The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 9, 1926, Page 6

Page Six 'E DAILY WORKER THE DAILY WORKER ‘ Published by the DAILY WORKER PUBLISHING CO. 1113 W. Washington Blvd,, Chicago, Ill, Phone Monroe 4712 SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mail (in Chicago only): By mall (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 Blyd., Chicago, III, J. LOUIS ENGDAHL WILLIAM F, DUNNE ( MORITZ J. LOEB. ditors usiness Manager Entered as second-class mail September 21, 1923, at thé post-office at Chi- under the act of March 3, 1879, cago, Il, <He 290 Advertis ing | tes on Be mean r F. a L. Must Face Facts The heated discussion which has taken place at the opening sessions of the American Federation of Labor convention, revoly- ing around the attitude of the Detroit churches in support of the open shoppers, and the sharp clash between .the British fraternal delegates and President Green on the question of theadmission of the trade unions of the Soviet Union to a world labor federation, are of great cance. e No A. F. of L. convention in years has found the capitalists in ihe convention city so hostile and it would be a mistake to believe that this is a purely local phenomenon. It means that the owners of the big unorganized industries, having noted the weakness of the labor movement, are not going to cater to it. In effect, what has been done and said by the capitalists in Detroit, is a warning to the trade union leadership to keep out of thege industries. The great strike in Passaic has not escaped the attention of the eapitali#t owners of other industries. That the American Feder- ation of Labor was forced at last to recognize the strike, take the strikers into the United Textile Workers, and begin a relief drive in the trade unions after having denounced the strike, is evidence to the capitalists whose industries are unorganized that conservative leaders do not always exercise a decisive influence in these matters. They know that a show of strength by the capitalists has always made the American trade union leadership retreat and they expect the same thing to happen this time. We expect that the bosses will be disappointed. Not because | the officialdom is braver than before but because there is a growing pressure from below for genuine organization which makes com- plete retreat somewhat difficult. It is certain that. the trade union movement, if it is to live, must fight. If it does not fight under its present leadership, it will get a new one. The action of the Detroit open shoppers has accomplished two good things: 1. It has shown thousands of workers that it is no bed of roses that is being prepared for them by the “welfare” schemes of the capitalists. 2. The churches have been shown up as ready instrnments of the capitalists. As for the sharp discussion on the question’of world trade union unity, this is proof that the American Federation of Labor, because after all it is composed of workers, cannot escape being drawn into the world struggle of labor. These issues, in spite of the efforts of officialdom to keep them out of the American labor movement, will attract more and more attention and will have to be met by the leadership who up to date have been able to quash them by a flood of abuse. They Want Only Silence From Calvin. Calvin Coolidge is not going to take public part in the con- gressional campaign this fall and Washington dispatches state that the capital is shocked by the announcement. We are not shocked. We give the republican candidates who have struggled thru the primaries, and most of whom were nominated either without Coo- lidge support or against his open opposition, credit for enough sanity to desire nothing that could be interpreted as aid from his hands by the citizenry. Coolidge support, as the primary elections have shown, is just about the same as throwing an anvil to a drowning man for ai life preserver. The republican national committee has undoubtedly, even if its wishes were otherwise, responded to the frenzied appeals of the congressional and senatorial candidates, and prevailed upon Calvin to refrain from even a front porch campaign. This does not augur well for Calvin’s chances as the candidate of the republican party in 1928. A president whose laudatory ut terances relative to the merits of republican candidates are a sort of reverse English, so to speak, and who cannot pull the administra- tion henchmen thru in such staunch republican strongholds as Penn- sylvania, is more of a liability than an asset. Already the doleful yelps of the holders of federal patronage, who fear that their places at the trough may be taken by deserving democrats, can be heard within the sacred purlieus of the White House. They mean something because these are the lads who get out the vote. Calvin entered the White Hotse as