The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 21, 1930, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, ‘APRIL 21, 1930 Page Three = ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SITUATION AND PARTY TASKS ‘1. The present economic crisis in the United States requires a sharp turn in the methods and tactics of our Party. This crisis has thrown millions, of workers into unemploy- ment. It is rapidly accelerating the ration- alization process in industry. Its effects are broadening and deepening the counter-offen- sive of the exploited working masses. The capitalist class is meeting these effects by re- placing its democratic pretensions with fascist practices. Thke economic problems of the crisis are intensifying the imperialist aggressiveness of American capital and are intensifying the war danger. In this’situation the Communist Party, béing the only force of proletarian leadership confronts the task and the possi- bility of winning influence and leadership over a majority of the working class. This re- quires a decisive turn toward mass activities, a speeding-up of the Bolshevization process, s general activization of the whole Party, a rapid transformation of the street nuclei into a shop nuclei basis of the Party, the develop- ment and broadening of leading cadres, the building and leading of militant mass indus- trial unions. Growth of the World Crisis. 2. The Sixth World Congress of the Com- intern pointed out that “the present period of the capitalist world is giving rise to a fresh series of imperialist wars; wars among im- perialist states themselves; wars of the im- perialist states against the U. S. S. R., wa of national liberation against imperialism, im- perialist intervention and to gigantic class battles.” The Tenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. pointed out that the accentuated external and internal contradictions of capitalism are at present accelerating the shattering of capital- ist stabilization and are deepening and widen- ing*the revolutionary tide of the international labor movement. This world crisis of capitalism, following the path of the uneven development of capi- talism, spreads throughout the capitalist sy: tem at a varying tempo and with different forms and character. If, in the United State: the crisis is alréady showing all the typ: characteristics of a cyclical economic cri in other countries “it is seen in the spreading of the crisis over a wider territory (Eastern , Europe, colonies, China and India, the South American countries, Japan); in a third type of country it is seen in the maturing of a gen- eral economic cri: (Germany); in a fourth it is seen in the accentuation of the chronic depression prevailing in a number of impor- tant industrics (Great Britain); in a fifth it is manifested in the appearance of the first symptoms of a crisis, slowing down of produc- tion, discharge of workers, falling of stocks (France)” (E. C. C. I. Presidium Thesis). The policy of the world bourgeoisie is to transfer the burden of the is onto the shoulders of the working class. A new waye of ‘rationalization is the outstanding manifes- tation of this. Politically the bourgeoisie at- tempts to solve its difficulties through fascism. The problem of markets it attempts to solve by forcing a re-distribution of the world; for this, it carries on a most intense war prepa- ration. Sccialist Construction in the U.S.S.R. 3, One of the most important factors in the further intensification vf the contradictions of the present period of world capitalism is the growth of Socialism in the Soviet Union. : The gigantic program of the Five Year Pian of Socialist construction involving both indus- trialization and the collectivization of agricul- ture, which has already been surpassed during the first year and which will be entirely ac- complished in four years, is the clearest evi- dence for the toiling masses throughout the world of the superiority of the Socialist sys- tem of prodtction over the capitalist anarchic exploitative system of production. Tremen dous importance especially has the Socialist transformation of agriculture, the mass° col- lectivization of the millions of individual econ- omies of the roor and middle peasants on the basis of the crowth of the Socialist indust and technique, the four-day working wee on the basis of the leading role of the prole- tariat in its alliance with the decisive masses of the peasantry. The turn in policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from the policy of limita- tion and squeezing out of the capitalist elo- menis to the policy of the complete liquidation of the kulaks as a class, is thus destroying the last remnants of capitalist exploitation in the country, is removing the last inner class basis for the imperialist intervention and abolishing the last inner basis of restoring capitalism in the Soviet Union. Sharpening War Danger. 