The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 26, 1929, Page 4

Publishing Co. . Telephone St Inc daily, excent Sunday, at 26-28 Un $ 1626-7-S. Ca palwor Union e, New York, N | Baily SAE Worker ps AISEEEON A ae te en mente ! N nly): $8.0 yt 3 4.50 months: 2.5! by rit pas AY eS or! By Mail (in New Tork only): $8.00 @ year 30 six month 2.50 three months >, Page Four y Mail (outside of New York): $6.00 a year; $3.50 six months: 23 e Daily Worke | PARTY RECRUITING DRIVE Build the Party! By CLARENCE*MILLER. In the discussions in the Daily since the C.E.C, plenus and prior to the plenum there has been insufficient discussion of the organiza- tional problems of the Party. I think that this is due to an under- estimation by our leading functionaries of the organizational problems facing the Party. A successful carrying out of the policies of the Party require increased attention to the organization problems of the Party. The announcement of the plan for a membership drive made by the organization department of the C.E.C. is a sign that the Party s awake to its tasks in the present period. The sharpening struggles of the workers, the growing dangers of social reformism, the need of cleansing the ranks of the Party from all non-Communist elements, and the war danger place the Party face to face with the need of re- cruiting new proletarian blood into @e Party. There is no question, but the lagging behind of our Party that was recognized at the last plenum of the C.E.C., while due in the first place to the wrong policies of the former leadership of the Party, is also to some*measure an expression of its organizational weakness. What more the organiza- tion weakness permitted our Party to develop unprincipled factionalism that ate the vitals of our Party and has resulted in placing an un- principled group at the helm of the Party. The organizational strength- ening of the Party at this period is a task of major magnitude; it is connected with the task of adopting the Party to the ever increasing responsibilities facing us. It is part of the struggle against the right dange The organizational strengthening of the Party is no less tied up with the struggle against the present terror. There is a danger of course that the present membership drive will be considered- on the par with the various drives in the past. Such a view would show a misunderstanding of the tasks of the Party in the present period. The task of building the Party at this period is not a formal task before the C.E.C. and the various D.E.C.’s, it is a task facing the Party as a whole and every Communist. To us to build the Party means not only to recruit new members, but to im- prove the functioning of the existing organizations. The problem of improving the organization is generally along four lines. (I am assuming that this problem is essentially as it was six months ago or else I would be in no position to speak of it). 1, The problem of existing shop nuclei and the improvement of the shop papers. 2. The nuclei in the towns outside of the district headquarters. 3. The functioning of Communist Fractions. 4. To increase the political understanding of the members and their individual responsibility. The first problem, that of the shop nuclei was talked about plenty in the past. It is my opinion that the district committees do not un- derstand the necessity of direct supervision over the shop nuclei. This comes from the lack of understanding of the role of the nuclei. Any district that permits its shop nuclei to either disintegrate or permits them to function unhazardly, is not awake to its responsibilities. Shop nuclei in this period will play an ever increasing role in the developing struggles. The C.E.C. organization department will: have to once again find a means of direct control over the more important nuclei. The second problem, is that of the nuclei in the smaller towns. especially where weaker units exist. The plan advanced at the last convention of organizing sections of a rfumber of such towns in a dis- trict is a good basis on which to improve this condition. Wherever possible a full time functionary should be placed in charge, especially in important industrial areas. These small industrial towns will play an ever increasing role at the present time. It has been my experience in the past that these units do not receive sufficient directions from the districts and are especially backward in connecting: up the various campaigns with the life of the Party. These small town units, especial- ly in the industrial regions offer a splendid opportunity for the build- ing of the Party. The problem of Comunist fractions has always been a misunder- stood problem in the Party. There was always a tendency for our fractions assuming the role of the left wing, instead of acting as Com- munist fractions. It was very seldom that fractions took up the ques- tion of recruiting to the Party gaining subscribers to the D. W., con- necting up the problems of the particular union (or other organiza- tion), with general struggles of the Party. During the last presi- dential election the Party came nearer to getting the fractions to cor- rect that attitude. I assure, that in the present campaign for Gastonia our fractions have