has been the management and op- eration of The DAILY WORKER. In- oma APN ASE MAIR SSE ON ARAN stead of founding only our daily paper with the fund raised last year as was planned by the former C. EB. C., we have purchased a building to house ; The DAILY WORKER and the nation- al office of the party as well, and have established a modern and com- plete printing plant to take care of all the -party’s printing. ment ‘of this plant as well.as the of- fice end has been economical and effi+: cient in the extreme, to the end that the deficit of The DAILY WORKER for 1924, is much lower than we had dared to hope (only $20,000). : But it was not this phase of the ~ ‘work ,which brought the party its. Nor have the educa-— greatest gains. tion and propaganda values of The DAILY WORKER been its chief ad- vantages. It has been in the field of organization that The DAILY.-WORK- ER has brought us the greatest bene- fits. For due to the planful organiza- tional methods used in The DAILY WORKER, the organizing of the army of agents, we have developed a rich field for making new mass contacts. Instead a haphazard attempt at build- ing circulation, an organized army of subscription agents is being develop- ed who are not simply sub-hustlers, but actually rapidly developing, cap- able organizers for the party. The formalizing of this organization into The DAILY WORKER Builders is an- other step in advance which is already yielding further results. Centralizing the Party Press. The decentralized state of our par- ty press which the C. E. C. inherited from its preceding administration was an outrage and a nuisance. The Weekly Worker was printed in one place and edited and managed in an- ether. The Liberator, Labor Herald, and Soviet Russia Pictorial all had separate editorial staffs and adminis- trations. The Party Literature De- partment had another. As long ago as last January the C. E. C. decided to eliminate this waste and inefficiency. The first step was the amalgama- tion of the three monthly magazines into The Workers’ Monthly. Thus the party has one monthly official or- gan instead of three and instead of three editors and,two assistants, there is only one editor. The DAILY WORKER has_ taken charge of the management of The Workers’ Month- ly and with the addition of one office sirl to its staff, it does the work for- merly done by the three business administrations which employed from four to five persons. The resultant saving to our party in wages alone amounts to over $12,000 a year, But the monetary saving is not che only nor by any,means the great- est achievement. The centralizing of ‘he production of our monthly with "he DAILY WORKER makes it pos- ‘ible to produce both a better daily and a better monthly. The centraliz- ing of the distribution makes it easier to increase the circulation of both The DAILY WORKER and The Work- ers’ Monthly. The C. E. C. has now decided to centralize in a similar manner the party’s Literature Department, so that beginning the first of the year, The DAILY WORKER will be charged with the administration and distri- bution of this important arm of our party. This will not only make new savings for the party, but also be- cause of centralizing of the selling machinery the party will for the first time begin really to permeate the working class with Communist books and pamphlets. Shortcomings to be Overcome. We should not close our eyes to a number of shortcomings in our activ- ities. Some of our language sections are not as yet sufficiently close to the party organization. Communist work among women employed in in- dustry, among the Negro masses, and among the agricultural workers and poor farmers has hardly begun. This much, however, must be placed on record, that the present C. B. C. ma- jority succeeded in relieving the par- ty from several very harmful notions of the minority regarding the policies and forms of organization to be ap- (Continued on Page 6.) The man-' agement of the mechanical | depart-_