The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 11, 1925, Page 12

a The Why and How of Shop Nuclei 2) esepkZc. HE last congress of the-Communist International made it mandatory upon all sections to reorganize on the basis of the new basic unity of the Internatoinal Communist Party—the shop nucleus, For our party with 25,000 members operating in a whale of a country with 90 per cent of the proletariat unorganized, divided into so many languages, the matter does not appear so very simple. I am not exaggerating when I say that the bulk of our membership is as yet com- pletely at. sea on the theory of this question and especially on its applica- tion specifically to this country, The Theory of the Shop Nuclel, H® organization structure general- ly should reflect the aim of the movement, and as, every one knows, we inherited our present oganization fom the Second International. The social-democratic theory of peacefully growing into socialism by reforming the capitalist state and gradually leg- islating.. capitalism out of existence made ,.it. necessary for social-democ- racy to accept the permeation of bour- geois parliament as its main objec- tive. With this as the starting point, the whole movement was placed on a reform basis; its organizational ap- paratus had to run parallel to the bourgeois machine and its parties. Furthermore, in order that the masses should not thru some intemperate out- burst resulting from the daily conflict of economic interests, disturb the bourgeoisie order sufficiently for the ruling class to abolish these nicely won democratic privileges, social-de- mocracy needed to manipulate such struggles into peaceful channels. O° the Communist program, is exactly the contrary. The perfec- tion of bourgeois democracy and the bourgeois parliament is not our ob- jective. Our aim is to express its sham and hypocrisy and to use the elbow-room that it affords us as a platform to preach the slass struggle, Neither do we pacify the violence of the daily class struggle. We try to SiS is, masses of the exploited t action outside of the sphere of bourgeois parliamentary politics in- tensify the antagonisms of the daily struggle until it becomes one mighty blow that will crush the bourgeoisie completely and establish the proletar- ian Soviet power. tg Where to Organize. if betas whole capitalist political ap- paratus called the state, no matter what its democratic camouflage, is in essence the armed fist @f the bour- geoisie to ensure and perpetuate the exploitation which is most severe at the point of production. It is there that the daily struggle to get a bigger share of life takes place in its sever- est form. It is there that we are “skinned alive.” And naturally it is there that the proletariat does and should organize for self-preservation, offense and defense. There is also the soil to plant the roots of a fight- ing revolutionary working-class or- Sanization, in factories, mills and mines, where the struggle takes place day by day, we can really participate in .thoge daily struggles, broaden theri, and organize the proletarian in- dustrially and politically for our pro- gram, It is precisely here that we are at the present time weakest and cannot grow because of our present form of organization, Hence the need to junk it and to build one that suits our program. achievement of the nucleus form of organization is that it hitches the basic party unit to a d¢fi- nite group of workers in a shop or ming and charges that group of our party with the definite task of organ- izing these workers and participat- ing in their daily problems and strug- gles; of matching their wits with the brains of the capitalists who exploits them; and thus truly becoming their vanguard, not only in words but in deeds, and thru this activity, estab- lishing the party’s leadership among them, politically as well as econo: ically, e Our present party unit, the terrt- torial branch does not link up with the workers, It is like an engine gen- erating lots of noise with little re- sults, We have a Bolshevik pro gram with a menshevik form of or ganization and this makes the shop nuclei reorganization a major issue confronting the party, Let us make the big step in Bolshevizing our party by Bolshevizing its form of organisa tion, Coun comrades say the theory is all right but it wont’ work! ist, Because we cannot organize a nucleus composed of Russians, Ger mans, Finns and Americans. They would not understand one another and we cannot destroy our federations. The nucleus idea is all right for the English comrades. 2nd. Our party is so small numer- ically, that there are but a few factor- ies with sufficient members to form a nuclei. So let the party first grow big enuf, say five hundred thousand mem- bers, and we will see. Meanwhile, we can form a few nuclei here and there, but this must not disturb the party structure, . 