The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 3, 1925, Page 6

j Page Six THE DAILY WORKER Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 4113 W. Washington Blyd., Chicige,/ In. 4 Phone Monroe 4712 [acetate SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall (In Chicago only): By mail (outside of Chicago): $8.00 per year $4.50 six months $6.00 per year $3.50 six months $2.50 three months $2.00 three months Address all mail and make out checks to THE DAILY WORKER, 1113 W. Washington Bivd., Chicago, Illinois —————— J. LOUIS ENGDAHL Wiitors WILLIAM F, DUNND {~ -Business Manager MORITZ J. LOEB. ————$——— CC |, Wntered as second-class mail September 21, 1928, at the post-office at Chi- cago, It, under the act of March 3, 1879. EPH 390 Advertising rates on application. British Imperialism Rallies at Liverpool Ramsay ‘MacDonald delivered the goods for British imperialism at the Liverpool conference of the labor party yesterday. The left wing was defeated and Britain’s ruling class breathes a little easier. Sharing the glory of being among the foremost agents of the British exploiters was C. T. Cramp, who praised everything from British constitutionalism to the Dawes plan. In this connection Cramp appeared as the defender of the German working ‘class against the military occupation which he said would occur if. the Dawes plan was defeated. That British workers could defeat the Dawes plan and prevent their rulers carrying out a military.occupa- tion of Germany by a united front with the French and German workers is a certainty but the Cramps and MacDonalds, of course, reject such methods because they bring them into collision with their friends the capitalists. It is much better from the standpoint of these hangers-on of British capitalism to appeal to god to “defend the party that is right” as MacDonald did in his peroration. It is noticable that British imperialism depends very little upon god but very much on airplane bombs, tanks, battleships and machine guns in its righteous crusades aganist the colonial peoples and in its warfare on the British ‘working class. But such methods in defense of em- pire bring no condemnation from the hypocritical official leaders of the labor party. It is against the Communists and the most militant section of the workers which they lead that the MacDonalds ful- minate in their finest style. But even after the extensive preparations of ite officialdom of the labor party aided by a continuous barrage in the capitalist press against the left wing, there was a solid vote at Liverpool representing one-ninth of the labor party membership. As we: remarked yester- day the labor party eonference is far less representative than the Trades Union Congress and the middle class groups have far more influence. Their next step will probably be to maneuver for a repudi- ation of the anti-imperialist resolution of the Trades Congress or, to emasculate it. In the meantime the breakdown of trade and industry in Great Britain proceeds at a rapid rate and something more than appeals fer a class truce are necessary to pacify a working class which sees its already low standard of living wittled down day by day. The soul unity of capitalism is shown in a striking manner by the jubilation of the American press over the “defeat” of the “reds” at Liverpool. Get a member for the Workers Party and a new subscription fer the DAJLY WORKER. Be'Nice to the Wolf! “Let us not be too hard on the employing and exploiting classes,” writes the editor of the Illinois Miner, a gentleman by the name of Oscar Ameringer and: leading light in what is left of the socialist party of America, ‘ The reactionary socialists are very careful about wounding the sensitive feelings of the eapitalists. They are always willing to find excises for them, That they exploit the workers is no fault.of theirs, we are told... They are not even responsible for wars or for,any of the other evils that the workers suffer from. ‘We admit that capitalism is a stage in economic development and that capitalists are as indigenous to capitalism as blubber ig,to a whale. We know that disposing of individual capitalists would net solve the problem. Capitalism itself must be-destroyed. But we cannot love a class that makes its living by robbery any more than we welcome the attentions of a bedbug, who is com- pellel by nature to bite a living out of our anatomies. We know that he bears no particular animosity towards us, but we know that his bite is disagreeable, so he dies at our hand unless he succeeds in making a quick getaway after he has his breakfast. This does not mean that. we favor the»extermination of in- dividual capitalists in the same manner that