The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 23, 1930, Page 4

a bliched be Page Four REPLY TO THE COMRADES ON THE COLLECTIVE FARMS Proceeding fre the C. C., i collectivizat ent moment operative (artel) fact is nece tute for agriculture as the chief form of movement; that (c) economy movemer with collectiviz: our practical work. That means that course not to the com cultural production cooperatives form of collective economi onst it must not be perr agricultural production coor ly into the commune; that on stitute the mass movement of the collective farms | farms, by “playing That seems to be And what act transpired? It appeared that some comrades, intoxicated by the st of the collective econor movement, tion mu we ecree collective eco of su for; > deci both the directives of L of the C. C. Instead of organizing a mi movement for the agric al production co- operatives, these comra iced to lead over the individual peasant far nmedia' to the commune. Instead of consolidating forms of movement to the agricultural pro- duction cooperative, they began with compul sion to “socialize” the small cattle and poul the milch cows which are not producing ¢ commodity for the mar! and the dwellir houses. The results of this haste, which is im- permissible for a Leninist, are now known to s com all. As a rule there were of course no stable communes created; on the other hand, how- ever, a number of agricultural production co- operatives got out of hand. It is true, “ tiful” resolutions remained, but what wa use of them? Therein lies the third mi: lective economy movement. Third question: How did these r and how must the Party correct them Answer: They arose on the basis of rapid successes in the sphere of the coll farm movement. Successes often go to head. They. not infrequently evoke excess self-confidence and self-conceit. This can eas- ily happen to representatives of a party which is in power, especially of such a Party as our Party, whose power and authority aré almost immeasurable. In this respect cases of Com- munist presumptiousness, against which Lenin fiercely fought, are quite possible. In this respect belief in the omnipotence of decrees, of resolutions is altogether possible. In this respect the danger of the revolutionary mea- sures of the Party being converted into empty bureaucratic decrees by individual representa- tives of the Party in this or that corner of eur vast country is very real. In this respect I have in mind not only local functionaries, but also district functionaries as well as members of the C. C. “Communist presumptiousness” said Lenin—“means that a man who is a member of the Communist Party and has not yet been purged from it, imagin he solve all his tasks by Commur decree (Volume XVIII. Russian edition, 1st pe Pages 384 to 385.) It was upon this basis that there arose the mistakes in the collective farm movement, the distortions of the Party line in the building up of collective economy. Wherein lies the danger of the mistakes and distortions if they are continued in the future, if they are not rapidly and completely eradi- cated? The danger lies in the fact that these mis- takes lead us directly to a disintegration of the collective farm movement, to estrangement from the middle peasants, to the disorganiza- tion’ of the village poor, to confusion in our ranks, to weakening of our whole socialist con- struction, to the restoration of the kulaks. In short, these mistakes have a tendency to divert us from the path of consolidating the alliance with the main mass of the peasantry, from the path of consolidating the proletarian dic- tatorship, to the path of breach with the masses, to the path of undermining the prole- tarian dictatorship. This danger made its appearance in the sec- ond half of February, at the same moment when a portion of our comrades, blinded by the previous suceesses, rapidly departed from the Leninist path. The C.C. of the Party rec- ognized this danger and did not hesitate to intervene in the matter by instructing Stalin to warn the comrades in‘a special article on the collective farm movement. Many believe that the article, “Many are being Rendered Giddy by the Successes” was written on the personal initiative of Comrade Stalin. That of course is only empty talk. We do not have a Central Committee in order to leave such a matter to the personal initiative of anybody. A very thorough investigation was made by the C.C. And when the extent of the mistakes was ascertained, the C.C. did not hesitate to proceed with the whole force of its authority against the mistakes by publishing its famous decision of March 15, 1930. It is difficult to stop people when proceeding at a rapid pace and to bring them back to the right way and to reform the ranks while on the march. But our Party calls itself the Party of Lenin precisely because