The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 21, 1925, Page 7

“The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the ‘masses.” —Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. MARCH 21, 1925, ee SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. Party Construction in the C. IL Sections By OSSIP PIATNITZKY. (Continued from last Saturday.) N this article I will limit myself to a few facts from the German ex- perience, In 1923 factories and work- shops in Germany were, with a few exceptions minus party nuclei, but in the big factories and workshops Com- munists were members of factory and workshop committees, i As there were no nuclei even in the factories where Communists served on factory committees, there was no lead or control of the committees, thru any nucleus, Besides, the Communists in the fac- tory and. workshop committees had no definite standing because they had no proper support due to the fact that the Communists in the factories were not co-ordinated into one body. HE result was that the discontent- ed workers of these factories and workshops were led and controlled by trade union representatives and mem- bers of the social-democratic party who played up to the mood of the workers, proposing radical resolu- tions, etc. But when these humbugs were given the leadership of the move- ment by the workers they did their utmost to hinder the movement and certainly did nothing to encourage it. As yet there was no one who could have exposed all these Judases to the factory workers, for the Communists among them were not co-ordinated, ‘they had no- uniform leadership and - ‘were not’all of them working for the same aim. And Germany provided examples in| the first half of 1924 during the big strikes in the Ruhr and the Hamburg district which showed clearly the dif- ference in the leadership of the move. ment in factories, mines and docks; wherever nuclei existed, the leader- ship of the movement was entirely in the hands of the nucleus, while in factories where no nuciei existed, Communists acted against Commun- ists and in some places Communist chairmen of meetings refused to put to the vote resolutions proposed by Communists. HE same might be observed lately in Italy, in Milan and Turin. In works and factories with properly functioning nuclei the latter became the leading centers of these works and factories. The recent demonstra- tions of the Milan metal workers against the agreement of their fas- cist trade union with the metal in- dustry employers were under the guid- ance of the factory nuclei of our party. Big workers’ meetings which take place in Italy when the workers leave their factories at the end of the day’s work and which are frequently attended by as many as 5,000 work- ers, have only become possible after the organization of nuclei in the fac- tories, for it is they who organize these meetings and carry them thru. N the other hand, where factories in Italy have no party nuclei, or where these nuclei are not very ac- tive, there are no meetings, no dem- onstrations against trade unions and other fascist organizations. Everything has been done by the Communist International to make the Communist parties of Europe and Am- erica realize the importance of creat- ing correct forms of organization. The theses and report of Comrade Zinoviev on the role of the party in the revolution presented at the Sec- ond Congress of the Communist Inter- national, Comrade Lenin’s statement on the same question and nearly every one of the 21 conditions adopted at the same Second Congress gave to the sections .of the Communist Interna- tional minute instructions on the building up of party organizations and on the nature. of their tasks. The question of organization was also very prominent at the Third Congress of the Communist International. The theses on organization which were elaborated with the help of Lenin, explained very minutely why nuclei and other forms of party organization are necessary, how they should work, etc, T the Fourth Congress of the Com- munist International Lenin point- ed out that the theses on organiza- tion adopted by the Third Congress had remained on paper, altho all the delegates to the congress had voted for them. In fact; previous to the lesson of the German _ revolution, none of the decisions on the question of organization had been carried out by any of the foreign sections of the Communist International, except the parties of countries which previous to 1917 had formed part of the Rus- officials and candidates to elective posts are able to carry thru any- thing they like at the party meet- ings. which they convene. HE above-mentioned elements see, and quite rightly, in the organization of nuclei, their co-ordi- nation according to districts in big towns and on a city scale in the smaller towns, the end of the almost unlimited control which they exer- cised in the party organizations. In Italy, in Turin and in some French towns, after the organization of nuclei in the workshops the leader- Ship of local organizations went entirely into the hands of workers recommended by the nuclei. Thru the failure of some active workers of the sections of the Com- munist International to understand the importance of the organization oj nuclei in the workshops and of Com- munist