The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 28, 1931, Page 8

ee i i Page Fou The-Party As the Vanguard By J. STALIN. First of all the Party should be the vanguard of the working class. Its membership should comprise the pick of the working class, It should embody the experience of the finest stalwarts, their revolu- tionary spirit, their unbounded de- votion to the cause of the prole- tariat. But in order to be an effec- tive vanguard, the Party must be armed with a revolutionary theory, with a knowledge of the laws of the movement, of the laws of revo- lution. Lacking this, the Party is not fit to rally the proletariat for the fight, or to take over the func- tions of leadership. The Party is no true Party if it limits its activi- ties to a mere registration of the sufferings and thoughts of the pro- letariant masses, if it is content to be dragged along in the wake of the “spontaneous movement” ot the masses, if it cannot overcome the inertia and the political indif- ference of the masses, if it cannot rise superior to the transient in- terests of the proletariat, if it 1s yacapable of inspiring the masses with a proletarian class conscious- ness. The Party should march at the head of the working class, it shculd see further than the latter. it should lead the proletariat, and not lag in the rear. The parties afflisted to the Second Interna- ticnal, the advocates of “Khvostism” or “tailism,” are the buglemen of bourgeois policy. Their leadership condemns the proletariat to becom- ing a tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie: Only a party which is conscious of its function as van- guard of the proletariat, which feels itself able eo insprie the masses with a proletarian class consciousness, only such a party can lead the workers out of the narrow path of trade unicnism and consolidate them into an independ- ent political force. Such a party is the political leader of the work- in* class. I outlined above some of the culties of the proletarian class urgle. and some of the complica- tions arising therefrom; I spoke of strateey and tacties, of reserves and of maneuvering, of offensive war- fare and of retreat.. The circum- stemces arising from the proletarian e'ers struggle are just as com- plicated, if not more so, than were thove arising out of the great war. Who can find a way out of the Javrinth of these complexities? Who is competent to guide the mil- lonfold masses vf the proletarit? N» army can venture forth to bat- tle without an experienced general staff to direct its actions. If it tries to dispense with a general staff it is foredoomed to defeat. To e preater extent, if possible, does this apply in the case of the pro- leterit. It, too, must possess a gen- ere! staff it is to avoid being handed over to the tender mercies of its enemies. Where shall we find such a reneral staff? In their revolu- tionary. party of the proletariat. ‘The working class without a revo- \Wtionary party is an army with- ¢>t a general staff. Our Party is the war staff of the proletarian army. .... The Party is not only the venerard of the working class. If th? Party is to function as the genuine leader in the class strug- gic. it must likewise be the organ- ized detachment of the working elsss. Under the bourgeois regime, ts tasks confronting the Party are morifold and of the utmost impor- teres, The Party has to guide the pro'etariat in its struggle, and has te @o so, everywhere, under extra- ordinarily difficult conditions; it hee to lead the proletariat to as- sume the offensive when events werrant an attack, and it has to wi'“draw the proletariat from the ovlanght upon the foe when the re*reat is indicated; it has to in- still into the minds of the masses of rmorganized workers a sense of fisenline, of method in the fight, to inspire them with the spirit of o-vonization and steadfastness. - B+ thei ty will not acquit. itself of ther unless it is itself an embod t of discipline and or- pom'nati unless it; is in’ very tr-th the organized detachment of the working class. Lacking this. the Party is in no conditicn to act as t*o leader of the millionfold pro- asses. The Party $s the detachment. of the work- \ DAILY WORKER, N EW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1931 The Party Leader By JACK STACHKEL On March 2nd the revolutionary workers of this country and the world ovér will commemorate the death of Chas. E. Ruthenberg, the leader of our Party from the date of its birth until the day of his death. The whole history of the development and growth of our Party from the beginnings of the left wing in the Socigjst Party through the various stages in the formation and consolidation of the Communist Parity can not be sepa- rated from the life and work of Ruthenberg +during this period. Ruthenberg was a true revolution- ist. It was his great devotion to the cause of our class and his confidence in the masses that steeled him in the struggle and made it possible for him to mas- ter every storm in which he found himself in the history of our Party. It was his deep under- standing of the international char- acter of the working-class struggle for emancipation that made him the loyal. defender of the Com- munist International, which ex- pressed itself particularly in eriti- cal moments in the history of our Party. It was his hatred of capi- talism that made him the mortal enemy of every shade of reformism which tended to divert the struggles of the masses away from the revolution. It was his clear understanding of the — class struggle in all its aspects that placed him at the head of the revolutionary workers in this country in the struggle against imperialist war and the pacifist phrase mongers. That placed him side by side with the Bolsheviks, with Karl Liebknecht and the other small groups of revolution- aries in a number of countries