it possesses sufficient elasticity to overcome such difficul- ties. And it has in the main already over- come these difficulties. The most important matter now is to display manlin to r nize one’s mistakes and to find suffi strength to liquidate them in the shortest pos- sible time. To be afraid to recognize mis takes after the intoxication of the recent su cesses, fear of self-criticism, unwillingness rapidly and determinedly to correct the mi takes, therein lies the chief difficulty. must, overcome these difficulties, and discard the inflated statistics and the bureaucratic exaggerations; we must turn our attention to the tasks of the organizational-economic con- struction of collective farms in order that there shall not remain any trace of the mis- takes. There is no reason whatever to doubt that the Party has, in the main, already over- come this dangerous difficulty. “All revolutionary parties”—said Lenin— “which have callen--4 hitherto, collapsed be- We | r nuat s and distor- fight can speak g up ven m 2 model f colleg- e retreat- not. produc- mo- n of liquidat- fe gan of on can the e continued. take a step only means attack and not nd “Left le of an at can an ine them- nent but at the nsolidate the cap- ac- cordane see about the tion with the In order to ¢ develop the conne all th against wh in this mai completely. in the year 1 red, and > to settle the enemy on, among Ivanced in a great were compelled to to Warsaw. in the year only the military that they repeated the in their attack on War- retrez The mi 1920, side of the matter, istake of the Pol ning can be said regarding the k on the front of the class strug- anne onduct a essful attack the liquidation of the ating the ouping one’ whole fact muddleheads do not ttack, them out. under 2. stand the class na- ture of 2 about attack. But against with which class is the ed out? We are mak- ing the atta village in elements in the iance with the middle peasants. as only such an attack can result in victory. But what is to he done when, carried away by their eagerness, detachments of the Party begin the a’ path and turn their weapons lies, the middle peasants. tack and not an att alliance with a definite cla imagined he was attacking tilted at windmill s known, he only got a bruised head as a result of this “attack.” It appears that our Left exaggerators wish to emilate Don Quixote. te from the right against their al- Do we need any at- a definite class in Don Quixote he enemy when he Fifth question: What is the chief danger, the Right or the “Left”? Answer: With us, the chief danger is the Right. Does this contradict the well-known thesis in the decision of the ©.C. of March 5, 1930, that the m s and distortions of the “Left” exaggerators are now the chief hindrance to the collective farm movement? No. The fact is that the mistakes of the “Left” exaggerators in this sphere of the collective farm movement are such that they create fav- orable conditions for strengthening and con- solidating the Right deviation in the Party. Wh; Because these mistakes present the line of the Party in a wrong light—they serve therefore to discrelit the Party—and conse- quently render easier the fight of the Right elements against he leadership of the Party. The discrediting of the Party leadership is the same elemer hasis hich alone the fight of the R' inst the Party ean be cenduc . The “Lef exaggerators with their mistakes and distortions furnish the Rig tors with this bas There- fore, in ord to fight successfully against Right opportunism we must overcome the mis- takes of the Left opportuni: the Left exaggerators are allies of the Right deviato; That the peculiar connection between “Left” opportunism and Right deviations, This connection explains the fact {hat some “Lefts” not infrequently speak of a block with the / in the ne- while the Party: Objectively,, | Baily =: “YOU CAN'T JAIL A COMMITTEE REPRESENTING 110,000 WORKERS!” Central Organ of the Coniuus. « = Worker 1 the U. —By Fred Ellis For a Workingclass Policy in the Co-operatives (Continued) The struggles for a working-class policy in the co-operative movement, now going on among the Finnish workers, deals with such fundamental problems of the entire working class, and with such an important section of the revolutionary workers’ movement in the United States, that it becomes a document of vital interest to the entire movement. The Daily Worker has ,just received the author- ized English translation, and hastens to pub- lish it for tne benefit of all revolutionary workers, as well as for the Finnish movement, which already has received it in the Finnish What Is the Line of the Communists and the Line of the Opportunists? s? The Tenth Plenum of the Executive Com- mittee of the Communist International (held | in December, 1929), said among other things: “The bankruptcy of the notorious ‘prosperity’ slogan of the American bourgeoi: Bele 8 BBS coming more and more apparent.” Hardly had three months elapsed when the cruel reality of the incipient economic crisis in the United States kicked overboard Hoo- 's “perpetual prosperity” as well as Love- stone’s and Pepper’s “American exceptional- ism.” The industrial output in the United States | dropped fifteen per cent in November as com- pared with May and the rate of decline was greater in November than it had been in the course of the lagt 46 years. Stocks and bonds suffered a sharp drop, the aggregate wage of the American workers has greatly: diminished and the number of unemployed has feverishly grown—their number being now over 6,000,000 in the United States. Here we see the workings of the third period in real earnest. If the leading country of world capitalism has entered such an economic ¢ there is nothing to prevent it from spreading, to other countries. It has already begun to develop into an international economic crisis. The time is now entirely different than what it Was before the imperialist world war which shook the foundations of the capitalist system. -The fundamental contradictions of that system are sharpening more and more and will not release it from their grip. Relative and partial | stabilization, of capitalism could not hold out very long because it was but superficial stab- ilization. to totter and its further shattering will go on with increasing rapidity. The fierce competitive struggle among the imperialist powers for , world markets, for spheres of capital invest- | ment and exploitation, for colonies, is gaining in intensity, and is accompanied by frantic armaments preparatory to another world war. They are particularly preparing for a preda- , tory was against the Soviet Union, which is the greatest and strongest fortress of the world proletariat, and the only country in the world the borders of which are not crossed by the international economic crisis and which is being powerfully strengthened by stupen- dous socialist construction. At the same time class antagonisms are unusually sharpenifig in a'l capitalist coun- tries. The capitalist class is seeking a way out Rights. This explains the peculiar phenom- enon that a portion of the “Lefts,” who only yesterday “carried out” a noisy attack an! at- tempted to collectivize the Soviet Union within two or three weeks, have today fallen into passivity; they sit with their arms folded and leave the field to the Right deviators, whereby they pursue the, line of real retreat before the kulaks. The peculiarity ‘of the present period through which we are passing consists, in the fact that the fight against the Left exagger- ators constitutes for us the prerequisite for and the peculiar form of the successful fight against Right opportunism, (10 be continued? | of the cris Its equilibrium has already begun | is by means of pressure on the work- To preserve the dividends, each indivi- dual worker is speeded up to the utmost so that. the greatest possible output may be obtained with the least possible amount of labor power. As a resulc, the permanent army of unemployed is constantly growing, which automatically helps capital to squeeze down the general wage lev In addition to that, the centralized or- ganizations of big exploiters in the various spheres systematically slash the workers’ wages and cut down expenses on safety meas- ures, labor insurance, ete. Dissatisfaction is growing among the broad masses of workers under this fierce pressure. As time goes on, the workers are bound to defend themselves because they are not only suffering from the curse of the present starvation wage, but also from the menace of further cuts, unemploy- ment and the fear of unemployment, in brief, from the precariousness of their own existence. Unier such conditions the workers cannot help becoming “radical” and being in favor of a more irreconcilable class struggle. Ferment is beginning. Labor is beginning to strike, no longér allowing itself to be checked by the re- actionary labor leaders, corrupted by the bour- geoisie. The strikes in Gastonia and Illinois, are forerunners of big battles. But a strike is, in the opinion of capital, now a “sin against the holy ghost.” The bourgeoisie is now di closing how beastly it really is when a strike hits its pocket. Class terror gains in ferocity in the factories, the streets, the courts, and all over the country. Bourgeois class rule in every country is more and more becoming naked and bloody fascist tyranny. This is the more so in time of strikes and demonstrations of the unemployed (Gastonia, New York). Therefore, under conditions when the tension of class an- tagonism is unboundel, many strikes, which apparently break out on comparatively slight pretexts, may become of great political im- portance, and suddenly