The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 18, 1929, Page 4

Laban ublished ware, Address a all checks to the Daily Work Lovestone’s Raid o Office of Communist Party Statement of Central Control Commission TO ‘ALL PARTY MEMBE The Party has previ Sunday, August 2 to Mon our Party was broken into ments and important that during the nigl y; Augu: the N LO the desks’ rifled, the files robbed were stolen from the office ice of oe That R ehty, the Lovestone group of reneg: d com the crime clearly evident from a number of fac neluding the fact that 2 thieves were familiar with the records of the office, knew what they were after and where they could find each category of documents. The tools of Lovestone who did the job furthermore possessed s to all inner office doors and desks, but were unable to unlock the main outer office door, the only door to which the lock had been changed since Lovestone left the National Office. Two days a: the raid on the National ce Lovestone beg to circulate the contents of a cable from the Communist Internationa which had been stolen in the raid. Lovestone’s knowledge of the con- tents of this cable, which was received only a few hour fore the raid, would alone have been sufficient proof of the fact t he and his group were responsible for the burglary. The mstances pointed definitely in the direction of Lovest his group c to the Now the Central Control Party the rest of its in The publication of the fact the burglar guilt made it impossible for Lovestone to u against the Party. The resentment among |} strong against this burglarizing of the Party o n is in a position to s which is being cor estigati Lovestone’s and of ize the ma own followe ices that he had to think of ways to escape the responsibility for this act and to coin his treasonable action into factional capital by other means. In the t fashion of a renegade, patterning himself after bourgeois American political methods, he finally concocted a whole conspiracy with the ob- ject,. first, of whitewashing himself and his group; second, of throwing monstrous accusati at comrades supporting the Communist Inter- national and the Central Committee and to attempt to create chaos and demoralization in the Party with which to continue his work of splitting the Party. In order to perpetrate this outrage, he allied himself with W. Jackson, recently expelled from the Party. This Jackson is an al around scoundrel, a proven blackmailer, and ready to do any job for a eash consideration. The second member of the conspiracy is Dungee, a characterless person, expelled from the Party as a Lovestoneite, a friend of Jackson who still maintains close association with him and is his creature. Using these two persons as his instruments Lovestone proceeded to carry out his conspiracy of constructing an alleged raid upon the Party offices by the Department of Justice. The scoundrel Jackson, in a conference arranged through Dungee with Nemser and Anna Thomp- son, both expelled Lovestoneites, presented himself as an employe of the Department of Justice, Intelligence Section, where he claims he works as a draftsman in a so-called Hydrographic Department. He claims to be working in a room very conveniently located next to the room where material secured in raids by the D. of J. are kept. He accidentally comes across the material secured in the raid on the Na- tional Office, glances through the documents, makes a list of them, extracts some and shows them to the assembled Lovestoneites. Another appointment is made and Comrade Markoff, a loyal Party member, is called up by Nemser to attend this next conference in order to re- ceive “information of value to the Party.” At this second conference there is also a Lovestoneite stenographer present to whom Jackson repeats his story and further initiates the assembled Lovestonites and Comrade Markoff into the alleged ways of the Department of Justiee. In the second conference he asserts that Comrade ment of Justice agent. To sustain this assertion he invents a weird story about the fact that he casually saw the name of Comrade exposed upon the pad on the desk of the chief operator of the De- partment of Justice who very kindly volunteered information that this Comrade is an under-cover agent, that he has frequent confer- ences with him, etc. All of this information is then circulated by Lovestone in a document alleging to be “the truth about the- raids upon the Party office.” The investigation of the Central Control Commission has proven that the whole business is an outright and clumsy fabrication on the part of the Lovestoneites which only desperate people could invent for desperate purposes. To believe this story one must believe that the Department of Justice very conveniently allows material secured fn raids to lie around so that Jackson, an alleged employe and drafts- ‘man, not working in the same office, could leisurely go through the material, extract documents at his will, read these documents at his | convenience, make a list of the material, etc. One