that held high the red banner of the revolutionary class struggle when the Socialist Party here and the world over was serving the master class of its respective countries whether throuch open jingoism of the Gompers-Russle tyne of the opportunist pacifism of the Hil- quit-Thomas tyne. Comrade Ruthenberg associated as he was with the history and development of our Party made contributions to its theoretical de- velopment and definition of its tactics. His contributions in the work of the trade unions, among the Negro masses, and numerous other problems of other Party were great. But greatest of all wah his contribution in the field of organization and the correct emphasis on the role of the Party. His contributions in organization were of the greatest significance in the formation and consolida- tion of the left wing. Builder of Communist Party But particularly important were his contributions to the building of the Communist Party. This was not an easy task. With more than 15 different language groups form- ing the basis of the Communist Party, with lack of clarity as to the course of the left wing and later the Party resulting in the organizations of many Communist currents, with the persecution of our Party which drove it under- ground the organizational prob- lems were as difficult as they were important. It was through the great services of Ruthenberg and his wide experience that many of these problems were solved. He was enabled before he died to see the Party under his guidance and the direction, of the Comintern welded together into one unified Party, with the language federa- tions abolished, and the Party on the road to reorganization on the basis of shop nuclei. One of the last important arti- cles written by Ruthenberg before his death was on the subject How to Strengthen the Party written abou two months before his death in December, 1926. This article ean be of great service to us at the present time in the Recruit- ment Campaign. It was originally written in the Daily Worker but has been reprinted in the Decem- ber, 1927 issue of: the Party. : Or- ganizer. ; In the opening paragraphs in this article Corarade Ruthenberg writes: “ £ The Party has not, however, thus far been able to crystalize the influence it won as a result of its*campaign into organiza- ‘tional strength. The organized streneth of the Perty as repre- conted by its membership has not kept pace with the influence among the masses. These lines characterizing the situation at that time are even more true today when the in- fluence of the Party Ruthenberg helped to build has greatly ex- | tended its influence, . but in strength numerically the Party stands today about the same as when these lines were written more than four years ago. We must take seriously this analysis of Comrade Ruthenberg and trans- form it into an intensification of our activity on the present recruti- ment drive. The combined circulation of the Party papers is over two hundred thousand - Yet there are today only ten thou sand members organized in the Party. And what can we say about this today? Our papers have multi- plied? in number and increased-in circulation. The Daily Worker has today double the circulation it had a: that time. The number of papers in the English language have increased (Southern Worker, Woman Worker, etc.) also there are today papers in other lan- guages that did not exist at that time. As a whole the number of readers of our Press has increased but the number of members organ- izea in the Party is no more than at that time. Here are some im- porant lessons for us. They also show in what direction we must work in order to increase the num- ber of members in our Party. Com- rade Ruthenberg then adds: The Party influence extends be- yond the circle of readers of its press. More thousands. of workers are reached by mass meetings held under the Party auspices and through the va- tious struggles in the worker’s = interests which the Party ini- tiates and carries on. And again how much more true is this today when we have demon- strations and mass meetings in- volving not many thousands but tens and hundreds of thousands of workers. When our influence has been extended among the ex- ploited masses not only in the east but in the south and west as well. Truly the lessons set forth by Comrade Ruthenberg must be taken most seriously by us today. They apply with even greater forc@ to the present situation in which our Party finds’ itself. Need it be pointed out in detail how much more true and necessary this is today? Does a day pass when we are not hampered in our work by lack of forces? Is it not a fact that the spontaneous mass movements today develops far more rapidly than we are able to give it the necessary guidance and leadership? Do we not hear every day of strikes and demonstrations of unemployed developing and we are not on the scene nor able to dispatch forces to lead the move- ment? Only last week a spontan- eous demonstration of over 2,000 unemployed took place in Green- ville, N. C. And were we there? No. Fortunately ~our National Textile Workers Union has imme- diately given attention to this situ- ation. But how many such situa- ions: go ‘unnoticed? And how many more struggles are brewing but merely await our leadership to de-- velop them? The fact that these” movements are unquestionably in- fluenced by our agitation only emphasizes the point made by the quotation from Comrade Ruthen- berg. We are today face to face, withthe developing struggles of the nemployed, the struggles ‘against wage cuts already taking the \ _ are hesitant about approaching lin this ¢ form of strikes in the textile, min- ing and needle industries. Of de- veloping strikes in the marine and other industries. To lead these struggles we must not only have the correct policies. We must have | a strengthened Party