turn into powerful class combats. As ferment is increasing and growing, the political mass strike is placed on the order of the day. Under such conditions the struggle between the working class and to the forefront. The fighting experience of the working class grows in these conflicts, so i does its hardened organizational strength and its revolutionary consciousness. The trend of | the revolutionary labor movement is generally } heightened in these struggles. . The development of the third period which has recently begun proceeds in this direction. It leads the working class to great and bitter struggles in which victory is undoubted, which victory, however, cannot be secured without the greatest exertion of forces and the heaviest sacrifices. There is no easier way open for the | salvation of the working-class than that of relentless struggle. Anyone .who says that there is an easier way out, fools either others or himself, The Communist Party points in advance to the workers the way of the impending class conflicts and the full sevirity of these strug- gles. It also wants itself to be in the front ranks, to be the first-one in the fire, and not to march stealthily behind the masses. The tenser and—especially—the more revolutionary the class struggles, the more necessary it is to have a firm, courageous, and truly Bolshe- vist leadership, if we want victory. The Com- munist Party develops its capacities for this most important task. It wages with might and main the struggle for wages*and other imme- diate demands of the workers, such as the seven-hour day, labor protection, social insur- ance, special unemployed demands, but at the and linking up the scattered partial struggles, it aims at making the broad masses under- stand and support also the genuine revolution- ary ultimate demands. In this connection it is particularly necessary more to accentuate the the capitalist class for power inevitably comes’ same time, starting out with these demands, || it 4 tan ald Bronx, SSSecnie Tron RATS: ix months and forel everywhere: One year § vew York © ; two months $1; excepting Boroughs or i, Which are e One'year $8; six months $4.50 By I. AMTER. (Written in Tombs Prison.) (Continued) “Free rise of ability and intelligence,” says fascist Hoover. Where does the “free” part of it arises from? 3,000,000 children are toiling in the mills and on the farms of this country (the majority on farms not belonging to their parents). Millions of boys and girls, after , sing through the capitalist schools whose aim and method is to develop the rebot mind, go into industry which “destroys and consumes” all dnitiative, which saps all energy, which destroys the body and mind of the worker at 40 years of age. Only one type can develop under these conditions—the criminal type, whether in the form of the stock brocker (J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, ete.), the thief, the grafter, the cabinet officer (Hoover and Coolidge in the cabinet when Fall and Doheny plot to steal the oil reserves—with their full knowledge and therefore their complicity), the slave-driver, the murderer—all of them pro- ducts of the system which is based upon the inlividual (fascist conception) as against the mass (Communist conception). One cannot talk of “free rise of ab character and intelligence” until there is free- dom. Under capitalism the is freedom for the capitalists whose aim is subjection of the ma Only the Proletarian Dictatorship which un- folds all possibility of mas development, which ant masses. h their overpowering, dormant, creative abilities; which unleashes them and gives them broad scope; which for the first time in history, provides the conditions for the “free rise of abil character and intelligence which makes it possible for the native ability freely according to its own bent—only the and intelligence of every worker to develop Proletarian Dictatorship s the “dem- ocracy” that the workers terested in—the democracy of the working class embodied in the dictatorship of the working class over its enemies, Fascism is the very opposite of t cism arising at a time of monopolist tapitalism, when the sham of “democracy” (in reality cap- looks to the mass—the working and poor peas- | FASCIST HOOVER’S CONCEP: "TION OF LEADERSHIP italist dictatorship) cannot hold control; when the masses under economie pressure become discontented, when they begin to organizé and fight for primitive economic demands (against unemployment and for unemployment insur- an gainst the ruthless speed-up and killing hours, against the lynching, Jim Crowing and discrmiination of the Negroes, against hut and dog taxes and high cost of food in the colonies, ete.) and when “democracy” with all its lies and shams no longer satisfies these needs, but on the contrary, reveals itself in the police- man’s club, tear