The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 13, 1925, Page 14

e | The International Conference of the Communist Press oe EE — ae eye By G. HE slogan issued by the V. Con- gress, the Bolshevization of the Party, raises the simultaneous prob- lem of the Bolshevization of Commu- nist propaganda and agitation. For this last the question of the Party press plays a part of pre-eminent im- portance, especially in those countries in which the sections of the C. I. are mass parties, and have at their dis- posal a considerable number of daily and weekly. papers, _ What does Bolshevization really mean? It means the transformation of our press into a real mass press of the workers. The Communist newspaper must be a workers’ news- paper, not merely a newspaper for workers. It must elucidate every aspect of class warfare and working class life, from the factory to. parlia- ment. The Communist newspaper must form a connecting link between the party organizations and the broad masses of the workers. The Com- munist newspaper must be such that the non-party workman does not re- gard it merely as a remote organ representing a political party, but as his own labor newspapers, compre- hensible to him, mirroring his hopes, his interests, his daily life, and his struggles. HUS the whole character of the Communist newspaper must be changed. Many comrades, accustom- ed to the traditional type of bourgeois newspaper, and unable to break ab- ruptly with this conservative tradi- tion, are alarmed at what appears to them to be a “weakness” of our press (which is not “equal” to the firmly established bourgeois press, aided by a large number of intellectual literary forces) but this so-called weakness is in reality a sympton that our press is on the right road to proletarisa- tion, that its contact with the mass- es is becoming: closer, and that it is ceasing ‘to“féllow in the ruts of the social democratic press, which differs from the bourgeois press solely by a political nuance. Emancipation from this tradition is the first step towards the Bolshevization of the press. The real purport of the extensive Worker Correspondent movement now being called into life is to bring wide masses of the workers into the ranks of the Party, and to make these into conscious and active Party members. It is obvious that the Communist press will accomplish this task effi- ciently in proportion to its closer con- tact with the masses, with the works and ‘factories. INCE the V Congfess, our press has been able to report consider- able success in this direction in a number of countries ,and it is a suit- able moment to make a survey of these first attempts, to praise the best efforts, to encourage the backward. The convening of an International Press Conference appears to us to be the most suitable form of carrying out this survey. But from the ideological and organisatory standpoint the most suitable \date for an extensive cam- paign of this nature appears to us to be May 5—the anniversary of the founding of the Bolsheyist newspaper “Pravda” in 1912. This campaign could be made to form the immediate continuation of the campaign begin- ning of May 1, the opportunity being thus ‘given for carrying out mass agi- tation on’ an extensive scale in the five days till May 5. This press conference may be made the opportunity (as our Russian com- rades made it) of more firmly es- tablishing the connection between the Communist Party and the laboring masses by means of the Communist newspaper, and of awakening active interest for the Communist newspaper among the broad masses of the non- party workers. On this day a Com- munist newspaper must be found in every factory in every workshop in every workman's family. Mass meet- ings—a special number of the news- paper being distributed gratis on this day— must be made to serve as con- Smoljansky. necting link between the working class and the -workers’ newspaper. On the occasion of the first press conference in Russia on May. 5, 1912, 18,000 roubles were collected for the reserve funds of the Pravda.. The workers’ newspaper must make it its endeavor to widen the “shears,” that is, the ratio between the number of readers and the number of registered party members. And finally, the cam- paign must culminate in the propa- ganda for mass participation by the workers in the immediate work of the newspaper itself, that is, in the organ- ization of a: mass movemeng of work er correspondents. But the essential factor of Bolshe- vization is differentiation. The cam- paign has not to, be carried out in all countries alike, nor conducted with threadbare slogans and on threadbare lines. lines of action might be laid down for the most important countries: NGLAND. Here the party has not had one single daily paper up to now. The _ revolutionary minority movement has however attained such an extent — to say nothing of the broad masses backing up the “left wing” — that there is sufficient foun- dation upon which to build up a daily labor newspaper for the masses. For England the question to be discussed at the Communist press conference is the founding of a daily Communist newspaper. The fact that the present weekly paper the Workers’ Weekly, the central organ of the English Com- munist Party, disposes of an edition of 50,000 copies, although the number of members belonging to the party is only 4,000 to 5,000, shows that our En- glish comrades could fulfil this task. The revolutionary minorities could at the same time be used as a Starting point for the establishment of contact between the labor newspaper and the works and factories, and for the for- mation of extensive cadres of worker correspondents. The ‘organization’ of the worker correspondent movement should procede propaganda for a daily mass newspaper. MP\HE United States. In the United States, on the other hand, our little party has more than a dozen daily newspapers, but we are confronted with a number of other problems: 1. These newspapers afe not published under any uniform party control, they do not pursue a uniform Communist line, and*are at times subject to such aberrations that it is difficult to dis- tinguish them from the ordinary Men- shevist newspapers (this applies for instance to the New Yorker Volks- zeitung.) Here the Bolshevization of the press would thus signify in the first place a strictly centralized con- trol of the Communist press by the Communist Party. 2. The chief news- paper in the English language, the DAILY WORKER must be converted into a mass newspaper. The organi- zation of a -worker correspondent movement is one of the first tasks im- perative for this newspaper. 