4. The development of the economic cr extremely sharpens the general contradictions of the canitali ‘stem and brings still closer the danger of a new war. The dominating n rivalry is that between Anieri and British imperialism. All other inter-im- Perialist contradictions tend to align them- selves with this main imperialist rivalry. In the United States, preparations for war are going forward rapidly, accompanied by open imperialist propaganda of a new advance of American capitalism toward the geonomic dom- ination of the world. ‘ The London naval conference showed clearly that the preparaticns for armed conflict be- tween these two greatest imperialist forces is the dominating question of inter-imperialist policy. At the same time it demonstrated the utter hypocrisy of “disarmament” phrase mon- gering. The-open preparation for a new world blood- bath came.out at this conference with eynica! and irank brutality. A new imperialist. war présents itself to the capitalists as an attempt «to find an oftlet from the economic crisis and is for them a. continuation of the general policy of the botrgeoisie agzinst the proletariat, that is, the altempt of the capitalist class by means of new bloodshed to break the workers’ grow- ing counter-offensive. éituation the danger of an imperialist against the Scviet Unic-: becomes par- ticulerly gcute. A war against the Soviet Union, the fortress and ontpost of the revolu-, tionary working class of the world, is a war of ‘the capitalist world against the realizing Socialist, aim of the toiling masses, is at the same time for the capitalists an immediate outlet ‘from the present economic crisis, giving to ‘capitalism a new tremendous market of destruction and the hope of the reacquisition of the markets of the Soviet Union and break- ing the Socialism in construction in the Sovict Union, the tremendous economic advantages of which already begin to shake the capitalist world. S. A. Economic Crisis in U. 5. Into this general crisis of world capi- talism comes as a tremendously accentuating factor the present economic crisis in America. This present economic crisis in the United States is the inevitable outgrowth of a basic | contradiction of capitalism, “a growing con- | tradiction between the tendency toward un- limited expansion of production and the re- stricted consumption of the masses of the proletariat (general over-production), and this resulted in periodical devastating crises and mass unemployment among the proletariat.” (Program of the Communist International). | This crisis, which broke in its sharpest form upon the heels of the crash of the stock mar- ket in November, continues to deepen. While the first period of the crisis (end of 1929) | showed first of all the sharp decline in heavy |; industry (steel, machinery, construction), in the first three months of 1930, the decline has penetrated into the industries producing for mass consumption, spreading throughout the economic life of the country. The “An- | nalist” index of business activity registers a general decline of about one-eighth (more than 12 per cent). Car loadings have fallen from their 1929 record (highest in history), and for 1930 are running more than 6 per cent below the five-year average of 1925-29. The Federal Reserve index of industrial produc- ! tion shows a decline below the high point of last year of about 20 per cent. Commodity ; prices have declined approximately 10 per | cent, with the trend steadily downward. Build- ing contracts run more than 20 per cent below last year, with the gap constantly widening. Gross railroad earnings declined in the first ten weeks of 1930 by from 10 to 18 per cent below the same weeks of 1929. Bituminous coal production for February was about 20 per cent below last year. Automobile production has declined approximately one-third, with a perspective of further immediate reduction. Bank clearings are about 16 per cent below | last year. Financial factors and signs of | deepening crisis are seen in reduction of the | discount rate, The present flood of stock market trading with its creation of paper value is an out- growth of “cheap money.” The accumulations of the immediate past find no market of in- dustrial investment and flow, as “cheap money” into the field of speculation. For a while, this stimulates the stock prices. But because of the crisis in industry, these prices ; ave purely fictitious, Thus tha very stock | market figures, which capitalist propaganda | cites as signs of an abating of the crisis, are | in reality creating conditions for a new stock | sh with a new downward trend of produc- | tion, Those branches of production which pro- duce means of production, first and hardest ; hit by the crisis, remain at a level even lower | than the general decline. Employment and wages, diminishing more rapidly by far than | production itself (due to intensified ra- tionalization) serve to deepen the crisis by | further limiting the purchasing capacity of the masses, The sperading of the economic ‘crisis thru- out the world is also seriously diminishing ex- ports. The export figures of the month of March alone showed a decline of 26 per cent. The recent stock market crash in Japan.indi- cates that this factor will be accentuated in the near future. ‘ Uneven Development of Crisis. 6. The. growth of the crisis is not a uni- form downward trend of economy as a whole, nor-of its separate parts. The general decline proceeds at a varying tempo, while within the general decline occur fluctuations of specific industries and localities, with more or less sharp movements upward and downward. Par-, ticularly is this unevenness of development. marked in the leading industries (steel, ma- chinery) which, after deep plunges downward to 24 to 40 per cent capacity, make quick turns upward which, however, still leave them lower than the general level of economy. Sea- sonal increases are almost uniformly smaller than the average of past years (especially in leading industries) so that the widely trum- peted “improvements” noted from time to time | in the capitalist press are in reality. further declines, masked by the tricks of statisticians. The leading industries are entirely unable to lead toward amelioration’ of the crisis, but instead lead toward a deepening and widening of the crisis. The cumulative effects of all these ups and downs is’ a persistent though uneven decline of economy as a whole, The unevenness of development of various branches of industry is sharpened, the stability of their relations one to another still more upset, and the crisis as a whole is intensified. Unemployment Grows. 