gas, guns, arrests and the electrie cha acy” is superseded by n pretends to stand above all—it presumes to incorporate the needs of the capita s well as of the workers, but standing above both, It is the rankest, t violent expression of the pitiless, armed ist-capitalist dictatorship even though car- ried out with the aid of, socialist labor adjut- s. These | re the scum of the working s (A. F. of L. bureaucrats), ost all of them), terrorists, rack: a sham under capitalism and in its transition to fascism (the germ of which was inherent in capitalism and now under the proper conditions is developing in the United States, being in full bloom in some other coun- tries) is clearly visible in Herbert Hoover and his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge—fascist lead- ers in the United States. “If dmeoeracy is to assure its authority it must stimulate leadership from its own mass,” continues the fascist Hoover (Quite a contra- diction to what he said above about the crowd “never buiiling.”) The “erowd”—the masst of the workers—cannot build under the conditions of capitalism, which is predicated upon the exploitation, subjection and forceful suppres- sion of the mass to the will of the capitalist. (In this ma: included all educators, artists, scientists, etc., who are tolerated and stimul- ated only in s velopment and strengthenigg of capitalism, and suffer excommunication, deprivation of their means of livelihood as soon as they indulge in an! develop “acts and ideas that lead to progress,” as fascist Hoover says.) (To Be Continued.q Yellow Dog Grows Uglier By SOLON DE LEON. ELLOW dog, the employers’ house pet, is not only getting older, he is also growing uglier as the years roll on. Court deci ions, drenched in capitalist class interests and in- creasingly highly spiced with capitalist dic- tatorship, are the diet on which he is develop- ing savageness. When first born, yellow dog’s bark was much worse than his bite. He took the form of a contract which a man or woman seeking work was required to sign. This contract stated that “in consideration of employment,” the worker agreed, as long as he toiled for that particular boss, never to join a union. What worker, with the whip of hunger play- ing over his shoulders, would not sign such 2 contract to get bread? Promises extorted by force have been recognized not as binding, from time beyond the memory of man. So the unions laughed at yellow dog, and went on organizing. Then suddenly yellow dog developed teeth. In 1908 the Hitchman Coal and Coke Co. of West Virginia discovered that a number of its supposedly safely yellow-dogged miners had been secretly organized into the union. The company hailed the union officers to court. They were found guilty of “inducing breach of contract” and sentenced to jail. On appeal the United States Supreme Court upheld the sentences. The next step in yellow dog’s growing ugli- ness was to have it declared punishable to or- ganize yellow dogged men even if they quit the boss upon joining the union. This is the basic point in the Red Jacket Coal Co. injunc- tion in West Varginia in 1922. For uphold- struggle against the social-democratic agents of the bourgeoisie, as well as against the Gomperists of the American Federation of La- bor, whose only service now is that of breaking strikes, scabbing and general servility in the matter of worsening the labor conditions. These social-fascists must be thrown aside by the Workers, as a first step, if they mean to start a struggle and to accomplish anything by it. ‘They must set up leading strike committees totally independent of the machinery of the A. F. of L., elect to them representatives not only of the organized, but also of the unorgan- ized* workers, and, what is more, they must organize new revolutionary unions and branches of the Trade Union Unity League. These should form an organized mass foundation of uncompromising proletarian class struggle, with a clear understanding of the objectives. The most dangerous opponents in the labor leaders of trade union, cooperative and _poli- tical labor organizations who in essence are ordinary social-democrats, syndicalists or other opportunists. They must be timely «und _piti- Jessly exposed. no matter under what ‘label they appear. So that they may not gain by fake means the confidence of the masses, We must not allow them for a moment to obscure the vast differences between Communism and opportunism, and must point out even more clearly, both in theory and practice, the prin- ciples and the revolutionary and Marxian-Len- inist substance of the Communist movement. Such is the basic line of the Communist Party in the present perio]. The opportunists, some of whom marched with the Communist Parties during the second period of post-war capitalism, have now, in the third period, de- clared open war on the