The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 25, 1931, Page 4

Page Four v On the Carrying Out of the | 13th Plenum Decisions Directives for Building Up the New Party Units in Pittsburgh before pers pite of reet ac- ever 1ence, expressed in st ing hundreds of thousands of work- and especially the in, membership. ganization: slow ver] of the big factories, and in organ ’ The directives of the Org Dept sburgh District worked on the resolution and discussions at the are the District during the strike has of new members. Practically lowing to these rofit ricts where t Org. Department C. C. r Party where there members, notabl ne con for the Party to be funda- If the old organ nal re nizatio: leadership in the of business divorced from ts of the class struggle with the new members are familiar, continues e is the greatest danger that the bulk of nbers will be lost. We give the fol- for our organization work in ew ur hese directives are not to be plied mechanically. They are to be discussed ading corfimittees of the district and 1e the long weekly organization n the districts to the sections, as well the sections to the units, should be dis- ver possible. ce of the weekly organization letter we Il a ze weekly conferences in each st or where the territorial extent of the sec- E sub-section conferences. | shali be held early in the ne weekly meeting nights of the hall b attended by all unit organ- ‘The order of business at these section con- cea shall be as follows: | the section organizer covering ant tasks to be carried out by during the coming week. In the first not more than two or three major tasks be assigned to the units for the week and 1 be dealt with in this report. These tasks must be ex! ned in detail. Above all the re- porter must be concrete and explain how thése ks are to be carried out. At the same time + must serve as a means for the politi- cal education of the unit organizers; that is, we must also explain in connection with each task set, the political implications of this task and why it must be carried through by the units. Example: Distribution of leaflets in the election ign—here the reporter must explain not these leaflets must be distributed, but is task must be the occasion for explain- | e Party participates in elections, how it combines its parliamentary campaigns with | {ts mass campaigns, etc., ete. the report, there shall be ques- r points by the unit organizers, | before Report of mpo! | Political Earnestness in Raising | Slogans | “I think it is necessary to speak very sharply | about comrades who go out to make speeches and while on the seap box try to give a new line} to the Party. They must remember that slogans i |are worked out very carefully in cold blood in committee meetings, and that nobody goes out | jon his own and gives out slogans by inspiration. | Some comrades have the weakness of giving out slogans by inspiration, unrelated to reality. Such | slogans are therefore very demagogic and the | | result is very bad.” (Excerpt from a speech "| | 1 Comrade Browder) and discussion as to how the unit can best carry rough these tasks for the coming week. c) At the conclusion of the meeting, there shall fe handed to each organizer an organiza- tion letter written more in the form of a re- minder, simply merating the three tasks al- ready discussed by the reporter, with a few of the outstanding suggestions for carrying them through made in order to aid the unit organizer in making up the order of business and in re- porting back to his unit. In no case shouléthis letter be more than one page long. In most ses, it should be only half a page. In other words, it must be our aim to make these weekly meetings of the unit organizers in mR given sec- tion, not only organizational molilizations for the carrying through of work, but also means of | the most careful political education of our new members on the basis of the immediate tasks confronting the Party 3) The unit organizers at their unit meetings should report to the unit in connection with se tasks much in the same manner as the section organizer has reported at the section meeting. In other words, it should be our aim r the unit organizer, in the course of the unit k, to carry through the political education of all members of the unit. We recognize that these new unit organizers will not make a very ood job of this at the beginning, but we are mnfident that they will do a much better job in rganizing the work of their unit and educating | the unit membership by this method than | through the reading of a six-page organization letter. 4) We shall not at once set up in the new units, unit buros by mechanicgl ukase. In fact, it is our opinion that we shall not at present even elect a full staff of functionaries in our new units. It must be obvious that it 1s absurd and can only prove harmful to elect as agitprop director a comrade who has been in the Party only one month and has no conception of this task. It is our opinion that at first only two functionaries shall be elected, namely unit organizer and unit Daily Worker-literature agent. In the Pittsburgh area, where the life of the unit is directly connected with the National Miners Union, it will also be necessary for the unit organizer to assure the active participation of the unit membership in the life and work of the unit. A comrade may be drawn in to assist the unit organizer in this task. As for the unit buro—we shall establish at first no formal unit buros. We shall speak person- ally to the unit organizer and the Daily Worker | agent and explain to them that now that they have been elected to their posts, they are the | leaders of the unit and that therefore they must not constitute themselves a formal buro with minutes, etc., but that prior to each unit meet- ing they shall sit down and discuss briefly how best the unit can carry through its tasks. We must avoid any formality in this kind of meet- ing. It must be simply a discussion between the two leaders of the unit how best to lead the unit during that week. Even in older units of the Party where we do not at present have functioning buros, we must not approach this question mechanically. We must set up buros gradually in the course of the work, through personal discussion with the com- rades and not through written instructions. 