The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 17, 1926, Page 9

(LEADING ARTICLE IN THE “PRAVDA" OF MARCH 16th 1926.) THE work of the 6th Session of the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International has come to an end. It had to answer a number of extremely complicated ques- tions, which arise out of the peculiar nature of the present historical era and the specific features of the position of the International Labor Movement today. The Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International summarized the results of the way which lies behind us, drew up the balance of the achievements of all sec- tions of the Communist Inter- national sand pointed out the main lines for future work. If we want to estimate the present situation, to mark the general prospects and the con- crete tasks of the individual sec- tions, we must undoubtedly start from the characteristic feature of stabilization. The question of the stabilization o° capitalism is the question round which, as round an axis, all th other general and special ques- tions of the revolutionary fight of the international proletariat and its leading staff, the Comin- tern, revolve; and the Enlarged Executive Committee recognized and affirmed once more that we “aust Carry on our work under the conditions of stabilization. This stabilization is of a relative nature, but it nevertheless ex- ists and our brother parties must adapt their tactics to it. This stabilization is, at bottom, based on the power and solidity of the capitalism of the United States. The latter are becoming more and more the imperialist dicta- tor of the present day. ‘ine United States is partially “reviv- ing” capitalist Europe which has become senile, by means of credit “injections,” and is taking. it in tow. It should not, however, be for- gotten for a moment that there are very considerable breaches in the general line of stabili a- tion, The state of affairs in the East, in the colonial and semi- colonial countries of the wo. represents a defeat on an ex- -tremely important section of th: -front., The great success of th: Kuomintang party is undou’ ly connected with this. Ss.” ization has also suffered defeats on the European continent; th: state of affairs in Poland and France bear eloquent witness tc this. In England the processes of disease, of decay and disintegra- tion are slightly less intensiv: but all the same are evident enough. It is not surprising thai British capitalism manages to keep on its feet in spite of hay- ing lost the hegemony in the world market, in spite of its anti- quated apparatus of production, In spite of the economic opposi- tion of the Dominions, in spite of British coal-mining having fallen into a rapid decline. Brit- ish capitalism is ready te crumble but it still a powerful organism. Furthermore the perienced, farther-sighted and cleverer than the bourgeoisie of many other countries. . Never- theless the British Communists are meeting with great success. The Communist Party of Great Britain, tho small in numbers, has managed to gain consider- able influence. It-has given an example of how necessary it is to combine with the masses, to work in the trade unions, to rarry out the tactics of the lem and other is incomparably more dangerous. In spite of the external con- trast between them, both devi- ations have something in com- mon. Both the “right” and the “left” disease in the internation- al Communist movement are based entirely on insufficient confidence in the power and possibilities of the Communist International, on skepticism with regard to the prospects of united front practically and suc- the work of their own parties, on cessfully; it has given the Brit- ish reactionaries many a sleep- less night. , The work of Bolshevizing the parties which belong to the Co- mintern has made great strides. Bolshevization has been and is being carried on successfully in spite of the objective difficulties of the situation, in spite of the fact that our brother parties have not the same long histori- cal tradition of Bolshevism as has the Communist Party of So- viet Russia. The process of Bol- shevization has proceeded at a quicker rate in some countries, in those which—like Germany and Italy—have got so far as to »hecome the arena of great revo- lutionary battles and class wars. in other countries—such a: France and Czechoslovakia— yrogress has been slower an? ‘raught with more difficulties. But even now it can be said that all Communist parties are far riper for Bolshevism than they were. And just for this reason the question of drawing all Com- muunist parties into the most ac- tive work of the Executive Com: mittee of the Communist Inter- national has now become more urgent than ever. All our parties must take a most active share in the leadership of the Com- munist International. ~ The fact that the 6th Session of the Enlarged-Hxecutive Com- mittee of the C. I. had to carry on a decisive fight against devia- tions in the ranks of the sec- tions, is by no means contra- dictory to the success of Bol- shevization. Deviations are in- evitably bound up with the growth and the Bolshevizatior of the Communist parties. The complications of the present sit uation, the difficulty of party work, the difficulties in party 'eadership, must find expressio in individual parties in the form of unsound symptoms. The © mintern will combat these devi- utions with great determination. t must help the sections to over- come these deviations. Hov was the question of the fight against these deviations put at the Enlarged Executive Com- mittee of the C.1.? Which devi- ations does the conference con- ider as more dangerous, those to the right or to the left? The sonference gave no