The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 3, 1928, Page 3

THE THEO DAILY WORK BK NOW VORA SVOPIN EDA DORMS 1aZN DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, INDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1928 PARTY PRE On October 16 the minority of the) of the Comintern convinced the Political Committee of the Party|above named comrades of the min- | consisting of Gomrades Aronberg,|ority that Cannon was developing Bittelman and Foster, submitted a} a line which leads to the crystal- statement to the Political Committee | lization of a Trotskyist faction in containing the following charges| the Party. The comrades, however, against Cannon, Abern and Shacht-| knew that in the absence of con- CONVENTION DISCUSSI For a Correct Bolshevist Line in the American ) man: . 1) It has become clear, in recent weeks, that Comrade Cannon, sup- ported by Comrades Abern and Shachtman, is carrying on activi- ties, leading to the crystallization of a Trotskyist faction in our Par- ty. Comrade Cannon is making a | political platform of such proposi- tions as: keeping an open mind on the question of Trotskyism, study- ing the question, spreading doubt as to the correctness of the C, I. attitude on the question, and urging the need of re-examining it, ete. 2) Trotskyism has been correct- ly condemned by the C. I. as a social-democratic and counter-rev- olutionary tendency. Trotskyism employs left phrases to cover up Right deeds. Comrade Cannon’s variety of Trotskyism in the U. S. constitutes a tendency to develop a Right wing orientation for the American Section of the C. I, un- der cover of reopening for discus- sion the C. I. attitude on the ques- tion of Trotskyism. 8) The main danger in our Par- ty, as in the C. I., comes in the present period from the Right. The minority is committed to an uncompromising fight against the Right Danger in our Party no mat- ter from where it comes or under what cover it makes its appear- ance, 4) The minority therefore com- pletely disassociates itself from Comrade Cannon and those who hold similar views. The minority decides to wage a merciless fight against this Trotskyist maneouvre of Comrade Cannon and to wage this fight as an organic part of its general struggle against the Right Danger and the Right wing © of our Party (the Lovestone group). Confronted with this charge, Can- non assumed the following attitude —while evading to answer whether he was for Trotskyism or against it, he definitely branded the charges of the minority as false. When further pressed for a direct answer as to his attitude on Trotskyism and as to his intentions of reopening the discussion in the Party on this question, it became clear from his answers that Cannon and those shar- ing his views are actually proceed- ing to the building up of a Trotsky- ist faction in the Party. It was also _ clear that Cannon was playing for _ time and therefore was unwilling at that time to openly state his decision in favor of Trotskyism. But the charges submitted by the minority taken together with Can- _.non’s attitude toward them was such that the Political Committee became convinced that Cannon and those sharing his views on this ques- tion could not be further entrusted with the holding of their positions in the Party. The Polcom thereupon adopted the motion of the minority to remove Cannon, Abern and Shachtman from their positions and to initiate a thorough investigation into the matter. This investigation was carried on by the Poleom and was participated in by all those comrades in the minority who from personal contact with Cannon could assist the Party in exposing and defeating Cannon’s Trotskyist move. In this manner Cannon was finally com- pelled to come out from his hiding place and to state his decision on Trotskyism which he did by sub- mitting a statement to the Political Committee in the name of himself, Abern, Shachtman. Following this open declaration for Trotskyism, the Political Committee unanimously ex- pelled Cannon, Abern, Shachtman from the Party. The Role of the Minority in Expos- ing and Defeating the Cannon Trotskyist Move. ' It has been established by the in- vestigation that comrades of the minority who were in persowal con- _ tact with Cannon, Shachtman and ' Abern after the return of Cannon from the Sixth World Congress, have been successful in exposing _ Cannon’s moves apd thus enable the Party to defeat them. The records of the investigation definitely prove that it was due to the efforts of Comrades Hathaway, Gomez, Cas- trell, Wagenknecht, Aronberg, Gor- man and a few others that the Poli- tical Committee was able to take effective action against Cannon and his followers and thus enable the Party to liquidate the developing Trotsky Opposition. The above named comrades of the minority, when they received their first inkling of Cannon’s developing Trotskyist Opposition on October 3, proceeded to take necessary steps to establish the facts and bring them to the Poleom. The suspicion that something was wrong with Cannon on the question of Trotskyism was forced on them by statements of _ Cannon, Abern and Shachtman to the effect that the question of Trotsky- ism is not really settled, yet, that we have not studied the question enough to be able to render com- plete and final judg-ent on this issue. The above named comrades Y of the minority became further} strengthened