5) In our new units of the Party, we must do away as far as possible with those more or less formal aspects of the unit work which require considerable technical ability on the part of our comrades. This means that we shall not require in our new units, formally kept minutes at this time. It is enough if the organizer keeps a rec- ord of the most important decisions of the unit on the carrying out of tasks and reports these to the section organizer at the weekly confer- ences of unit organizers. In conclusion, we want to again impress on you that formalism in the work, the give out of mechanical directives from above without con- cretizing them for the immediate situation faced by the unit, is the surest way to drive members from our Party. Only through personal leader- ship and the most patient. explanation of tasks and careful guidance in the practical work, can our new members be held in the Party, our units consolidated and our Party bolshevized. Org. Department C. C. Remarks ot Comrade Browder in a Discussion on the I. L. D. 2 is easy to be critical and it is espe- ciall y to be very sharply critical and sarcastic about the work of our various organ- izations. The problem of the ILD is, however, not a special, separate problem, except in certain de- tails. Essentially it is the same problem as the problem of building all of our non-Party mass organizations. There is not a single one of thes? orger tions that can build itself until it bogins to develop some normal life of its own, a functioning membership of its own, and cadres not just paid functionaries. It must Jevelop cadres of leaders who are in it because they are interested in the work, feel responsi- bility for the work and carry it out. And the weakness of the ILD is the weakness that it | has not been able to do this. It is the same sort of weakness that has been in our trade union organizations. I am afraid that we have not got a thorough enough orientation on this. Eyen in the center of the ILD, there is too much dependence upon the Party and other in- | stitutions to do the tasks of the ILD and not enough realization that these can only be car- ried out if the ILD is built up as a mass or- ganization. Hei re we have such a problem: The ILD is in This is quite true. Why? Some say e it has too many cases, too many tasks sry out. Well, the solution then may be not to have any cases, and the ILD would be all right. Then, of course, we would have no use for the ILD and we could liquidate it. As a matter of fact, the multiplication of the num- ber of cases creates precisely the opportunity and the condition to build the TLD in the United States. If it were not for the number of cases i not have any prerequisite for the xce of the ILD, y is it that the num- | «. ber of cases presents itself to us as an obstacle | instead of an opportunity? The reason is be- cause the ILD does not exist as a mass organ- ization, and its functioning is not turned in this direction—in the direction of building it as a mass organization» Now, how to turn it. Well, I think we have to agree that the Party has to give more attention to it, so far as the Cen- tral Committee and District Committees are concerned, and even to a certain degree the Sec- tion Committees. But a different kind of at- tention than is usually spoken of. The kind of attention that will set the ILD on its own feet and give it some functioning life of its own, instead of inercasing the dependence of the ILD upon the Party. ‘There is entirely too much ‘now of the Party taking over and performing the functions of the ILD. We want less of that, but more attention in the sense of working out plans of activity. ‘The building of the ILD as a mass organization must be primarily, of course, the building up of the individual membership, Individual mem- bership branches gives you the forces. It is the primary reservoir of forces for the work. But also we have to pay more attention to collective affiliations. Collective affiliations are especially important in penetrating the A. F. of L. snd reformist unions generally, workers’ clubs and fratérnal organizations of every kind. It is quite possible to build up a good substantial basis in this way. There also the tendency is to become so ab- sorbed in details of the every day flood of cases in the police courts, that no time is left for organizational work. We have to turn the en- tire organization toward mass work, building up individual membership branches, the penetration of new strata of workers. This is the only pos- sible foundation from which to meet the in- Dail Z of Ma orker Porty U.S.A hattan SUBSCRIPTION RATES: and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs one year, $8; six months, $4.50. DON’T STAND FOR IT—STRIKE! By BURCK For a Decisive Turn in Our Revolutionary Trade Union Movement The following is the second in a short series cf articles, important to every worker. The first article criticized sharply the many weai- nesses of the revolutionary trade unions of the Trade Union Unity League—Editor. eyes, By RALPH SIMONS. it. HAT is to be done in order to eliminate all the numerous weaknesses and shortcomings | of our revolutionary trade unions and to Srans- form them into real mass organizations? Reorganization on a Shop Basis. Beginning with the First Congress of the Red International of I: or Unions and ending with the recent Fifth Congrecs, all the authoritative decisions speak cf the necessity of penetrating into the shops, of shifting the center of gravity. of the daily work of the unions into the shops, of transforming each factory, each