3. The main weakness of the non-English newspapers, is that they devote too little attention to the life of America, and cling too much to that of the country in whose language they are published. This weakness must be overcome, for it only leads to an en- hancement of national separatism, and to a weakening of the feeling of class solidarity of the American pro- letariat. JTTALY. The organ of the Italian Communist Party should be con- verted into a mass organ, and be ‘brought into closer contact with the working masses. This is the slogan of the press conference for Italy. The Communist daily newspaper, the Unita accords a certain amount of space to worker correspondents, but the letters sent in are a perfect example of how such reports should not be drawn up. The workers reports printed in the Unit& give the impression of having been written in the editor's study. Be- sides this, these reports throw no light upon the life and interests of work- shop and factory, but refer exclusively to the opinion held by this or that worker correspondent on questions un- In my opinion the following |, der discussion by. the party or other abstract. subjects, Some Italian com- radés are of. the opinion that the dis- cussion of the life, of individual fac- tories is not the affair of a serious central organ, since factory newspa- pers and wall placards exist for this purpose. We are of precisely the op- oosite opinion. Our newspaper must form the platform from which the workers from the various factorfes and shops report on the life and struggles of the individual, TRANCE. The central organ of the French Communist Party: Human-. ‘te, is the only organ published by a section of the Comintern, oufside the Soviet Union, which has attained an edition of 200,000 copies. This news- paper has a magnificent foundation in the half million mass of workers or- ganized in the C. G. T. U. trade unions. A certain amount of exertion, combined with skilful propaganda and firmer establishment of the connection with the masses organized in the trade unions, would enable the paper to in- crease its circulation to one and a half times or double its present, The news paper is however unfortunately de- ficient in the necessary prerequisite for this; up to now the Humanite has accorded but a very small part of its columns to workers’ reports, and gives but scanty reports on the So- viet Union (a matter of intense in- terest to the working masses.) (\ERMANY. In this respect the press of our German party is much in advance of others. The con- ference of worker correspondents lately held, the number of similiar local conferences (Hamburg), the founding of an editors’ school for the instruction of worker journalists, all these are positive symptoms of the proletarizing of our press in Ger- many. At the present time the Ger- man C. P. counts about 30 daily news- papers, but the fact that the central organ, the Rote Fahne has a circula- tion of 30,000 only, shows, that our press in Germany is not yet a mass press. It must be recollected that at the last election the Communist Par- ty received three million votes. For the Rote Fahne the slogan for the Communist press conference must be: “Double circulation!” The factory councils and the party factory nuclei must form the foundation of this cam- paign in the shops and factories; Every worker reading the Rote Fahne must gain a new reader. With respect to the provincial cent- ers where no newspapers exist as yet, but where one could be founded, the campaign must be carried on under the slogan of gaining “readers for the publication of a local newspaper.” As soon as 5,000 readers are secured, a new Communist local organ can be published. CANDINAVIA. . In Norway the party possesses 15,000 members, and publishes five daily newspapers and four to five weekly newspapers, or papers appearing twice to three times a week. The total circulation of the Communist press is 45,000 to 50,000 copies, the central organ pub- lishing an edition of 8,000. This shows that the number of daily newspapers published is much too large for this small country. The number. should be reduced, no readers of course being lost. In Sweden 8,000 party members have two daily newspapers and five weeklies or semi-weeklies, total cire- ulation about 30,000 copies. Both in Norway and Sweden the ratio between the mass of readers and party members is very unfavor- able..This must be improved in‘such manner that there are at least ten non-party. readers’ to every party. . member. The attainment of this -ob- ject means that the Scandinavian Communist press must establish closer contact with the factories and workshops. Workers’ reports have up to now been almost entirely absent from the Scandinavian press. For the Scandinavian party press the main slogan for the press conference is thus the organization of a compre- hensive worker correspondent move- ment, and the proletarizing of the press. (\ZECHO-SLOVAKIA, ° For Czecho- Slovakia the chief slogan must be: Deprovincialization and politisation of the provincial press. The Czechich press must be converted into a really proletarian fighting press. The party press possesses but few worker cor- respondents. Not even the whole of the members of the party and of, the revolutionary trade unions are to be counted among its readers. This is the toad to Bolshevization to be followed by our press. The Rus- sian Pravda was successful in gather- ing hundreds of thousands of proletar- jans around it, and in becoming a mighty source of revolutionary energy of the working class of Russia and its Bolshevist party. This was made possible solely by the fact that the Pravda did not follow in the ruts left by the bourgeois menshevist press, but found the right way of establish- ing contact with the broad masses of the workers. In this way only, and by renouncing the influence of the “great” capitalist sensation press, is it possible for the Communist press to penetrate into the masses, and for the Communist parties to become really Bolshevist mass workers’ or- ganizations, (Continued from page 1) self to this short and all too general agreement, We proposed to examine all ques- tions which are of interest to us, and in all these questions to create an ac- ceptable modus vivendi between our- selves and England. This was reject- ed at the time. The government of Lloyd George did not desire such a conference. Even MacDonald did not undertake an exhaustive concrete ex- amination of all disputed questions. O long as this is not done, there will exist between us and England, and therefore in the whole of interna- tional politics, that element of uncer- tainty which the capitalist states find. so painful today. And if Chamberlain says that the cause of this uncertainty is the existence of the Soviet Union, then Chamberlain is guilty for this, because he does not attempt to arrive at a compromise with us, which would be capable of removing, so far as is possible and so far as the present his- torical period» permits, that element of uncertainty between us and Eng- land, and therefore the uncertainty of international relations in general. The working masses of all countries must understand this. They under- 8 The Soviet Union and Great Britain stand and perceive that it is precisely our government that constitutes the element of peaceful settlement of those problems with which we are confronted, and that those actions which lead to further uncertainty in international relations do not proceed . from us, The Walden Book Shop 307 Plymouth Court (Between State and Dearborn Just South of Jackson) CHICAGO | PITTSBURGH, PA. To those who work hard for thelt money, | will save 50 per cent on all their dental work, DR. RASNICK ~ DENTIST anh oa weit: Re * MER ES AINE STOEL SER es Napait. vise