the victim of a bed bug’s bite disposes of his persecutor. What we propose to do is to organize the workers to fight capitalism and the capitalists. Those who have to pity the capitalists for having to live in fine houses, wear the best of clotlies, eat the choicest of food and see the nice spots of the world, should think once in a while of the millions, of wage slaves who. live om the crumbs that fall from the tables of the; rich. Let the American, Federation of Labor convention next week at Atlantic City feel the pressure of the workers’ demands for the ad- mittance to the United States of Shapurji Saklatvala, the barred Communist member of the British parliament. MacDonald threatens to resign if the Communists are not re- pudiated by the Liverpool labor party conference, Our. advice to MacDonaid is that he notify his biscuit millionaire sponsor to get the old home ready for a tired labor leader. The interparliamentary union gets under way at Washington, but what it says is almost drowned with the rising protest demand- ing the admission of the Communist Saklaty ala, barred as dangerous to American capitalism. The slogan of the recruiting service, “Join the Navy and See the World,” should be changed to “Join the Navy and See the Next World.” Lynching will be a littleless popular in the United States if Mexico manages to collect the $50,000 demanded for the killing of Jose Gonzales and Santoa Ortes, on Sept. 13, 1919, at Pueblo, Colo. very day get “snub” for:the DAILY WORKER and a member for the Workers Party. THE (OAILY' ee EDITOR'S Note. —Here is the second installment of, thé letter of the Communist International to the Communist Party of Germany. It takes up the question of trade union work, which the Communist Inter- national charges was neglected un- der the Ruth Fischer-Maslow leader- ship in the German party. The con- cluding installment will appear in the DAILY WORKER tomorrow. ee ‘ (Continued from yesterday) 2. Trade Union Work, the Comintern, and the Leading Groups in the Party Central. These, defects in leadership have been most strikingly evidenced in the trade union question. As early as the Frankfort Party Congress (1924), at which the victory of the German left over Brandlerism was decided, considerable differences arose bet- ween the Executive and the new Ger- man Party leaders in the trade union question, .The leading group Maslow- Ruth Fischer, it is true, opposed the crassest advances made by the ultra left abandonment of work in the re- formist unions, but their half-hearted decisions (for instance, with reference to the independent unions) showed their failure to grasp the fundamental essence and the full extent of the problem of our trade union work. This lack of understanding of the importance of trade union work has practically had the effect of causing the Maslow-Ruth Fischer group for months to carry out the decisions of the Comintern imperfectly. A confi- dential telegram sent by the Exec- utive after the Frankfort Party Congress was sent in a circular to all the district secretaries for the pur- pose of inciting these to protest against the Executive; the anti-trade union propaganda in the ranks of the Party was inadequately combatted up to the V. ‘World Congress, A the Fifth World Congress™ the slogan of international trade union unity was placed on the agenda for the first time. This congress regard- ed this new slogan as the fundamen- tal element of our whole Bolshevist strategy, the first aim of which is the winning of the majority of the working class. In this connection the Fifth World Congress analyzed the MacDonald government as what it really was; the reflection—tho false and reformist—of a profound histori- eal process of development in the English working class. |. contributed to Hinemdout these loss- es, still the erfgrs and omissions of the leading groupolof party leaders have played the*maim role. The main errors of our trade union work consist of the incapacity to grasp and secure, politically and or: ganizatorically, the trends and cur- rents favorable to us among the broad masses of the working class. For some months there have been signs of the gradual reawakening of political activity among large sections of the German working class (the building workers’ strike and various other wage struggles in the different branches of indugtry; the wood work- ers’ struggle, great:demonstrations in various cities, successful Red Days, etc.). The party ‘leaders have not shown themselves capable of reach- ing to these new phenomena, above all they have not been able to take ad- vantage of them for:oyr trade union work, 8 Ww have -alreddy © mentioned that Comrade Rtth Fischer’s group dissolved the