The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 28, 1929, Page 6

rennet ae E Square, New York Cit; Addrees and mail all chec Page Six Published by the Comprodally Publishing Co y, N. 8 to the Daily Wor Inc., . Telephone sant 1696 8 Union Cable: quare WE MUST PAY GREATER ATTENTION TO KEEPING OUR MEMBERS By JACK STACHEL. setae is no question about our getting thou- sands of new members in the present Re- cruiting Campaign. The Party is on the j and the masses ate moving in our direction. While we must still write a great deal as to how to attract the workers to our Party, I consider that the time is opportune to already begin to think and devise plans for keeping the new members that we recruit in the Party. In the first ten days of the drive, from December 10 to December 20, we have already secured over 50 applications for membership in'the City of Detroit alone. We have no re- ports yet from the rest of the District. T National Office has set our quota 400 new members. At our last membership meeting we have raised this quota to 500 of whom 400 are to be recruited in the City of Detroit and 100 in other cities. That means that we must get in the Dis- trict an average of 5? new members a week if we are to make our quota. b Turnover of 100 Per cent in Past Here. In the eight months from Apri!, 1929 to November, 1929, this District has taken in 326 new members to the Party. This is an average | of over 40 per month. This means nearly 500 new: thembers per year. The membership is | approximately this number now and was ap- proximately this number a year ago today. | So we have taken in 500 new members within a year-and we have 500 members in the Di the Same number we had a year ago. Th therefore the most-serious problem in connection with our increasing the membership of our Party. It is true that the turnover in Detroit has been entirely out of proportion with the | turnover of the Party as a whole. In New York District in the last year, the average number recruited every month was from 80 to 90 or about 1,000 members. The District mem- | bership was and is approximately 3,000. In New York, therefore, the turnover has been about 3314%. Nationally we took in, in the past pear an average of 250 members a month or about 3,000 new members. The membership nationally is about 10,000, This makes about the same as New York a | turnover of about %. The national turnover is the turnover for most Districts. Here in Detroit the turnover has been therefore 3 times | as great as in the rest of the Party. This abnormal turnover indicates two main things. _ 1. The great recruiting power of the Party, | the moyement of the auto workers in our direc- tion, the radicalization of the auto workers. 2.. The inability and the incapacity of the Party in this District to keep the new members. A very poor organizational work, lack of func- tioning of the nuclei, etc. And the figures don’t lie. This is exactly the sitpation. The auto workers driven by ra- tionalization are becoming more and more | radicalized and are coming to us. The reason the Auto Workers Union has not been built into an organization embracing large sections of the auto workers, is its failure to convince the workers that it can lead them into struggle, the failure to actively participate and develop the struggles of the workers, and very poor ‘organizational work. Some Reason For Turnover. Also it is exactly true as the turnover would indicate that the Party organization is in a | very poor state indeed. Nuclei meetings, fac- tory arid street, according to their activity may as well have been street nuclei in any part of the ‘country for the character of their activity. In addition there was a system of allowing com- | even go beyond this number. | comrades dropping from rades to pay their dues in the District offic and the sending of all tickets directly to every member by mail. In such a situation the “nor- mal” duties of all poor functioning nuclei— the limiting themselves to collecting dues and distributing tickets, were also to a large ex- tent taken from tl No wonder therefore that the nuclei attendance fell below %4 and the Party organization did not function. In fact this was the liquidation of all organization and a corresponc relation of the center with each indivi rember. This explains why the workers came to us because they wanted to fight st capitalism did not remain long in the It is hardly necessary to mention that no s are being made to educate the and to assign them systemati- To this must be added the serious .effor new member: to Party work. stra ess that a new member feels when com- ing into a y nucleus. There is lacking that necessary comradeship and helpfulness which would make the member feel as if this is the place where he belongs. Of course, on top of all this the past fac- tional struggles have been responsible for many the Party. From the day they joined they were being recruited into two separate Parties. They had to decide which one to join if they wanted to be allowed to function in the Party and very often they decided to leave. No doubt the failure to recruit the member directly in the factory nuclei thru activity and their being recruited just any old way is one of the major factors for the large turnover, but then this is exactly what we are discussing the failure of the factory nuclei to function properly. How We Can Remedy the Situation. We must remedy this situation if we are to keep the new members that we will unques- tionably recruit. We must take the new mem- bers’ application card and not put it away with satisfaction that we have so many new members, but rather consider the task before us in making! out of these application cards good functioning members. 