must believe that the Department of Justice has other peculiar habits for this particu- lar situation, such as allowing Jackson to extract from the files most important and secret documents in their possession, to put them into his pocket, to take them out in bundles, and to have conferences with any number of Lovestoneites to prove to them that the Department of Justice made the raids upon the Party office. One must believe that the Department of Justice has the names of its secret under-cover men very nicely exposed on its desks for the Jacksons to secure, and still further that chiefs of the Department of Justice are réadily gi formation to persons of other offices and answer all questions con- cerning the workings of the Department of Justice and its under- ernment employe, cooly sits in these conferences, discloses the secrets of the Department of Justice and allows a Lovestoneite stenographer to take down his remarks at these conferences. It is furthermore very characteristic of the situation that the first document selected by Jackson for display to the Lovestoneites is the very identical C. I. cablegram which two days after the raid on the National Office the Lovestoneites were found to be peddling around. Which explains the Department, its curious practices, its still more | curious agents, and finally, also Lovestone’s knowledge of the contents of the cable. The investigation of the Control Commission has shown that Jack- son who claimed to be working in the Hydrographic Department of the U. S. Government, allegedly located in the Woolworth Building, was not employed in this department, that neither the Hydrographic Department, nor the D. of J. offices are located in the Woolworth Building, but on Broad Street and on Eighth Ave. respectivély, that Jackson had some time previously been employed in a private concern located in the Woolworth Building and that he is no longer employed there, the concern having liquidated. Which shows the crude nature of the fabrication and the scoundrelly and lying elements that Love- stone has used to attempt to perpetrate this story ‘upon the Party membership. The Control Commission has come to the further conclusion: That Lovestone conceives his entire story as a clumsy fabrication 4s demonstrated by the fact that in the circular just issued by Love- stone he strives to reinforce his story by ex # rom “YWE“Witional Office to Nemser, by means of which Lovestone intends “to convey the impression that the Lovestoneites had previously turned over the archives to the Party; that these archives were in the National Office at the time of the raid; and that, therefore, the Party has exposed records of many years to the Department of Justice, and that it is a further evidence that the Lovestoneites would not burglarize the ‘Party because they had freely returned documents belonging to the Party. The facts ip regard to this receipt are: 1. The archives turned over to the Party were never brought to the Party office, and are securely in the possession of the Central . Committee; that these records were demanded by the Party from Nemser before Lovestone’s return from Moscow, and at a time when Nemser was playing the game of being for the Address of the Com- munist International; he could not very well keep these records with- out exposing himself completely. He returne] these decuments on July 18th, several weeks after requested, very likely copying: what- tion in the minds of the Lovestoneites that they could put over the ~ raids and could reinforce their denials by such evidence as this receipt. The Central Control Commission further concludes: 1. That Comrade Markoff was brought into the situation by the Lovestoneites because they needed a good standing Party member to attest to this story. The many years of friendship of Comrade Markoff with Nemser were exploited toward that end. 2. That in drawing up a so-called letter to the Party by Nemser to which Comrade Markoff added his signature, wes not for the pur- | pose of calling the situation to the attention of the Party for investi- gation but was intended only as a trick of Lovestone to obtain the signature of a bona fide Party member to the recital of this tale and then to use the document for their miserable factional purposes, as they have already done. They have ten so spreading their document the Central Control Commissi?a had not already investigated, or Malianel a Depart- | | ying in- | cover men. And, finally, to crown it all, Jackson, a self-confessed gov- | ever he thought would be useful to Lovestone. | .2 That the fact that Nemser had such a receipt was a considera- | 1 Organ of the C Baily . mmunist Party of the tf. 8. A, SUBSCRIPTION RAYS: y Mail (in New York only): $8.00 a year; 'y Mail (outside of New York): $6.00 a year; $2.50 three months $4.50 six months; $2.00 three months $3.50 six months; mre nu ve | We wae REMEMBER ‘Sum otag The International Situation and Tasks of | the Communist International (HEM HUNDREDS OF FUNERALS” By Fred Ellis | Report of Comrade Kuusinen