the bearer of the “strong, silent man” tradition. The republican national committee and the candidates appear to be in favor of the perpetuation of the silent tradition. As to the strong part of the myth there is a large and growing body of opinion which is willing, nay, is demanding, that the word “rank” be substituted. We incline to the belief that the big capitalists of America be- lieve that Calvin, as the first flower of republicanism in the White Honse controversy, has lost his first bloom and-must be replaced by one whose heauty will not fade so quickly: Anyway, this particular flower will not be worn in the button- holés of the champions of the G. O. P. this fall. It seems clear that someone has started a “Back to Vermont” movement for Calvin. All they want from him now is s silence and and lots of it. "TROTSKY-ZINOVIEV OPPOSITION FAILS TO WIN SUPPORT IN PARTY (Special Cable to The. Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Oct. 7.—All Moscow organizations of the Communist Party ot the Soviet Union continue to hear reports of the activities of the oppos!- tion, Excepting the nucleus of “Aviopribor,” where they succeeded In get; ting twenty-six votes against seventy-seven for the Central Committee, the Opposition felled to make any showing in any of the nuclei, Despite ali at- tempts of the opposition to draw them ‘Into the struggle, all units adopted unanimous resolutions strongly areal wit focti activities of the lon. * ARTICLE EIGHT. By WILLIAM F, DUNNE, 6 Pain American trade union ‘move- ment must be lifted out of the slough of despond into which it has been dragged, its morale ‘raised and the will toestruggle developed. It must become the leader of the working masses of the United States. It does not play this role now, It simply accepts the existence of cap- italism as a fact, looks upon the | “prosperity” of the country in exactly nals describe it (as a néw golden age | of Americanism) and follows the lead | of the capitalists in its policy, For skilled workers the trade un-/ ions have as yet some appeal but the great majority of the American work- ingclass are not skilled workers. They are unskilled and semi-skilled and are in the big basic industries, TRADE union. movement cannot organize decisive. masses of these workers unless jt can express, to some extend at least, thesrevolution- ary mission inherent in the working- class, It must have a crusading spi- rit and the business ideology of the present labor leadership will not and | cannot adjust itself to this fact. As one of the main reasons for the moribund condition of the American labor movement the surrender of labor officialdom to American cap- italism has not escaped the attention the same way as the capitalist jour- | of close observers ofthe labor move- ment. Abraham Epstein says in the September “Current History”? . the real strength of a labor movement lies not in its mere size, but In the vitality and missionary zeal which permeate it. And It Is in the decadence of the spirit, the hopes and the aspirations of the rank and file that the dissipation of the Américan labor movement is most clearly revealed today. * This is correct, ‘VEN the organized workers have lost faith in the labor movement las it is at present, There !s a great cynicism among the membership and |for this the studied avoidance or de- |nunciation of anything tinged with militancy or class-consciousness and the constant aping of both capitalists and middle class by, the officials Is largely ‘responsible. Trade union movements begin as movements of oppressed workers, . When they are prostituted to the service of capital- ism, as the extracts from official statements, and concrete examples given previously show is being done to the American labor movement, the rank and file of the membership as well as sections of the unorganized, in a period of rising’ capitalism, lose pe hope and faith in the labor move- | ment and in their class and become dependent upon the bounty of the capitalists. |TJ\O quote Epstein’ again: | The bia and aspirations By N. BUCHARIN The Ideological Sources of the Opposition Block, ET us turn to the question of the ideological sources from which the opposition block derives its ideas. I jam of the opinton that the bed-rock foundation of. the ideology of this op- position block in all its constituents is jactually, as seen at the XIV. Party | Congress, disbelief, or at t doubt, jot the possibility of building up social- jism in our country, and I maintain that this arises out of the former viewpoint held by all the representa- tives of the present opposition block. HUS for instance in Comrade Trotsky’s case his lack of faith is associated with his conviction that if international revolution is not victorious, then the counter- revolutionary peasantry are inevit- ably bound to overthrow the