former tfade union de- partment of the*central without ac- cording the mattér due'consideration, The express undettaking of the repre- sentative of the céhtral'to propose the renewed formatioi of a’ strong ‘trade union department*at the “Tenth Party Congress, was not“adhéred to. There can only be two éxplanations of this omission; either«the leading group forgot to carry out/the decision of the Comintern, or it did not want to car- ry it out. Should the first be the case,'then the’ leaders forgot one of the most important political and or- ganizatory tasks of the party; should Ao6po nowanoBath, Top. MankoBcKNit UT of farpaway Red Russia, thru the cordons.of misrep- resentations, lies and columnies, es, these, however, UB! again con- nected with one angther.” First, a concealed trend of’ Mekiaig deep down among the masses of the members, towards liquidation, which says: We have won no vic- tory, why should we trouble our- selves to build up a Communist Party? We can just as well carry on class warfare among the social democrats. As an example and proof of this we may cite the really im- passioned enthusiasm with which our party members take part in de- monstrations and in the Red Front Fighters’ Union. Why? Because ‘they can imagine that they are con- quering power, they can play at making revolution without perform- ing any organizatory work. It is my conviction that our comrades take refuge in the demonstrations to save themselves the daily work in the trade uniens and factories.” These ideas have nothing whatever in common with either a correct es- timate of the actual situation, nor with Bolshevism. They are an at- tempt on the part of the leading group to substitute a false criticism of the totality of the party members for self-criticism. This under-valua- tion of the party members and of the working masses is a further key to the errors of the comrades in ques- tion, in trade union and other work. The actual task incumbent on the party is precisely the opposite of this; it should increase the confidence of the party in its own power and in all the sound forces existing in the work- ing class; it should awaken the fight- ing spirit of the party, and arouse its consciousness of its growing strength, HAW MAP UL Beate 8 aAomaxn Gyxtos Tonot! comes to us a ray of thejnew World| Bpimie ro} jon rpaza! that is being built undénthe féader-| Mpa penta poro noTona ship of the Communist Party in} [lene MHpOB ropoaza. the Union of Socialist Soviet Pe oe 6bik fice publics, Meanenna Ger ap6a. me | Viadimir ‘Mayakovsky, Ham 6or — 6er. the revolutionary poet of the new Russia is coming to Chicago today. The German delegation, under the leadership of Ruth Fischer, at first opposed the propositions of the exer cutive at the Fifth World Congress. A. veiled insinuation was made that The intellectual _ bankrupts, the “socialist” lackeys of the bourge- olsie, all‘the enemies of the revolu- the struggle for international trade, union unity was merely a “move i the game of Russian foreign politics,” @n attempt at.a rapprochement to the social democratic MacDonald govern- ment. ¢.It was not until after lengthy ne- gotiations that the delegation, allow- ed, itself to. be convinced of the un- tenableness of its policy. The accusa- tion that the struggle for trade union unity was merely a diplomatic move in Russian foreign politics can only be attributed to g fundamentally. anti- Bolshevist and social-democratic men- tality on the part of the leading group. The like accusation was made by_Mac- Donald -himself, and by all the Eng- lish and international social traitors, in order to discredit the struggle for trade union unity. HE struggle for unity among the trade unions is a Prosigat of Bolshevist strategy towards the ma- jority of the international working class. Those who have not grasped this have not been able, and are still unable, to form a correct estimate of the total world political constellation of the present day, and are even less able to carry out the tactics of the Comintern in their own country with full energy. The lack of comprehension reveal- ed by the lgading group in the inter- national trade union campaign is on a line with the serious errors and 0m issions of this group in their trade union work in Germany itself. The decisions of the Fifth World Congress in the trade union question have been “carried out” ‘too much by means of “mechanical pressure and threats of organizatory measures. On the other hand the actual work of enlightenment, the ideological edu- cation of the members of the party to an understanding of our trade union policy, and the working out of a@ positive line of pdlicy with the A. D. G. B. (General German Trade