7. The development of unemployment is not to be measured only by the development ot the economic crisis, Capitalism always has its industrial reserve army, an army of unem- ployed. Already before the economic crisis this army was tremendously enlarged asa result of speed-up and rationalization. To this army have now been added the millions thrown upon the streets by the economic crisis and curtailment of production. On the other hand, permanent employment is, in turn, now being intensified to an unheard of degree by a new wave of speed-up and rationalization which is spurred on by the economic crisis. Thus even local and temporary increases in production of certain industries (steel, auto) are not’ reflected in: corresponding increases in employment, but are the occasion for further cutting down of labor forces by the speed-up, by an increase in permanent unemployment. Thus the struggle against unemployment is organically linked up with the struggle against capitalist rationalization; the problems of the unemployed are intertwined with those of the employed; and the workers are faced with the issues of class struggle—class against class— in all their nakedness. Breakdown of Reformist Iusions. 3. The resulis of the economic crisis not only destroy the reformist illusions with which the bourgeoisie attempted to deceive and pacify the workers (American prosperity and “high wages”) (theory of “exceptionalism,” “organ- ized capitalism,” ete.) but continually acceler- ates the narrowing of the very social basis of reformism, The offensive of the bourgeoisie, already begun prior to the development of the cconomie crisis, is now accentuated by increas- ing wage cuts and speed-up in the ‘actories, Dratt Theses tor the 7th Convention, Adopted by the Central Committee Plenum, Communist Party, affecting not only the unskilled and skilled workers, but also sections of the skilled. | Apmil 3rd, 1930. All of these developments are rapidly giving | \ | | rise to sharper and sharper class struggles. | With the rapid development by the bourgeoisic | of fascist repressive measures, the struggle is rapidly assuming more and more of a political | character. By accelerating the process of the | concentration “of capital and the impoveri ment of sections of the middle and petty. | bourgeoisie, by increasing the proletariani: tion of the masses of peasantry, the economic | crisis thus intensifies all the social contradic- | tions of American capitalism. The sheer economic weight of the crisis tends to effect a political awakening’ of the proletarian masses. A revolutionary upsurge grips the working masses, opening the road to the Communist Party for organizing and leading these masses into struggles. The revolutionary upsurge of the working masses of the United States is evidenced by the growing unemployment dem- onstrations (the national response of almost a million and a quarter workers on March 6); by the growing political character of the ac- tions of the workers in strikes and demon- strations: (March 6, Haiti and Mexico demon- strations, etc.); by increasing militancy of the workers in resisting the violent suppres- sion of strikes and demonstration (the histo- rical struggle in the South, centering around the Gastonia case); by the tremendous out- pouring of fifty thousand workers to the funeral of Steve Katovis, killed by the police on the picket line; by the mass interest in revolutionary trade unionism, and growing movements for organization, especially in the South and in basic industries; by the rapid growth of the Communist Party in member- ship and influence. Under these condition: the detailed and fundamental work of mobii- izing the masses for resistance against ra- tionalization and wage cuts and for unemploy- ment relief campaigns, the organization c/ revolutionary trade unions, the strengthening and building of our Party, become the all over- shadowing tasks. Crisis in Agriculture. 9. Agriculture, already in 9 chronic crisis since 1920, has been especially deeply affected in the last months. The vast unemployment and general wage cutting for those employed has sharply curtailed the mass consumption of agricultural products. Producers of crops for the world market (cotton, wheat) are faced with the most catastrophic decline in prices, Wheat dropped one third in price since last August. year, and 12 per cent during the last twe months. At the beginning of the year already the U. S. Department of Agriculture is pub- licly advising the farmers to curtail their production this year by 15 per cent, which gives an indication of the extent of already visible curtailment of the market. In January it was estimated, on the basis of the then-pre- vailing prices, that prospective farm income for 1930 had shrunk by more than a billion dollars. The effect of this is, of course, not confined to agriculture; for industry it is equivalent in effect to the loss of the same amount in foreign markets. Agriculture is thus hard hit by the crisis and then in turn con- tributes heavily to the deepening of the crisis, preparing a fertile field for the extension of our Party influence and organization among the poor farmers, and the mobilization for common struggle with the revolutionary work- ing class. 