attempted to connect up their particular problems with that of Gastonia. The problem of the Communist fractions is at the present time of utmost importance. More and more will we be faced with the problem of the role of the Party in the strikes and mass movements. The fraction is the representative, so to speak the face of the Party in a particular struggle, and it therefore must receive more attention. In the present drive for new members the fractions in the various unions and mass organizations must play an important part. The fourth problem is also one of utmost importance. I am in no position to say what the Party has done lately to improve the political understanding of our Party, but the need for it ‘cannot be overemphasized. The fact that in the organizational plan for the membership drive was included a point dealing with literature and classes shows that the Party is awake to this problem. But together | with ideological development must come increased responsibilities of the individual comrade. The Party membership must become acquaint- ed with the definition Lenin gave of a Communist and begin to live up to it. He pointed out that there are five qualities necessary for a Communist: 1. A Communist is a Marxist. 2. He is an inter- nationalist. 8. He is an organizer and propagandist. 4. A Commu- nist always thinks in terms of his Party and lastly, 5. Every Commu- nist is a disciplined member of the Party. At this time when sharper struggles face us, when every Commu- nist might be called upon to prove his loyalty to the Party and to the working class, more than ever must we pay attention to ideological de- velopment of our members, especially of the new proletarian elements. The present period requires more attention to the organizational | problems of the Party. We must tighten our belts, and not permit any looseness in the organization. A Misled Rank and File Worker Disassociates | Himself from the Lovestone Renegade Clique. | I joined the Party at just about the time when the Comintern Ad- dress arrived. Being a new member, I did not understand what it was all about and when the question of the expulsion of Lovestoneites came up in our unit, I abstained from voting. Thinking that I was in sym- pathy with them, the Lovestoneites then invited me to their meetings. After attending a few such meetings, I was nearly convinced that they | were correct. I allowed myself to be used by them in helping to recruit | other Party and non-Party members for their meetings. I even per- mitted my house to be used for‘two meetings, one with the renegade Zimmerman where a large number of non-Party needle trades work- ers were called in to hear a vicious attack upon the Party, the Comin- tern, the TUUL and the RILU. I began to realize the anti-workingclass ‘character of this renegade group, after I listened to a number of such attacks and learned about their splitting activities in the Harlem Tenants League, in the Mothers League of Philadelphia and of their plans to carry through similar splitting activities in the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union. I also learned that they united with the international right wing through the Berlin conference. Finally at a meeting where the chief renegade, Lovestone, was present, he was asked the question, what shall be our policy in a mass organization where the question of supporting the Daily Worker or Freiheit comes up and it is proposed instead to support the “Reyolution- ary Age.” He replied that we must fight for support of the (counter) Revolutionary Age and against the Party press. These facts convinced me that the Loyestone renegades are not as they boast, a Leninist group, but that they are an anti-Leninist and counter-revolutionary clique whose aim is to smash every workers’ or- ganization in order to prove that the line of the Party and the Comin- tern is wrong, that there is no radicalization and mood for struggle among the workers. I am therefore breaking completely with the renegade Lovestone clique. I wholeheartedly accept and will vigorously support the cor- rect line of the Comintern Address as well as al] decisions of’the C. I., and CEC of our ‘Party for the expulsion of all who associate them- selves with this counter-revolutionary group of renegades, I pledge myself to devote all my time, energy and resources to the work of the Communist Party. a“ { Down with the renegade splitters of our Party! 1 Signed: 1. OLDSTEIN, Needle Trades Worker, Phila. | ‘v Central Organ of the Communist Party of the ( S A HERALD S OF FASCIST DICTATORS HIP ’ By Fred Ellis The New Reactionary Civil War and the Prospects of the:Revolution in China By N. DOONPING. (Continued) 2. ECONOMIC BASIS OF THE MILITARIST REGIME AND CIVIL WARS IN CHINA, The root of the trouble in China has to be sought. for im its econ- omic conditions, It is not an accident that China is not-a really..in- dependent and unified country but is composed of autonomous states practically governed by independent semi-feudal militarist groups, the leaders of semi-feudal landlords and native bourgeoisie, which are backed by different imperialist powers. It is not merely because of. the wickedness of individual militari that the militarist groups fre- quently indulge in