mill, into a revolutionary fortress. The Fifth Congress of the Profintern imposed | on all the sections the duty to turn their faces to the factory, to rapidly reorganize themselves on the shop basis. The transferring of the daily work to the factories, to penetrate in the first place the large plants, the organization there of factory groups, the formation of factory com- mittees in spite of all the difficulties connected with this work, this is the key to the successful creasing tasks of defense work. This increase cannot come out of the Party membership. The Party membership is more and more unem- ployed, and at the same time there are more and more demands on the Party, on the mem- bers, for every phase of our activity. You can- not get out of our ten thousand Party member- ship the additional hundreds of thousands of dollars for defense work. This can only be done by building up a mass organization. In this respect, I think the Labor Defender is the most successful phase of ILD work. Here we have a substantial basis for a mass organ, We have not begun to exploit the possibilities for it. ‘ Just a few words about the quagtion of law- yers. I think that we are going through a cer- tain. process now in the development of our legal practices, with, on the one hand, lots of lawyers that we used to be able to get easily for our cases, who no longer will have anything to do with us. They ere moving rapidly away from | us. But on the other hand, certain lawyers, a much smaller number, but almost everywhere we find a few who come closer to us, closer politically, who are much more reliable in put- ting through our line in the conduct of cases, and also closer to us in that we get more free work out of them. They are ready to sacrifice more in order to take on our work. And this is very important, that we should develop these, because these lawyers are very valuable to us. | And while we are getting away from depen- dence upon lawyers, it is a very good develop- ment that we have to work towards a niore efficient, systematic and conscious use of law- yers that we can depend upon and whom we can get without big fees and even without any fees at all. This will be a great help in solving some of the financial problems of the ILD, In the past, a large proportion of ILD funds has gone for legal expenses. It is possible for us to give better legal services than we did before, with a fraction of the cost. I think we must emphasize that side of the work of the ILD also. . Im my opinion it is necessary to have not a new document for general Party discussion, but the working out of a few simple directives on what has to be done. And for the masses, let's work it out in the Labor Defender on the basis of our cases, and in the Daily Worker in the news items and editorials, in which by force of example we impress the policy that we want on the entire movement. This, in my opinion, is the only way we are going to make this turn in defense policy, and all proposals of discus- sion in units, ete.—well, we can have them, but if this is done mechanically, they will fail and to a certain extent they will arouse criticism and opposition to the work cf the ILD. But if it is done by example, by articles dealing with the current struggle, then it will take effect without resistance and then perhaps a few months from now a discussion can really be or- ganized, because then the movement will really take hold mobilization, preparation and organization of mass economic struggles under the banner of | the united front and indepedent leadership of these militant struggles of thé toiling masses. | | Here is the key to the successful work within the reactionary unions and the transformation of the independent revolutionary trade unions into real mass organizations of the proletariat. | | Factory Groups. ‘he factory or shop groups of the revolution- ary unions or trade union oppositions must be the primary organ of the union in the plant. It must be firmly established that every mem- ber of a revolutionary union or opposition grcup should join the respective factory group in the place of work. Trade union organizations must be built, not on the basis of the residence of the member, but on the basis of the place of work, at the same time in order to make better use of the unemployed members of the revolu- tionary trade unions. who live fer away from | the given plant, auxilliery orgars can be created on the basis of the residence. These organs must work in the closest contact with the fac- tory groups. Local organizations of the unions must base themselves mainly on the factory groups. At the head of the factory group of revolutionary trade unions there should be a bureau elected by the group, to which representatives from var- ious departments of the mill or factory are drawn in—the number to be from 5 to 15, de- pending on the size of the factory group and the | | conditions of work in the given plant. | The entire work is then divided into the fol- lowing phases: (a) organization, ©) agitation and propaganda, (c) finance, (d) york among Negro and colonial workers, (e) ween, (f) youth. The head of the bureau is the secre- tary. But what is especially important is that each member of the bureau should carry out the work assigned to him and that he is to report to the bureau of the group or to the entire group. There should not be one member of the group, one supporter of the revolutionary trade union, without special tasks assigned to him. ‘The factory group must meet regularly and manifest its initiative in the work. Among the duties of the group are the agita- tion, propaganda and organization work, to feel the mood of the workers, the shaping of the | growing discontent of the workers; to formulate preliminary demands and discuss these demands with workers who have other political tendencies than our own, with members of other unions and with unorganized workers; to prepare the election of a