AT THE TENTH PLENUM OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE COMINTERN Against the Capitulationists and the Chyostism of the Rights and = | Conciliators. The Righ s are shouting about the alleged “sectarian” policies of the Communist International. One would think they had a patent for “winning the masses.” Yet, they are left themselves without any masses. The masses stubbornly refuse to follow Frossard, Hoglund, Brandler, and all the rest of the renegades. To be sure, we are aware of the fact that all the enemies of the rvolutionary working class are resorting to all means to*separate us from the masses of the proletariat, whether by discharging from the factory, by expelling from the re- formist trade unions, by prohibiting our Communist press, by sup- pressing our organizations, or by driving our Parties into illegality. We should not put up with this without a struggle. We shall wage | the keenest fight for the open existence of the Communist movement { and of the revolutionary organizations. We shall certainly win the | masses within and without the trade unions. But now? Shall we | do it in the manner prescribed by the Rights? Oh, no! This would | never lead to winning the masses for the revolution, but rather to side- | tracking the process of radicalization,into the channel of reformism. | Thalheimer does not like the Russian-methods of winning the | again his old song about “West European methods.” | masses, He re! | According to him, the acme of practical wisdom lies in surrendering | to the reform: trade union bureaucracy, and that at a moment when the large ma of the workers in the trade unions are already in rebellion against the rigid policy of trade union legalism enforced by the reformist bureaucrats. Objectively, the role of the Right wing Communists of the Brand type at this moment is that of the Left wing of the Social-Demoe Indeed, why should the Left wing of | social-democracy exist inside of the social-democratic party?. It can exist just as well outside. The greater the failure of Levi & Co., the | more they will be replaced by Brandler and Thalheimer. | It is characteristic of the present period that on our side, as well as on the side of the reformists, there are crystallizing points which attract like powerful magnets the tendencies that are akin. The | .masses that are becoming radicalized are attracted by Communism, while at the same time the social democracy attracts from our move- ment everything that inclines towards the Right, everything that be- longs to the bourgeoisie. The present period is propitious for the un- | masking of the social democracy. Yet social-fascism is screened by | the Right renegades as well as by those opportunists who have re- | | mained in our ranks. Their method consists in pointing out to the masses the minor differences in order to conceal the fundamental and. big differences between Communism and reformism. The conciliators shout about an alleged liquidatiot of the tactics | of the united front and about a renewed “offensive theory.” This is | | nonsense. Only the opportunistic application of the united front tac- _ ties is to be liquidated. We are for the tactics of, the offensive, but also for the tactics of the retreat, according to the circumstances. We | resolutely reject any putschism, and we consider it essential for the | 1 | through its own means, the operations in connection with this con- spiracy, the aims of the investigation would have been defeated by the exposure of such alleged facts, 3. The fact that Comrade Markoff entered these conferences with- | out reporting them immediately and without receiving instructions from the Party is an act which is to be severely condemned and is a | sign of the fact that despite Comrade Markoff’s loyalty to the Party and to the C. I. he has ailowed his personal friendshpis to weaken his | vigilance in regard to enemies of the renegade opportunist Love: stone group. It furthermore shows that izing in any form with | the Lovestone renegades i, i i for any loyal Party not published along ith this statement but will rE But Will be published tomor rege tN eB Lovestone in iis reeent circular demagogically warns the Party | functionaries to guard the property of the Party, while at the same | time agents ef Lovestone—Anaa Thompson, Harry Winitsky and others—had to be discharged by auxiliary organizations for the very | acts of stealing and spiriting away systematically address material, stationery, postage and documents, and delivering them to Lovestone and Company. The Central Control Commission is continuing its invetigations and will keep the membership informed regarding further diselosures. At the same time it warns the membership against the attempts of, Lovestone to demoralize the Party and declares that in the fight | against the Comintern and the Party the Loyestonites will stop at | nothing and will go to anpalling depths in their splitting work, acting as tools of American imperialism, It furthermore points out to the membership that