Communist Parties and the Communist International—all along the line. Why? Becausé now, with the sharpening of the class struggles, when the Communist movement had to strike a course in the direc- tion of more relentless class struggles, the opportunists (even those who were in the Com- munist ranks) have turned more to the Right. In their estimate, relative capitalist stabiliza- tion is not in a precarious state, but is being further consolidated, capitalism is not experi- encing a serious crisis and is not being men- aced by one, there is no radicalization of the working masses and no rising tile of the rev- movement are to be considered such “left” | | | | | | | | | olutionary labor movement in prospect. Ac- | vices to capital, Judge John J. Parker is now being elevated to the United States Supreme Court. The latest stage of yellow dog madness ha: been reached in the town of Nazareth, Pa When the Kraemer Hosiery Mills there in. stalled the yellow dog contract, the worker: struck. The union sent in two representatives who launched a local campaign against yellow doggery. The Kraemer company, in the best capi- talist tradition of 1930, rushed to court. And the court, also in the best capitalist tradition, granted “the relief prayed for.” Judge Russell C. Stewart ruled that the hosiery company had a right to extort from its workers a promise that they would not join a union, and that “it is the clear duty of the court to protect those rights. So he dutifully granted an in- injunction. He forbade the union and its ren- resentatives to interfere with the “business” of the company. Then, as the crown of his order, he added: “The public is in the position of the defendants.” This universal injunction was upheld “f made perpetual by the county court early ii April. The earth’s whole 1,750,000,000 popula: tion are now forbidden to organize or utter a word of criticism against yellow doggery in this “up and coming” Pennsylvania county. The order will be appealed to the state su- preme court, and probably to the United States Supreme Court—where Parker will be waiting to confirm it. If it is upheld all along the line the scope of injunctions will be tremen- dously extenled. And as for yellow dog, he will have grown so ugly that nothing can curb him—except the organized might of the mili- ing this injunction, as well as for other ser- | tant workers. ———________________________ ee cordingly, it is, in their opinion, not necessary to ins on the revolutionary nature of the Communist movement and that, at least in our activity, there is no need to refer to it; this should rather be hidden as if it were a shame- ful disease; while it is permissible perhaps to speak of revolution in the program and to refer to it as to some distant ideal, revolu- tionary battles in practice, collisions of the class forces in general, should be avoided an bewaned against at the present time. The wotk ing masses need not be prepared for suc clashes an/l, in the opinion of the opportunist: they need not be led in general, at least not forward; they should either be passively “ob- served,” or attempts should perhaps he made to draw their attention aside—exclusively or at least partly to such harmless and one-sided activity as electioneering, club work, work in the cooperatives, etc. In this sole activity they naturally see no reasons for a more decisive struggle against the Noskes or against the A. F. of L. machine. On the contrary, they are everywhere searching for “lefts” among the social-fascists as their possible allies. Such is the present orientation of the oppor- tunists. In order to escape from the firing line of the pending great strikes they desert to the enemy of the working class. Halonen acts just the same with his “co- operative socialism,” The fact alone that he so strongly ae ates the importance of the cooperative move ment for the workers aids in distracting th attention of those workers from the other (political and » union) spheres of the class struggle, which, from the point of view of preparing the pre-requisites for seizure of power by the proletariat, consequently, from the revolutionary point of view, are of much more importance at the present moment. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat the coopera- tive organizations wlil be of extreme import- ance as the apparatus for the distribation of products. But under capitalism, as is stated in the Comintern program, they are “forced to play a very modest role.” Especially, now in the third post-war period, when the monopoly organizations of capital are of enormous might the workers cooperative organizations have a very limited possibility of developing, and are even more exposed to the danger of being de- generated into mere appendages of the capital- ist regime. (To be continued) a ‘ + naam far as they assist in the de- |