diota- torship of the proletariat. This Is the fundamental standpoint de- veloped by him in his: theory of permanent revolution, and is the standpoint from which he has not departed. N the case of Comrades Kamenev and Zinoviev their lack of faith party will be published). is a part of their past; at the time of the October revolution they thot that we, as sole party backed by the proletariat, were not capable of coping with the tasks imposed by power. ND then comes the “Workers’ Opposition.” Here again | must remind you of a fact which many of us have forgotten. One of the deserters at the time of the Octo- ber revolution was Comrade Shly- apnikov; he left his post at this turning point. He was People’s Commissar at that time, and sent in his resignation. It may of course be assumed that he did not do this on his own initiative, but probably after consultation with those shar- ing his views. HE three main elements of the present block have shown by their historical past that their esti- mate of the class forces in our RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY THE ANNUAL I. Resolution on Old Class War Cases. bev Second Annual Conference of International Labor Defense calls the attention of the workers of Ameri- ca to the cases of those labor fighters, imprisoned years ago, who were sen-; tenced on framed-up charges and whose cause has been neglected and all but forgotten by the working class. Tom Mooney and Warren K., Billings have. suffered the torture of trials and imprisoned for more than’ ten years now. The I. W. W. victims of the Centralia conspiracy are imprisoned in Washington for’ almost the same length of time. ‘McNamara and Mat- thew Schmidt remain‘in their cells at San Quentin. Sacco’ and Vanzetti, harrassed for six years with the gloomy, shadow of impending execu- tion, may yet suffer the same fate, The many I. W. W. prisoners in California, the miner, Dominick Venturato, in Ohio, Edgar Combs in West Virginia, and many others have been permitted to fall into obscurity and almost out of the mémory and scope of action of the workers of this country. tp a position of these devoted fighters of the working class must not be tolerated, The International Labor Defense and the Labor Defend- er have rendered an invaluable serv- fee by reviving and keeping fresh in the minds of the workers the story of these almost forgotten cases, The task of constantly reminding the la- bor movement of its to these courageous fighters, of hepsi these (Continued from the previous issue), characterizing the European labor movement have never been part of the main labor body In the United States. And the newer aotivities of labor in banking, Investment) companies and insurance are at best only copying what the em- ployers age doing. Like the capitalists, the American labor leaders have always resisted any attempt to make the social re- forms such as unemployment insur- ance, ete. a political issue. Only workmen's compensation laws have really been fought for and chiefly on the ground that such measures were actually cheaper for the employer, MBERICAN labor Jeadership always has fought and:is still fighting the organization of a party based on the trade unions and playing’ the’ role of the labor party im Great Britain or the social-democrat; party in Germany in putting forward the reforms de- manded by the trade unions - _polit- ical issues, The consequence has béen raat the capitalists can now appear, in many instances, thru their social welfare schemes, as giving workers more than the trade unions have ever, demanded. The stimulating and organizational value of the struggle for these re- forms has been lost to the trade union movement, Meanwhile the labor leadership still follows the “non-partisan” political policy, drags the labor movement in- to the capitalist parties as well as In- THE present controversy within the Communist Party i) the Soviet Union is neither a sign—nor will it be the cause —of a retreat of the revolution. Quite the contrary. It is clear indication of its victorious onward march. To give a clear understanding as well of the present prob- lems of the Russian Revolution as also of the controversy over the solution of these problems, we are publishing here- *with a report made by Comrade Bucharin at the fwnction- aries’ meeting of the Leningrad organization of the Commu- nist Party. The report speaks for itself and needs no further elucidation. It is clear and convincing and answers the lies about the retreat of the Russian Revolution. country is such thatthey doubt the possibility of the working class, un- der the leadership of our party, proving capable of drawing the mighty wagon of our backward country out of the bog into which it has fallen. These are the first and deepest sources of the Ideology of the present opposition block. + THINK it will