Union Federation) have been exceed- ingly deficient. HIS has meant an increase in the severe losses suffered by our party of late years in every sphere of trade union work. Whilst the opposition counted 88 delegates at the last con- gress held by the General German Trade Union Federation’ (1922), at W this year’s congress it was represent- ed by only two delegates. We have lost a number of payment centers and | G¢rmanyra party ot testy in number, its defects, is one of the soundest and local cartels. but in ideology, and above all in or. ganization, we have greatly lost influ: ence among the free German trade tion united in the attack against the Soviet, Union. . All of them claim that the revolution brought only destruction, Nothing new is being created, they ‘glaim. But in spite of these claims, a new world Jis growing under. our very eyes, Not only in materjal.1 improvements, but also in science, literature and poetry, the NEW, is being created and the OLD discarded, The cul- tural level of the maates is being raised. New artists, , Scientists, writers and poets are “appearing. Comrade Mayakovany, is one of Cepne — nam Gapa6an. Ects am Hammx 3020T HeGecnen Hac am oxaaut nyaa — oca? Hame opyxue — Hamm necuu. Hame 3020To — asenamue roxoca. aar Ayr Bpictpeabi zHO AHaM. _ Pazyra aa ayr, er Gbicrponerabin KOHAM. Buaute cxymuo 38e34 Heby! Bes nero nam necuu ppen! 9u, Bosmaa Meazseanua! tpe6ya, Yro6 na He6o Hac Baa1H KHBbEN. Pazoctu nea! Ton! B xw1ax Becua pasznta, Cepne 6ea Gon! Tpya» Hama mex» auTaBp.. .B __ -B. B. Mam Maaxoscxna. The Comintern. Latter to the Communist Party. | 1H changes, in the politicalysitua- tion, the, final transition of the German bourgeoisie to a western ofi- entation, the climax reached by so- cial democratic agitation against Soy- jet Russia, render the danger of anti- Bolshevist deviations in the German C. P. at the present juncture greater and acuter than eyer. The ultra-left group Scholem, Ro- senberg, Katz, who reproach the Com- intern and its most important parties of “opportunism,” have nothing in common with Leninism, but on the contrary, their relations to the Com- intern and their attitude towards the roblems of the German revolution are expressly anti-Bolshevist in char- acter. Dangerous and. essentially democratic déviations of this. nature are to be found, however, not only in the officially ultra-left group, but among the leading persons in the Maslow-Ruth Fischer group. Comrade Maslow’s.. writings. cannot be regard- ed'as a contribution to the serious, conscientious, theoretical education of the party in the spirit of Leninism. His latest literary works in particu- lar are a concealed and extremely dangerous attack upon the principles of’ Leninismy and against the whole policy. of: the: Comintern at the pres- ent period.’ 'N his book:* “The Two Revolutions of 1917,” ' (vol. 1, part 4, p. 45), Comrade, N Maslow writes as follows on the Third World Congress of the Com- munist International: “I am firmly convinced that such grave errors were committed at the Third World Congress that this social them, They are responding to the masses and not crawling on their bellies before the bourgeoisie as their brethren in the bourgeois voridiy Never before has the Rus- Academy of Science had such ities asunder the Soviet government. There is nothing new in Europe in music werth while, Sas’ Stock of the Chicago Sym- yhony Orchestra, except in Soviet Rita” “"Phings are created there in spite of the handicaps to which the cap- | italist world contributed liberally. ocThings are created for the wide masses of the producers instead of the small class of parasites ajl, ether countries. Gomrade Mayakovsky is one of the these new creators. He is a singer of the masses, a singer of the revolution, Welcome to our city, Comrade Manahensky! | We are ee here one of his poems, “Our March,” in the origin- al, Rus: jan language. We hope to be able'in the near future to print | some. of his poems translated into | Eriglish. Most of his work has been tratislated into many languages, ‘Wwe have been unable to secure ‘translation in English. Welcome, Comrade Mayakovsky! the second be the ease, then they sa-, 3. botaged the will of the Communist International. In either case they have undertaken a serious responsi- bility towards the party and the In- ternational. ‘ One of the reasons why the Tpading comrades of this growp neglect the trade union question is their lack of faith in the political power and activ- ity of the masses, both of the mem- bers of their own party and of the working class in general. This~pes- simism, which’ is afything but Bol- shevism, on the part of various lead- ing comrades has,ofer instance, been