fighting against each other for the extension of their respective territories and the-control of the central government. A close examination of the social forces at-work in China will show that these conditions are primarily the expression of the semi-feudal char- acter and colonial status of Chinese economy. Comrade Chiu Wito, a leading theoretician in the Chinese Communist Party, wrote a remark- able paragraph on this point in an unpublished manuscript im which he gave a brief but clear analysis of the economic background in China in the following words: “Under the hegemony of imperialism, China is cut up into differ- ent spheres of influence—the imperialist, especially Great Britain and Japan, each occupy a certain area in China—each of the different areas in China has its own semi-independent Jocal market, commercial: capital of a local character, financial appartus, and military force. The im- perialists brought the economic centers of these areas into their own (imperialist) economic organism. This is a very good basis for: the “militarists’ regime” and “the division of the country by militarists.” At the same time, each imperialist power fights for the control of the nominal central government—the existence of such a central govern- ment provides an apparatus for “legalizing” the “influence” or “in- terests” which the imperialist powers acquired in China. Under the circumstances, the remnants of feudalism and backward agrarian rel tions remain completely preserved and provide a basis for the mi tarist regime in China.” (Translated from the Chinese version of an | unpublished manuscript entitled, “Observations on the Peasant Prob lem in China.” Permission for quoting from this manuscript was ob- tained from the author.) In other words, there are two elements in Chinese economy’ which bring about the present situation. The first element is the semi-feudal pre-capitalist economy of the ‘country whose sectionalist character’ pro- vides a basis for a decentralized political system with civil strife as the necessary outcome. However, the economic condition of a country is not and can never be static. Had China been “left alone” and gone ‘through a “free” and normal capitalist development, it would have: been possible for China to develop into an industrial nation with the neces- sary political superstructure of a centralized modern state and unified native bourgeois regime. (Of course, for the sake of clarity in discus- sion we assume that there is no socialist revolution which would cer- tainly put the country on an entirely different path.) But such is not the fate of China. Just about the time when China was about to enter such a stage of development world capitalism had gjready ushered in its last stage, imperialism, which in its mad grasp for colonies, speedily harnessed China to the chariot of colonial servitude. The fundamental tendency of colonial exploitation acts in the direction of hindering the development of productive forces in the colonies, of despoiling them of their natural riches and, above all, of exhausting the reserves of human productive forces in the colonial countries. . “This is the essence of its function of colonial enslavement: the colonial country is compelled to sacrifice the interests of its independent development and to play the part of an economic (agraria wo ma- terial)appendage to foreign capitalism. . , .” ‘ (Golonial ‘Thesis’ of Sixth World Congress of the Comintern. Inprecorr, English Edition, Vol. 8, No. 88, Page 1663.) Yes, an economic appendage to foreign capitalism—this is what 1 meant by colonial status, the second element of Chinese economy. It is precisely this status that oppresses the Chinese workers and peasants by extorting surplus value from their labors, that drajns the country of its. riches, and hinders the development of productive forces in China. It is precisely this status that preserves the remnants of feudalism and backward agrarian relations which provide @ firm basis for the hated militarist regime! serve and perpetuate in China. | of John Hopkins University and a well known expert on Chinese af- The presence of imperialist influences in China, which maintains the colonial status, carries with it all the inherent contradictions of imperialism. The’situation is made worse and more precarious because of the fact that there is not only one imperialist power in China, like the British in India, but several imperialist powers whose conflicting interests always collide with each other. The rival imperialist powers, by bringing each economic center of the various local areas (spheres of influence) into their (imperialists’) respective economic organisms, inject fresh contradictions into the semi-feudal economy of-China al- ready full of sharp contradictions of its own and thus intensify the conflict between the local groups. Hence we see that the militarist regime and civil wars in China are the ‘inevitable result of economic conditions in the country, a condition that can only be changed by a workers’ and peasants’ revolution! FALSE BOURGEOIS INTERPRETATIONS. Bourgeois writers naturally close their eyes to these facts-and re- fuse to see the truth of such an explanation. Many have offered in- genious explanations that serve