The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 13, 1930, Page 4

13) i ine FO Y PLATT f the wor Party our our eption would Access 6th. rst den iirutone nst the capit for the struggle for tl revolutionary workers’ a ment in the United § In view of th cess on the ba would be a mistak rect picture. Howeve * achievements of ou the great shortcomin, ticularly in the prep: ive a cor- ng the great most gla out our serious organizationa which, unless critice y cor: rected, will have d our Party. “Did We Stand the Test.” The directives of the Central C our Party for the preparat for state: “May First will be a te tical influence of our Party m workers in the factories. ber must therefore himself the test?” This question also i up with the major task in our Ist sting of the poli- ions May among the Party mem- ‘Did we closely linked May ist cam- paign—the mass political str Both of these questions are organically connected and must be treated together. With the exception of the light industries like the needle trades and others, no org ed mass political strikes took plac in large factories or in branches of . This is a result not because | itical influence of the Party over | the workers engaged in heavy industry, but | primarily because of the failure to consolidate and give organizational expression to our poli- tical influence. The districts did not take steps to organize the mass political strik This gross neglect occurred even in those fa tories where we have shop nuclei and contin- uously carried on our Party activity. Thousands of workers individually left their shops. Many eroneneens department stri took place, but not a planned systematic strike, nor planned organizational -preparations for the strike. The response of the workers to our literature, speakers and demonstrations, shows that the Party has influence upon the workers employed in the basic industries, but it failed to organize it and give concrete or- ganizational expression. These inexcusable mistakes were committed by us for a number of reasons. Relying Upon the Spontaneity of the Masses. The success of the March 6th demonstra- | tions, the splendid response of the masses to the call of the Party, created the illusion in a large section of our Party that the ployed workers will’ strike and demons even without any consistent organizational preparations. The Central Committee warned the Party not tc rely only upon the spontan- eity of the masses but to proceed to mobily the workers for our campaigns and demon- strations on the basis of hard ever; tematic mobilization in the shops and in the mass organizations. In our pre-convention thesis it is stated: “The reliance on spontan- eous response in many instances replaces tematie organizational preparations.” The preparations were not made and the conse- quent results were unavoidable. May 1 The preparations for Day definitely show that in the low of our Party there is still no clear understanding of what the united front from below means and par- ticularly how to organize this united front along the political lines laid down by, the Cen- tral Committee. i In its directives for the prey ons for May First, the Central Committee pointed out: “Another organizational form of our cam- paign for May First must be organization of large united front conferences of all workers including rank and file of refo gf organ: ** tions to prepare for May First den‘onstration.” These instructions were not carried out. The United Front Conferences we hac were not broad enough. It tyne v had United Front Conferen: for May F¥irst in many | Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! Communist Party U. S. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. Name ‘Address . Occupation .csereeecesrerereeriee eraneess UItY. feesccce NGC... 0 Mail this to the Central Office, Communist MAY DAY Pesta. 43 East 125th St.. New York, N. Y, - a re n we ever had before. It i also r ms sented tens f th : workers who are the most con- scious section of the Ameri proletariat. Howe these m es of wot 's, Who are still ler the inf nee of the bourgeois and reformist ideology and were hitherto politically nactive, were not mobilized on the basis of conerete § dem: n a United Front with the P: were insuf- organiza to the = OL Ls, nbership of file t there were even instance me rs who belor o Ie © ou i and even occupy of the positions in these locals, failed to raise the question of May Day in their organizations ; for a United Front. Likewise, little in the establishment of Committ ion in the facte in order © workers from be for nstrations. our » me organizations which did participate United Front conferences were, in the t eady under the influence of the rm nt. Therefo the main f ed Front were that we izing politically these organ- and drawing in o ernal organ- ons into the political struggles of the American workers. This, however, not in ance with the Cent Committee's con- ception of the United Front from below and majority of the working class rv our influence. Lack of Independent Activity. May First, if it shows anything. shows the wide gap between our political influence and organizational strength. The of the as inde- ing on day to the shops. The Party did not perform their t pendent Communist uni day systematic activity same must also be said a and leading committees. Instead of broaden- ing the preparations and mobilization for May First, to which every leading committee is ¢ buting, and the functionaries carrying in out our functionaries ' out into practice the national and district de- and plans, the