The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 8, 1925, Page 12

: Cannon Re (Continued from page 3) a national scale, “working independ- ently under the ideological leadership of the Workers’ Party,” would tend, in our opinion to separate still more the federations from the Party and re- duce the control of the Party over them to a fiction. Factionalism. There exists in the Party a senti- ment against factionalism and fac- tional groupings. Comrade Askeli ap- pears to be attempting to play upon this sentiment and to exploit it for his own factional purposse. The de- cision of the Comintern demands the liquidation of factionalism and calls for the unity of the Party on the basis of the political platform of the Com- munist International. Comrade Askeli would make it impossible to accom- plish this result. Under cover of ac- ceptance of the first half of this pro- vision, his article reads like an at- tempt to prevent the unification of the Party and to create a new faction of his own on a non-Communist plat- form. The members of the Finnish Federation who are against faction- alism must be on their guard and not allow anyone to maneuver them into a faction against the Party and the Comintern, “History.” We would like to find some part of Comrade Askeli’s platform which we could agree but this is impossible. The platform is wrong from start to finish. Even the “history” which Com- rade Askeli recites is presented in a false light. He attempts to throw as- persions upon the glorious past of our Party and to take credit to him- self for remaining in the Socialist Party after the split. It is quite true that the left wing made a tactical error in allowing the reactionary lead- ers of the Socialist Party to force the split too quickly. And it can also be admitted that the first pro- grams of our Party contained some leftist mistakes. But in spite of all, the fundamental line of division at the -time-of the split; which completely over-shadowed all minor, tactical ques- tions, was between revolutionary Com- munists and reformist social-demo- crats; and it is no credit to anyone who, at the decisive moment, re- mained in the ranks of the Socialist Party. In such a situation, one who has a clear Communist position al- ways unites with: the Communists, even tho he disagrees with thelr tac- tics. This is a fundamental principle. We do not mean by these remarks to bring up the past in such a way ag) to cast any reflection on the comrades now in our ranks who took the wrong positign in the historical days when the revolutionary vanguard in Amer- ica was first organizing itself into a party. We know very well that many who remained in the Socialist Party at the time of the split and who later joined our ranks, haye done and are doing good work for Communism, The error of the past has been made good many times over and now has’ only historical significance. It is quite un- necessary to refer to it again, and we would be among the last to do so. But when the history of the Party is con- sidered, one should relate the past events in their true perspective, Com- rade Askeli fails to do this. The Federation Split of 1914. We take issue with another part of Comrade Askeli’s “History’—the part dealing with the split in the Finnish Federation in 1914. Moreover, we are of the opinion that the narrow atti- tude manifested by Comrade Askeli, may explain to a certain degree, the reason we have not had greater suc- cess in healing the effects of that split and in winning over to Com- munism the Finnish workers who have fallen under the influence of anarcho- syndicalism. The platform of the syndicalist group in 1914 was politically incor- rect, but so was the platform of the socialists. A true explanation of the emergence of syndicalism and anarcho- syndicalism as a phenomenon in the labor movement is impossible unless one understands and clearly states that pre-war syndicalism represented an extreme re-action against reform- ist, parliamentary socialism. Reform: ist socialism is fhe father of syndical- ism: This isthe way t6 explain the split of 1914 and to show to the syndi- calist workers that the Communist Party and the Communist conception of political action have nothing in Our Struggle Against Loreism Must Be Concrete r is always good to begin with @} The Loreistic Wing in the Jewish definition of Loreism. It is also necessary to show the historic back- ground of Loreism, how it originated and developed in our party. But one must not stop at that. To expose Lore- ism effectively, to prove to our.mem- bership conclusively the opportunistic nature of Loreism, one must bring forword practical examples of its manifestations in recent party life. One must be able to show, by the everyday manifestations of Loreism, its right wing opportunistic nature. This is what I mean by proposing that our struggle against Loreism must be concrete. A Few Samples of Loreism. HERE are at the disposal of the party several significant samples of Loreism that are of very recent date. For instance, Loreism in the Communist fractions in the needle trades. This. is a manifestation of Loreism, very much marked, very de- finite, which the C. E. C. was quite successful in combatting. There is a definite manifestation of Loreism in certain sections of our Finnish Fed- eration. We refer here particularly to the statements of the Finnish branch cf? Superior, Wis. The C, BE. Cand the Bureau of the Finnish Federation have taken up very energetically the ideological struggle against this mani- festation of Loreism.. But there is also a distinct Loreistic grouping in another section of the party which thus far has received. very little attention in the general party press. We refer bere to the very definite, very mili- tant, and aggressive Loreistic ten- cency and group in the Jewish sec- tion of the party. It is to this partic- ular group that the present article common with the Socialist Party and the socialist conception of political action against which they made a jus- tiflable revolt, which led them to ex- treme and unsound doctrines, The Communist P: and its Fin- nish section’ ought fo represent, at least to a certain extent, a union of the best proletarian elements from the Socialist Party and the syndicalist movement. The Communist Interna- tional was of this opinion when it invited the I. W. W. as well as the left wing of the Socialist Party to send delegates to its first Congress. The Communist International declared many times that the progress of the Communist Parties would be mea- sured in a large degree, by their suc- cess in winning over the syndicalist workers to the platform of Commun- ism. Many of the best revolutionary syn- dicalists responded to the