the bourgeoisie and its police departments are constantly seeking ways and means of destroying the Party and that renegade groups become unavoidably | easy tools of the bourgeoisie, It calls upon the members to close their | ranks firmly; to guard the Party organization against the renegade | opportunist Lovestonites and against the bourgeoisie. Pe ' CENTRAL CONTROL COMMgSSION. , | member. The Control! Commission will issue its cecision xewaxding. the | | ase of Comrade off’s own. statement is, bt | Communist Parties to increase their ability for revolutionary man- euvering. Yet we shall never consider it admissible to surrender to reformism. Especially during the present period we consider it the gravest danger when Communists lag behind the pace of the growing revolutionary movement of the masses. The conciliators are quoting | Lenin to the effect that at the Third World Congress in 1927 he spoke against the “offensive theory.” Yet what did Lenin say? Let me re- call that he said that the application of the theory of the offensive in March, 1921, in Germany had been wrong; but he added: “On the whole, | the theory of the revolutionary attack is by no means wrong.” This is what he said, and the conciliators will not succeed in turning Lenin into a tame semi-reformist. It is quite clear that without winning the majority of the working ciass, the Communist Party of no country can carry the proletarian revolution to victory. Yet precisely for this reason, it should be the business of every Communist Party to realize the growth of the revo- lutionary movement of the workers during the present period, to march at the head of this movement, and to carry out practically the leading role of the Party. Only in this manner will the Communist Party be able to further and to accelerate the revolutionization process of the working class. Not always can we achieve immediate, appreciable and direct successes along this road. We had an example of this in the last gen- eral election in England. -I was not at all surprised by the election a results. Unquestionably, a number of tactical mistakes was committed by the C. P. G. B. during the general election, but the line of “class | against class” announced by the Ninth Plenum and the Sixth World | Congress was a correct line. Nevertheless, it did not lead to a direct iderable poll in the election. Even many workers of Com- ympathies voted this time for the Labor Party. Was there- fore our line a wrong one? Not at all. The slogan of “class against class” could not as yet get away the masses directly from the Labor Party, but it is already beginning to act as dynamite in the ranks of | the Labor Party and of the trade unions. The spark has been kindled, and without this spark there can never be a flame. These dialectics of history, naturally, cannot be conceived by the opportunists and by the stabilization-Communists. Their policy of dragging at the tail, their vacillating passivity, their constant adapta- tion to the passing moment, this is the greatest danger which we have to avoid. He who would give up the leading role of the Communist Party during this period should not quote Leninism. He has nothing to do with Leninism, he is ballast to the movement in this period. When the German conciliators announced the battle on two fronts, they exposed themselves as Rights. As against them the C. P. G. put up a firnt Bolshevist line and an iron Bolshevist Party unity, At the Head of the Movement to the New Revolutionary Upsurge. The pace of the proletarian radicalization movement is not uniform in the different countries. This should be ascertained upon the basis | of concrete circumstances in each country. The total situation in the different countries is not uniformly developing. The character of the present period is constantly changing—and what is essential—it changes in the direction of further maturifg cf a new revolutionary upsurge. : In this connection I should like to urge the importance of a cor- rect attitude on the question of the war danger. On the one hand, we must combat every underestimation of the war danger, which con- stitutes a highly dangerous mistake. On the other hand, it would also be a mistake to expect the revolutionary situation only through the door of war, or to limit ourselves to combating the foreign policy of the government. Precisely from the standpoint of the practical revolutionary struggle it is absolutely necessary that in each country we should consider the maturing of the objective (and subjective) pos- tulates of the proletarian.revolution in its concrete complexity; in the synthesis of the external and internal contradictions of capitalism | which are constantly growing in intensity. | Sudden, unexpected changes in the situation are quite possible during the present period. No one knows at what moment the war | may break out, In a situation when a dozen crazy generals in some | neighboring state of the Soviet Union may suddenly start the war in the assurance that this provocation would be followed by a number