fractions in non-party work- ers’ mass organizations, etc., and thru T should also be stated that in Ger- many and France nuclei publish periodically papers for their or sev- eral kindred factories, which have, in addition to political articles, also spe® ial columns describing factory life. These newspapers. are varied ‘And in- teresting. In Italy the party organ- izations publish instead of factory newspapers small leaflets on various subjects, which are distributed among the workers, In Germany, France, Italy and Norway workers’ corre- spondents from factories and work- shops have begun to function and have already achieved a_ certain amount of success. LL this is most decidedly the right way to the transformation of our brother sections of the Communist In- ternational into mass parties sup- ported by large sections of the urban and rural proletariat. New life has been put into the party organizations of the above-men- The International Marionettes The British imperialists have organized an anti-Soviet Russia and anti-Turkish bloc of the little Balkan puppets. organ. The Russian worker is thank Mr. Baldwin for this comedy.” Baldwin is seen pulling the strin gs while MacDonald is grinding the saying to the Turkish worker: “Sometime we may be able to sian empire. What is the explana-,the obstacles which were put in the tion for this? Many active comrades thot that nuclei which had been readily adopted in Russia, could not be mechanically transported to other countries be- cause conditions in these countries differ from conditions in Russia. And finally there is the force of habit. There are even now Communists who imagine that the destruction of the old form of organization would also mean the destruction of the Com- munist Party, They see in the Communist Party. They see in the organization of nuclei the destruction of local party organizations. HERE is aiso another element 4 which resists, and quite con- sciously, the reorganization of the party on the factory and workshops nuclei basis. This element is not very numerous but it is the worst element in the party—party officials and a few members of the party who have become members of par- liament, of municipal councils, trade union and co-operative administra- tions, etc. Under the existing old forms of organization party members are not active. They only meet when they are summoned to meetings before elections or campaigns connected with elections. Party members-do not discuss and make decisions on all party questions, they very sel- dom meet among themselves and therefore the above-mentioned party way of the proposed reorganization by certain obstructive elements of the party, the favorable moment of the labor movement boom in 1919-21 was missed, a time when it would have been very easy to form and consoli- date nuclei in the workshops, Now the organization of nuclei is much more difficult. Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Po- land, and America, Communists constitute a big percentage of the un- employed, which renders the organiza- tion of nuclei still more difficult. There is wholesale unemployment; there is unprecedented terror on the part of employers. Not only Com- munists are dismissed but also all those why sympathize with them if this fact can be established. Employ- ers are helped in the matter of spot- ting Communists by members of so- cial-democratic parties and by oppor- tunist trade union officials. And yet in spite of all the difficul- ties, this year has witnessed the prac- tical reorganization of the party on the basis of factory nuclei in the big industrial centers of Germany, France, Italy and of some parts of Czecho- Slovakia and of Great Britain. An animated discussion on the or- ganization of nuclei in enterprises has also been initiated in America, In many countries the Young Com- munst Leagues have acted as the fore. runner in this matter, (From Molodaya Gvardia, Odessa Young Communist Daily.) tioned countries. They have become imbued with the revolutionary energy of the factory workers. The recent demortstrations of the Paris workers, with whom the Paris party organiza- tion has come into direct contact thru the factory and workshop nuclei, have shown how much the latter were need- ed and how important they are for the proletarian and revolutionary Com- munist Party. E have chosen the right path. The experience of the Communist nuclei in the west has absolutely proved that these are not something. peculiarly Russian, not adaptable” to European and American conditions. They have stood the test also under western conditions, It is necessary to overcome the dif- ficulties and to organize nuclei in all the factories, works, offices, shops, barracks, estates, ete,, etc.—in fact wherever there are wage workers, whether they be men, women, young workers, mobilized soldiers, sailors, ete. Nuclei should be co-ordinated into wards and districts, the latter on a town or gubernia scale, and these in their turn on a national scale, F something has been done in con- nection with the organization of party nuclei in factories and work- shops and in connection with the creation of the correct forms of local party organizations in the industrial centers of some countries, very little (Continued on page 8) to eee ts LL LOLLLLBLLLBLLLL LLL Cty 8 as