10. The past failure of the Party to do any work among the agrarian masses is the out- growth of an indefensible underestimation of that work, The Party has failed to respond on the rapid industrialization of farming, espe cially fruit growing and truck farming, whi has led to the transformation of the farmer migratory worker into a semi-industrial agvi- cultural worker. The California district of our Party especially is obligated to work among these workers and to drive the roots of our Party into that category by organ’ ig Party nuclei among them. The possibilities of such work were clearly demonstrated in the Imperial Valley strike. Similar work must be done in the sugar beet industry of Colorado and Mich- igan, and also in the dairy farms surrounding big cities, largely run by wage labor. : Another important agrarian base for Party work are those sections, like in the metal min- ing regions of Northern Minnesota and Michi- gan, the coal mining regions of Illinois, Kansas and Indiana, and sections of the newly indus. trialized South, where the connection between the industrial proletariat and the agrarian masses is very close. Especiall in strikes in these territories, the organization* of relief work for the strikers among the farmers of these territories can be carried on with a view of establishing a close organizational bond be- tween the industrial workers and poor farmers. Still another and most important immediate field for Party work among the agrarian masses is presented by the masses of Negro tenant farmers and share croppers in the South. The Central Committee must at once work out a concrete program of work among these masses and must take definite steps for @ speedy extension of the Party work in the South from the industrial centers to the rural masses. of Negro. tenant farmers and share croppers, Development of Fascism. 11, In the political field, American capital- ism is. vapidly developing putspoken fascist methods of government. This manifests itseli in three main: groupings of forces: First, the direct mobilization of the heads of finanes en~'- tal and their immediate class representatives in (a) super-governmental organs, imposing thei will and direction from above upon the “dem- ocratic” apparatus (Hoover's National Busi- ness Council): (b) direct nomination into key governmental positions of representatives of finance capital (Hoover, Mellon, Young, Mor- row, Grundy, ete.); (¢) concentration of power in the hands of the executive and judiciary and the systematic undermining of the powers and prestige of Congress. Second, the mobilization of the reformist organizations and elemenis Cotton dropped 25 per cent during the past | ' cist, while others (Soc Muste | group) cover their fascis with | pseudo- radical phrases, Third, the systematic use of declassed and criminal elements, of the | organized anderworld, as sluggers and mur- derers of the working class organizers and leaders, Rationalization and mechanization of the process of production are robbing the skilled workers of the value of their skill. The reac- tionary leader of this section of the workers ng to maintain the favorable position of this aristocracy of labor by attempting to turn them into» the shock troops of capitalism. That is why they turn the labor unions from instruments of struggle on behalf of the workers into instruments of ra- tionalization against the working masses and into fascist trcops of capitalism. The Socialist Party, as the representative of the petty shop Keepers, is trying to counteract the transforma- tion of the petty shop keeper into a clerk of the chain store social fascist troops of capitalism against the labor movement. Its labor union wing, the Muste group facilitates the fascist services of the A. F. of L. to capitalism by covering them with left phrases, From Howat over Fishwick and Farrington to the Peabody Coal Co., or from Schlesinger over the Tammany Hall Gov- nor to the dress manufacturers of New York is not a greater distance than from Green and Woll and Lewis to the C Federation and to the American State and War and Navy De- partments. American Imperialism Prepares for War. 12.. As a result of the deepenin ening crisis, American imperialism is playing an increasingly aggressive role not only in Latin America, the Philippines and China, but throughout the entire colonial world. Under the pressure of the economic ¢ which sharpens tremendously all imperialist contra- dictions and rivalr American imperial: not only intensifies its economic expan but the imperizlist aggression of the U States takes on more outspoken political and military forms. American imperialism. thru its prominent spokesman, Owen D. Young. openly announces its program not only towards the colonies, but for “economic integration of the world,” that is, struggle for world eeon- omic domination. Under these conditions our Party has especially the responsibility of as- sisting the revolutionary masses of the semi- colonial countries where U. S. imperialism is most aggressive and which are in the very cen- ter of U. S. imperialist policy (Latin Amer- ica, the Caribbean area, etc.), and particularly those in U. S. colonial possessions (Philippines, Virgin Islands, ete.). This must include the utmost possible support and the joint working out with the Communist Parties of these coun- tries of their political and tactical problems and a clear understanding of changing class re- lationships. 