either to expose the ignorance and dishonesty of the writer or to illustrate the ridiculous stupidity of all such apologies for bourgeois policy. Some said that the corruption of Chinese officials is the cause of the troubles in China. Some even went so far as to assign official corruption as an inherent characteristic of the Chinese race! Others try to explain the troubles in China by as- signing as main causes such factors as Chinese philosophy, ancestor worship, the family system, etc.,/which are merely the superstructure of the semi-feudal economy that imperialism is doing its best to pre- Dr, F. J. Goodnow, former president fairs in the camp of American imperialism, offered a geographical explanation. He writes in the National Geographic Magazine of June, 1927, the following: “There is probably no section of the world where geographical conditions have had a more potent influence over its history and over the character of the people than: the part of Asia which we speak of as China. . . . The geographical and topographical situation of China has had two important results: first, a country which is probably more suited than any other part of the world for the production of’ purely agricultural products; and second, a frequent political division into a north and a south China.” Even if it is true that before China’s contact with capitalism and western industrial development, @eographical peculiarities, which ex- cluded China from extensive commercial relations with the outside world and thus deprived her of the stimulus of a wide oversea market, | might have been partly responsible for China’s stagnation in her econ- mic life, still once this isolation’ was broken down, and once the tech- nology of the Industrial Revolution were introduced into China, the |, geographical impediments which retarded China’s earlier development | lost their significance, Indeed, the geographical inheritance of China, with its rich resources, fertile soil, and teeming population (if we con- sider population a geographic factor) should be considered as very favorable for industrial devélopment. Dr. Goodnow was probably let- ting his wishes run away with him when he asserted that China is “a | country probably more suited'than any other part of the world for the production of purely agricultural products.” (How about America and Russia? ¢R. D.) No doubt it has been and it still is the policy of im- perialism to keep China an agricultural appendage of the metropolis and Dr. Goodnow’s theory is nothing more than an apology and a jus- tification of this policy. A glance at the railroad map of China is suf- ficient to show that the railroads of China which were mostly planned | and built by the imperialists were not laid out with the purpose of con- _necting up the whole country as a unit and creating a national market but’ were built regionally, each imperialist power working for its own end and éreating- its own economic center. This is merely one concrete expression of the colonial policy of the imperialists that plunges China into economic disruption and political chaos and keeps her from enter- ing upon the road of “free” and “normal” industrial development! It is imperialism and the semi-feudal economy which imperialism seeks to perpetuate in China that are responsible for the “frequent nolitical division into a north and a south Chink} end’ wat the en ‘ and topographical situation” which Dr. Goodnow unsuccessfully tried to make the scapegoat, Thus the high priests of bourgeois society vainly seek an explana- THE CITY 0:0 OF BREAD from “The City of Bread” by Alexander 4 copyrighted by Doubleday—Doran, New York, TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN (Continued.) The hard crust grew soft in the hot water, and Mishka’s heart, too, grew soft with the warm waves of emotion that swept through him, He ate the crust, he drank some hot water, then he held out his knife, still unsold) to Comrade Kondratyev, saying in a voice that trembled: “Take it, it’s a present, because you are so kind to me!” Kondratyev’s voice trembled, too: “Why, what for?” “You took me along, you had pity on me.” “Thanks, Mishka, but put it back in your pocket.” But Mishka begged him so hard, his eyes shone so affectionately, that Kondratyev could not refuse him. He took the big peasant knife with a hole bored through its handle, hung it by its thong from his finger, swung it to and fro, smiled, and put his head out of the window. For a long time he gazed out over the purple evening steppe with his kind smiling eyes. Mishka slept through the night peacefully. In his dreams he saw his mother, Yashka, and Fyedka, the Lopatino mujiks and peasant women. His mother had heated the bath for him, she came over to the bed and said softly: “Are you asleep, Mishka? Go, little son, wash yourself after your journey. See, I have put out a clean shirt for Mishka washed himself, rubbed and beat his body with a bundle of steaming birch twigs—it was stiff and sore after the long journey— and he came out of the bath unrecognizable, a grown-up man. He sat down on the bench by the table, and began to tell about Comrade Kondratyev. “And what about our “Where did you leave him?” Mishka answered quietly: Serioshka could not hold out; I got