in their suspicions when Cannon in the next several days began to advocate what he called “an open mind” on Trotsky- ism, These developments taken in connection with the attitude of Can- non, Abern, Shachtman to abstain from voting in the membership meeting in New York on the ques- tion of endorsing the general line | elusive évidence Cannon might deny the charges and retract further into political hiding as he did threaten to |do before the charges were sub- | mitted to the Poleom, Therefore the | above comrades of the minority pro- | ceeded from that point on to secure | all available proof to convince the | Poleom of the correctness of the charges which they had made. It is thus seen that within less than two weeks after the comrades of the minority in New York first got their suspicion about the matur- ing Trotskyist Opposition of Cannon, the comrades were successful in es- tablishing the facts before the Poli- tical Committee with the subsequent expulsion of Cannon, Abern and Shachtman from the Party. The majority of the Central Com- mittee-while pretending to discour- age charges of Trotskyism against the minority at the same time launches a bitter attack against the minority which in substance accuses them of Trotskyism, citing especi- ally Comrades Gomez, Costrell, Aronberg, Douglas, Hathaway, Gor- man, Frankfeld and Wagenknecht for withholding information from the Polcom about the Trotskyist at- titude of Cannon, for expelling Can- non from the minority group in- stead of bringing the matter imme- diately to the Political Committee, for making a joint declaration with Cannon in the Poleom expressing reservations to the Comintern de- cision regarding the American ques- tion, for selecting Cannon as a mefh- ber of the steering committee to the membership meeting in New York on October 3. The statement of the Central Committee attacks the min- ority delegation to the Sixth World Congress for failure to inform the Communist International that Can- non absented himself from voting on the Trotskyist question in the Congress. These accusations are absolutely false; the facts are as follows: (1) No information “about the outright Trotskyist attitude of Cannon” was withheld from the Political Com- mittee. The investigation proves this. The comrades of the minority did not present to the Polcom” their mere individual suspicions but, on the contrary secured proof confir- ming these suspicions and. then brought the matter to the Political Committee. (2) When these comrades expelled Cannon from the minority, this was precisely cne of the means by which they forced Cannon to come out into the open and thus enabled the Party to see the Cannon move and to at- tatk it. (3) When Comrades Aronberg and Costrell signed together with Cannon the declaration of the min- ority to the Polcom on their attitude to the Comintern decision on the American question, they at that time had absolutely no inkling about the Trotskyist designs of Cannon. The same considerations explain the selection of Cannon as one of the steering committee of the minority at the membership meeting of Oc- tober 3. ; (4) The delegates of the minority | to the Sixth World Congress had not learned of Cannon’s absence in the Congress when the Trotskyist question was acted on until after arriving in the United States and during the investigation of this mat- ter. The delegates of the minority to the Congress did know in Moscow that Cannon was not present in the Congress hall when the general political thesis was voted on. The minority delegries demanded of Cannon an explanation of this action on the next day after the vote on the thesis occurred. Cannon’s ex- planation was that he did not want to vote for the declaration of the minority delegation to the Congress on the thesis. Gannon’s Trotskyism was not known by the minority dele- gates in Moscow: It is therefore, obvious that the accusations made by the majority in its statement against the minority are unfounded. Furthermore, as we will prove later in the document, the meaning of these accusations and attacks is to utilize the Cannon Trotskyist Opposition in order to initiate a new onslaught against the minority thruout the Party. For the Comintern Line Against the Right Danger and Against Trotskyism. In the present struggle against both the Right danger and against Trotskyism the minority proposes that the Party shall follow the line laid down by the Communist Inter- national. The line adopted by the majority of the Central Committee of our Party and embodied in its statement is contrary to the Com- intern on this question. What is the Comintern line for the struggle against the Right danger and against Trotskyism? We will quote from Comrade Buk- harin’s report to the Sixth World Congress: “Some time ago the greatest danger in the Communist Interna- tional eame from the ‘ultra lefts,’ who endeavored to set up an in- ternational organization. After the defeats of the Opposition in the Communist Party of the So- viet Union these were frustrated, but the very process of disintegra- tion of the Opposition, the culmin- ating point of which was the col- lapse of the ‘Lenin Bund,’ leads us inevitably ot certain conclusions. “At present the principal danger comes from the Right tendency if ‘Statement by the Minority of the Party Against the Right Danger, and Against the Cannon-Trotsky Opposition