District Committees imposed with the entire burden of plan- wer ning and executing of the preparations for May First. In quite a large number of dis- tricts such things as the distribution of leaf- lets, the issuance of shop papers, not done as the organized activity of the units them- selves, but was arranged thru the District | Committee. The same is also true about fac- tory gate meetings and other activity. The members of the units were not themselves made responsible for such activities in the shops where they work or where they concen- trated upon. The districts themselves took tions and consequently they were to broaden the organizational itational preparations wh were abso- to carry thru fully the policy al Executive Committee concern- over the fur not in a pos of the ing May First. Consequently, as a result of the failure to involve every member of our Party in the mobilization for May Ist, insufficient steps were also taken to have the. revolutionary trade unions participate as independent mass izations in the preparations for May 1st. this situation to be explained? First, strict Committees and the other leading of our Party did not take seriously the and instructions of the Central Com- Secondly, the membership did not un- and the major tasks of our Party in the 1st campaign, nor their political signifi- cance. Thirdly, the serious organizational shortcomings and weaknesses of our Party and the insufficient orientation of our Party on the factories, the absence of shop nuclei and shop committees as the connecting link be- tween the Party and the masses. Fourthly, the reliance on the spontaneity of the ‘masses and the failure to pay strict attention to the daily organizational tasks in the factories. thly, failure to apply the United Front from below; failure to organize td any impor- tant extent committees of action in the fac- tories and prepare our fractions in the re- formist mass’ organizations. xth, opportun- ism in practice, voting for di decisions and not earrying th my opinion were the causes for our shor ings on May 1. The Party must be very critical of its mis- takes. Only a year ago we would have been well pleased with overflow Sunday afternoon concerts, but today May Day is to us a day of mobilization of the American workers for struggle against capitalism. Therefore, ser- ious shortcomings in the present period are to us’ more costly than at any other time. The task of every Party organization is to examine its shortcomings, mercilessly expose its weak- nesses, and take the most drastic steps to cor- rect them. Above all, we must remember the task of consolidating our political influence, of strengthening our organization and Party apparatus. Only if our political campaigns result in organizational stabilization and con- solidation will we be in a position to build a mass Communist Party rooted in the factor Soviets Aid Collective Farms MOSCOW (aps). —The Central Committee and the Council of Peoples Com- missars of the Soviet Union ha decided to grant further credits to the collective agricul- tural undertakings in the um of sixty million+ poe maize and grain sow- c undertakings which have eded the: ee for sunflower and maise double credit for each of the Plans. on Mafse and sunflower will be reduced and the contributions re- eed by 50 per cent for the collective under- on fruit orchards. vine- tobacco, hemp and flax fields will be reduced and the gontributions reduced by per cent. Collective undertakings will be granted maise, sunflower and linseed for sowing, these loans to be paid back after the harvest. The trade commissariat has received thé instruction when purcha: sunflower seed to leave the collec- tive und i four kilos oil and eight kilos heetare sc The agri of oil cake per ewt. The members of the collective undertakings | will he freed from personal taxation entirely 1 0-31. These privileges are munes, artels and co-opera- tives for the joint tillage of the land and to all organizations wheer the labor and equip- ment is collective. leading, | f revolutionary action | } + developed though it may be, nor the import Executive | PREPARED to appear | Daily | “THE HELL YOU SAY!” daily, excent Sunday, at 26 28 Unton 169 Cable DAIWOT f Ry 28 Union Square, New York, N. M SUN Organ: of the Communist Party uf the U S.A two months $1; excepting Boroughs of RAPTION RATES: months $3 tian and Brou nd poreign, which art dne year $3; six months $4.50 Jose Carlos Mariategui By GEORGE PAZ. OSE CARLOS MARIATEGUI, organizer of of the Communist Party of Peru, and founder of the General Confederation of Labor, after a long illness that had mutilated both legs and prostrated him, has died, his death constituting a real loss to the revolutionary movement of Latin-America and the world. If, by a criterion enough provincial, we an- alize the surrounding conditions in which tha Jose Carlos Mariategui. ideological capacitation of the native masses of Peru has developed, we can affirm that this capacitation loses its strictly Leninist content and likew’ its class character given to all the revolutionary activities developed in the country by our fallen comrade. Lima, capital of Peru, represented in the Spanish colonies, the city typically feudal of the South American region. Capital of the Viceroy, the richest the Spaniards had in Latin America, Lima was the seat of the Spanish feudal nobility, of the conquerors, as previously Cuzco had been of the native nobility. Lima, which lies on the slopes of the moun- tains very near the coast, had a backward in- fluence on the country.. English