The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 3, 1925, Page 10

The Discussion on Party Tasks A MAJOR QUESTION OF COMMUNIST STRATEGY—A MENACE OF DEFEATISM (Continued from page 5) This issue of independent political action which is declared “dead” by the present majority will soon be dis. cussed by every labor union from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Artic to the Gulf. Relying on Demagogy It is admited by both the minority and majority that our farmer-labor policy for the past two and a half years was SUBSTANTIALLY correct. It has more than any other single) factor contributed to the growth of| our party. It has placed the Workers Party on the political map of America. And now the majority of the C. E. C, pose before the membership as the party builders. With characteristic demagogy they proclaim that while they want to build the Workers Party the other group propose to build some- thing else. At this point I want to ask: What did they think they were doing by means of the farmer-labor slogan for the past two years and a half? Build- ing the Workers Party or something else? Their present arguments would seem to indicate that they had in view something else which did not mater- ilize. Let us put the burning question be- fore our party in this manner:—if our manoeuvers on the united political front have in the past brought to the Workers Party certain indubitable gains, gains which if continued would put it on the road to becoming a mass Communist Party, cannot these gains be continued in the future by a correct application of the same policy mod- dified only in so far as to meet chang: ing conditions? Let us analyze the situation correct- ly. The Present Situation The LaFollette campaign did not as yet produce a third party. It was con- dueted by an election alliance which is now dissolved. This alliance con- sisted of many different and divergent elements. Shall we now by rasing appropriate slogans emphasize these differences and sharpen these diver- gencies, or ignore the whole thing? In the last election campaign there were in the LaFollette camp hundreds of thousands of workers because they labored under the illusion that it re- presented the beginning of a party of exploited industrial and agricultural workers, These masses are now fast becoming disillusioned. The action of the El Paso convention of the A. F. of L. abandoning the experiment of independent political action is an at- tempt to lead the masses back to the fold of the old parties. This will be resented by hundreds of thousands of | workers who, while they are not yet |ready for Communism, are definitely turning away from capitalism. What We Must Do Shall we adopt a purist attitude and tell these masses that we will have nothing to do with them until they accept the complete Communist pro- gram? Or shall we hasten this process of disillusionment, separate the poten- tial revolutionists among the masses from reactionary leadership, and while advocating independent political ac- tion at the same time lay the founda- tion of a powerful mass Communist Party in America? The present majority refuses square- ly to meet these issues. They raise in- stead many other irrelevant and in- consequent issues, and prate volubly about the united front from below and above while showing no Marxian un- derstanding of the united front at all. Would not a campaign to establish a class farmer-labor pary, (even if its sole immediate achievement may be only the formation of a left farmer- labor bloc within the general move- ment) involve the application of the united front from below by an appeal to the rank and file of the labor un- ions against the opposition of the reactionary officialdom? But the majority of the C. E. C. pro- pose a policy of folding hands, A POL- ICY OF DEFEAT AND SURRENDER WITHOUT A STRUGGLE, and dare to pose before the membership as a Communist leadership! As against purist dogmatism the minority proposes a vigorou8S cam- paign along both the political and in- dustrial united fronts. As against a policy leading to sectarianism—the building of a mass Communist Party in this country. ALL POWER TO THE MINORITY By PAT H. TOOHEY. pen the writings of the C, BE. C. majority followers the impression is left that there is no sentiment for a farmer-labor party. Altho not a the oretician, not being able to quote Marx and others, I certainly can see the po- liteal childishness of this. Might I ask if it is our function, as Commun- ists, the revolutionary vanguard of the exploited masses to sit idly by and wait for the workers to raise hell over some issue or another and then we, as the hero of old, step in, take the leadship and—etc., etc. Was this the policy pursued by our party on the foreign exception laws? Was there widespread agita- tion and sentiment against this bill, or did our party take the initiative and create the sentiment and agita- tion? Why agitate for a “labor con- gress” (brain child of the majority Hash-slingers). Why drop the F. L. for it? Was there any great amount of sentiment in 1922, as much as in 1924? What caused this tremendous sentiment which existed, as the ma- jority would tell us, up to June of this year? Was it brought about by the ceaseless agitation of our party? Did this sentiment exist when the policy was first adopted, or did the party have to crystallize a germ, to mould that sentiment? If so, then it has been very profitable for the party. But when the majority tells us there is no sentiment for this slogan one is forcibly reminded of the fool who stood by a river bank waiting until the water flowed away before trying to cross. Sentiment for a farmer-labor party exists in Washington county today. To Comrade Blankenstein I would say, go among the workers, associate with them, talk with them, stay among them, suffer with them, worke with them, and then you certainly will be in a position to write, or to speak au- thoritively of the “sentiments” and the “pulse” and the “political tend- encies” of the working class. That eannot be done by holding down a swivel chair daily in Pittsburgh. What C. E. C. Told Us. The LaFoliette movement, or boom, was at its height when the C. E. C. drafted the program of action, or a manifesto dealing with the immediate tasks of the party. Our majority lead- ers, apparently, did