answer to this last question, because an answer is impossible. The con- ference pointed out that- the question of the fight against deviations must always be put concretely, that it be dependent om circumstances and on the situation of the country and narty in question. In France, the deviation to the right is the more dangerous and it is there- fore at this that the blow should be aimed; in Germany on the other hand, fire should be con- centrated on.the left deviation, British bourgeoisie is more ex-for there the deviation of Scho- a lack of faith in the socialist possibilities of the Soviet Union, and an inability to understand that the Soviet Union is a point of support for international so- cialism. This accounts for the idle talk about “Asiatic” ele- Mmehts in the line taken~by the Comintern, for the superfluous pseudo-revolutionary nervous- ness and arrogance, this counts for the gossip in the ef- fect that preparations are being made for the Soviet Union to join the league of nations. This also accounts for the zig-zag movements, at dDne moment to the left, to blind “left’”’ reckless- ness, at another to the “right,” fo chaffering with the reform- ists. The Comintern has success- -ully carried on the fight against Results of the Session of the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International Karl Radek Goes to China—a humor ous sketch by Deni, the Russiaa Cartoonist. both deviations and will con- tinue to do so. To the horror of the international bourgeoisie, it vill master these deviations. Our brother parties left the 6th ses- sion of the Enlarged E. C. CG. L with their ranks as Bolshevist combatants closer and more consolidated than they were be- fore. Surbarkis Kidnaped for Heaven By ROBERT MINOR HE death of Luther Burbank “7 oWorlg-renowned American natural- t,-is;an event, worthy,of,notice, Un ‘xceled in his own fiield of science. Burbank put his mark indelibly upor the world, and the peculiar conditions of his work made it impossible for him 20t to become something of an idol oi American bourgeois society, But his death brought with it an mbarrassment to the bourgeois cir les in whose custody all greatness is “or the old lover of natural scienc lung doggedly all of his life, to a ertain degree of scientific honesty ind persisted in it on his dying day- 1@ would not pretend a belief in re! sious mysticism. Burbank insisted o: ‘is death ‘bed that his long study. « rature and contact with and its ph 1omena had convinced him that the: 3 no “future life” and no god. Suc statement from a scientific m= ight pass almost unnoticed in co: _nental Europe, where a certain fas’ om of “free thought” is reconcil ith bourgeois ideology more than ‘ in this country. And certainly ourgeois adaptation of anti-religio lew is not to be identified with r olutionary materialist philosophy. But in the United States it is t’ Imost untversal custom for m loing scientific work to maintain t ‘iypocrisy, or sometimes the stupid! of accepting the religious mystici: which is so useful to the bourgeois s vlety in which they seek greatness. When Burbank didn’t, ft caused a pe culiar flurry in the capitalist news- papers. Some of the newspapers ignor éd the old man’s last words, some printed the news Without comment, and some attempted the most ex- quisite harmonizing of Burbank’s atheism with all of the tenets of theo- logy, The most astounding success in ihis journalistic adjustment is perhaps that of the Chicago Journal of Com- merce, which published an editorial as follows: “He Is Gone Now.” “In Luther Burbank a great man has passed on. His amazing feats of plant-origination have not only been of tremendous value to farmers and to growers of fruit, flowers, and trees, but have supplied biologists with a vast amount of new knowl edge, which leads the way to future discoveries of immense importance. vet it is not of his !ife-work that People are-thinking now; it. ig net , of those accomplishments which have made his name a household word for more than a quarter of a century; it ts, instead, of his re cently announced views on religion “Here was a man who spent all his life closer to nature than most people ever get to nature for a mo ment of their tives. He tived seven years longer than the Scriptural pan of three score and ten, And just at the end he clarified and crye ailized a philosophy that denies the oxistence of Deity. ‘This conduct ran counter to ten- dencies that are almost inevitabie. 4e was an old man, and he had ved close to nature. Almost every man who has spent his life amid the “ks cf mature tends to adopt a definite life-codd which Involves the aistence of God. An@ almost every . 18, as he grows old, turns toward religion, Yet Luther Burbank an ounced his disbelief. “His conduct would have been | ‘ss astonishing had he made the | nnouncement in the tone of a man — ager te convince the world. He did ot. He was not evangelical. He sas not trembling with what he be- oved to be a great message. He -poke mellowly, gently, as though what he sald was In no way unusual. Even in denying God, his manner showed that sweetness of character which we like to think of as Godlike. Whatever mistake he made, it was of the mind, it was not of the heart. “And therefore those of us who differ with his views on religion are prone to feel that in the here- after tn which we believe, this sweet, fine lovable old man has now a happy place.” ~ American capitalist culture is after. all vital. Its guts are lined with car- borundum. Where is there another native theology which can place an atheist on the bosom of God—we ask you—and thus hold off the working class from a conclusion that scientific exploration leads away from the authoritarian dogma of capitalism?