imperialism, which conquered the country economically after “independence” was won from Spain, had little other relation with it than carrying away in ships the gold and silver of its fabulous mines. It appears. ihat the industrialization, slightly of Yankee capital which usually bears with it | some small measure of capitalist culture even though it develop only the extractive industries in fields and mines, has failed to make much impression on the spirit of the middle ages, and the capital of Peru with its 250,000 in- habitants lives in a veritable feudal atmosphere. In part this is due to the influence of the Catholic church. The slow awakening of the toiling masses, recently brought into the Latin- American revolutionary movement as a conse- quence of the period of proletarian revolutions, was more than difficult, a gigantic task of the formation of a revolutionary ideology. _ In rational philosophy, the spiritual mo- dalities of a people have been classified by Marx and Engels as thoughts of men deter- mined by their manner of living. And through a feudal economy, through a semi-feudal life, a feudal mentality had to follow. The task of Comrade Mariategui in this sense was titanic, equivalent to the task of the Communist Party of the United States in the South in establishing the absolute equality of the Negro with the white—to establish in Peru the absolute equality of the semi-slave Indians with the whites and the half-bred “meztizo.” Mariategui went to Europe in 1921. At the time he was one of the outstanding literary critics of that part of America. And this talent was sacrificed from then on to a more noble and virile cause to which he dedicated all his activities thereafter. In Germany, Mari- ategui entered into the revolutionary struggles, became a part of them as very few intellectuals have done. He yielded his whole life to the revolutionary movement of the proletariat, and especially to the native Indian. Peru’s “Whalens” Horrified. From this, when the Communist Interna- tional dealt first with Peru, the responsibility of organization fell upon Comrade Mariategui. And the attacks began: “The Communists want to socialize women and pervert the youth, and this Moscow novelty has entered Peru thanks to the beclouded brain of Jose Carlos Mari- ategui!” This thunderclap struck the Peru- vian workers between the eyes. They were not easily convinced to burn that which they had previously adored. But this condemnation was in harmony with the semi-feudal situation of Peru and its clerical influence. But to the continuous spontaneous strikes were added studies and criticisms in accord With international revolutionary ideology. This closely followed the road which, objec- tively, Peruvian economy, more and more bound up with Yankee imperialism, was tak- ing. In these conditions, Peru, like the rest of Latin-America, and especially those countries having least relations with Europe, was a fer- tile field for anarchism, for revolutionary syn- dicalism, hence it follows that the struggles of the proletariat were thus isolated. Peru was, for the international toilers, as distant from the proletarian political development of Eu- rope, from the world struggles of the prole- tariaf, as are the indigenous Indian peoples of the mountains from the life of the Peruvian capital. Mariategui began his work. In his book, “La Escena Contemporanea” (The Contempo- raneous Scene), were gathered a series of arti- cles published in the workers’ press of Peru, and these constituted the first serious studies of the fundamental problems which the Latin- American workers had to face. Few Commu- nist leaders of Latin-America had the com- prehension, the intuition and the Leninist solu- tic), And Mariategui was one of the few in- tellectual Communist leaders that knew well the problems of the LatinAmerican proletariat. From these abilities he was able to be a leader and applier of Leninism in Peru. His Tremendous Tasks, He gave svecial attention to the trade union movement. This movement was not centralized in Peru, and in a few months, with the aid of the Latin-American Trade Union Confedera tior, he succeeded in forming the General Con- federation of Labor of Peru. Through the columns of the review “Ama. uta’’ and of the trade union journal, “Labo: he was creating, in spite of all the difficulties | of the environment, in a country for 14 years under a tyrannous dictator, a class conscious- ness, a revolutionary ideology without which it is not possible to speak of proletarian revo- lution. His deep understanding of this postu- late of Lenin made him bend every effort to maintain these periodicals at whatever cost, and to keep them within the political line of the Communist International and the Red In- ternational of Labor Unions. These two papers, one trade unionist and one political, had their individuality as such, but both were Communist papers for the workers of city and country, for the native Indian of Peru. Hence these two papers were widely distributed not only in Peru but in all Latin- America, To the trade union congress of Montevideo, which formed the Latin-American Trade Union Confederation, he sent his thesis upon the problem of the native Indian. The congress made his thesis its own, accepting the general lines he established on this very important problem. Gave His Utmost to Gastonia, By that time Mariategui had carried out. an intense campaign in Peru for the Gas- tonia prisoners, this agitation in behalf of By S. HARPER Organizer, Section Eight N the Central Committee call on the Daily Worker campaign