Central Executive Committee of the Workers (Communist) Party of America we take the Communist Interna- | tional as a whole. | “The Right danger is assuming considerable proportions just now and it is bet natural that after smashing the Trotskyist Opposi- | tion we must adopt a very definite policy against these Right ten- dencies and small Right opposi- | | tional groupings.” | The Central Executive C The discussion is to be This point of view was incorpo-| | rated in the Congress decision on| | the question which is that after the defeat and disintegration of the | | Trotskyist Opposition in the Com-| munist Party of the Soviet Union as | well as in the Communist Parties| | as a whole, the main danger comes | from the Right, while at the same} time we continue to combat the op-| portunist deviations that mask | themselves in left phrases. This is the point of view of the minority on the question. It is not the point of view of the Central Committee | | which makes Trotskyism the main danger in the Party and obscures and weakens the struggle against} the Right deviations ‘and the Right dangers. of Communism. The Central Executive structive self-criticism. Office of the Party. PARTY DISCUSSION OPENE Party preconvention discussion immediately. will guarantee the freest possible opportunities to com- rades in opposition to the Central Executive Committee to present their viewpoint, solely limited by the statutes of the Communist International and within the principles All Party units, sub-divisions and the entire Party press will be guided by this policy. members to participate actively in this discussion. The C. E. C. especially welcomes contributions by comrades | fested discontent of the in the workshops, mines and mills. The discussion should be conducted in a spirit of con- All discussion articles should be sent to the National CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE WORKERS (COMMUNIST) PARTY OF AMERICA ——)donment of the trade union work D |during the election campaign, the ‘ommittee decided to open the cooperatives, and failure to connect the parliamentary struggle with the economic struggles of the workers, the appointment of Scott Nearing | who has strong pacifist and non- Leninist conceptions on imperialism to a very responsible position in our anti-imperialist work, failure to connect the war danger with the effects of the economic depression and: capitalist rationalization (un- employment, wage cuts, speed-up, etc), and failure to make those the outstanding issues in the election campaign, an outright opportunist and fatalistic analysis of the result of the presidential elections, which grossly underestimates the mani- working | | class and which develops a perspec- | | tive that excludes the possibility of | working class mass political strug- | gles, short of a revolutionary crisis | in the United States, as shown in | | the Daily Worker editorial of No- | | vember 8, and in the article of Com- | | rade Pepper in the Daily Worker of | November 10, ete. conducted on such a basis as Committee urges all Party In the present struggle of the ¢ | Central Committee of the Commu- nist. Party in the Soviet Union against the Right Danger on the one hand, and against Trotskyism on the other hand, the same Com- | intern line is being put into effect. This line has been given fresh ex- pression to in a speech by Comrade Stalin on October 19, 1928 at the Plenum of the Moscow Committee and Moscow Control Commission. We quote from Comrade Stalin’s speech: The key to the position of the majority of the Central Committee is found in the statement: “Trotskyism, in its last stage of development, is the summing up, is the unifying force of all these opportunistic Right dan- gers,” By this statement ‘the Polcom says that the Trotskyist deviation is the same as the present Right devia- tions, that Trotskyism is the sharp- est expression of the present Right danger and that therefore, Trotsky- ism is the main danger in the pres- lent period. This is the meaning of “The question of the Right an’ Left deviations in our Party can- not possibly be considered as a trifling matter. What are the characteristics of the openly op- portunist Right deviations in our Party? They consist in the fact that they underestimate the | strength of our enemies, the cap- | italists, refuse to see the danger of the reestablishment of capitel- ism, fail to understand the dynam- ies of the class struggle under the conditions of proletarian dic- tatorship, and therefore, easily agree to make con¢essions to cap- jtalism by demanding the slowing capitalist elements in town and country, thrust the question of collective and Soviet undertakings into the background, demand a restriction of the foreign trade monopoly, ete. The victory of the Right deviation in our Party would doubtless combine the forces of capitalism, shatter the revolu- tionary position of the proletariat and enhance the chance of reestab- lishment of capitalism in our coun- try. “And in what does the Left, Trotskyist deviation in our coun- try consist? It lies in the faet that the representatives of this | | deviation overestimate the forces | of our enemies and the strength | of capitalism, that they are blind ‘| to all save the possibility of a | restoration of capitalism, especial- ly blind to the possibilities of so- cialist construction on its own | merits