13. American imperialism to an interesting extent leads and directs the war preparations against the Soviet Union. American imperial- ism was the promoter in the seizure of the Chinese-Eastern Railroad by the Chinese mili- tarists. Stimson’s note of December 2nd was an oven attempt to create a united front of the capitalist world for a military attack on the Soviet Union. The very seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway was itself a strategic military maneuver against the Soviet Union. American imperialism is feverishly working to build a militarist wall around the boundaries of the Soviet Union, In trying to fit Germany more and sharp- | intimately into the anti-Soviet bloc, it is at- tempting to smoothen out the contradictions of the interests between Poland and Germany. French imperialism conducts a fierce and pro- vocative campaign against the Soviet Union | and mobilizes her vassal border states for war | against the U. | of MacDonald in Great Br‘ $.R, The “Labor” Government ain, servile lackeys ; of the imperialist bourgeoisie, prepares a new | diplomatic break with the Soviet Union. somerof which (A. F. of L.) are outright fas- \ York; police ;, War against the Soviet Union. The internationally organized campaign against the so-called persecution of religion in the Soviet Union is unprecedented in its counter-revolu- tionary fury, class hatred, world-wide extent and offensive forms, and is a direct ideological preparation for an armed attack against the Soviet Union by the capitalist class. The Pope, the British Arch-Bishops, Protestant churche: Jewish rabbis, the Salvation Army, all religi- ous sects, all peddlers of religious opium, were mobilized for the defense of the R ian Ku- laks, thus giving a clear example of’ the inter: national imperialist united front of cross and cannon against the Soviet Union. The class content of this campaign was the defense of the kulaks and nepmen—the last trench of capitalism in the Soviet Union being destroyed by the advance of Socialism. At the same time these’ campaigns had the immediate strategic aim to ideologically stir up the peasantry of Poland, Rumonia, Czecho-Slovakia, etc. who | are the bulk of the armies to be used in the One of the re- volting details of this campaign was that ape- ing exactly in method and content the cam- paign of the hourgéeoisie, the Trotzkyites came forward with the same campaign about the “horrors” and “murders” of the C.P.S.U., playing the miserable yole of the camp-followex running after the war chariot of imperialism In view of this growing danger of wat, the C. P. must earry thra an intensive and con- tinuous campaign for the popularization of Lenin’s teachings on the struggle against war, propagating ihe slogan of the transformation of imperialist war into civil war, the defcat of “our own” capitalist government, for the overthrow; of “our own” bourgeois. Political Struggles of the Workers. 14. The growing difficulties of capiialism cause the American capitalist cless to 1 cog- nize in every worl struggle as a direct attack upon the capitalist system. Therefore, even the smallest strike of workers for de- cent working conditions is met with the whole state force of capitalism. Sheriffs and ‘state troops against the Ilinoi: courts and state government against needle, the food, the shoe workers in New and deputized mill thugs against | by organizing their forces into | | up to mass mobili the textile workers in Carolina; in every economic struggle is turned into a tical event against which the capitalist class mobilizes its full state power. It is the fore- most political, task of the Party to help the workers to draw correct conclusions from this fact. The Party must in every strike formu- late the political problems of the struggle into short, poli- definite political slogans and demands. It njust organize demonstrations, petitions, ref- erendums, ete., for these demands. On the basis of these demands it must lead the work- ers into municipal, state and national elec- tions, making the CP the leader and orge izer of a broad united front from below for mass political struggles. The economic de- mands of the workers must*be related and _ linked up with the political campaigns of th’ Party in such a manner that the workers ree- ognize in these political campaigns a struggle for the same aims for which they battle in their strikes. Especially important at this moment of rationalization and unemployment are demands for unemployment relief and for social insurance measures in general. Mas campaigns for such measures must be organ- ized in every district. These campaigns must employ all forms of political struggle. While efforts must be made to prevent deterioration into mere parliamentary campaigns, neverthe- less all of these political campaigns must lead zation for the coming con- gressional elections. In these elections the Party must make efforts to enter candidates in every congressional district. Every munici- pal election campaign must be made by the districts into political rallying centers of the truggle against police bru- » against fascism, against capitalist corruption, ete, Propaganda for political mass strikes must be made system- atically. Great political demonstrations such as May Ist, or August Ist, must be organ- ized in the form of political mass strikes, Question ‘of Labor Party. 