on April 1 the Central Committee has correctly pointed out how the Daily Worker can and must become the col- lective organizer For the first time the Central Committee has put the Daily Worker Campaign as a political task for every Party member. At the same time it has mapped out a concrete plan of action and part of this plan has also been applied in con- crete manner to Section Hight. of the working class. Since there are no big factories in the sec- tion on which to concentrate nevertheless Dai- ly Workers are sold and distributed to those factories that the units have concentrated on. Starting April 8, our section has had so far three Red Sundays. Some comrades were pessimistic as to the results that can be achieved through these but the actual experience taught a different lesson. For the last three Sundays that they have’ participated in the work of bringing the Daily Worker to the houses we have obtained so far 126 weekly carrier service; 48 monthly subs, and five three monthly subs. A total of 189 subs col- lected. Out of these 100 are Negro workers who subscribed. Comrades reported that the Negro workers especially were very eager to get the paper. In some cases the Negro workers pledged that they would stop reading the Brooklyn Eagle and other capitalist newspapers and read the Daily Worker. In one instance a Negro woman, the wife of an ex-service man who is unemployed and suffers misery and starvation said: “I’m going up to the neighbors, on the train and all over to talk to the women and tell them to read the Daily Worker. Because that’s the only paper that tells me the truth about things.” Many valuable connections were established for the A.N.L.C. and here is some experience of the comrades of what the workers think of the Communist Party. prove to a Negro family that he is a member of the Communist Party, otherwise they would not talk to him. At first the worker thought that he is merely an agent of some paper and said: “Oh, I have enough of that bunk,” But when the comrade told him he was a Red, the worker became more sympathetic. Not until the comrade showed him his membership book did the Negro worker subscribe to the Daily Worker, took him into the house, spoke with him and invited him to breakfast. How Did We Get These Results? (a) We picked a working-class territory In one case a conirade who went out had to | if | THE DAILY WORKER DRIVE AND OUR TASKS especially of Negro workers. We divided this territory into routes, three blocks each. (b) Every committee of two that goes out must attend this route from house to house. (c) In some cases they gave The Daily Worker first as a sample copy. This canvas- ing is done on the same basis as on the elec- tion precincts. The number of subs which we have gotten is located in an area of 14 square blocks along the streets of Atlantic, Fulton and Dean Sts. Our Shortcomings in the Work. While doing this work the comrades were convinced that the workers are ready to listen to us, to follow the Party and are eager to get more information about the Communist Party, The comrades realized that the workers are dts- illusioned about the capitalist press. The Daily Worker can serve as the best weapon for get- ting contacts, building up shop committees and carry on all the struggles of the Party. At the same time we must note that this valuable work has been neglected by the bulk of the membership in our section, days. In one case out ef 21 members whe responded 18 were new members. The new members had to encourage the oider Party members to go out. As in the case of one worker who is in the Party only six weeks and had to fight the pessimism ef an older comrade. Our optimism proved to be cor- rect after obtaining 12 subs that morning. We failed so far to draw in the good class- conscious sympathizers in the section in thi important work, because this work by coming in touch with the workers is a vainahie lesson to every clags-conscious worker who goes out. We did not get as yet a responsible comrade who would take the job of delivering The Daily Workers in the houses, for we have found that we cannot rely on the post office to deliver the papers because we found that the papers are not delivered in the homes of these workers. Pan a To Consolidate Our Gains, The Section is calling a conference of ail Daily Worker readers and sympathizers of The Daily Worker for Sunday, May 11, at 10 a. m. sharp, at the Workers’ Center, 105 That- ford Ave., Brooklyn, for the purpose of con- solidating organizationally these contacts. At this conference we intend to Jay the basis for an organization of Daily Worker ‘readers for the purpose of regular sales of The Daily in front of factories, spreading the Daily in more proletarian districts, checking up on the newsstands, and establish The Daily Worker in our territory as an important factor in lead- ing the struggles of the workers in our terr’ tory. At the same time we hope to establish a regular workers’ correspondence body. That shall reflect on the column of the Daily, the life and struggles of the workers. By JAMES W. FORD. (Ee Fifth Congress of the Red International of Labor Unions takes place in July, on the tenth anniversary of the R.LL.U. Ten years of militant revolutionary leadership for the masses against the policy and practice of class peace and partnership with the capitalist class advocated by the reformist trade union bureau- cracy—is of very great sigi ance to the workers. But this is not the most important and decisive thing in connection with the con- vening of the Fifth Congress of the R.LL.U. Of this Fifth Congress we must ask our- selves very many vital questions of present day class struggles. What is the R.LL.U. in this period of great class battles of the work- ers throughout the world? We must ask What does this new congress— this Fifth Congress of the R.I.L.U.