and prone to comfort them- | selves with a lot of twaddle about the Thermidor of our Party. From Lenin’s statement, that ‘as long as we live in a petty peasant coun- | try there is in Russia a firmer | economic basis for capitalism than | for Communism,’ the Left devia- | tors draw the conclusion that in | the Soviet Union generally it is | impossible to construct socialism, | that nothing can be obtained from | cooperation with the peasantry, that the idea of an alliance be- tween the working class and the peasantry has ‘been superceded, | that if we receive no help from a victorious revolution in the west, the dictatorship must necessarily come to grief, and that if the fan- | tastic plan of overindustrializa- tion, even if executed at the cost of rupture with the peasantry, is not accepted, the cause of social- | ism in the Soviet Union must be considered lost. Hence, the dan- | gerous character of the left devia- | tions and the tremendous leaps | noticeable in its policy. There | ean be no doubt that a victory of | the Left deviation in our Party | would have led to the isolation of | the working class from its peas- ant basis, to separation of the vanguard of the working class from the rest of the working class, and to more favorable pros- pects for the restoration of capi- talism.” The line of the majority of the Central Committee of our Party on the Right danger and Trotskyism is in contradiction to the line of the Comintern as expressed in the deci- sions of the Sixth World Congress and in the statement frora Com- ‘rades Stalin and Bukharin quoted | above. the position taken by the majority re ee These tendencies, which constitute |the line of the Central Committee | The Party must formulate a gen-| of our Party, have the effect of eral line, on the basis of the chang-| paralyzing the fighting ability of ing objective conditions, which would! the Party, retarding its activities enable it to mobilize most effec-| for developing mass struggles and tively and lead the masses in the| mass organizations and hence, are | forthcoming struggles. In order to veakening the working class and | achieve this end, the Party must! strengthening its enemies. These | guard against both Right and Left! are Right tendencies, open oppor- | deviations. | tunist tendencies, and constitute the Right danger in the American Par- ty which must be fought against and defeated in order that the Par- | Certain sections of our Party are | proving to be too slow and even) unwilling to reorientate the Party’s general line to these changing ob- jective conditions. This tendency | gives rise to Right wing deviations) and is at the bottom of the Right} jdanger in the American Party. | There are on the other hand cer- tain elements in the Party and on line, 2. Leftist Deviations. persistent opportunist line in the/ {ty may pursue a correct Bolshevik | a vice Five gage Three = by moderating, weaken ing power of the work- and of our Party. , struggle ing the ing class The same tendency to capitulate takes also the form of outright pes- simism, of a tendency to give up, to become passive, to withdraw from the This tendency, which f in left phrases and at nt in our Party adopts Trot- skyism as its platform, is harmful and deadly to the growth of our |Party, While pretending to strive |for an improvement in the Party policies and professing to fight for a stronger Communist Party, in reality it spreads pessimism, lack of faith in our movement, demor- alization, ete. | The Party must therefore wage amerciless struggle on two fronts— against the open Right danger and against the Trotsky Opposition led | / by Cannon, It is only in the strug- inst the Right and Left that the Communist ty of America will be able to de- lop a correct line and to crystal- ize a Bolshevik proletarian leader- ship. Only Correct Bolshevik Line Can De- feat the Right and Trotskyist Deviations. The struggle against the Right de- viations on the one hand and Trot- skyist deviations on the other hand is a struggle on two fronts against the influence of opportunism in our Party, This struggle can be waged successfully only through the adop- tion by cur Party of a correct Bol- shevik line. The remedy against the Right danger is not Trotskyism,. and the remedy against Trotskyism is not a Right wing line. | To fight successfully against Trotskyism the Party must strengthened in its Bolshevik ideol- It must reject all which are cultivating a fatalistic at- titude towards the power of Amer- ican imperialism. It must condemn and defeat all such ideologies as un- derestimate the revolutionizing in- fluences of the outer and inner con- tradictions of American imperial ism. It musi clearly see that while | American imperialism is still de- veloping upward there are matur- \ing internal and external contradi jons which are sharpening the class |rélations and class struggle in the United States. It must orientate it- \self primarily on the unskilled, un- organized and most exploited tion of the American working clas It must make its work among the be § theories | of our Central Committee. | by Left phrases), is the main dan- | The might of the capitalist class This point of view is in opposi- | of America, the corruption of the tion to the point of view of the Communist International which says that the Right danger (open opportunism), as distinct from Trotskyism (opportunism