15. The organization of revolutionary poli- ical action of the working masses is the most important immediate objective of the political activities of our Party. In. the past our cam- paign to this end was centered around the slo- gan “For a Labor Party.” This slogan no longer supplies a basis for this campaign. Any Labor Party crystallization at this mo- ment could have only the AFL unio} the socialist party and other social-reformist or- ganizations as a basis, or would be composed only of those already in sympathy with the CP. A Labor Party made up of social- fascist organizations would not mean pol tical separation of the workers from the capi- talists but would mean the delivery of the workers to capitalist politics under the guise of a Labor Party. The radicalization of the working masses which leads definitely to an ideological separation of the workers from the capitalists turns the Labor Party slogan into a possible instrument with which capitalism can attempt to delay this separation. Organizing United Front from Below. 16. Our Party is suffering from a decided disproportion between its organized strength and the mass activities which it initiates and leads. The readiness of great masses of wor! ers to follow our Party has led to a most se ious underestimation of the value of organiza- tion. The reliance on spontaneous response in many instances replaces systematic organiza- tional preparations. As a result, the Party fails in a large measure to crystallize into permanent organized strength the broad mass movements led by it. A decisive change of these practices must be initiated at once. Reliance on the spon- taneity of the masses must be replace] by most systematic united front organization from below. (a) In the preparations for May 1st, for August Ist, for election campaigns, etc., detailed plans must be worked out by all dis- tricts for an organized mass mobilization of the workers primarily on the basis of shops. The committees thus established in the must be made to report about their acti ; to the workers in the shops and to central leading bodies. The Committees of Action | and special committees for May Day prepara- tions, etc, must gradually broaden out and take on a permanent form: the basis of a trade union organization in the shops. (b) The systematic mobilization of the workers for mass movements must permit the greatest ini- tiative and broadest participation in leader- ship of the best non-Party elements among the masses, thereby bringing to the forefront the most energetic, the ablest, and most militant elements among the non-Party workers who must be won for membership in the Party. Reliance on spontaneous response is also prevalent in the non-Party mass organizations such as ILD, WIR, ete. As a result they lack organized substance. sentiment than material. The Party will never be able to do its duty in the new situation con- fronting it if the Communists will not effect an inmmediate and radical change in the meth- ods of work and organization in these bodies. Recruiting Campaign. ° 17. The recent recruiting campaign has im- proved considerably the social composition of the Party. With the large number of new workers taken in it is unquestionably possible to organize a number of new shop nuclei. But in spite of that the great majority of the basic units of the Party still remain as street nuclei. As long as our Party is not anchored in the industrial establishments of the country, we cannot claim to be a Bolshevik Party. Every district is therefore obligated to transform the Party base systematically into one of shop nuclei. Within the year following the conven- tion, over 40 per cent of the Party members must be organized into shop nuclei. To achieve this aim every District Committee must work out plans for systematic work in a number of selected shops and industries and must conee: trate the Party forees on this work. The 0: ganization Department of the C. C, must su- pervise and direct carefully this campaign. The Party press must be used to urge, criti- cize, and lead this work and to stimulate revo- lutionary competition between the districts. “Into the Shops” must be the guiding slogan in the Party-building campaign, is. The recruiting campaign was the fir t test of the Party after the CI Address. The Party stood the test. It proved, first, that it had succeeded in thoroughly liquidating fac- tionalism and organized opportunism; and ond, that this made membership in the more desirable for the revolutionary wo i The CT Address was thus fully justified in i statement that the liquidation of factionalism will be a boon to the building of the Party. ' Their strength is more | i social compositions of the Party because 90 per cent of the new recruits are industrial workers. It has also consider- ably raised the percentage of Negro members in the Party since nearly 20 per cent of the new recruits are Negroes. has improved the The recruiting campaign, however, also suf- fered from It was not based primarily on organized recruiting activ- ities of the nuclei. The members were recruited in mass meetings, etc., and then assigned to basic weaknesses, the nuclei. There are shop nuclei in New York, Chicago and elsewhere that have not re- cruited one single new member. This weak- ness of the drive, if not repaired, will prevent the