1. We must not wait weeks until the new member is called. We must rapidly assign the new member to a nucleus. We must, during the drive, start a class y week for those taken in during the week. A short 4-weeks course on the meaning of the Party. What it stands for and how it works and what we expect of every member. Very often we do not educate the new proletarian member, and instead the first mistake he makes we are ready to drive him out as a right wing- er. We must educate the proletarian elements we recruit and they will be the best fighters in the Party for the correct line for they come to us now as a result of the developing strug- les and the crisis of capitalism. 3. We must see that the units show com- radeship to the new members. Every nucleus must assign a comrade from its ranks to be responsible for and help every new member taken in by the nucleus. 4. New members must be assigned to work: and they must not be shown the example of older members refusing to do work. 5. The nuclei must become real functioning organizations taking up the struggles of the workers. Details should be prepared by a func- tioning Nucleus Executive. Comrades, we have great possibilities of se- curing 5,000 new members, perhaps we will Let us simul- taneously with our recruiting give serious at- tention to keeping the new members. daily, except Sunday, at 26-28 Union “DAIWORK.” New York N VY Our Membership Drive and the “Daily” By P. SMITH. Our Party has not yet been penetrated by the spirit of campaigning that is necessary, if we are going to carry thru the tasks set by the Party in the membership drive. So far we have not yet even succeeded to penetrate the “Daily Worker, the central organ of our Party, with the consciousness of a real cam- paigning spirit. Some of the departments of the Daily Worker still go along as if the mem- bership drive did not exist for them, in spite of the'fact that the Party decided that all the forces of. the. Party should be mobilized for this recruiting of new members, strengthening of old shop nuclei, building of new shop nuclei, issuing of new shop papers, gaining new sub- | scribers on the Daily Worker, selling and dis- tributing Party literature, ete. The Daily Worker contains a few articles written espe- cially for the drive, and hardly anything else, except that the editorial department has paid atterition to the ( in some leading articles since the beginniny of our campaign. More than’ two weeks have passed and the Daily Worker ‘still does ‘not put in all its energy in assisting this most important drive of the Party. -How will we be able to mobilize our han 20 ‘language papers for the drive, “Workers! Join the Party of _ -. Your Class! £ ‘I the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. eet De Seay dausndess Clty svi fis Aa Mail this to the Central Office, Communist Party, 43 East 125th St., New York, N. Y.— etars sdsbaceso + Age i i when the Daily Worker in spite of criticism from the center, in spite of personal pressure, ete., goes on with old routine, passive handling of the drive. In the organizational theses of the Third World Congress of the Comintern we read the following about our press and party cam- paigns: “If in a certain period the activity of the Party is concentrated upon a certain campaign, then the Party paper should in all its head- lines, not only in political editorials, put itself into the service of this campaign.” It was about this resolution that Lenin said in his last speeches in the CI: The foreigners have “to learn in a special meaning of the word, so that they really un- derstand the organization, structure, methods, contents of the revolutionary work, When that is done, then I am sure the perspectives of the world revolution will be not only good but exceptionally favorable.” This is the thing that our editors in every department of the Daily Worker have to learn. Not so that they will bring a phrase about “Join the Party!” or “Remember the member- ship cagnpaign of the Party!” or something of the same kind in every news item, in most of the headlines, or as a sort of a tail-end after every news story or article. That would be worse than before. ‘The political aspects of the drive must be connected with articles on all subjects, news items on international and American happenings. This has to be done in a political way, not artificially or mechanically. This means work, it means an activization of the Daily Worker editorial staff for the cam- peign. That has not taken place, and the Party cannot permit its central organ, the best agi- tator, the best organizer of the Party to remain partly passive in such an important drive as the present one carried on by the Party. Passiv- ity is one of the right dangers that threaten the Party. We are sure that the results of the’ drive will be greater when the Daily Worker and the other Party press following