now be fairly plain to you why the opposition has had recourse to such umheard of action as that leading to the affair of Com- rade Lashevitch an@-others. (I shall not enter into the nature of this af- fair here, since’ it is.as well known to you as to me—the decisions of the The steps taken by, these oppositional comrades have led to a violation of party dis- cipline perfectly umheard of in the history of the party, -and it has been possible that a candidate to the C. C., with the undoubted:approval of mem- bers of the polit-bureau, has held mass meetings in the forest, against the party, against the line pursued by the party, for the purpose of overthrow- ing the present leaders of the C. C. of the party, and of creating a new organization actually representing the germ of a new party whose influence ‘was to extend over the whole coun- try. OMRADES, | shall not. here dem- onstrate to you the entirely crim- inal character of such action from the standpoint of the party. This seems to me entirely superfluous, You all understand it without explanation. But I honestly want to understand how it could come about. I think it L. D. CONFERENCE working class, is being fulfilled by the I, L. D, and must be continued with renewed and devoted vigor, for their cause is now St than ever our cause, pus conference. Sotzasts the incom- ing National Executive Committee to exert very effort within the next year towards the reviving of the agi- tation and publicity necessary to arouse working class Opinion and mob- ilize all strength 4o bring these old cases to the ‘ront once more, to the end that those, who have suffered these long and bitter years of unjustt- fied imprisonment shall be free to re- join the labor mov it, for the fight in whose interests are being per- secuted. To these old “prisoners in particu- lar the conference sende its pledge of incessant labor for their speedy re- lease from the living tombs of Ameri- can capitalism, Dus, © Resolution on Debs. 'HEREAS: Comrade Eugene V. Debs, a member of the National Committee of International Labor De- fense, has been, and now is suffering a painful physical disorder depriving him ot association and active helpful- ness with his many co-adjutants thru- out America—theretore, be it re solved: i Noah ternational Lifbor Defense now in Bee, Sep- tember 6, 1 their heartfelt symy ings with their 8 has been made possible because these comrades, as regards ideology, have fallen away from the line of the party to such an extent, and are internally so completely convinced that without them the party will fall over a precl- Pice, slip from the proletarian path- way, and drive the country to the venge of the abyss, that they feel themselves impelled to grasp at any available means—they rush into thé forest and cry for “help.” This is the only possible subjective justifica- tion for them, > UT from the standpoint of the party there is no justification. The central committee and the central control commission have been faced by the fact that a number of com- rades, including some holding ex- tremely responsible positions, had ac- tually taken such steps as the convo- cation of an illegal] meeting agains’ the party and its leaders. Were we t tolerate,»such actions, our party woul, cease to exist tomorrow as a Leninis party. We cannot tolerate this. W« say to these comrades: Defend you: principles, declare your standpoint, speak in the party meetings; but ii you take to the forest, if you will not reply to our questions, if you refuse to make statements before the contro] commission, if you choose the method of organizing a new party within our party, the’ method of illegal organiza- tion, then we shall fight you relent- lessly, But we shall not let matters 0 so far as this. Comrade Zimoviev was perfectly right, two years ago, when he said that the question of schism in the party is a matter of life and death to the party and to the proletarian dictatorship. HE danger is somewhat lessened by the fact that the comrades of the opposition haye only in their im- agination the masses of the proletar- iat behind them, In reality they will continue to be more ahd more like generals without armies, or admirals of the Swiss fleet.. (Laughter and applause.) This will come about the more rapidly as the party at- tacks the work of enlightenment more energetically, and steels its ow ide- ology. 