—mean to the workers here in America? And then proceed to analyze our preparations for this congress on this basis. It does not, however, take difficult theoreti- cal discussions to answer these questions. The Fourth Congress of the R.ILL.U. (1928) said | in no unmistakable terms that the working class is in the beginning of a period of great class battles of the workers against the cap- italist bosses, that we will not only face the capitalist class on the streets and in the shops and factories hut we must be prepared and expect also to meet their agents—the fascist mists, who will shoulder to shoulder with the capitalists be found fighting against the work- ers, and that therefore our struggle must be trade union bureaucrats, and the social-refor-. Preparations for the Fifth Congress othe BEL U. conducted equally against them as against the bosses. It has become clear to every worker now that this prediction of the R.I.L.U. was c°rrect. It is clear now that this was only a beginning of a period of struggle that has now grown to greater maturity. By actual instances what has this meant in America? What are the facts? Gastonia. The struggles at Gastonia were born at the beginning of this turn. Gastonia is a section of the country that opens up wider and wider masses of the American population for class battle. The struggle around Gastonia was one of the greatest battles ever put up by Amer- ican workers against the capitalists of this country. Gastonia was an open battle and not a picnic, and was led by the Trade Union Unity League—the American section of the R.LLU. Then there were many other battles in the South+-Marion, Elizabethton, Greenville and in other parts of the country (the Illinois miners strike that swept Southern Illinois, part of Indiana, etc.) were also fierce struggies that have been carried on by the workers in this period of intense class -battles, (To Be Continued.) 4 +y'ALK to your fellow worker in your shop about the Daily Worker. Sell him a copy every day for a week, Then ask him to his class comrades of imperialist U. S. A. (to whom, let us express our doubts, this work of Mariategui in far away Peru is even yet unknown!), succeeding in mobil- izing in the general campaign led by the Sub-committee for the Caribees of the Latin-American Trade Union Confedera- tion, 10,000 workers in demonstration in the Peruvian town of Cajamarca! Mari- ategui, forced to travel carried in a chair over vast mountains, and jailed for his work in Cajamarca, drained his remaining force thus—for the prisoners of Gastonia. I could write extensively upon the life and work of this fallen comrade and friend. but not in these columns, dedicated to the daily struggle of the workers. Yet, a lit- tle more... . There can scarcely eins racial arcubeh more sensitive than the Indians of Latin-America. Upon the treatment and personal affection given them depends in great measure the suc- cess of the work to be done. People who take the Party as a commercial enterprise whose merchandise is weighed and measured accord- ing to cost could not have accomplished the delicate but tremendous work that Mariategui did, And because he was imbued with a great humanity, his home was a sanctuary, visited continually by delegations of workers and In- dians. These native Indians, for understand- able reasons distrustful of the whites, hating the whites; these restless Indians made this paralytic one oi their best revolutionary chiefs. Among the misery, the semi-misery of the Peruvian Indian, Mariategui lived their pain, not theoretically but humanly, without being a | sentimentalist oozing tainted philanthropism. It is not always easy to find united in the mili- tant Communist a correct political line, a clear vision of problems, and that quality of feeling himself—without distasteful exhibition—a real brother of another who is exploited and is in the proletarian ranks. Mariategui united these qualities. Hence, when he was buried, work- ers in great numbers filed by his coffin under Banners of the Communist Party, not, perfectly understanding the Party but rather their leader who had died. In, two years a Party ideology cannot be fully developed. His value as a Marxist-Leninist theoretician is unquestioned. His last book, “7 Ensayos de ja Realidad Peruana” (Seven Essays of Peru- vian Reality) reveals him as one of the first to apply the scientific theory of historical materialism in Latin America. Articular tuberculosis, aggravated by the persecutions and constant imprisonments by the fascist tyrant Leguia, carried off this great comrade at 34 years of age On April 27, 1930. The revolutionary movement of Latin America loses one of its greatest fig- ures, a pioneer of the proletarian revolutivn. His exquisite sensibility, his profound human sympathy and his life of s&crifice to the cause of a better world, inspires the Commuinisis of Latin America, colony of this Yankee imze- rialism; and among the deportations, imprisn- ments, persecutions and pain through which we Latin Americans in the United States oss, his example urges us to devote all our enerzy to the Communist Party of the United Staivs—- the best way of aiding in the overthrow et the fascist tyrants ruling in our native. lands. Only as much as 20 to 30 comrades responded to these Red Sun- i \