The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 31, 1925, Page 13

~ and to work their own way. Not even The Finnish Section of the Workers Party si party. We have felt that it is not By HENRY PURO. our duty to acquaint ourselves and In order to understand the neces- rome poate: bch ors sity of reorganization of our party, ms ety ba cecal nd eeltaiieiank we must examine the past relations tan) dee of the party and its various language affairs. Sociological, politica sections party discussions have become minor . matters and often have been left out Sih Perse eons : being : altogether from the order of business uage section of our party,| or the branch meetings. And to the he se chbar Source tae: _ extent that we have discussed party matters, we have done that at the end turn our examination principally to- of the meetings, when the greater ward the relations of the Finnish sec- part of the members had already left tion and the party. The organization-| tne meetings. Our Finnish - district al structure of our party, founded on committees have had only in éasual the federation form, ’is such that we casés contact with the party) district find in it parties in the party, each | committees, not to speak .of haying having its own autonomy and each} oontinual relations, one living its own separate life. ‘ Ii’ many localities the relations be-| We have spent so much of our ‘tweeh* Various branches is such that| time and energy for the maintenance joint membership meetings have been | °f Our halls and social affairs that our held very rarély if at all. So far as| Part in various campaigns of the party the holding of meetings have been has been very insignificant. Even in attempted it has been found that|‘he financial campaigns where we members of the language branches have considered ourselves as the lead- have not been willing to take part. |&S: the Finnish section membership This is especially true as far as the|4@s often taken small part compared Finnish members are concerned. Not to its membership strength. In the only have we had difficulties’ to have Soviet Russia and DAILY WORKER language branch members take part foundation campaign in which we took in joint membership meetings but we conspicuous part, we were not able to have had very much difficulty in get- fill our quota. It is true that many ting members to attend general mass|C°™rades and many branches disting- meetings of the party organizations.|ished themselves in ‘these cam- The various city central commit-|P#igns, but in proportion to our big tees have had difficulties in getting|™¢™bership we were not able to do @ full quota of delegates from the|°UF Share in the campaign to organ- Finnish branches. We have found, #@ The DAILY WORKER. Some very few comrades who were willing | ther language sections, especially the to take active part in city centra]|S0uth Slavic section, did better. In committee activities. When some| the Labor Defense campaign we have comrades,.in different localities, have | een trying to do our share. tried to remedy this deplorable con-| But in the political campaigns of dition general excuses have been of-| the party and also in the trade union fered; for example, the inability to} activities the membership of the Finn- speak the English language. But lan-|ish section has been very indifferent, guage difficulties are not real reasons! and has been taking a very small part to prevent comrades from taking an| in spite of the fact that these activi- active part along with other com-| ties constitute the main work of the rades speaking different languages. party. Indifference to these most im- The real reasonséare a lack of inter- portant activities of the Communist est and enthusiasm to take an active party is in itself a living example of | Part in our party work, ee how we have been ideologically, as * The results fo these relations have | well as in action, fully in accord with “beéit ‘fiat oli’ party has been unable | social-democratic indifference and in- to mobilize the whole membership | activeness, into action, even in its most impor- Federation automony is tant campaigns. This is why our! rooted in our membership. party work, compared to its member- ship, has been comparatively weak, The fault of these conditions is not, however, solely of the language sec- tion membership. Besides the organ- izational reasons which will now be abolished by the reorganization, there are other reasons, First, on the part of our party leaders. Our party Responsibility for the existence of leaders have not approached the| ‘iS condition of affairs falls upon the membership of the Ph ip saitioea leading comrades of the language sec- in the proper manner and have not tions. I will quote a letter from a tried to draw them closer to the party | °r'#i2_ well-known comrade of the work and to its campaigns and activi- New York district, which he sent me ties. the saesred day. oe making a reor- The language section members have| °°” ion tour thruout the