4 This work .of ‘enlightement is the leading point on our agenda, This is the first task to which we must de- vote attention, hee opposition is speculating upon various possibilities. It is specu- lating upon our economic difficulties, It is speculating on the fact that we suffer many shortcomings in our pres- ent life, that many different trends of feeling have arisen among the” work- ers during the past year, and will probably be followed by many others. And finally, it is specujating on the : WCEL Radio Program Chicago Federation of Labor radio broadcasting station WCFL is on the air with regular programs. It is broadcasting on a 491.56 wave length from the Municipal Pier, TONIGHT ) MomChic to capitalist enterprises. It is not surprising that the morale of the trade unions has sunk to the lowest level in. its history. When super-profits enable capital- ists to make substantial concessions to large sections of, the. workers, or- dinary “trade union” demands lose much of their appeal, if [ales notes this also: For “pure and simple” trade untlonism has been concerned pri- marily. with the securing of a shorter workday, higher wages and SSE eeew0Y,y —— be glad to get them verbatim, improved working conditions. Since the elght or nine hour workday has become practically general, gnd since as a body the trade unions have taken,no serious steps in demanding a still shorter day, the issue has practically eliminated It- self... . the only remaining Issue of the American labor movement— the Improvement of working con- ditlons—has been taken out of Its hands by the employers going labor one better and ADOPTING CON- SITIONS SUCH AS THE TRADE UNIONISTS NEVER DARED TO ASK.. By. this process the main reasons for the existence of the American labor movement have been gradually subverted, LEAV- ING -IT PRACTICALLY LIFE- LESS, ‘ Epstein undoubtedly overrates the ‘FROM PORTLAND TO DETROIT coupled with the supine attifude of the labor leadership, there can be no doubt, HE most recent example of this servility has occurred in Detroit where, when attacked by the open shop interests of that city while the A. F. of L, convention {is in session, the union officials make the chief point of their defense a statement that the labor movement is just as American and patriotic as the capital- ists and cites the support of the im- Perialist war in 1917 as proof of this. Like all supporters of capitalism in the ranks of the labor movement, the trade union leadership in America has tried to meet the attacks of the capitaligt class (and the development of welfare schemes is a far more deadly attack than that made by in- junctions and troops) by conceding that no basic differences exist, that there is nothing that capital and labor cannot agree on around the conference table provided the capitalists will ac- cept the trade union officials as the spokesmen of the workers. This is @ policy which spells dis- aster for the labor movement .and already it has travelled far on this road. Thig#\journey must be halted and the labor movement turned back to the crossroads and set upon the right path—the path of the class struggle, extent of the concessions made by the capitalists but as to their devastating effect upon the labor movement when supposition that the present central committee will net be capable of lead- ing the -party without them, the highly gifted supermen, The opposi- tion believes that we shall break down under a task too difficult for us. if the opposition will not help us ‘to lead the party, then we shall do it without (Enthusiastic plause.) We Shall Overcome the Difficulties, Remove the Excrescences, Cor- rect the Errors. are, confident, comrades, that however difficult our ecotiomic position.is at times, still our economic prospects. are good, and the excellent crops, which we shall have this year will make Jt possible for us to really overcome the economic difficulties be- ing undergone by the country at thé present juncture. _And we are even more .confident that.we shall be suc- cessful. in leading both our party and our country forward on the broad road of development. There are none so blind as those who will not. see. There are -many who believe the situa- tion to be still the same among us as it-was at the beginning of the revolu- tion, ;when, anyone, able to write an article with correct spelling could con- sider himself a party leader. Since then a new generation has sprung up. We. haye a new generation of finc- tionarieg-in the provinces, we are sup- ported .on all sides by thousands: of ands, and we stake confidently upon ris magnificent collective power of them. ap- ur. party, We are fully convinced ‘at we shall win. . (Enthusiastic ap- lause). HE present opposition, like every other opposition which his hitherto »risen in our party, and like those op- nositional ..groups which contend But we, comrades, are confident that Striking October “Workers’ Monthly” In this task the Communists have a mighty role to play. (To be continued) The C. P..S. U. and the Opposition Block against our party outside of its ranks, has a certain foothold upon which it bases its position. Were we to live in Paradise, whatever, so that everything worked at a hundred per cent rate of smooth- ness, then there would be no foothold for an opposition. I have often