Communist Intérnational and are in its ranks to- day. They are fully entitled to be placed on an equal footing with the revolutionary workers who came from the Socialist Party, without recrimina- tions with regard to the past being brought up against them: Comrade Askeli has no right to give such a one-sided account of.the old fight and to ridicule and attack them in such a bureaucratic and intolerant manner. Anarcho-syndacalism still finds too much support among the Finnish workers in America. It is one of the most urgent tasks of the Finnish sec- tion of our Party to win over the Finnish syndicalist workers to the platform of Communism and to draw the best of them into the Party. This task can be carried out successfully only on the condition that we adopt the correct Communist policy on this question and reject the policy of Com- rade Askeli. Fight for the Party The great ‘constructive work per- formed by the comrades in the Fin- nish Federation is known and appre- lated “by ‘the ‘Party. The organizing génius of the Finnish Comrades is re- sponsible for many achivements from which the Party has much to learn. We know that many of the greatest plies to Henry Askeli for example, the establishment and maintainance of the DAILY WORKER would hardly have been possible with- out the loyal support and generous sacrifice of the Finnish Comrades. These facts are so well known as to need no special mention, Comrade Askeli allows himself to present even these facty in the wrong way. In sonte of his language he cré- ates the impression of an attempt to arouse among the Finnish comrades 4 Federation patriotism as against 4 Party. patriotism, and to set them against the Party on nationalistic grounds. The sharp criticism which the party directs against such non- Communistic policies as those put up by Comrade Askeli are twisted around by him and made to appear as attacks against the Finnish Federation ‘and against the Finnish comrades as such. The Finnish Communists are bound to repulse such methods. Any attempt to make a breach be- tween the Party and the Communist International and to lay the basis for a split must be fought against by every Communist. The whole party must mobilize itself for quick and res- olute action to defeat such designs, which, if allowed to gain headway, would endanger all the achievements of the past six years. The efforts of Comrade Askeli to put himself up as the spokesman of the Finnish members of the Party and to identify them with his program does not by any means signify that this is really the case. We are abso- lutely confident that the overwhelm- ing majority of the members of the Finnish Federation will reject the pro- gram of Askeli without hesitation and in such a decisive manner that Askeli and those disposed to support him will be compelled to abandon their plans. The Bureau of the Finnish Federation has set an example to the whole membership by its resolute and determined stand in support of the Party. The interests.of Communism demand that the Finnish branches of the Party follow the example of the Bureau and repudiate the Policies of Comrade Askeli and those who share his views. We are confident this will undertakings of the Party, such as, | be done. will be devoted. Federation. T is perhaps best to study Loreism on the development and present activities of the Jewish section of our party. The reasons for that are manifold. First, because the Jewish section ty all: Tr nremergrrar nant iy 2,000 members>pryet it is a very militant and active section in the party. It is connected organically and intimately with the broad mass movements of. the Jewish speaking working masses of the country and is exerting considerable influence upon the everyday struggles of these work- ers. It is for this reason that the opportunistic tendencies within the Jewish section have quite naturally made themselves manifest concretely in the political, tactical, and organiza- tional policies of our party among Jewish workers, Secondly, the present Jewish s tion of our party is a result of a merger of two formerly distinct groups —a merger which took place when the Workers Party was formed. One of these groups was the Jewish sec- tion of the Communist Party of Amer- ica, affiliated with the C. I. since 1919, the other group was the section of the Jewish socialist federation which split from the S, P. after its Detroit con- vention. It was this second (which became a part of our party the formation of the Workers that brought with it not only a siderable membership, not only experience. in organization work, only a number of influential leaders among the Jewish wor! but also a heavy burden of democratic traditions and prejud! It is these social-democratic and and-a-Half International tendencies that the Jewish section of our party had to struggle with during recent years. And it is in the struggle to outlive and discard these traditions and prejudices that our Jewish section has grown into its maturity and in- fluence upon the masses. The history of our Jewish section since 1919 and particularly since the formation of the Workers Party wag in the truest sense of the word a his- tory of struggle, ideological and or- ganizational, against Loreism. It be- gan when the Communist Internation- al was the central issue of the strug- gle. The question was, “ i join_the Communist Internati reservedly or with ? was an intense and bitter struggle which finally resulted in the almost complete victory of the adherents of the Communist International who stood for affiliation without reserva- tions. It then continued over the question of the now famous 21 -points. This struggle lasted for quite a while. The result was the same, the “complete triumph of the strategy of the C. I. incorporated in those 21 points. The struggle against social-demo- cratic traditions in our Jewish sec- tion then began to develop over the By ALEXANDER BITTELMAN. —_— ees of the Communist International. The - underground party was liquidated be- cause conditions had made it possible for the Communist Party to function openly. But, at the same time, it was deeply impressed upon the minds of our membership, and particularly upon the minds of many of those who were sfill deeply submerged in social- democratic traditions that there is nothing more fundamental in the or- ganization principles of the C. I. than the combination of legal with illegal work, The Bolshevization of the Jewish Section. ig the process of this struggle be- tween the Communists and the cen- trists in the Jewish Federation, four important things happened. Let us enumerate them. : 1. Large numbers Of the proletarian and basically revolutionary elements of the so-called original Jewish social-