3rd. In this country, we have the T. U, E, L. taking care of “that end of the movement,” so we do not need it. 4th. It may work among the min- ers, but- what about the seasonal needle industry, where small shops predominate? How about the build- ing trades, when a construction is finished, no more nuclei? Or the ma- rine workers? What about unemploy- ment, especially a big economic crisis in which ten million are out of work? The whole party machinery will con- tinually get out of gear. What about the many members who do not work in industry? y* short, say those comrades, the C. I. must be convinced that in this country the nuclei proposition can re- ceive only limited application. It is all* right, of course, in another coun- try. We are for it in principle, ete., etc. These questions are quite inter- esting and each presents a problem. For each of thém there is, however, a logical and practical solution, pro- vided the principle of shop nuclei or- ganization is really agreed upon as the desirable form of ‘party organiza- ion. The Problem of Nuclei Reorganization in the U. S. A. I Pid us for simple illustration as- sume that our entire~ party is composed of English-speaking com- rades and deal with the language prob- lem later. We would in this case take all the party members of one factory —three, five or more and organize them into a factory or shop nuelei branch. During the transition pertod and until the party grows into consid- erable numbers, we will be faced with the problem of having our members in ones or twos in a factory, mine or shop. In order that the party shall be in a position to hold these mem- bers to activity and responsibility for party work in their place of employ- ment, such comrades until the time they can form a nucleus in their shop or mine, should be attached to the nearest nuclei branch or shop or street nucleus. If there is no nucleus in their area all the individual comrades should form a shop nuclei branch or street nucleus (International branch) and thru their organized activity work it up into a genuine nuclei branch of the party. — shop nuclei branches then elect their delegates to the sec- tion or city committee (at the begin- ning each individual small shop nucleus of 3, 5 or more does so until @ shop branch is formed), which then constittues the city organization, In big cities section committees will be formed of all the nuclei branches or single nuclei in a factory area. The same principle can be applied to small cites or factory districts where eral nucleus may form the city mittee instead of being formed a nuclei branch or section committee as in big cities, basic unit of the party, the shop or nucleus or thru the nucleus branch, select delegates to the party. — general party divisions will of course also be organized more along the lines of predominating in- 6 dustries, such as coal, textile, olf, ete. It goes without saying that for na- tional work along industrial lines in one or another industry or union, the nuclei in the various shops, factories or mines will be connected with the national and local machinery of the T. U. HE. .L. ‘Thus, the left wing will establish its organizational roots not only in the local unions, but also in the shops, — answers the problem of gen- ereal reorganization and co-ordina- tion of the party machinery on shop nuclei basis, as well as the problem of organizing into this machinery the isolated comrades of one or two in a factory. We must of course go thru a transitory state in this work, but under this form the bulk of the mem- bership can be drawn into the nuclei machinery and an honest attempt made to apply the nuclei reorganiza- tion to a numerically, as yet, weak party. The Functions of Shop Nuclei. 'g we well enuf know, the Amert- can proletariat is politically yet very backward. Whatever class con- sciousness there is amongst them is mainly ecohomic. More wages, less hours, etc. It will be the most diffi- cult task of the nuclei to broaden this vague economic class feeling into real political class consciousness, to draw these workers into class politics. The party will succeed thru the shop nuclei to do this much better than now, because its literature, leaflets, press, will thru intimate contact with the masses be more suitable for this purpose. However, especially at the begin- ning, under the tremendous pressure of the politically ignorant working class, there will be an overwhelming temptation for the nuclei to work only on economic issues. This is not rem- edied at once by making the nuclei work difficult before they strike roots amongst the workers, but must be constantly kept sight of and remedied thru better tactics and more care in our political agitation. Leaflets, press, stickers, etc must always be distrib- uted in various ways by the nuclei, In Proportion to the growth of favorable sentiment, attempts