covered the comparative political backward- | ness of the American working class | and relative weakness of our Party, jhas given rise in certain sections ‘of the -Party to a fatalistie atti- * 4 tude toward American capitalism, UTR ES reeene Pere toward the possibilities of struggle The Comintern repeatedly char-| against it and.the opportunities of down of our rate of industrial | acterized Trotskyism as opportun-| building up a mass Communist Par- development and facilities for the ism which covers itself with Meft| ty in the United States. phrases, thus proceeding from the analysis of Lenin that Trotskyism is a system of “Right deed covered) This finds its expression in an overestimation of the strength and serve power of American imper- ‘labor aristocracy and_ bureaucracy, | its fringe which have become s0 Negro masses, the exploited of the pessimistic as to the possibility of | xploited, a major part of its ac- developing the revolutionary class) tivities. It must proletarianize in struggle in the U. S. that they/this sense the composition of the practically capitulate before the ex-| Party as a whole and its leadership isting difficulties under cover of from top to bottom. It must reject | Left phrases. This tendency gives the dilletante and bureaucratic ap- rise to Leftist deviations. | proach to the working class and to Deviations te the att An the | the class struggle. It must also re- American Party grow out of the|Ject the bureaucratic handling of same objective situation as right |the Party and the practice of re- deviations, The slow growth of| ducing to a caricature the much- our Party, the difficulties of an in- needed self-criticism in our Part ternal and external character which Im short, it must adopt a corre our Party is meeting in the process |Eolshevik line in order to defe: Caraunine| t and to build our Party with Left phrases.” In the strug- gle against Trotskyism in the last | several years, the Comintern has ‘characterized Trotskyism succes- sively as a petty bourgeois devia-| tion, a social-democratic deviation, and in the latest phase, as a force jaan. In all its phases of strug- gle against Leninism and against | |the Communist International, Trot-| skyism appeared covered in “Left” garb, and thus assumed the distinct characteristic of a Leftist deviation, that is, a deviation from Leninism camouflaged in Left phraseology. To fight successfully Trotskyism we must attack precisely this Left ‘camouflage of Trotskyism. | On the other hand Right devia- | tions from the correct Leninist line {were characterized by the Comin- i tern as opportunism which appears) manifestations are a more or less open tendency to make concessions to the ideology of social democracy, to slacken the struggle egajnst it -and therefore against capitalism. Right deviations, the same as Left- ist deviations are essentially oppor- tunist leading away from Leninism and the Comintern and to revision- ism and social-democracy. To attack successfully the Right danger, as distinct from the Trot- skyist danger, we must understand that the Right danger appears as a more or less open opportunist ten- dency, The statement of the Cen- tral Committee repudiates this cor- rect Leninist conception as to the nature and manifestations of the Right danger and of Trotskyism. The objective meaning of the stand taken by the majority of the Central Committee is to confuse the characteristics of Trotskyism as a Left deviation, to: obscure the char- acteristics and rgost important man- ifestations of the present Right danger and thus to weaken the struggle against both deviations. The result of such a line can only be the strengthening of all oppor- tunist elements in the Party. The Basis of Right and Left Devia- tions in the American Party, The maturing of the inner and outer contradictions of American capitalism, which takes place under conditions of continued upward de- velopment of U. S. imperialism, highly sharpened world imperialist rivalries and the war danger, im- pose upon our Party the task of reorientating its general line to a perspective of sharpening class re [lations and class struggles. in a more or less open form. Its { | helping objectively the counter rev-| \ialism, an underestimation of the | maturing inner and outer contradic- tions which are undermining the strength of American imperialism. jan underestimation of the depth of | dissatisfaction and of the extent of the process of radicalization which is slowly but definitely taking place among the large masses of the American working class. As a re- sult of such an attitude we find a very strong tendency to minimize the opportunities for organizing the asses for struggle on the economic and political field, hesitation to place our Party in positions where it can acquire leadership in mass struggles and to actually partici- pate in them, a serious underesti- mation of the aggressive and pre- ditory role of American imperialism and the need for intensive struggle against it, resistance to the deci- sions of the R. I. L. U. on the Amer- iean question calling for the organ- ization of the unorganized into new unions under militant leadership, lack of faith in the ability of our Party to develop into the leading | political party of the American working class, the theory that with- out a labor party there can be no independent mass political struggles of the