made this observation, and am not ashamed to bring it forward again here, Dur- ing the rising at Kronstadt in the spring of 1921 the armed counter- revolutionary opposition was again based on a rational idea, for a cer- tain. disorder had eaten its way amongst us, and things ‘had occurred which demonstrated a corresponding reaction on our part. This reaction consisted of the introduction. of. free trade, in the cessation of grain requi- sitions, etc., ete, And if there were no bureaucracy among us at the present time, if wages were not still so low in’a number of branches of produc- tion, and ff the village poor had not to live under bad conditions, then the opposition would have no ground un- der its feet. Of course, every opposition in the party exploits our faults. The whole point of the question lies in what is criticized, and in how and why the criticism is exercised, When the comrades of the opposi- tion declare: “Bureaucracy. is strang- ling you,” then we reply: “Yes, bu- reaucracy#is an excrescence very det- rimental to us.” But when they go further and say: “Your sfate has ceased to bé a state of the proletar- ian dictatorship, it is a state of bu- reaucrats who have nothing in com- mon. with the masses,” then we reply: “That is not true; we refute this criticism as a slander against our workers’ sta (To Be Continued.) HE October issue of The Workers Monthly strikes one as not only being one of the best issues of the magaizne that we have seen but also as marking a new departure or rather a new stage of its development. This is probably due as much to the va- riety of the articles and to their or- ganization as to the number of new features. “With Marx and Engels.” NQUESTIONABLY the most str{k- ing thing. about this issue of the monthly is the inauguration of a new department: “With Marx and Engels.” As the editor correctly points out a knowledge of the actual writings of Marx and Engels. is indispensable to the understanding of the fundamen- tals of Marxism and Leninism that must serve as the basis forthe effec: tive functioning of the revolutionary working class movement. And so, “since. comparatively. little of the to- tal writings of Marx and Engels are available in English” a department in The Workers Monthly in which there will be published regularly articles, letters, etc., of Marx and Engels that are’ unavailable or practically inac~ cessible oe ily a highly valu. able feature, department of the monthly is ne the direction of Comrade Avram Land: careful stu: dent of Marx. The October issue con- tains two striking articles—one by Engels “On the Principle of ‘Au. thority,” discussing the question of. force and the state, and ‘one by Mark “On Political Indifference,” a scath ing reply:to the antt-politicalists and antt-everything-else anarchists, The value of these articlés pointed out by Lenin in his State and Revolu- tion and American readers will cer- | -_. Prospects of Europe. i 5 Nek new feature in this issue is the first of a series of general Listen articles’ on the present This issue is also remarkable for its reviews. “ Besides a full review on Will Durant’s book, the “Story of Philosophy” there is a review of Bishop Brown’s new book “My Heresy” by C, E. Ruthenberg, one_of Pepper's pamphlets on: the “British General Strike” by Bert Wolfe, a re- view of Upton Sinclair's latest, “The Spdkeman’s Secretary,” and of a véry interesting book, “The Mind of the Negro as Reflected in Letters Written During the Crisis of 1800-1860.” Range of Articles, It is impossible to discuss the con- tents of this issue adequately in this brief review. A study of the Ameri- ean. foreign debt situation (“Uncle Shylock” by Maurice Mendelsohn), is followed by a discussion of the tendencies of socialist reconstruction in the Soviet Union (“Is Russia Going Back to Capitalism?” by Max Be- dacht). The Philippine question, so prominent now, receives a thoro treat- ment in two articles (“The Crisis in Philippine Independence” by Manuel Gomez and “Rubber and the B: Bill” by Ella G. Wolfe), A detailed ar- ticle on the British Minority Move- ment (“The Third Conference of the British Minority Movement” by Barl Browder and Hams Strum) is of spe- interest now in view of the re- it Trade Union Congress, Ellis fo ES in his article “American Don Quixotes and their. Windmills” an- swers the absurd attacks of the 8. 1, P. on the Comintern the Workers (Communist) Party axfd brings out « nuinber of highly important points, An analysis of the situation of the Communist movement in Hungary in the ght the Rakosi trial (“The Rakost by John Kiss) com- plétes this issue, certainly one of the fullest and most satisfactory in a “4 work Month, ers Monthly has grown in- Giapohantie not only for every Com- fore but for every advanced and \ 5 who wants to keep and had we no faults - ‘ =i st (oot rang