its example are throwing themselves wholeheartedly and with complete Bolshevik energy into the campaign, when every column of the Daily reflects the drive for strengthening the Party, building the basis for organization of a real Party of the masses, a real bolshevik CP in the United States of Wall street. B Central Organ of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. SURSCRIPTION RATES: By Mail (in Now York City only): $8.00 a year; By Mail (outside of New York City): $6.00 a year; $4.50 six months; $3.50 six months; $2.50 three months $2.00 three months DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM! By Fred Ellis The cry of 300,000,000 in India. By G. SAFAROV. T= heroic six months’ struggle of 150,000 Bombay textile workers, their retreat with- out the least sign of collapse or weakness, the attraction of new working class fighters into the strike movement at Jamshedpur and Cal- cutta; the maturing of a strike movement among the railway workers; the swift political development of the working masses; Girny Kamgar, which is not-to be shattered by any persecution or laws against “hooliganism”; the demonstration of 500,000 in Calcutta at the funeral of the young revolutionary Jatin- dranath Das, who died during a hunger strike in prison; the incessant students’ strikes, which break out in place after place; the end- less meetings and demonstrations under the slogans of “Hurrah for the revolution” and “Down with imperialism’—such ‘is the picture of today in the India which is living tomorrow. In this situation there are many known features which make “incomprehensible” India akin to Russia on the eve of the 1905 revolu- tion. Fearfully and with warning glances in the direction of the British Government, the lib- eral bourgeoisie are noting that the country has not known such an agitation since 1921, first revolutionary stage. The liberal bour- geoisie are by no means enraptured with this growing revolutionary rise, which may inter- fere with their capitulatory transactions with British imperialism. They are trying in all ways to hide the fact that the chief motive power of the revolutionary rise is now the In- dian proletariat, which was not the case in 1919-1922. But meantime the strike statistics prove this irrefutably. 1926 1927 1928 No. of strikes 129 129 203 No. of strikers 186,000 131,000 506,851 No. of lost working days 1,097,000 2,019,000 31,647,404 1st quarter 2nd quarter 1929 1928 1929 1928 No. of strikes 45 58 AT 52 No. of strikers 77,385 83,370 150,000 290,654 No. of lost working days 820,215 1,065,083 5,000,000 13,012,506 In the third quarter of 1929 200,000 workers participated in the jute mills strike, and the number of working days lost reached the fig- ure of 1,725,000. India has now grown accustomed to revolu- tionary slogans and demonstrations, the influ- ence of the working class on the intermediate petty bourgeois strata of the towns has grown extraordinarily, to the very broadest masses the working class has become the outpost of the revolutionary struggle against the British Government. India is now passing through a period of a revolutionary rise, and the repre- sentatives of that rise are the working class on the one hand and the city petty bourgeois strata with the student youth at their head on the other. Meantime the Indian bourgeoisie has come closer than ever before to a treach- erous transaction with the British bourgeoisie, and is exerting all its strength to accomplish this transaction as swiftly as possible in order to avert further revolutionary disturbances. On the instructions of the MacDonald Cabinet the Viceroy of India has promised India “dominion status,” and Ghandi and Co. are already going into raptures. “The proletariat struggle, the bourgeoisie steal into power.” That Leninist formula could not be improved upon as a characteriza- tion of the present situation in India. It goes without saying that tke Indian bourgeoisie cannot under any circumstances count on re- ceiving power from the Kands of British imper- ialism. It is a question of attracting individual representatives or certain strata into the ranks of the British bureaucracy, of a certain dis- tribution of petty official positions and pro in other words, since India passed through her | The “Present Moment” in India fitable sinecures under the flag of a dominion constitution. The notorious Nehru constitu- tion revealed this secret of bourgeois policy, and the statements daily appearing in the In- dian press concerning the “intentions” of the British Labor Government to form a bloc with the Indiam national reformist bourgeoisie against the masses of India witness the extraordinary hurry of the Indian bourgeoisie in this connection. Only with difficulty ob- serving the formalities of a shop-window op- position, the Indian bourgeoisie is doing every- thing it “can to reach the longed-for end as quickly as possible. It is with rare ardour at- tempting to persuade MacDonald and Co. to hasten with a conference of British and Indian politicians.. “If the British Labor Government displays such directness and resolution in car- rying through the policy proclaimed by the Laborites for India as it displayed in regard to Egypt, if it displays that resolution at the moment when all the political problems have acquired,sufficient