American workers, a. dille- | tante approach to mass struggles handling the Party and the Party’: work, an underestimation of the danger of reformist and pacifist ideology among the masses, ete. The growing Right danger in our Party is concretely shown by the fresh Right errors made by the ma- jority of the C. E. C. in recent weeks. The following are the most outstanding mistakes: failure of the Political Committee to direct the Party fraction to urge the National Miners’ Union to assume leadership in the sporadic miners’ strikes (Illinois, Wyoming, Kansas) to build the new union, and to fight for the defense and improvement of the workers’ conditions, resistance of the Poleom to direct the Party frac- tion to fight for the new Textile Union functioning as an active fac- tor in the silk strike in Patterson, lack of faith in the possibility of sulting failure to prepare thorough- ly the National Convention, failure to help the TUEL to step forward as a leading factor in the struggies of the workers and in the organiza- tion of new unions, failure to press enorgetically that the Party frac | on fight for one union in the nee |dle trades, almost complet> alan- generally, a bureaucratic method of of becoming a mass Party, is giving rise among certain elements in our Party which are not sufficiently firm in their Commu- nist ideology, to pessimism in the possibility of building up a Commu- nist Party in the United States. These numerically weak elements are tending to lose faith in the Jommunist Party and in the possi- bilities of its growth and they also tend to lose faith in the Comintern generally. These elements have in the past and today rallied to Trot- kyism. Losing faith in the possi- ies of our Party because of the inner and outer difficu'ties that it confronts in the process of vrowth, these elements are embracing Trot- | skyism and joining more or less ac- tively in the struggle of Trotskyism against the Comintern and against our Party. on | ; | The opportunities for the develop- ment of working class siruggles in tke U. S. and for the growt® of our Party are increzsingly becoming more favorable due to the chang’ng | order |§ objective conditions, but in that our Party may be able to make | full use of these opportunities it has to overcome numerous obstacles and difficulties of an internal and | external character. These difficul- ties arise from the lack of inomo- genity in the American class and hence lack of homogencity in cur own Party, the wanicg but stili powerful influence? of the cor- rupt aristocracy and buveaucrac,. of labor upon the working masses and | its reflection within cur Party as | expressed in the tendency to orien | tate the Party policy on the aris- toeracy of labor, the lack of Bolshe- vik maturity of the Party and the painful process of internal struggle | for the crystallization of a Bolshe- | vik proletarian leadership, the bur- \eaucratic habits and methods of | work that prevail in the Party, the | hostile united front against the | working class militanis and against | our Party by the capitalists, their | government, the reactionary trade | union bureaucracy and the socialist | party. Those difficulties which our Par-| our Party and for its inability to | organizing a new textile union un-| ty can and must overcome in order| make full use of the favorable fac- der militant leadership with the re-| to take full advaniave cf the de- | tors in the present situation to de- veloping favorable opportunities to strengthen and lead the exploited masses in the struggle against capi- talism, are giving rise to tendencies to capitulate before these difficul- ties. The open richt wing tendency vroceeds to canitu'ste by refusing to reorimntate the Party’s poliey to sharpening class relations and class ‘ ‘ werking {into a mass Communist Party. | To fight succéssfully the Right |denger the Party must reject and | defeat Trotskyism and the Trot list Opposition led by Cannon. T |Farty must hold fast to the Lenin- Jist ideology and line of the Com- |munist International. The Party | membership must not be swayed into pessimism, adventurism, and {opposition to the Comintern, be- cause of the difficulties in the process of crystallizing a correct |line aud building up a Bolshevik |proletarian leadership. The Party |membership must see that the road of Trotskyism leads not only out. side of the revolutionary cla | struggle, outside of the Communi: \International, but directly into the camp of the enemies of-the working class into the camp of open counter- revolution. | lt is not through the acceptance of Trotskyism but on the contrary through a decisive rejection of Trot- ism as well as the rejection of |the fatal ic «attitude toward American imperialism that our Yarty will defeat both the Right danger and the Trotskyist danger. The Fight Against These Deviations We urge the Party to wage a con- tent struggle inst the right danger in our Party as well as in ihe Comintern generally. The Sixth World Congress has pointed out t existence of serious Right de tions and Right wing opposition groups in several of the parties of the Communist International. The recent anti-party activities in Germany, led by Brandler and Thalheimer, and the elements led by Evert, which tolerate the Right deviations, indicate the @orrectness of the line laid down by the Sixth World Congress that it is now