should be made to pull the workers down en masse to mass meetings of and demonstrations of political character. Aside from political work which ap- plies to all nuclei in organized and unorganized industries alike, the work of our nuclei could be divided at pres- ent into two main categories: the nuclei in organized industries and those in unorganized industries, Nuclei in Organized Industries. S far as the economic activities in organized industries are concern- ed, nuclei will have to follow the pro- gram of the T. U. E. L. in that indus- try, and establish the left wing as a factor in the shops, instead of only on the floors of the local unions. The nuclei in its every day contact with the workers in the shops will be in a better position to bring home to the workers the meaning of the basic slogans of our party, such as, amalga- mation, shop committees, labor party, etc., because the need is more strik- ing at the point of production where many fracts or trades work im the same factory and do fancy bureau- cratic tricks are in order there to side-track the feeling for solidarity. @ Svesey the ordinary daily activi- ties of the nuclei it must be the objective of any nuclei or comrades in a union shop to get the shop chair- manship. and to see to it that the unions, It they have infiuence or the tacit consent of the workers, they same factory and do fancy bureau any trouble that may arise in their factory so that, altho unofiicially, but just as effectively, they will be con- sidered as leaders of the workers in the place where they work. Be sides the daily struggle for the inter ests of workers on purely shop ques- tions, the nuclei with all vigor fight for the introduction of the shop com mittee system. In some unions, shop committees have already a legal ba- sis, in others semi-legal. fee shop committee idea will ap- peal mostly to those workers who, altho working for the same boss in the same plant, are divided. into dift- ferent unions and can easily see the advantage of unity on the job. In some industries and localities we can, with a little fight, get the shop com- mittee officially adopted, in its milder form as it already exists in some un- ions, viz! limited only to shop ques- tions, instead of, as our demand _{a, control thru shop committees of the entire union. ‘While the fight goes on for official union recognition of shop committees, the nuclef must broaden out their organizational power and ideological influence by organizing all those that favor unity thru shop com- mittees and amalgamation of the en- tire industry. The nuclei must try to influence, as a sort of unofficial shop committee, ag many workers as possible in the fac- tory, with the object of unifying these workers for the struggle against the boss and the union bureaucracy, and establishing the machinery that will make it possible for the left wing, en- trenched in the shops and led by the party, to force amalgamation from the botom and to enable the party to take leadership in the struggles, despite and over the heads of the union bu- reaucracy, ; HE entrenchment of the nuclei in the shops will make it possible to bring broader layer of the workers into union activities and to. bring them down to union meetings to re- inforce the activities and power of the T. U. E. L. fraction. The activities of the nuclei and the work of the T. U. E. L. fraction must go hand in hand. These are, generally, the functions of nuclei in organized industries, Our Readers’ Views Socialist Likes Daily Worker. The DAILY WORKER: I am almost a life-time socialist, have belonged to the socialist party ever since it was organized and my first vote was cast for Old Bill Weaver. Ever since I have been a radical, but for some rea- son I never had seen a copy of your paper until the Fourth of July meet- ing here (the Debs meeting). At that meeting I bought a copy of your paper and am enclosing a check for a three months’ subscription to it. Its tone strikes me favorably and it certainly has the support of the Ia- boring element. We socialists have no organ, not even a weekly. C. W. AHANDLER, —— Unemployed Worker Subscribes. unemployed union agreement is interpreted and| of December, 1928, having worked only enforced in the interests of the work-| thirty-three days since that date, ers. The nuclei must continually counteract the perpetual attempts of| lars in addition as the boss to undermine the union agreement with the intention to even- tually establish the open shop. It must fight against reductions in wages, in any form, and to fight every inch of the ground for the interests of However, I am enclosing two dok & special two months subscription card for a new subscriber, na Yours Pgh bt ee STEVE KUREPA, GRIGER & NOVAK GENTS FURNISHING and MERCHANT TAILORS Union Merchandise er ~ 1934 Ww, Chicago Avenue vhene Saunton 2707 since the third day —_ — pee