clarity, we think that half the difficulties which are so frequently ap- pealed to will disappear, and it will be easy to create an atmosphere of agreement at the general conference.” (The Hindoo for July 29, 1929.) Thus the Indian bourgeoisie of the National Congress are alluring the MacDonald Government with the prospects of agreement with them. Through the Viceroy the Mac- Donald Government has already promised a conference in London, but of course it will not grant the “rights” of Egypt. In December an all-Indian National Congress is to assemble at Lahore. By then the period of the ulti- matum threatening the British with a declara- tion of civil disobedience in the event of a re- fusal of dominion status to India will be near- ing expiration. Their diligent fawning on MacDonald and Co. reflects the inward anxiety of the Indian bourgeoisie, which knows only too well that it is politically bankrupt, that it is not able to keep any “left wing” promises. The Indian liberal bourgeoisie is trying to hide its naked poverty under “left wing” phrases and gestures, which are hardly likely to take in anyone concerning their real intentions. The Indian National Congress is all but ready to be laid out. And yet this near corpse is trying to block the road of the revolutionary move- ment, and in this consists its main political significance. In order to render the revolu- tionary movement impotent the bourgeoisie is pretending that it will be glad with all a father’s pride to adopt it as its own legal child. Only thus-can the fact be explained that the deaders of the National Congress have tried to lay their paws on the body of the dead Das, who was in no sense a hero of bourgeois treachery. It was convenient for the counter- revolutionary liberals to declare Jatindranath Das as a national hero and martyr, in order the more easily to pave the way for the young Nehru who has been put forward by Mahatma Ghandi himself as president of the Lahore con- gress. With the aid of the clever young men who swear their fidelity to socialism and the revolution and at the same time do not break away from their filial devotion to their fath- ers, the counter-revolutionary liberals are hop- ing to decapitate and paralyse the vast move- ment of the revolutionary strata of the town petty bolirgeoisie, and to isolate the working class in its ruthless struggle against imper- ialism. Mahatma Ghandi himself, that great lover of Herodic poses and misty phrases, has spoken on this question in the language of the fly-blown politician: “A friend of discipline, he (Davakharlal Nehru) has always revealed his readiness for loyal submission even when he regarded it as mistaken. He is undoubtedly a man of extreme convictions by comparison with those close to him, but he is modest and sufficiently practical not to carry the matter to a rupture. He is as clear as crystal, he is true be, . cuspicion, He is a_ knight without fei.» and without reproach. The na- tion will be in sure hands.” (Bombay Chron- icle, Oct. 5th, 1929.) And it is this knight without fear and with- out reproach whom they are trying to force SOUTHERN COTTON MILLS AND LABOR By MYRA PAGE. (Continued) At the present writing, labor both north and south, is rallying to defense work, and the Na- tional Textile Workers’ unionizing campaign is proceeding at an even greater pace. Over ninety mill committees, with a membership of 3,000, have been organized in the south. Although Loray mill is again operating on an open-shop basis, the Gastonia local of the N. T, W. con- tinues to grow and consolidate its strength, and the Loray operatives say they are deter- mined to seize the first opportunity of renew- ing the struggle. During August these workers won their first victo when the mill companies of Gaston County announced a decrease of five hours in the working week with no cuts in wages. This change, which affects over twenty thousand workers, including those of Loray mill, consti- tutes an admission on the part of textile own- ers of the growing power of the National Tex- tile Workers in the south. Having failed in their attempts to terrorize their employees into submission, the mill companies are tur- ning to concessions as a means of last resort for stemming the spread of unionism into the south. But nothing can stop the revolt of Dixie mill hands, now under way. One striking evidence of this was the recent southern conference of the National Textile Workers Union and Trade Union Unity League, held in Charlotte, N. C. In spite of police terrorism and great financial difficulties, 3388 delegates were present, from sixty-five cities and five states, representing, it is estimated, about 60,000 workers. All were | united in their determination to fight the mill barons, and a program was adopted for estab- lishing the N. T. W. throughout the south. A significant fact about this conference was the complete abolition of the Jim Crow system, with colored and white delegates sitting side by side, and freely intermingling. When dele- gates of both races emphasized the importance of joint action toward a common goal, they were roundly applauded. This indicates the sub- stantial advance made by these southern work- ers, under revolutionary guidance, over their former race prejudices. While organized strikes at Gastonia