expressed as follows: “If we disregara the head func- tionaries, and takéthe trouble to descend into the réiks of the mem- bers, we shall fii that our prole- tarians in the ave a factories are very uncertaih’ In their defense of the Communist’Party. They do not feel themselvé8 as the victors of the future, but®&s people follow- ing a tradition téf!the sake of de- cency.” (Speech @élHvered by Com- rade Ruth Fischer at the Central Committee meeting on 9-10, May, 1925. See prot the pamphlet: “The Monarchist, r and the Tactics of the Geran C. p. 55.) jyinced that these mt an under- unist Party of ich, despite, all ‘B are firmly declarations i valuation of the best proletarian sections of the Com- intern. < An even crasser statement is that unions with their more than 80 per| contained in Ruth Fischer's speech cent non-party membership, Altho there are a number of objective fac- tors (the changed political situation, the mass expulsions, the reactionary statutes and election stipulations of the trade unions) which have also (in the German Commission of the Presidium) to the, effect that “the masses flee from everyday life, and play at soldiers” “I believe the@ause of the diff. culties arise frometwo main sourc- Relations to the Communist Inter- national. d teed great political currents stir- ring the working class are not without influence on the party rep- resenting the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat. The impulse felt by ever-broadening strata of the work- ing class towards affiliation with the victorious working class of the Sov- jet Union is mirrored within our own ngnks by their permeation with Len- inism, and with the experience gained by the Bolsheviki. And on the other hand, the vacillations and treacheries of certain labor groups, influenced by the bourgeois anti-Moscow agitation, have their final effect in the “anti- Moscow” tendencies, that is; the tend- encies’ directed against the Soviet Union, against the Russian C. P. and against the Comintern within our party. * This danger is all the greater in the German C. P, because all its nu- ances and currents, without exception, are at the present day still, to a large extent, subordinate to the influence of social democratic “West European” traditions. Every deviation from Communist policy which has hitherto occurred in Germany has begun with an attack upon Soviet Russia, the Bussian C. P., the Cominte Seven, years of experience in the German revolution have taught us that all deviations of this description, no matter whether disguised as “Right” or “Left,” have either developed directly into social democracy, or have practically enter- ed into an alliance with it. This ap- plies to the German Communist Labor Party, to Levi, to Friesland, to vari- ous followers of Brandler, to th Schuhmacher group, etc. ’ congress did far more harm than good to the European (!) parties. Certainly this applies ‘to the Ger- man C, P, “At the Third World Congress a general attack was made on the left, and which was.carried to a ri- diculous point: Comrade Trotzky discovered highly acute ‘Left dan- gers’ even in Frossard’s Party .. in the French C.‘P. It is to be re- gretted that Comrade Lenin m: the same mistake. It is the sole error’ known to me (!) in Lenin’s ai ; with the party. Thus to fail to fetognize the character of a party like the German C. P. with its ‘powerful social democratic tradi- tions,;sespecially under -rightly re- cognized objective conditions which affordedno opportunity for left ex- cesses. “The. Third Congress declared Levi. to be actually in the right, “The-congress drove the German Party (likesthe French) to the right, brot about a@.serious and lengthy Niquidatory crisis, . pun ‘executive ‘declares ‘before the whole Communist International that this monstrous attack upon Len- in and-Leéninism cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, The reproach’ that the Comintern not only, recognized Levi's criticism of various ultra-left errors in the party, but declared the group of rene- gades around Levi to be “actually in the right,” “drove” the “European Parties” into opportunism at the Third Congress, and “brot about” the liquidation current in the German Party, is a repetition of the assertions made in 1921 ‘by Ruehle, Pfemffert, ‘thosé adherents of the Commun- | ist aba Party of Germany who have | of Germany. sifceJanded in the camp of counter- reyolytion. “Cémrade Maslow attempts toro: to.Lenin’s alleged "“oppor- tunism” a “pure,” “left,” and speci- fically “West European” Communism, This is precisely the standpoint tak- en by Paul Levi, Frossard, Hoglund, and all the enemies of Leninism. Behind the mask of combatting Trotskyism and the renegade