not discover what they now claim annihilation of the farmer-labor party by the LaFollette movement, until recently, for in this program of action, adopted unanimous- ly by the C. E. C., we find the follow- ing: plication of the united front policy in the United States, that the problem of the united front ee we the problem of the formation of a labor party. Since that time the party has carried on a consistent united front campaign with the end in view of uniting those workers and farmers who were ready to break with the capitalist parties in a mass farmer-la- bor party with which the Workers Party would be affiliated. ‘This cam- paign has been the major political campaign of our party, “We have during this campaign ad- vanced the cause of independent work- ing class action and made the farm- er-labor party an issue in the Ameri- can labor movement. We can also say, without danger of the statement being challenged, that our party has the greatest gains for itself thru this cam- paign for the labor party. It is thru this farmer-labor party campaign that our party has established itself as a political force in the United States. It is thru this campaign that it has es- tablished its prestige and its leader- ship among the masses of workers and farmers. Nothing has contribut- ed so much to develop our party from a sectarian group to a recognized po- litical foree in the life of the labor movement of this country than our maneuvers in relation to the farmer- labor party. “The central executive committee declares that the campaign for a farmer-labor party was a correct esti- mation of the situation in the United States. It declares further that the campaign for a farmer-labor party must be continued and will be a major campaign of the party in the future.” Why the Sudden “Discovery”? This was presented to the member- ship late in July. The LaFollette boom was at its height. Our central execu- tive committee adopted the complete program unanimously When did the majority discover the basis for their present position? Comrade Foster in an article some time since said the fact that the farmer-labor party was dead came to him wrile sitting in the gallery of the July conference for pro+ pressive political action, Then, why the unanimous decision on the pro- gram of action? Where did this tremendous sentiment disappear in such a short space of time? Alas! Poor Bittelman. _ And Comrade Bittelman. majority standpatter, has this to say later in the campaign: “Shall the workers and poor farmers have a political party of their own, a farmerlabor party?” Answering for the Workers Party, Comrade Bittelman says, “Yes, by all means. Without a party of their own, politics for the workers becomes a farce. It means helping other classes —big, medium and small capital—to fasten ever tighter their grip over the working masses. If the small capi- talists and rich farmers want their own party, let them go to it, But the workers and poor farmers have no business in’such a combination. They have their own interests to defend. which are antagonistic to the inter- ests ‘of all capitalist groups, big, medium, and little. Therefore, let us have a farmer-labor party.” (Pam- phiet: “Parties and Issues in the Election Campaign.”) The minority thesis is a correct Communist thesis. To repudiate the farmer-labor party slogan at this time means that we will drink from the cup of sectarianism, and the after- math is obvious: political isolation and oblivion. ALL POWER TO THE MINORITY! THEY ARE MAKING IT UNANIMOUS By ISRAEL AMTER | ff conceded to LaFollette and the election returns teach us is that there is no labor party in sight. The American Federation of Labor, in their annual convention at El Paso, Texas, have read aright the verdict of the American workers and farmers. and make haste to announce their opposition to a labor party and to reaffirm their time-worn policy of non- Partisan political action, or, as some- times otherwise stated, ‘no politics in the union.’ “Another fact frova which we should draw a lesson is that the farmer-labor party is dead. It sang its swang-song in the recent election. “Indeed. such a ‘labor party’ would have no use other than to do that which the LaFollette supporters so Plainly sought to do during the 1924 campaign, i. e., swallow it up, absorb its organization ability, and kill its educational value and its political prestige with the working class.” How familiar these words sound! In the majority thesis, in the numer- ous articles by Comrades Foster, Dunne, Browder, Cannon and Bittel- man, they have been repeated over ITH less than 5,000,000 votes Wheeler, the most important fact that and over again. They should at least be accepted as truisms, when our Bol- sheviks assert them with such assur- ance, But strange as it may appear. the above paragraphs were not written either by Foster, as little perception, with as little un- derstanding of Marxian-Leninistic methods, voice the same sentiments. No, comrades, the above does not come from the brain of Foster, Dunne, Browder, Cannon or Bittelman. They emanate from the brain of a socialist. Emil Herman, who sings the same song of woe as the majority of the cen- tral executive committee, in the issue of the New Leader, the socialist party organ, of Dec. 20. They are making it unanimous— from Keating to Herman to Foster. has | But what did Zinoviev say in the Pre- sidium of the Communist Interna- tional? “I believe that if we study everything we will say that, in the year 1924, things are not so elemen- tary that we ... cannot propagate the idea of an independent labor @ party. We must dare to put forth this idea and it must ‘be realized, namely, @ separate labor party. It is our main duty to set this in motion. . We are at the beginning of a mass labor - movement which will be independent . —the idea of an independent labor party will be realized. Our task con- sists in starting an independent move- ment.” Well, it is Herman against Zinoviey. We of the minority have more faith in the understanding of Zinoviey. Ten Splendid CARTOONS ART YOUNG ADOLPH DEHN WM. CROPPER FRED ELLIS HAY BALES Are only a part of the very best issue that has yet appeared— the January number of HAVE YOU RECEIVED YOUR POLICY BOOK? BDO YOU NEED ANOTHER? 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