district, been left to take care of themselves he writes the following: “I! met so much hesitation and fal- in the big centers of the party have | teTing among the membership that the the members of the language sections | *!tuation looks much more gloomy known more than two or three leaders than | expected. We have been too of the party and have seen the latter| "¢9!igent since we left the socialist only once or twice a year when they party. We have got emphasized enuf have come to address in the big mass|'" Ur propaganda in our press and meetings. Only during the last few| SPeeches the necessity for the Com- months leading comrades of the party | ™UNist organization forms and activi- have written arttcles to the language ties. And now when we have to section press explaining our party| Start to build up a Communist form viewpoints to members of the lan-| f organization and to get: more clear. guage sections, ness of the ideological views of the *’ Even the ideological contact has|P@"ty we find the masses, that have ‘been very limited and incidental, The|®&®® Under our intiuence and wno party leaders have not actual and | Should now become the best elements direct contact with the membership of | °f our party, unripe. Even those com the language sections, and on des whom we have considered the very few district organizers have been| V@"9uard of our federation, we find paying occasional visits to the lan-|¢sitating and faltering; not to speak guage branch meetjngs. The very fact| °f the masses who have been with us that party leaders have not had dircet | °"!y for social purposes.” This same contact with the membership of the|°°™Tade writes that in his second various language sections, not even|™eeting in the New York Finnish with leading comrades, is a potent rea-| fanch, when he was elaborating such son for these sections being sc sepa-|42 important question as the resolu- rated from each other. That is why| ins and proceedings of the national the mobilization of the membership| °°®Vention of our party and also the of the party for action hag rarely |Westion, of reorganization, only been successful, twelve people were attending, aitho . But the leading comrades are as| the New York branch has a member- much and as seriously responsible for|®*!p of about 400, | : condition. We have lived and| Comrades, this letter speaks a seri- in language sections as if they|ous language about the situation we were autonomous republics, which | now find ourselves in. It shows to us, have only foreign relations with the! as this comrade rightly admits, how i deeply did not concern them. Of course there are many exceptions. There are lo- calities and branches where our Finn- ish comrades are in close contact with the party organs, but the general situation is as above mentioned. . seriously we have neglected the Com- munist education of our: membership. The more cheerful phase of this let- ter is that the writer realizes the situ- ation and admits it openly. To that extent we admit our negligence we aré able to:remedy it. A serious struggle; however, is bound to rise from the fact that too many leading comrades are not willing to admit our negligence and errors. On .the con- trary, in their words they ag much as confess that something has been ne- glected, but in their deeds they hold tight» to their former methods and viewpoints, and are trying to make the members believe that’ those comrades who: are now demanding a fundamen- tal remedy, are disturbers; For per- sonal motives they’ want to interrupt the peace in the Finnish federation ahd to sow discord, ‘ However if the situation does not, in the light of foregoing analysis, look very bright, there is no need to be pessimistic, as far as the relation of the Finnish members toward our party is concerned. If we become pessimis- tie towards the working masses we might as well cease to believe and speak about the coming proletarian revolution. It would also be a wrong idea to believe that the Finnish A Book for the “Social Struggles and Thought,” by M. Beer, Boston. Small,.Maynard & Co. 1925, $2. It is not often that a book from the flood poured forth from capitalist pub- listing houses can be highly recom- mended to the workers. This is one of those rare exceptions. Within a brief 200-pages, Beer-has concentra- ted a picture of social struggles in England and France (and their reac- tions upon Germany), from 1776 to 1848 together with concise statements of all the schools of social criticism and programs of, social, change, that arose out of these struggles. -It is without doubt the best work of its kind available, at least in the English language, and it is a valuable addi- tion to the working-class library. The large field covered may be in- dicated by mentioning the names of those dealt with by Beer—writers and thinkers who influenced social thot in that period:—Adam Smith, Bentham, Ricardo, Wallace, Spencer, Godwin, Hall, the Physiocrats, Lange, Dolivier, Buonarotti, Babeuf, Wieland, Weis- haupt, Lessing, Cetinger, Fichte, Fou- rier, Saint-Simon, the