The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 4, 1925, Page 11

SOROS P AES TNE LEED ED LTTE RITE oan Shop Nuclei and the Communist Parties ; By M. K. ~~ chief. - organizational, question with: ‘Which ‘the pC: of the C. I. and| all its sectiéiis “is concerned is the reorganization of the Communist parties upon the basis of factory nuclei, the consolidation of the nuclei where they are already in existence and working and the organization and consolidation of Communist fractions in the various workers’ and peasants’ organizations. What concrete results have we ob- tained in the reorganization of the Communist parties upon the factory nuclei? Let us consider these gains according to the individual countries. Germany: The reorganization of the Communist Party of Germany began before the Fifth Congress. The ques- tion of the reorganization received nowhere such a thoro discussion as in the C. P. G. According to the report of the central committee of the Ger- many party submitted to the organi- zational department of the E. C. of the -C. L, 1,092 factory nuclei were formed. up to August 1, 1924. At the present time this number is much higher. .The factory nuclei carry out all the functions of the lower party organs in the workshops. They oc cupy themselves not merely with general party questions but also with the needs of the workers in the re- spective factories. They attempt to take over the leadership of the strug- gle against the exploiters and in this way to win the sympathy of the masses of the workers. The fact that the recent terror elections brot such comparatively good resnits for the German party must be ascribed to the work of the factory. auclei. ‘s 830 factory nuclei in Germany have their own newspaper (Today this number is still greater). The extent to which the idea of factory newspa- pers has been adopted in Germany is shown by the following facts: there are two police and one military nuclei papers issued. (the latter is of course strictly illegal). Almost all nuclei pa- pers in Germany are printed. The material for them is supplied by the workers. themselves. -The ciréulation of these, papers is continually increas- ing.| The managers and foremen of factories. search -for the editors of these papers . energetically, and if they discover them immediate dismis. sal follows. The social democrats and even the fascists have recognized the great importance of the factory news- papers and here and there they them- selves have undertaken the issue. of such papers. , The largest factory nuclei endeavor to get in touch with nuclei of the Russian Communist Party, in similar factories and to carry on an exchange of letters with them. Those Communists who do not work in factories (domestic servants, port- ers and the like), are organized in street nuclei. The main share of the party work, however, is already con- centrated in the factory nuclei. The Young Communist League of Ger- many has already carried out the re- organization upon the factory nuclei basis in Berlin, in Thuringia, in the Ruhr district, in Cologne and in Halle- Merseburg. There are approximately 600 nuclei. These factory nuclei of the youth also issue their papers which are for the most part hecto- graphed. There are over a hundred of such papers. France: Since the Fifth World Con- gress the C. P. has achieved great suc. cess in the reorganization upon: 'the factory nuclei basis. In the Paris dis- trict is has been carried out) com: pletely, the former “sections” no longer exist and all comrades are or- ganized in the factory nuclei. The territorial nuclei have been almost completely abolished in the Paris dis- trict. In this district there are over 500 factory nuclei and 30 sub-districts. In the north there are 80 factory nuc- lei functioning. In other parts of France the reorganization has been similarly taken in hand. Thanks to the factory nuclei, the party work has been considerably enlivened. All nuc- lei members are drawn into the work. Contact with the non-party masses is being established. Thanks to these circumstances the French C, P. has won 3,000 new members since the Fifth Congress. The French factory nuclei have also commenced to issue their own factory papers. In the organizational depart- ment of the E. C. of the C. I. there are approximately 80 different factory nuclei newspapers from Paris. -In the north there are about ten factory newspapers issued. It must, however, be remarked that the Frénch papérs are behind the German in many re- spects. They are edited mechanically and often contain no notice whatever of the life in the shops. The workers take very little part in the production of these papers, but nevertheless, the work is going forward. Czecho-Slovakia: Altho the ques- tion of reorganizing the C. P. on the basis of the factory nuclei was ener- getically discussed even before the Fifth Congress, actual nuclei were formed only in Bratislavia and in Reichenberg. The decisions of the Fifth Congress spurred the C. P. to greater activity in this direction, The discussion in- side. the party which commenced after the Fifth Congress gave the question of the factory nuclei a great impetus. The party conference adopted new statutes on a Bolshevik basis (factory nuclei as basis of the party, the ac- tivity of all members, democratic cen- tralism etc.) Naturally, we are still very far from a complete reorganiza- tion of the party on the basis of these, statutes. According to the informa- tion of the Rude Pravo there are al.