neces- sary to concentrate the main fire against the Right danger. The ex- periences of our own Party shows that the right line and orientation of our Central Committee is chiefly responsible for the slow growth of velop a revolutionary consciousness and struggle among the toiling masses, Hand in hand with this struggle must go an uncompromising fight aga'nst Trotskyism and for the cuickest liquidetion of the Trotsky: ‘ist Opposition led by Cannon. The |ploying to cover up his opportu deeds is a typical Trotskyist tacti !The course adopted by Cannon has already placed him, Abern and Shachtman in a position of open struggle against the Party and the Comintern. While Cannon is still pretending to stand on the platform of the Minority of our Party, known as the “Right Danger in the American arty,” he has actually abandoned every principle incorporated in that document. Already Cannon is forced openly to expose his abandonment of the platform of the Minority when he says that he is not in agreement with “certain wrong formulations contained in it (minority document) on the world position and role of nerican imperialism.” In other words, Cannon is forced to state that on the most basic proposition in the Minority point of view, namely, on the world position and role of American imperialism, Cannon does not share but is opposed to the point view of the Minority. of Trotskyism is incompatible with Leninism. Trotskyism is incom- patible with the membership in our Party, In the struggle against Trotskyism the Party must differ- entiate between leading and respon- sible Party members and non-prole- tarian elements who consciously adopt the anti-Comintern position of Trotskyism and those proletarian clements who because of lack of clarity and weak Communist ideol- ogy adopt a hestitant attitude on the question, Toward leading and responsible Party members and non-proletarian elements the Party must apply all necessary organiza- tional measures, including expulsion from the Party, which are neces- y to protect the Party from the alizing effects of Trotskyism. is hesitating proletarian ele- ments the Party must adopt a course of persistent and patient ideological clarification, intensive efforts to make these proletarian elements realize the opportunist na- iure of Trotskyism and to win them away from the Trotsky Opposition |to the Party and to the Comintern. The line adopted by the majority of the Polbureau contains serious dangers for our Party. This line obscures the cause and most im- portant manifestations of the Right danger in the American Party. By so doing the majority of the Pol- bureau not only weakens the strug- “|gle against Trotskyism but para- lyzes the fight against the Right danger. The statement of the ma- jority of the Polbureau sounds a {dangerous note. It attempts to jbrand the entire minority as being |Trotskyite and against the Comin- |tern, because as members of the |Communist International we have expressed disagreement with vari- cus phases of the decision of the Communist International on the | American question. | The Communist International or- dered a Party convention to take vp and make a decision on all dis- before the Amer- ean Party. The Communist Inter- national endorsed no group for lead~ ership in the American Party, nor cid the Communist International en- corse the line of the majority of our Central Committee. ruted questions The Minority stands on the line of the Comintern. The Minority has made an energetic fight in the American Party precisely for the adoption of the Comintern line as formulated at the Ninth Plenum of the Communist International and as later developed at the Sixth World Congress. It was the Minority that isted upon reorientating the poli- cies of our Party upon the line of the Ninth Plenum of the Commu- nist International and upon an in- tensive struggle against the Right danger. But the Majority ridiculed and persecuted the Minority for its struggle to apply the Communist International line to the United States. The Majority, up to the minute, violently denied the ex- stence of a Right danger either in the Comintern or the American Party. The Majority pursued the policy of supporting, covering up and leading the extreme right wing of our Party while concentrating its main fire against the developing left clements in our Party. The present declarations of the C. E, C. Majority that it is in fa- vor of waging a struggle against the Right danger are exposed as ° mere pretense by its actual line of policy, which is to continue its right wing orientation and to fight the Minority as the main danger in the Party. The lin® adopted by the jority of the Central Committee in its statement on the Right dan- ger and Trotskyism lays the basis for an intensification of the cam- paign to exterminate the Minority in our Party. A We urge the Party membership to reject the right line and orienta- tion of the Majority of the Central Committee and to wage a merciless ‘fight against the Right danger in all its manifestations. We urge the Party to reject Trot- \skyism and defeat and liquidate the Trotskyist Opposition of Cannon. We urge the Party membership to adopt a correct Bolshevik orien tation and line for the Americar class struggle. We urge the Party membe tu follow and fight for the line o ithe Communist International. A“ ‘ ON SECTION | -left phrases which Cannon is em- a SR