Levi, Maslow prepares his attack on Lenin, who “failed to recognize the charac- ter of the German C. P.” Beneath the cloak of combatting “West Buropean” deviations from Communism, that is, anti-Bolshevist deviations, Maslow propagated a “West European Com- munism” of the worst kind. It is not by accident that today, in 1925, Comrade Maslow makes precise- ly the Third World Congress the ob- ject of his attack. HE Third Congress embodies pre- cisely that concrete link in the chain of the, development of Lenin- ism and of the Comintern which is of the greatest immediate practical significance in the present situation for all Communist Parties, but above all for the German. The Third World Congress took place at a turning point of international proletarian revolu- tion, at the moment of transition from the period of tempestuous revolution- ary upheaval in the years immediate- ly following the war, 1919 and 1920, tothe period of slower revolutionary development in 1921 to 1925—and “he- yond this. The fresh estimate of the international situation enabled the Third Congress, under the leadership of Lenin, to draw fresh conclusions for the tactics of all Communist Parties. Whilst the I. and II. World Con- gresses determined only the general outlines of the strategy and tactics of the Comintern, the Third Congress worked out the concrete policy to be pursued between two revolutions. It placed the’slogan: “Go to the mass es” in the center of our policy that is, it directed our course towards the winning over of the great major- ity of the working class. With this it created the beginning of the Bolshe- vist united front tactics, the axis around which our present policy re- volves. HOSE who—like Comrade Maslow —deny this important turning point in our tactics, those who seek to discredit it as a “swing to the right,” those who Weride it as a concession to Trotskyism or.to the apostate Levi, are attacking the fundamental prin- ciples of the Comintern. The practical consequences of Com- rade Maslow’s false theory are inevit- , able. If we delete out the basis of the united front tactics, the,results in practise must be zero, If we assert that “Lenin failed to recognize the character of the German Communist Party,” then we «cannot lead this party in the spirit of Leninism. Com- rade Maslow’s ideology is antagonis- tic to Leninism, not only in tactics, but in principles»dt is one of the roots of the resistance still opposing the tactics of the Comintern in the German C, P. today, It is one of the roots of the years of misunderstand- ing encountered in trade union work, this main center of our policy, among the leading group of the German Cen- tral. And finally, it is one of the roots of the continuous coquetting on the part of the alleged “combatters” of the ultra-left group, headed by Com- rade Maslow and Ruth Fischer, with precisely this group itself. INCE the Third World Congress, the attitude of the Maslow group to the Comintern has been upsound and un-Bolshevist. At the Jena Party conferenee this group opposed the standpoint held by Lenin and the ex- ecutive. Not only did it eriticise— and quite rightly—the opportunist dis- tortion of the united front tactics on the part of the Brandler group, but it brot forward all manner of objections and reservations against the actual united front tactics of the Comintern, and against the slogan of the “Work- ers’ and Peasants’ government.” Up to recently these anti-Bolshevist. tend; encies possessed decisive influence in this group. The fact that the Mas- low-Ruth Fischer group, despite all warnings from the Comintern, com- bined with the Scholem- -Rosenberg- Katz group to form a firm unit until five months ago did not fail to bring its punishment. At the Frankfort Party congress various “anti-Moscow” advances were made (in the trade union question, in the question of the sac of members to compose the entral, ete.). In spite of the objec- tion raised by the executive, Comrade Ruth Fischer sent several emissaries to various sections during the rine 4 of the past. year, entrusted with “mission” of » altering the tactic! the executive by fractional m The result of these emissaries)’ jour- neys has been the discrediting and alienation of the German Party in the brother parties of the Comintern. These tendencies were expressed with special clearness at the last party congress, All the proposals made by the executive in the trade union and Central questions were re- jected, despite the given undertaking to accept them. At. the party confer- epee not a word was said—except in omrade Thalmann’s speech—about the. promised demonstrative change to be made in our trade union tgctics. “(To be continued oeaeda ' —_