and | unionism. Bessemer City, N. C., under N.T.W, leadem,| ship have been under way, numerous othe¢ | spontaneous strikes have broken out in various | centers in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennesg | see. Many of these have been directed agains ' the stretch-out system and have been locally | led. In some cases, the operatives have a settlement with management and have rep; turned to work, still non-unionized; in othett | instances the N.T.W.:or the U.T.W. have ess! tablished locals. Those workers who have had previous experience with the U.T.W. will have ' nothing to do with this organization, feeling ' too keenly their treatment from it in the past! but among the inexperienced, the first unior ! help offered has been gladly received. y In this present strike wave, the U.T.W. has pursued its policy of stepping in after a strike situation has developed, advising some quick form of settlement, enrolling members, and then practically withdrawing all active work in that locality. However, the National Textile Work- ers’ rapid development has led the U.T.W. to greater efforts, in order to hinder its rival’s growth. This basis for its recent activities in the south set forth in its organ, “The Textile Worker,” for April, 1929. An editorial from a southern conservative paper is also quoted, welcoming the U.T.W. as the southern manufacturers’ protector against Communist “The -Textile Worker’ comments that an U.T.W. campaign in the south among the now fully aroused operatives “will bring to all concerned contentment and peace.” The editor goes on to make it clear that U.T.W. officials wish to co-operate with the mills “in introducing modern methods of manufacturing to reduce costs. The union sees the importance of reducing costs that are proven to be un- necessarily high as a result of waste or in- efficiency on the part of labor or management, but we are opposed to imposition of any plan applying only to labor and without consultation | with the workers and their representatives.” (To Be Continued) * Quotation taken from R. Dunn’s article on “Southern Textile Unionism,” Fed. Press, May 11, 1929. into the position of national leader of the masses of India, in opposition to the other, the collective leader, the new revolutionary class, the proletariat, which has come to the fore- front and will not concede the position to any strangers and enemies. With a broad gesture the younger Nehru is today calling for a boycott of the Whitley Commission, sent by the Labor Government to study the conditions of labor in India. This “left wing” gesture costs the Indian bour- geoisie very little, as it does not consider it necessary to study anything in this sphere and is in no way disposed to assist the attempts of British capital to thrust itself between the Indian workers and the Indian capitalists. The younger Nehru is proclaiming a boycott of the Whitley Commission because it is not with this commission that they will have to discuss their act of treachery. None the less, at a trade union conference in the United Provinces this same Nehru points to the necessity of being doubly cautious in the handling of such a sharp | instrument of class-struggle as strikes. That is enough from him. He knows that some of the older men will follow in his tracks and openly declare that “the class struggle is use- less so long as a third power dominates over both sides.” (Hindostan Times, October, 1929.) The innumerable attempts of the na- tional reformist bourgeoisie to organize their own trade union movement along Kuomintung lines is a characteristic feature of the last few months. The Indian bourgeoisie is ready to exploit the class struggle against the British capitalists to a certain extent in order to strengthen their influence over the working masses. In addition to all this, the intrigues of the Indian bourgeoisie with the peasant movement are worthy of special attention at the present transitional stage. The weakness of the peas- ant movement at the present time serves to indicate that the revolutionary rise has still in- adequately captured the masses outside the city boundaries. Beyond all doubt no small role is played in this regard by the circum- stance that the working class advance as the decisive revolutionary force has not yet led to a final political and organizational formu- lation of the Communist advance guard in India. None the less, the bourgeoisie realize quite clearly that the peasants’ silence is grow- ing more and more suspicious and that the day is not far distant when the direct ally of the working class, the basic masses of the peasantry, will enter the arena of the political struggle. The betrayal of the peasant movement in Bardoli tore the mask of hypocrisy from the leaders of the Congress. To please the land- owners and bureaucrats the Indian National Congress was declared to be the “common ground” on which the landowners and the peasants, the exploiters and the toilers, were to unite in brotherly union. None the less, the prospect of the working-class being supported by peasant reserves is forcing imperialism and the Indian bourgeoisie to seek their own roads to “alleviate the peasant misery,” and to eliminate the growing discontent. In this con- nection the foundation of the Land League in Bombay is highly