of other states, in such a situation it is wrong to prophesy a perspective of stability for a long time. The fight against the war danger, for the defense of the Soviet Union, this “is our central international task. Yet, as I did at the Eighth Plenum of the E. C. C. 1, I should like to emphasize here that the best defense of the Soviet Union is the overthrow of the bour- geoisie in one’s own country. * To win the leading role for the Communist Party in the mass fights at the present period, to march at the head of the large masses of the proletariat which are becoming revowtionized, such is our general strategy of the present period. New proletarian strata which did not take part in our struggles before, are now joining the front: non- Party and unorganized workers, working youths, proletarian women, and agricultural laborers, In the villages of the capitalist countries there is going on within the peasantry an ever-increasing process of class differentiction, which we ought to bear in mind in our, quest for fighting allies. It is equally correct to attract and support t#e awaken- | < AW IT HENRI BARBUSSE | Siena Wj: Hebi hay MY § & L F Reprinted, by permission, from “I Saw It Myself” by Henri Barbusse, published and copyrighted by E, P. Dutton & Co., Inca New Yorks AND WE WERE CELEBRATING PEACE. 'AMUEL SCHWARTZBARD, a young man of gentle and dreamy disposition, silent and poor, is slowly returning home to his quar- ter in the town of Proskurov, in Polodia. It is evening, fine and stillg a pale light gleams in the snowy winter sky. Eight years have gone by since this peaceful incident, on which T invite you to look back through the past. Eight years—no great stretch . of time in the life of mortals, and neither you nor I were much younger than we are now. i . It was the 15th of February, then, in 1919; which means that the little town was covered in snow. In the half light, the houses seemed to be carefully wrapped up in white paper. There was a cold and crackling, cotton-wool carpet underfoot and the soles of one’s boots were quickly coated with thick white felt. Samuel had come from far, He had been through the great war as a volunteer, fighting in the French army, and had in turn been wounded in the lungs, congratulated, decorated, and naturalized as a Frenchman. But he had felt the wish to return, to see the people and all, and to enjoy that suppressed charni which broods in white silence over the Ukranian landscape. That day the streets had been full of noise, of clamour too. A crowd of men, women and children had thronged them, and this crowd had been happy because the weather was fine, and because it was a Saturday. The town of Proskurov, which contains 25,000 Christians and 15,000 Jews, enjoys in consequence two holidays in the week— Saturday, the sabbath day, and Sunday, And Jew and orthodox Christian have only to be practical to profit by both. * * * hee shops were closed. Family groups in Sunday best had gone in their numbers to the banks of the Beug which, like every self- respecting river in the Ukraine, is frozen over in the month of Feb- ruary. The children had taken their skates out of the little bags which they always carry, and had gone sliding dizzily over the solid surface. All these people, whose varied figures were silhouetted against the pure white of the snow—sunlight and moonlight, too—knew that wars were going on at the time and that the Ukraine was claimed and disputed by the Directorate, under the Ataman Petilura’s controlling arm, by Denikin’s White Army, and by the Poles. There were battles in consequence; the newspapers talked of them, and many of the honest citizens read the comminques. * * * ROSKUROV was under the control of the Ataman Petliura. Throughout the district he was absolute dictator. Quite recently he had put into the town a garrison consisting of one brigade of his Zaporog Cossacks and the Third Haidamak Regiment, all under the command of the Ataman Semessensko. This young man, a 24-year- old general with blue eyes and a girlish face, was to be seen prancing about on horseback, in his wide-cut breeches, yellow riding boots and well-waisted dolman of green, much to the despair of the ladies. And while Petliura was away fighting with the enemy elsewhere, he was therefore governor and master of the town. That very day, his troops had been seen marching by and, like everybody else, Samuel Schwartzbard had seen them passing along the wide Alexander road in one direction at two in the afternoon, in the other at 5 o’clock (which was only just past), in splenidd order, a band playing at their head. The sight had set the hearts of young men and maidens beating, aroused the enthusiasm of the children, who hummed the tunes and put one foot forward out of sheer love of imitation. Samuel Schwartzbard was walking along Alexander St. It is the main thoroughfare of Proskurov, distinguished by the size and well- to-do appearance of the houses and you take it to go anywhere. Down from the windows floated the gay sounds of piano or