Luddites, Owen, Combe, Gray, Thompson, Morgan, Bray, the Chartists, Blanqui, Prou- dhon, Pecqueur, Cabet, Leroux, Blanc, and many lesser lights. Beer has ac- complished the seeming impossible in giving not only the essence of the ideas of each of these writers and leaders, but also the social and eco- nomic setting, the background and significance of each, in a manner which is thoroly in the spirit of the modern revolutionary worker, all with- in the compass of one small book. Of particular interest are the brief pages in whiclk Beer shows that the demand for “democracy” in the early revolutionary movement, and in the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels, had nothing in common with the sickly conception of the present- day social-democrats—the Bergers and Hillquits. The demand for the “ule of the people” was demand for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Thus Beer. quotes Louis Bland (“His- torie de dix ans”): “The people is the whole of the citizens who, pos- sessing no capital, are completely de- pendent upon others for the necessi- ties of life.” And Charles Beranger (in a petition to the Chamber of Dep- uties, Feb. 3, 1831): “The peopie is the whole of those who work, who are robbed of their social existence, who possess nothing; you know whom I mean: the proletariat.” And En- fantin’s criticism of the July revo- lution: “the people or the proletariat fought on the barricades, but after the victory the bourgeoisie armed ag- ainst the proletariat.” Beer goes on to say: Research Department Book Reviews a workers are naturally conservatives. Among our Finnfsh members there are excellent proletarian elements whom our party must and can win to the American proletarian revolution- ary party, by approaching them in the proper manner, making clear to them the purpose of the Communist Party and the duties of its members. We must abolish the present federa- tion form of organization and build our party on the basis of shop nuclei. This new form of. organization tears away the national division lines and at the same time makes possible the unification of the ideological. views of the whole membership. This same condition that now ex- ists between the Finnish section and our party, also exists more or less be- tween other language sections and the Workers Party. In the next article I will deal with the question of how our party. can win over in this crisis of Bolshevization and reorganization the Finnish and other national proletarian elements in this country. I consider it necessary to put the whole situation as it exists before out entire party, That isa © proper approach to correcting the. er- rors we have made and to remedy the | present situation. Worker’s Shelf. “The establishment of this fact is important for the following reason. If the people and the proletariat were at that time synonymous ideas, the rule of the people or democracy would actually signify proletarian rule or the rule of the working class, and not, as democracy is understood today, the rule of the whole nation in opposition either to oligarchy or personal monarchy. In the years 1831-1848, democracy signified the rule of the people in opposition to the bourgeoisie.” . “It is only by virtue of this historic background,” continues Beer, “that we can unders: { the othe - votiprehonethie’ Coral: tee i contradictory—passage in the Commu- nist Manifesto: ‘The first step in the labor revolution is the elevation of the proletariat to the position of rul- ing class, the struggle for democracy.’ Democracy im the sense of the Com- unist Manifesto accordingly means the rule of the working class.” The above quotations are but one small example of the richness of Beer’s book, of its value to assist the working class reader in obtaining a clearer idea of the historical back- _ ground of the labor movement. More than a hundred years ago the clear note of proletarian revolution was struck by the first working class fighters, whose glorious tradition was to be incorporated by and brot to fruition under Vladimir Lenin. Earl R. Browder. Verdict May Save Finnish Worker. from Deportation The United States circuit court of appeals of the eighth circuit of which the district of Minnesota *s a part, handed down a decision in two cases involving the same question of law as the Sanna Kannasto case holding that the so-called wartime passport act is a@ wartime emergency legislation and that it is no longer in effect, This decision is expected to com- pel the court to release Mrs, Kan- nasto from criminal prosecution for an alleged violation of this notorious lwa. Mrs, Kannasto is of Finnish na- tionality and her arrest was brot about thru the efforts of white guard Finns, who hated her because of her activity in behalf of the workers. Her deportation is sought by the federal authorities, Wrap your lunch in a copy of the DAILY WORKER and give it (the DAILY WORKER, not the lunch) to your shop-mate. .