indicative. The. first and chief principle of this league says that “prop- erty inSland is based not in the rights of the state, but on the rights of the landowner.” This principle completely exposes the national ro- formist bourgeoisie’s attitude to the land ques- tion. It is trying: to dam the fiscal appetites of British imperialism somewhat whilst creat- ing bigger possibilities for the capitalist trans- formation of the landowners’ and then the large peasant roperties. None the less, whilst putting forward his point of view, the bour- geoisie is simultaneously, trying to catch the peasant masses with slogans of struggle for a reduction of the land tax. super-traitor of the Bardoli movement, the leader of the Bombay Land League, is “pining in expectation of the day when it will be pos- sible to organize all the peasantry of Bombay and Madras, raising thep. to, a peacable, yet resolute protest against the existing system of Jand taxation.” (Hindostan Times, 2nd Sept., 1929.) Of course Patel does not forget to add that “only non-violence” can be the method of Mr. Patel, the © struggle, although it would be truer to say that it can be only a method of rejecting the struggle for peasant interests. The officials of British imperialism also realize quite clearly the danger for them of the influence of the proletariat being carried into the countryside. “The Communist movement is still not very widespread outside the town proletariat, but it may prove alluring to the Indian peasant. If the British strong hand be removed the Indian Royt will kill his land- owner, just as did the Russian peasant.” (Sir | Basil Blackett in Foreign Affairs, October, 1929.) That is not only an expression of Brit- ish imperialism’s fear of the rising revolu- tionary wave, but a reminder to the Indian bourgeoisie of the unity of their interests with those of British capital in the work of defend- ing landed property against the peasants. The nearer the Indian bourgeoisie gets to a decisive capitulation to British imperialism the more it endeavours to extend the basis of its influence with the masses, and not only the petty bourgeois masses of the city population, but even among the workers and peasants. It is with this endeavour that we have to connect the attempts of the leaders of the Indian Na- tional Congress to transform that congress into a strictly centralized organization, with a wide- ly ramified network of nuclei in the villages and with a firmly established discipline. In Young India Ghandi has already complained that the congress organization embraces only two-thirds of the 250 districts of British India. The Indian bourgeoisie needs a centralism of is political influence over the masses just in order to block the path of the revolutionary wave, and also to get its hands on the machin- ery of administration, which it could after- wards blend with the British bureaucracy’s machinery of administration. British imperialism is trying to help the. national reformist bourgeosie to paralyse the revolutionary rise, overwhelming the working- class and all the radical elements of the na- tional emancipation movement with ruthless persecution. Thus it is trying to ensure a monopoly of legality, and with it a monopoly of the representation of the masses, to the Indian bourgeoisie. In the struggle with the Bombay textile workers the Indian bourgeoisie completely unmasked itself, acting not only as the direct agent of the British police system, but as the chief organiser of strike-breaking in the enterprises. From time to time the Indian bourgeosie may play with strikes, in so far as those strikes occur at British enterprises, but as soon as the working-class strike mover ment acquires a genuinely national scale the Indian bourgeoisie openly declares ruthless war on it. At the December congress the Indian bour- geoisie will feel no compunction in hiding its treachery beneath a copious flood of “left wing” phrases and “left wing” gestures. And for that very reason the working-class must at once set itself the task of concentrating the political activity of the masses. It must pull off the glove of the Indian bourgeoisie, by summoning’ the masses to a resolute struggle against any kind of negotiations with British imperialism, and by permeating these masses with the idea of the systematic and direct preparation of a mass strike. It must oppose the bourgeois methods of national reformist treachery with its own revolutionary methods of mobilising the masses; to the bourgeois methods of extension of the political and or= ganisational basis of compromise and deception of the masses it must oppose its own methods. of extending the basis of the, revolutionary. movement among the masses. The working= class must formulate its political advance guard, it must find organisational formulation in left wing trade unions, discarding the treacherous leadership of Joshi and Co., and finally, the representatives of the workings class must proclaim the programme of the peasant revolution and make it the touch- | stone of all the further struggle. A revolutionary class has already been born in India which will smash through the bour= geois betrayal. The question of India’s free- Au ON decided, not at a round table in. ondon, but at the weaving looms of Bombay and Calcutta, +45 ne ~ \