gramophone. The Jewish quarter, to which he was going, is more modest. The “Ducks’ Quarter,” as they call it, consists of great blocks of poor dwellings intersected by little nameless alleys: running in parallel lines into Sorborngia St., which adjoins Alexander St, On that evening, many of those Jewish dwellings were lit up— and with electric light at that! It was the sabbath, and-no son of Israel may light lamp or fire that day. And so it is the custom in the Ducks’ Quarter to stoke up the fires Friday night, so as to have warmth enough next day without breaking the law, and to leave elec- tric switches open; the power station turns on the current at nightfall, and on goes the light of itself. (To be continued) War and Revolution By CHARLES E. RUTHENBERG. (Delivered during the New York Trial, March, 1920) Capitalist production in its development brings about its own decay, its own decline, its own breakdown; capitalist production in- evitably through its own conditions of existence produces such a situa- tion as the World War; a world war, an imperialist war, brings about the breakdown of capitalist production. It also brings about the in- crease in prices, the increase of the cost of commodities, and thus intensifies the struggle between the workers who must gain the necessi- ties to live and the owning class. I might illustrate this: As a result of the war, prices have doubled, and we have a large number of strikes on the part of workers trying to catch up with the cost of living. Such a strike, for instance, was the outlaw railroad strike. Thus, in the development of the capitalist system, its own contradictions bring about a_situation in which the machinery of production breaks down, For exaple, war. Imperialism brings the great capitalist classes in conflict with each other. This conflict in the beginning takes the form of a diplomatic controversy and ends in war. War brifgs about the disin- tegration of the capitalist machinery of production, as has been the case in Europe. It also brings about inflation, the increase of prices, and the working class is driven to a more bitter and antagonistic strug- gle against the capitalist class, In this country we saw that illustrated in the various strikes, like that of the coal miners, which last year broght a stoppage of indstry in certain paces, the strike of the outlaw railroad workers, which brought about disintegration of the railroad service and brought about a situation in which the industries could not function effectively. This process going on ultimately brings about a condition in which the workers are compelled to strike more fre- quently, more widely. In the process the government acts as the agent of the capitalist class for the suppression of the workers . . . as for example, in the coal miners’ strike last year, the government used the injunction, it used federal troops, it tied up the treasury of the unions, This directs the attention of the workers against the capitalist state, as the agency of the capitalist class, and their struggles begin to de- velop against the government. At the present moment the English strike of the coal miners is an example of that development. In this process there comes a point where the capitalist government is nc longer able to function and in such a crisis the working class will estab- lish its workers’ councils, which become the government and function as the government in order: that production may be established on ¢ new basis, carried on for the benefit of the people, For a period there may be, as there were in Russia, two governments, one becoming the government and the other disintegrating and going out of existence. In such a situation, too, the larger part of the army, as was the case in Russia, would support the workers in their efforts to establish their government. The working class will establish a government in the form that will be suitable for the exercise of working class power, & Soviet government. ing masses of the enslaved workers and peasants of the colonial countries. If we think of the mass fights which have taken place during thi short period since the Sixth World Congress, we may truly say: the world army of the active class fighters is growing at a tremendously rapid pace. The miners in the Ruhr and in Scotland, the textile work ers in Poland and in France, the barricade fighters of Berlin, the Bom: bay strikers and demonstrators, the plantation strikers in Colombia the rebellious Negroes in the Congo, the striking agricultural laborer: in Czechoslovakia and in Poland, the revolutionary trade unions anc the peasant guerilla warriors in China, the rebellious tribes in Morocco and hundreds of thousands of other fighting groups—this is a giganti: active army! It shows how the revolutionary movement is growinj throughout the world. If it goes on at this rate, all will be well. Ye the Communist International should and will bring together even great er masses of the millions for the firht against the world bourgeoisi and for the proletarian world revolution,