temporary committee of action for the preparation of strikes, and then the election of a factory strike committee when the strike is declared; the leading of the factory strike committee through the members of the factory group of the revolutionary union or opposition, the careful political and organizational prep- aration of the ~dvancement of the strike, the recruitment of ew members, etc. It is also the task of the factory group to issue a factory paper, to distribute the organ of the respective revolutionary union and the “Labor Unity,” to collect membership dues for the union, to establish and keep coi.ect with prole- tarian mass organizations, etc. | The factory group must be in constant touch with the working masses in the factory, to ex- plain the needs, problems and moods of the masses, and inform the union about it; it must the revolutionary union, the only organization which firmly and consistently defends the in- terests of the workers. Without the organization and, what is more important, without the normal functioning of the factory groups in the shops and factories, the revolutionary unions or the trade union opposi- tions will never be in a position to know the mood of the workers, they will never be able to grasp end formulate the demands for which the workers are ready to fight, they will never be able to develop and lead strikes. ‘The connecting link between the factory group and the workers in the various depart- ments should be the delegates from the depart- ments and shifts. They carry through the de- cisions of the factory group. They inform the members of the group regarding the directives, carry out the assignments, carry on agitational appear before the masses as the basic organ of | and organizational work. They mobilize the workers for militant struggles under the lead- ership of the factory organizations, etc. The delegates are that lower functioning body without which the factory organization would be unable to carry through mass campaigns, to arousc the workers to militant strike struggles, to embrace cvganizationally the workers in the various devartments and shifts, and successfully lead the masses. To organize the factory groups in a network of delegates from the denarsments and shifts, this is our first and immediate prob- lem. This we must start. Factory Committees. But how to get connection inside the large plants and factories? How to build our organ- izations there where they are yet no members of our unions? Thoese questions can only be answered according to the concrete case, because conditions are very different. Every local organ- ization of our unions must work out the neces- sary next eps and methods of this work. The general li » must be to use the unemployed and part-time workers’ movement for connections; to use tho members of the fraternal organiba- tions (lenguage organizations, mutual aid so- cieties, readers and correspondents of the lan- guage press, etc.), and develop a systematic house to house agitation among the workers working | in the large factories, The militant mass economic strikes consti- | tute the most favorable moment for the organ- ization of the factory committees. The strike committees can and must be the basis for the development of permanent factory committees after the strike is over. The factory committees are the organs of the united front in the fac- tory. They must be elested by all workers and not only by the supporters of the revolutionary trade union movement. The elections of the committees must take place on a. basis of a con- crete program of struggle. The factory groups and the revolutionary organizations must prer pare carefully these elections. They should, enter the elections with an independent (their own) list of candidates. ‘These lists must include also the most active and popular members of the union of the A. F. L, and the so-called independent unions and unorganized workers who showed their devotion to the interests of the working class during the economic struggles, in other words, such ele- ments as are ready to carry through the line of the class struggle. We must not confwse the factory committee with the factory group. The factory group is a | lower organ of a giverf revolutionary trade union or revolutionary trade union oppcsition in the reactionary union’ in the given factory. The factory committee 1s the organ of the united front of all workers of the given shop or fac- tory, the organ of the workers’ representatives who defend the needs and interests of the work- ers before the factory administration. Revolutionary trade unions must carry through their line and lead the factory commit- tees by means of the supporters of the revolu- tionary trade union who are members of the factory committee. The revolutionary trade union organization must come very closely to the question of organization of factory commit- tees, utilizing for this purpose every favorable opportunity and favorable situation. The suc- cess of the work of the revolutionary trade unions and the trade union opposition must be determined by whether they have succeeded in reorganizing themselves on the shop basis, whether they created strong groups and intro- duced normal life in them, and whether they broadened mass activity in the factory. Of course the work in the shops is very dif- ficult. The terror of the bosses and the espion- age in the factories is accomplished by means of information egainst the workers carried on by the apparatus of the reactionary trade unions, by means of bosses’ agents in the fact- ory, and the fact officials who work in touching unity with the factory administration and the police. ‘The factory group delegates, the factory com- mittee, these are the belts and levers, these are that lower staff by means of which the revo- lutionary trade unions can and must connect with the broad masses of workers to ascertain their mweds and to lead their militant mass struggles F9 a Rel fonda By JORGE ies | Not Fabius, But Hamlet! “Dear Jorge: Shades of Fabius Maximus? Nol It should be shades of Hamlet, for the Commu- nist Party does not know whether ‘to be or not to be’ in regards to the marineros, “However, even the oppressed and slighted rise up in revolt and it was the rumblings of revolt from below that finally got the seaman his be- lated card. You were cognizant of the situation, but I'm afraid it must be recorded that you did not remedy it. (Ah, ha, shipmate! But you didn't know that Jorge is one of them there “Moscow agents” and that he stirred up that dungaree re- volt from “behind the scenes” as Moscow agents always do!