Party from assimilating and keeping the new members. It is therefore imperative that the political activ n of the nuclei be made the first aim of all work in the districts. In- active nuclei cannot utilize the revolutionary spi of the new recruits but rather tend to paralyze them. Without the political activ tion of the nuclei, the Party cannot be trans- formed into one of revolutionary act Building a Mass Party. of our of national into a mass Party 19. The transformation the Communist Inte section of revolutionary ion demands the activiza- tion of every member the Party. Party members who remain passive in the fact of the rapidly increasing the Commu- nists in the present period are not revolution- aries and have no room in Part At this duties of period of struggle, Right element to remain in the Pa by conceali Right tendencies. These elements mug uncovered not mechanically but by criticism. The very adaptation of the Party to its revolutionary tasks will weed out the unfit and unworthy. To this end lead- ing Party committee ize a careful overhauling of division under its direction. shall achieve an adjus ing of the Party in accord ll immediate the y organ- Pa sub- overhauling e function- h the needs of revolutionary action, The following steps shall be taken: (a) Every single member of the Party must be assigned specific work in the Party and in proletarian w organizations. The nucleus executives shall direct and check up the work of every Party member. (b) The functioning of every committee, committee member and Party member must be checked up continually. (c) Ruthless political criticism of all er- rors and deviations must provide the base for serious and continuous self-correction. (d) Committees and functionaries who per- sist in errors and deviations must be removed from the leading cadves as unfit for leader- ship in this period. (e)* The practice of burdening active com- rades with a multipliciyy of functions must be discontinued. (f) The shortage of forces thus create] must be repaired by a systematic drawing of new proletarian elements into the leading cadres of the Party. (g) All leading Party committees are obligated te be most concrete in their pla and instructions for work to the lower unit: Unclearness, ambiguity and generalization lead to misunderstanding and to delays in the carrying out of instructions. The need of the hour is clarity of instructions and prompiness of* execution. The Daily Worker. 20. To succeed in the full mobilization of the Party for its tasks the Central Commitic must pay special attention to the pr primarily to -the Daily Worker. In ler t make the Daily Worker the political leading organ of the Party and at the same time an effective mass agitator and organizer, it is necessary to take steps immediately for the political improvement of the Daily a vi for the building of a ma Political Committee must t to terminate the appz of the Daily from the ic leadership of the Party and must turn the Daily into its daily organ and mouthpiece. At the same time care must be taken to transform the Daily into a na- tional paper. This can be done district committee: only if the and district organizers ¢ sider in every campaign the role which the Daily has to play in it, Every campaign plan include a specific pres t gn to be carried through by the disti t in the Daily Worker. The District Committees are obli- gated to stimulate and organize sy. ematically correspondents from the industrial in their territories. By these methods the Daily will become truly a leader and an instrument in the national campaig of the Party. This political preparation will also prepare the way for the organization of a mass circulation. Every district must set its self the aim of establishing a paid circulation or daily paid d ibution of the Daily Worker in an amount exceeding five times the num- ber of Party members in the district. To achieve this aim the Central Committee shall make available for the districts the mutual ex- periences and methods of distribution of the different districts. The present circulation drive is the first step in carrying out this task. Build Revolutionary Trade Unions, 21. The working masses, who are becoming increasingly revolutionary in the economic crisis, cannot be embraced organizationally by the Party alone. Labor organizations of a wider character must be set into motion by The recruiting campaign has in itself accom- plished some of the tasks of the Party. It the Part The primary organ is t are the revolutionary unions with their shop committees, unemployed councils and committees of action, organized in the TUUL. The Party can win the working masses for its political leadership only by leading them in their economic struggles; and only on the basis of the TUUL will the Party he able. to assume the leadership of these eco- nomic struggles. The Party must therefore make a sharp turn in its trade union act ties. A full mobilization of alt Communist forces must be carried through for the organ- ization of the unorganized masses, for the building of the TUUL. The TUUL must be made into an organization uniting the broad masses of workers, organizing them for the struggle of their daily interests, and leading that struggle along political lin hrough these struggles for thei interests and rganization of the workers for that struggle, the TUUL will bring the broad masses to an understanding and acceptance of Communist line, strategy and tactics. Being (Continued on next page) ions for