- ready a few hundred factory nuclei in existence. According to the decision of the central committee of the C. P. of Czecho-Slovakia, the reorganization upon the new basis must be com- pleted by May 1, 1925. Up to the mo- ment only one newspaper has appear- ed from these nuclei. Even for this the workers of the particular factory have apparently made very little con- tribution, Italy: The reorganization of the party is being carried out under illegal conditions. Therefore, it was not pos- sible to achieve such success in the time as in France. However, even here considerable success has been achieved. In Turin the formation of factory nuclei was commenced before the Fifth Congress and this work fur- thered the influx of new party mem- bers, at the same time the number of members in other towns permanently decreased. After the Fifth Congress the formation of factory nuclei was undertaken all over Italy. At the pres- ent time there are 40 factory nuclei in’ Milan with 450 members, The entire organization in Milan has a thousand members. Approximately half of the membership is organized in street nuclei. The Italian factory nuclei are somewhat different from the street nuclei in other countries for not mere- ly are they composed of party mem- bers, but also of sympathizers, This looser form in the Italian nuclei hin- ders them without doubt in their ef- forts to become real Bolshevik party nuclei, However, the factory nuclei carry on a far greater activity than that of the old “groups.” Thanks to the revival of the work of the C. P. I. and the general strengthening of the anti-fascist movement, the mem- bership of the party has doubled itself in the last few months and has now reached 25,000. Great Britain: The C. P. G.B. is directing great attention to the reor- ganization of the party upon the fac- tory nuclei. The formation of nuclei is made very difficult by the numeri- cal weakness of the party. Despite this however, there are 17 factory nuclei in existence in Great Britain. A plan for the reorganization of the whole party has been drafted. U. S. A: A great discussion is tak- ing.place in the Workers Party of America upon the question of the re- organization upon the basis of the fao tory nuclei. The reorganization meets with great difficulties on account of the various nationalities among the American workers, and on account of the fact that the immigrants can oft- entimes not understand the English language and because of the numeri- cal weakness of the American Party. At the moment the party actually rep- resents a federation of national sec- tions loosely bound together in’ which the immigrants are dominant. In con- sequence of this the reorganization must be proceeded with very care- fully. The organizational department of the E. C. of the C. I. is of the op- inion that the national sections must be. maintained, their functions must however be confined to agitation and propaganda work amongst the work- ers of their particular nationality. The chief political work and the party work in general must go thru the fac- tory nuclei which must organize all Communists ofa particular factory without distinction of nationality. De- spite hindrances there are already a few factory nuclei in the United States. The Young Workers’ League is already almost completely reorgan. ized on the basis of factory nuclei. (This is inaccurate, but the Y. W. L. is working hard to this end.—Ed. Note.) Scandinavia: 1. Norway: The Nor- wegian Workers’ Party, from which the Communist Party of Norway or- iginated, was built up upon the basis of collective membership of the trade unions and individual membership was quite unknown. Whole trade union sections have affiliated to it. This cir- cumstance in reality placed the trade unions above the party and was not able to promote the development of the actvity of the party members. Therefore, the first task of the C. P. consisted in carrying out the change from collective to individual member. ship. This has already been practic- ally carried out. Work is now pro- ceeding for the formation of factory nuclei; In Oslo (Christiania) there are 38 factory nuclei organized in var- ious districts. nn a en The party members| slowly, forwards. not working in the factories are or- ganized in street nuclei. There is also one factory nucleus. paper. 2. Sweden: In Stockholm there are factory nuclei,.in the larger industrial centers. Under the old party lead- ership and up to the split there only existed upon paper. The new central committee is devoting all its attention to the carrying out of the.decisions of the Fifth World Congress relating to the reorganization of the party upon the basis of factory nuclei. The Baltic States. The Communist parties of Finland and Lithuania are, for the greater part, and the Commun- ist Party of Esthonia, completely, built up upon the basis of the factory nuclei system. In Latvia the party of the Bolsheviks was organized upon the basis of the factory nuclei, in indepen- dent Latvia, however, the factory nuclei disappeared in consequence of the lack of large-scale industry. They are now being organized afresh. Poland: There were factory nuclei in the old Polish social democracy and also in the Russia Social Democratic Workers Party (Bolsheviki.) However, under the old leadership of the C. P. of Poland the skeleton of the party— the factory nuclei—completely disap J. peared in many districts.and in their 4, — place came the loosely organized and not very active “free” circles, to which not only party members but also sympathizers belonged. Unfortu- nately, the new leadership of the C. P. which devoted all its forces to the overcoming of the opportunistic devia- tions in the party, does not pay suffici- ent attention to the reorganization of the party upon the factory nuclei ba- sis. The Young Communist League of Poland has achieved much. greater success in this connection. The “free circles” and the few women’s circles have been completely liquidated, The factory nuclei of the Y. C. L. of Po- land shows great activity. Austria: The Communist Party is, }weak and it is continually, torm, by..:}oo fractional struggles. According to the reports submitted to the. organiza. tional department of the E. C. of the C. I. there are six factory nuclei in Vienna, including one in the Warcha- lowski locomotive works. with 600 members. The Balkans: Bulgaria: The C. P. quickly adapted itself to the new con- ditions of work, the conditions caused by the fascist terror and the complete illegality. The organization of the party on the basis of factory nuclei is in process but has not yet ended. The party members not working in the factories are organized in territorial and village nuclei. Jugo-Slavia, Roumania and Greece: The reorganization of the Communist parties has begun. Factory nuclei ex- ist in all these countries, i * s From this short survey we can see that the reorganization of the Com. munist parties upon the basis of fac- tory nuclei is still in its opening stage. At the same time the endeavor is being made to utilize all party members in the.activity. In this con- nection, as we have seen, certain re- sults have been obtained, but much work still confronts us. We know what great efforts this cost in the Russian Communist Party. It will cost still greater energy in the west and in America, but nevertheless this work has begun and is proceeding, if only (ee ' '