organization. | With a strengthened Party organ- | ization we shall be abie with more | than redoubled enery to give} leadership to the mass struggles and build the Industrial Unions | and Unemployed Councils of the | Trade Union Unity League. To give leadership to the organiza- tion and struggles of the Negro masses of the poor working farmers. Again we quote Comrade Ruth- | enberg to show how much impor- | tance he attached to Party build- ing as a task of the entire Party and every individual member. Our Party has never taken advantage of its work among the masses to win new members, - -- The members of our. Party the workers with whom they come in contact and who are sympathetic to the work of the | Party. ... There are no per- sistent and systematic efforts to recruit new members. If the whole membership of the Party were to throw itself into the work of winning new members with the same enthusi- asm and energetic work which has been developed in some of the Party campaigns we could quickly double the membership of the reorganized Party. And again very timely avgere: tion: The attitude which ae not consider every member of pros- pective member as precious ma- terial for the upbuilding of the revolutionary _movement must be rooted out of the Party. ... The membership figures of the Party are the best test of whether the Party is conducting its work in an effective manner. We may have the most correct program and the best policies and tactics in carrying on our work but if we do not couple this with the recruiting of the best elements among the workers who support our Party our work will not be permanent and we are not taking full advantage of our opportunities. And comrade Ruthenberg did not fail in this article to take up the minutest details of this work. He speaks abou the utilization of mailing lists of our readers, of organizing the Party members for visiting the readers and numerous other important details. Then he adds: Together with this work among the workers whose names are on our Party rolls and who read our press the members of the Party must be stimulated to take up the recruiting campaign 4among the workers with whom they come in dzily contact. The recruiting campaign must be carried on in the factories thru the shop nuclei in the trade unions by the members if the trade union fractions in the fra- ternal organizations by — the members of the fractions in these organizations. And finally we wish to quote the followine section of this article: “Build the Party” must be the slogan which every member of the Party transforms into reality by active participation in the campaign to win back old members and win new members for the Partv. ... Let every one of the 10,000 members of the Partv hecome a recruiting agent for the Party with the obiect of having every worker who is sympathetic to the Party become a member of the Party. And we all of us. in commem- orating the path of our dead leader. In honoring his memory can do nothing better than to fol- low in his fontstens, to remain loyal to our Party and to the masses whose strurgles it leads. To build that Party which he helped found ‘and develop, to strengthen its for greater strug- gles, sothattweiecan arry forward his wor! ~ greater force. _ To (work inf crests of our class and td nal ‘victory in the great fea war in which he was a brave soldier and devoted leader. In the present Lenin Recruitment campaign let us’ follow in the foot: steps of Co e Ruthenberg. Let us all work to; achieve the goal set © ne GO , Figther and — Organizer By WILLIAM Z. FOSTER On this fourth anniversary of the death of Comrade Ruthenberg, our Party, to which he devoted his life’s work and for which he burned himself out+ while still in WM. Z. FOSTER Secretary of the T. U. U. L the prime of life, is now facing the greatest opportunity in it’s career. The American workers, | long seemingly asleep are begin- ning to wake up. Under the fierce pressure of the crisis on one side, with its mass unemployment and starvation, it’s wage cuts and ter- rorism, and on the other side under the inspiring influence ef the vice toriously advancing Soviet Union, the workers in this country, like the workers all over the wor'4. are awakening and _ beginning to strugg!>. If we appreciate. the splendid revolutionary work of» comrade Ruthenberg, we can shew this only by throwing all our forces into the cevelopment of the Party, so that it may come forward in the sharp- ening capitalist crisis as the real leader of the working class. Ruth enbere was a worker anda fighter, as well as a clear thinking revolu- tionist. It is these qualities that are supremely in need in the pres- ent situation for the building of our Party. It is with disgust that one ob- serves antics of Lovestone in try ing to steal the Ruthenberg tradi- tion, from our Party. What his counter-revolutionary struggles against the Commun‘ «= Interna- tional? Nothing. Rut! sberg was a real Communist. There cannot be the slightest doubt that were he alive today he would be thé bitterest enemy of all that Love- stone stands for and the most mili- tant battler against it. The life of Ruthenberg should be an inspiration to our whole Party. Especially is this the case with regard to the youth. For the young worker just developing in the class struggles the activities of comrade Ruthenberg stand as a beacon lighting the way to effec- tive struggle for and with the working class. His revolutionary work was invaluable for the de- velopment of our Party. A R.LL.U. CALLS RUTIUNBERG STAUNCH “The Executive Burceu of the Red International . of: Labor Unions expresses deen sympathy with all members ef th? Work- ers’ Party and_ revolutionary workers of the United States in the loss of Comrade Ruthenberg, ene of the staunchest fighters against imperiatism ans the cape italist system of wage sinvery.”