—Jorge). “His case is merely one out of a hundred. Many active seamen have never been officially admit- ted into the party after they have applied, and they occasionally get tired trying in one port and attempt to sneak in elsewhere. But it seems that even a greater problem than getting a seaman into the Party, is to get the Party to do somehing about the seamen who are outside the Party. For how many months have we been thundering, bellowing and even smash- ing desks at unit meetings, section meetings, dis- trict meetings, etc. that there is a place called South Street; that on it there are thousands of he mast potentially revolutionary section of the working class, and that it would be highly ap- propriate if a revolutionary political party would address these receptive workers, “And has the Party held a meeting? In nins months—ONE, where the main speakers for the Party were a non-Party non-union workers, and & union member who has very strong anarachis- tic tendencies. At least we have a fine bunch of contacts, which are perpetually incubating, though little thought is given whether they hatch or not. “However, the unemployed on this street have received recognition, on paper. From the looks of things, though, the capitalists might even liquidate the crisis—impossible as that is—be- fore the program is taken off paper and an un- employed council established in Mother Roper's domicile.—Hudson.” Such are the loud outcries of an ancient mar- iner in the Port of New York (Yep, Bronxites, New York is a seaport, and a fair-sized one, too!) But we have received other and hotter letters from New Orleans and Galveston, where ‘tis said that some Party members are habitually laying down a barrage of advice to the union, but when there's something to do, when a strike breaks and things look hot, they are not to be found. The crocodile is not accustomed to salt water, but if need be, he will make a united front with any likely looking sea serpent to break down the doors of our Party for the seamen who find those doors locked with seven times seventy keys of formalism. The Workers Delega- tion to the Soviet . Union By William Z. FOSTER NE of the most important movements now taking place among the workers of this coun- try, is the organization of the Workers’ Delega- tion, under the auspices of the Friends of the Soviet Union, to go to the Soviet Union in the middle of October. It is the purpose of this delegation to examine at first hand the build- ing of Socialism by the workers of the Soviet Union and to report back their findings to the workers in this country. The capitalists intensify their attacks upon the Soviet Union. They see in the Soviet Union the handwriting upon the wall so far as the capi- talist system of the world is concerned. The work- ers in the Soviet; Union are not only. building Socialism over one-sixth of the area of the globe, but they are also giving a practical demonstra- tion that will, sooner than we imagine, be fol- lowed by the workers in the rest of the world. ‘They live in mortal fear of the successes of the Five Year Plan. Hence they multiply their war preparations against the Soviet Union and in- tensify their campaign of lies to prevent the masses of workers from understanding what is actually taking place in the Soviet Union and its tremendous importance to the workers of the world. The current lies in the American cap- italist press, the Wales articles, etc., on the so- called “failures” of the Five Year Plan in Mag- netogorsk, etc., are but following up phases to the intense anti-Soviet campaign around ‘“‘dump- ing,” the anti-religious actjvities, etc, A very powerful means of exposing these slan- derous misrepresentations and the whole capi- talist attack against the Soviet Union {s for the American workers themselves to see what 1s ac- tually taking place in the Soviet Union, Any worker who visits the Soviet Union must be con- vinced of the falsity of the capitalist slanders of Matthew Woll, Hamilton Fish and Co, against the Russian workers, and be enormously im~ pressed by the unparalleled successes of the Russian worker. The present delegation has been invited by the Russian Trade Union. It consists of represen- tative workers from the mining, metal, marine and chemical industries. These workers, nomi- nated by the TUUL unions, are elected by the workers themselves in the industries. The del- egation will be representative of the most basic sections of the American working clfiss. ‘The importance of this delegation 1s especially great at the present time The workers in this country, aroused by the encroaching starvation from unemployment and wage cuts, are rapidly losing faith in capitalism and preparing them- selves for militant struggles against the em- ployers. Seeing the capitalist system in this country, in fact all over the world, lying pros- trate in the industrial crisis, large numbers are inclined to question the whole existence of this system and to look for a revolutionary way out of the encircling hardships. Many are becoming keenly receptive to the revolutionary lessons taught by the successes of the workers in the Soviet Union, The delegation of the Friends of the Soviet Union will be a powerful means for bringing about the revolutionary enlighten ment and organization of the workers of eae