him into the hospital, and he ° died there. Serioshka’s mother began to cry, she began to blame Mishka, but the Lopatino mujiks said: “Michaila isn’t to blame. Any one can die. . . . Mishka was just going into the court-yard to see how things were when Comrade Kondratyev himself strolled into the izba and shouted, right in Mishka’s ear: Serioshka?” asked Scrioshka’s mother. ake up! Mishka leapt to his feet in a daze, saw Kondratyev standing over him, and heard his cheerful, encouraging voice: “Nu, Mishka, you see? “What is it?” “In a couple of minutes we'll be in Tashkent.” Mishka’s heart began to throb with joy as if it would jump out of his breast; there was a mist before his eyes. At first he could make out nothing, only a green blur rushing past the engine. Then, as the engine began to slow down, the green gardens of Tashkent emerged, its white clay walls, its tall slender trees. “Oh, my dear Tashkent!” Queer, unfamiliar carts on two high wheels went past the gardens. Sleek horses with ribbons twisted in their tails and bells in their manes. On the horses the strangest men--were. riding, their heads bound up; and from the high wheels arose dense clouds of white dust. It-hid the gardens and the trees, nothing could be seen through ‘it. And then some big-bearded mujiks came riding by on little, ponies, and their heads were bound up too. The mujiks sat on the little ponies and struck them over the neck with sticks, and the ponies shook their long ears. They wore no bridles, and their tails were just like calves’ tails. The engine halted for a few moments. ; Mishka thrust his head out of the window, stared at the merchants with baskets on their heads, heard the sound of foreign yoices.. There were all sorts of apples in baskets, and on little wooden trays, and then some kind of big berry, black ones and green ones in clusters, and large white cakes. “Ah! Here they live!” thought Mishka, licking his dry hungry lips. Kondratyev asked: “Nu, Michaila, are you happy now?” Mishka did not really know himself; he was happy, and yet it hurt him—all this abundance. .. Kondratyev reassured him: “Don’t worry, Michaila, you'll be all right here.” “Are there any Russians here?” “There are all kinds here. When you get into the city, you'll see. Do you know where your relatives live?” Mishka was ashamed, reddened, and turned away. “Yes. “How are you related to them?” “Only a very little.” Kondratyev’s questioning troubled Mishka and he thought. sadly. “I’m lying, can’t you see I am?” When they came to the station in the midst of the city, he looked his last’at Comrade Kondratyev, bowed low to him, blinked his eyes from which the tears had suddenly begun to flow, and said earnestly: “Nu, little uncle, I thank you with all my heart.” “There’s nothing to thank for, Mishka. Don’t bow. will go well with you.” “Will you come here again?” “T always make this trip...” in “Nu, good-by then, maybe we won't see each other again.” “Good-by, Mishka, and good luck.” Mishka jumped down from the engine, slung his stockings over his ‘shoplder, looked back once again, and bowed to Comrade Kondratyev. Then he started out, gazing about him at the stone buildings, hot in the sunlight, and the tall dust-covered trees, He mingled, a tiny drop in the stream of humanity, with the crowd. He put his hand in his pocket—and there was his knife! - “Now how did that get here?” At first Mishka was puzzled, wanted to run back to the engine; then he thought happily: : “A&A man like that wouldn’t take anything from anybody.” ©. All over the station lay mujiks and peasant women, naked, half- naked, burnt by the Tashkent sun, sick, dying. Mishka caught sight of them from a distance, went nearer, paused, and thought: “Do they want for bread here too?” And he went on. Timidly he turned into a green street with tall trees, then came toa halt. He threw back his head, gazed at a many-branched ‘tree, then he inspected a black-bearded mujik riding along on one of the little ponies. Suddenly he shrank back, frightened; a figure was coming toward him. was it a person at all? It had hands and feet,<it had a beard, but in front, where its face should have been, was a black curtain. Mishka jumped aside to let this apparition pass, then he frowned, closed his lips firmly and took his way along the narrow green street that led into the dry, hot, dusty city. For a long time the black spot of his head in its old, torn cap and -the white spot of the stockings slung across his shoulder, could | be seen moving down the avenue. Then he stopped, looked at a muddy canal with dust-covered banks, went on again, turned a corner, and was lost to view. . (To Be Continued.) I hope things tion that would exonerate the capitalist system (imperialism) from the crime of maintaining a regime of chaos and murder, the militarist re- gime, in China; an explanation which would delude the masses into believing that it is the “corrupt officials,” “Chinese philosophy,” or “geographical peculiarities” and not imperialism that is responsible for their misery. It is the duty of every class conscious worker and revo- lutionist to expose the falsehood and counter-revolutionary role of rtet case and explain to the masses the real cause of the troubles in China. (To be continued)